Track by Track with The Mary Onettes [Best Fit Exclusive Stream]

Having whetted our appetites a couple of weeks back with the unveiling of ‘Love Is Taking Strange Ways‘, The Mary Onettes very successfully managed to wind us into a stupor awaiting the arrival of the rest of their latest record. Well, that wait is now over as The Mary Onettes unveil the complete Love Forever EP, available to stream a week ahead of release exclusively here at The Line of Best Fit.

With two tracks produced by the magic hands of ex-Studio member, current music mastermind Dan Lissvik, the Love Forever EP is home to pop pinches and melodic bites, not to mention the emotion soaked, sweeping sadness of the beautifully titled ‘A Broken Heart Is A Brilliant Start’.

The Line of Best Fit caught up with vocalist and guitarist Philip Ekström to uncover the story behind the making of Love Forever EP.

How do you feel about the EP now that it’s about to be released, and do you have any favourite songs?

Philip: “We feel that it’s good for us that we’ve done something different. And that we now dare to release it. So it’s great!

I really don’t have any favourite songs. I like to think that my favourites are the songs that I have not written yet! You know, in your mind you have all these great ideas. The hard thing is to create an output for them. To really make them as good as they are in your head. This also means that I never wish that I did something different. I just force myself to move on!”

What kind of relationship do you have with your art?

P: “I have nearly an unhealthy relationship to my art. Since I write the songs and do most of the demo-recordings, I live with it 24 hours a day. That can become pretty frustrating! I need to relax! I can become almost obsessed with it.

The others have a more distant relationship to it, which is probably a good complement in the creative process.”

How does playing live impact writing and recording?

P: “Since we always sound so different when we play live it makes things a bit complex. But most of the time I think it improves my creative process. You can always refer to the great live performances when you’re in the studio. Pick up some good vibes or ideas that happens live etc…

Sometimes it’s really hard to re-create those live moments in a studio. But I guess that’s the whole idea about playing live, it’s a unique and very creative moment up there on the stage.”

Are you someone who develops songs in a live environment first?

“No. We always have a demo version or a finished track to work from. It just works better when we have directions. We are too unstructured as a group to be rehearsing towards a result. But I think we’re getting better and better at that now though!”

How long did it take to make the record, and how did you find the recording process?

P: “The EP took us more than a month to finish. That is quite long for an EP. But I surprised if the album takes us a year.

The recording process was most of the time enjoyable. It was completely new for us to work with a producer like Dan . In the beginning it was a bit uncomfortable but we knew we had to relax and just focus on the process in order to get a result from Dan. So it was challenging in that aspect.

We didn’t listen to much music at all while we were recording. But when I was writing I listened a lot to Prefab Sprout and some Brian Eno stuff. Maybe you can hear some traces of that.”

Love’s Taking Strange Ways

Philip: “The song has a bit of a cheesy-ness that I love. The piano does the whole song in my opinion. We wanted to do a song that was very slick and kind of an arena song, we wanted it to be almost exaggerated in the chorus.

The song has the complex rhythms that Dan is very good at. Also a great complement to the slick production.”

Will I Ever Be Ready.

P: “This song has almost a sixties vibe to it. With some great Dire Straits guitars that Petter did really great! In the beginning, Dan wanted to have a “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band beat” but the song became softer in the end. It has a good flow!”

A Broken Heart Is A Brilliant Start

“A great song! Unfortunately Dan wasn’t involved in this one. We simply didn’t have the time to record this one with him. But we will make an album version of this track that is even better!”

8th Of June

“I think I recorded this song ’8th Of June’ in 2009. But somehow I’ve always liked it and I have always wanted to release it. And I felt that it was perfect for this EP.

Without saying too much, the date is of great importance for my family as well.”

The Mary Onettes’ Love Forever EP will be released through Labrador on the 27 February 2012.