{"id":19753,"date":"2020-11-17T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T10:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19753"},"modified":"2020-09-24T10:27:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T14:27:52","slug":"re-opening-time-semisonic-returns-with-a-new-ep-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/17\/re-opening-time-semisonic-returns-with-a-new-ep-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Re-opening Time: Semisonic Returns with a new EP (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One<\/a> …<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"When listeners hear new songs like the soaring title track and the riffing \u201cBasement Tapes,\u201d they may find themselves thinking that Semisonic has picked up right where it left off in 2001. And that idea hung over Wilson and his bandmates as they contemplated the group\u2019s reactivation. Wilson says that as he discussed the future with Slichter and Munson, \u201cthere was an unanswered question floating over us: \u2018How are we going to update our sound?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But they didn\u2019t labor too long over the idea. \u201cI feel like I’m as updated as I want to be,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cSo I didn’t have any hunger for updating Semisonic. I didn’t need to feel like I want to prove anything.\u201d He says that when he and his bandmates get together to play, that\u2019s what Semisonic sounds like. \u201cThat\u2019s unique,\u201d he says. \u201cNobody else sounds like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the three got together to record You\u2019re Not Alone<\/i>, they kept that in mind. And Wilson recalls thinking, \u201cWe don’t need to work hard to recapture anything, either. We’re just gonna have to hear these songs, pick our first impressions and see what it sounds like when we play them with spirit and joy.\u201d And that, he says, is what they did.<\/p>\n

Slichter observes that for Semisonic, the process of recording music for release seems less forced that it did in the old days. \u201cOne thing that all of us realized \u2013 something that all artists get to \u2013 is that sometimes simpler is better,\u201d he says. \u201cBack in the late 90s and early 2000s, when we were making music, we would really try every single idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at the end of the process, they often found that their original, unadorned ideas worked best. \u201cAnd now, we\u2019ve sort of internalized that for ourselves,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause we don’t live in the same place, when we get together we have to make the best use of our time. And that further inspired us to say, \u2018Okay, let’s just take the straightest line we can from point A to point B. And we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Semisonic enlisted outside producers for its first two albums \u2013 Paul Fox and Nick Launay, respectively \u2013 they self-produced All About Chemistry<\/i>. And they handled their own production duties once again for the new EP. For his part, Wilson says that he has learned a lot from other producers. His 2007 solo debut Free Life<\/i> was produced by Rick Rubin. He calls that experience \u201cthe craziest several-year-long masterclass you would ever want to have.\u201d And Mike Viola \u2013 best known as the vocalist on the theme song from That Thing You Do!<\/i> \u2013 co-produced Wilson\u2019s third album, 2017\u2019s Re-Covered<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a ton of things from Mike,\u201d Wilson says. One lesson was knowing when you\u2019ve got it right, when to stop trying. \u201cIt’s so precious to have somebody in your corner, saying, \u2018No, we’re not gonna beat that. That’s got the vibe; let’s stick with that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Producing yourself affords freedom, but Slichter emphasizes that it involves a great deal of work, some of which isn\u2019t musical at all. \u201cWhen you’re in the band, you sort of think of the producer as the guy with the sort of authority,\u201d he says. Slichter paints a word picture: \u201cHe’s sort of sitting in a chair with a big star on it. He’s got a megaphone in his hand, and he’s saying, \u2018Lights, camera, action!\u2019 But that’s not really it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slichter says that the trio\u2019s collective experience prepared them for handling production on You\u2019re Not Alone<\/i>. \u201cDan and John especially have experience as producers,\u201d he points out. Munson co-produced both albums by The Twilight Hours and some of the releases from his jazz trio, The New Standards. \u201cAnd Dan is, in fact, a Grammy-winning producer,\u201d Slichter adds. \u201cAll of us are more experienced makers of art now, and I think that all of that shows up in our EP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in a band is a very collaborative experience,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cAnd it’s like living in a bubble, especially if you have success. Your bubble flies around the world, but you still live in a bubble.\u201d He notes that inside of that bubble, there\u2019s a potential \u2013 if not a necessity \u2013 to develop a deep level of trust.
\n\u201cFrom that experience, I really learned how to be a collaborator,\u201d he says. Going forward to work with others outside of Semisonic, he sharpened his own sense of what kinds of songs would excite them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd having kind of flown that craft during the intervening time when Semisonic wasn’t recording, now I go back into my band with that similar mentality,\u201d he explains. \u201cNow we’re<\/i> collaborators. What do you think? How does it sound to you? What have we missed? Is there any idea that we forgot to have?\u201d He says that it\u2019s all about \u201cartistic thoroughness, passion and trusting the other person to have the right idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Semisonic was \u2013 albeit for a brief moment \u2013 one of the biggest band in the world, Slichter doesn\u2019t hold unrealistic aspirations for You\u2019re Not Alone<\/i> to repeat the success of \u201cClosing Time.\u201d \u201cI don’t think any of us expects any huge financial windfall from our EP,\u201d he says. \u201cI just want it to be something that we’re really proud of. And we are; We\u2019re really excited about it.\u201d
\nLooking to the future, Slichter says, \u201cThe closest thing I have to a concrete goal is that enough people like the EP [so] that we can go around and play some shows. That won’t happen until after the pandemic, but I’m still hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Wilson shares that guarded optimism. \u201cI hope we’re back to a world someday where a live performance makes sense,\u201d he says. \u201cThere’s gonna be a lot of creativity and intense thought put into how to have musical experiences, gatherings that respect the environment we’re in. I’d love to play these songs for people, and I’m pretty sure that we will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for lots more from my interviews with Dan Wilson and Jacob Slichter — bk<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part One … When listeners hear new songs like the soaring title track and the riffing \u201cBasement Tapes,\u201d they may find themselves thinking that Semisonic has picked up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,62],"tags":[609,4335,1930],"class_list":["post-19753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-dan-wilson","tag-jacob-slichter","tag-semisonic","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19753"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19758,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19753\/revisions\/19758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}