The Ohio-based singer/songwriter Tim Korenich has just released his new LP, What A Weird Thing. Earlier this year we sat down with the musician to talk about the upcoming record, as well as the EP of soundtrack music for the short film Monhegan Light that he’d just released, Change of Pace. With the new record finally out, we thought we’d check back in with Tim to find out more about What A Weird Thing, as well as his creative process in recording the album. What follows is a transcript of our conversation about the record…
LETV: Hi Tim, thanks for taking some time to answer questions about your new album, What A Weird Thing. Great title by the way! For those that might have missed our first chat regarding the record, tell us a little bit about where and how you recorded the LP. Also, there’s some diverse instrumentation here. Are you joined by others, or do you handle much of that yourself?
TK: The record was recorded at Sixtyten Studio, which is just outside of Toledo. Nelson Overton handled drums and percussion, Dean Tartaglia covered saxophone, John Holkeboer played upright bass on “Sweet Summer Rose“, and Alexandria Granados lent backing vocals. The lead vocals and guitar and bass were my own. The sessions were produced by Steven Warstler, and mastered by Zach Shipps. Apparently it takes a village to put out one of my solo records, but I was very glad to have so many talented people help out.
LETV: No doubt! Must be great having such a solid group of musicians around you. Are these folks you’ve played with in bands before?
TK: I knew a few of them from other projects they’d been in, but I hadn’t played with any of them before. And while no one is technically a full-on session musician, I think everyone was on the same page as far as what tone and feel we needed for each song.
LETV: The last time we talked you mentioned that you and engineer Steve Warstler had spent a lot of time in pre-production on the album. What were some of the goals you hoped to accomplish through those initial planning sessions?
TK: A lot of it was just getting a feel for the instrumentation and where we wanted the songs to go. By the time we were done with pre-production, we got into the studio knowing how many backing vocals we needed, or where certain ambient parts came in. I think that was a big part of what made recording go so smoothly.
LETV: As far as the writing of songs is concerned, many of the tracks on the record revolve around introspective and poignant lyrics. I’m thinking of a song like “What’ll It Take“, with it’s incisive question, “What keeps us here…”; or a song like “SRT“, where you sing a poetic line like, “Week after week I drive to work asleep”. What comes first for you, the lyrics or music–or do they come hand in hand? Also, do you do any demoing of the songs at home, before taking them into the studio? If so, what do you like to do?
TK: Lyrics are usually the last piece of the puzzle. I might have an idea of what a song should be about, but it takes me a very long time to get to a point where I have lyrics I’m happy with. They usually go through a couple re-writes. And the demo process is the main chunk of what Steve and I do in pre-production. When we have finished demos, our end result is a session file with scratch tracks for each instrument that we replace in the studio.
LETV: Does that mean you don’t do a lot of demoing at home, before going into the studio? I’m asking because I’m curious what that initial moment of inspiration for a song might look like, and how you capture it…
TK: Usually when I’m writing new songs, I’ll just be noodling on guitar and find interesting chord voicings or progressions, and I’ll make phone recordings to start. I’ll then flesh them out a little more in a DAW, and for the last record, work with Steve at his place to do fully realized demos before taking it to the studio. So I record a ton of stuff in my phone, pick the best of that to record on a computer, and then pick the best ones to build up with a finished demo. A lot of wheat/chaff separation. My phone is full of chaff.
LETV: Right on! Okay, this might be an odd question, but I wanted to ask about the “tags” you used for the album on Soundcloud: #indie, #experimental, #singer-songwriter. Most specifically I’m intrigued by the tag “experimental”. It’s a tag I’ve used to describe music through the years too, but I’ve often wrestled with it, wondering exactly what it means…music that’s just hard to classify, an improvisational approach to composition, non-traditional instrumentation, etc. Can you tell me how you identify with the term, and how it relates to your approach on the new album?
TK: I’m glad you asked about the tags. My last EP, Change of Pace, was more cinematic, ambient stuff I did for movies. With this record, I didn’t have someone else coming to me with ideas, and I don’t have a steady band necessarily to push me in any one direction. I get to write what I like, and I like a lot of different music. “Darlin’” is my take on an Impressions-esque soul sound, and “Natural Light” is mostly ambience. So, trying to put tags on an album like this is kind of tough. I think when most people hear experimental they probably think more prog music, but I use the term at face value. I’m experimenting with different genres, and I think certain songs don’t necessarily fit in just one camp. “Natural Light” has a guitar part with four notes, ambient guitar textures, and pitch-shifted trumpets. I don’t know if that necessarily fits in a genre, and I’ve never been too keen on bands that make up kitschy genres for themselves. That’s kind of why I think experimental is an appropriate catch-all.
LETV: “Experimental”, then, seems to reflect an open ended approach to genre–not letting terms like “indie” or “singer-songwriter” define the creative process. For instance, you include a lot of ambient textures throughout. As you mentioned, “Natural Light”, or songs like “How We’ve Grown” or “Carried Away” seem to have ambient backbones, and that creates a bit of tension, in that the “pressures” of writing an “indie” track might run counter to ambient’s more wandering sensibilities. Do you feel that at all, or is the ambience a more textural or cinematic sonic element for you?
TK: I like having interesting textures in these songs. “How We’ve Grown” could very easily be an acoustic folk song, but we recorded electric and mic’d a glockenspiel into my delay pedal, and then reversed that track for the ambience. It gives the song a different feeling I think. There was less reason to go cinematic on these, so ambience was thought of as more of a way to create a vibe, rather than having to sit in a film’s particular scene.
LETV: Interesting, the glockenspiel almost ends up sounding like guitar. Nice touch! Do I also hear a snippet of found sound on the track “SRT”… a man and woman talking–almost providing a parallel dramatic feature to the song’s lyrics?
TK: We used some samples to build a little tension before the drum fill. I think one has me talking about work or something…
LETV: Right on! Hey Tim, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions about the new record. To wrap up, what are you working on next? Any plans for some new recordings?
TK: I’ve been writing a lot of different stuff. I hope to have more music out much sooner than later…
LETV: Okay, get back to work then! Thanks Tim, talk to you soon.
