Monday, November 19, 2007

Meredith Bragg!

Silver Sonya is DC artist Meredith Bragg's first solo record without his backing band, the Terminals. Late in 2006, Bragg met with Chad Clark (Beauty Pill, Smart Went Crazy) and T.J. Lipple (Aloha) at their studio, Silver Sonya, to discuss his plan for a solo record. The trio worked together on his last record, The Departures EP, which forged a strong friendship as well as a strong producer/artist relationship. If anyone was willing to jump off the bridge Bragg was headed towards, he knew it would be them. The idea for the record consisted of two rules --

Rule #1: Only the sounds Meredith could get from his acoustic guitar or voice could be used.

Rule #2: Once recorded, there were no restrictions on how those sounds could be manipulated.

After recording the basic tracks, these sounds were pulled, filtered, shifted, butchered, looped, broken, and mended. While some songs changed little, others developed from the process, unfolding in excitingly unexpected ways. Out of this process came a record that can be described as both expansive and intimate, fractured and yet whole. So while you listen to songs about Roman statues, volcanoes, middle eastern scientists, or forgotten road-side attractions, remember that every sound and every word are outcomes of a process shaped through limited resources that opened up otherwise hidden options.

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