miguel_myriad
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- Nov 23, 2007
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Best known for his work with Philadelphian psychedelic folksters Espers, Greg Weeks returns with his new album ‘The Hive’. Key to the album's sound was the acquisition of a vintage Mellotron keyboard and there’s even a cover version of Madonna’s ‘Borderline’.
POD Concerts presents
GREG WEEKS (Espers)
Support: Festival
Wednesday November 26th
CrawDaddy – Harcourt St – Dublin 2.
Doors – 8pm
Tickets €14 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie
www.myspace.com/gregweeks
www.gregweeks.net
www.languageofstone.com
GREG WEEKS:I don't consider myself a musician so much as a musical thinker. I've never been great at playing instruments but I haven't let that prevent me from realizing the sonic ideas that bounce around inside my brain. What's saved me from utter technical despair is my producer's mentality. For me, great music isn't about what can be done by the individual so much as what that individual can accomplish alongside others. Thus I surround myself with folks who either have a great amount of talent, an excess of inspiration or a valuable combination of the two. In the end it's the collective energy that cements my recorded ideas and elevates them during performance. My biggest thrill is derived from guiding or shaping that energy.
It's ironic then that my most successful solo composition happens to be one of the few on which all instruments and their parts were written and performed entirely by me. I'm speaking of "Made," a melancholy slab lifted from the bedrock of my second full length Awake Like Sleep. This song was made most prominent by photographer Charlie White as soundtrack to his Addicolor instalment Pink (a short that went viral to the tune of over a million views). More recently "Made" was featured on the current season of Showtime's popular original series Weeds.
"Made," like most of my songs, strikes a very personal chord with listeners. My music is not of the high octane party variety. It exists to help folks work through what troubles them. It's personal and, unlike my work in Espers, very specific to my own life. Thus anyone who has been run through society's ringer and come out flattened (frustrated, angry, depressed) is likely to find something here to help them make sense of things, or at the very least commiserate with.
GREG WEEKS ON ‘THE HIVE’:Frustrated with new methods and mindset in recording technology I threw up my hands and built my own analog recording studio. My last album, Blood Is Trouble (as well as the first Espers record) was recorded on a 1⁄2" 8 track machine. Eventually I was able to upgrade to an MCI 2" machine and professional recording console which have allowed for better sound quality and greater experimentation. Having a home studio has allowed me to record and produce albums at a comfortable pace consistent with my own levels of inspiration.
Key to the album's sound was the acquisition of a vintage Mellotron keyboard. The Mellotron is doubtless my spirit animal in instrument form and is certainly one of the main inspirations behind The Hive. No other instrument conveys the characteristics of hive insects as well as this legendarily warbley tape based sampler. It's an instrument used by most all of my heroes: Robert Wyatt, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, The Pretty Things, Krokodil, Canadian band Harmonium and all nine trillion Italian prog bands that I love!
The Hive is primarily a response to the atmosphere of apocalypse that permeates the lives of those who are open and receptive to their environment (not to mention the general global condition). That's not to say the album's entirely about misery and despair. Quite the contrary; I have a good amount of fun trolling through the backwaters of my own dank grey matter (often darkly comical), and each of these songs have multiple meanings, so glean from them what you will.
The Hive also contains a cover of Madonna's "Borderline", my first recorded cover since tackling Cat Power's "King Rides By" on Fire In The Arms Of The Sun. This was meant to be a future Espers release but I got antsy waiting for the next covers record to come about so here it is (after three years of simmering on my mental back burner).
ABOUT GREG WEEKS
- Greg owns and operates a 24 track analog recording facility called Hexham Head.
- Greg runs a label called Language of Stone which has released ten records since launching in 2007 including Lights, Mountain Home, Heavy Hands, Festival, Orion Rigel Dommisse and Ex Reverie.
- Greg is Executive Producer, co-songwriter and musician in The Valerie Project, a ten piece ensemble that performs a live soundtrack to Czech New Wave film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. The ensemble was featured at Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown Festival as his support.
- Greg is the Producer of (and co-songwriter and musician in) Philadelphia psych folk outfit Espers.
- Greg is working on a record with Mellow Candle veteran Alison O'Donnell under the name Estrus League.
MUSICIANS ON THE HIVE: Helena Espval (cello), Margaret Wienk (cello), Orion Rigel Dommisse (Wurlitzer), Jessica Weeks (flute, Fender Rhodes), Jesse Sparhawk (bass), Otto Hauser (drums), Alexis and Lindsay Powell (backing vocals)
GREG PLAYS: Mellotron, acoustic and electric guitar, Univox Mini Korg K2, Crumar Tocatta, Crumar Performer, Doric transistorized organ, autoharp, Arp Odyssey, Fender Rhodes, gong, and his own vocal chords.
POD Concerts presents
GREG WEEKS (Espers)
Support: Festival
Wednesday November 26th
CrawDaddy – Harcourt St – Dublin 2.
Doors – 8pm
Tickets €14 (inc. booking fee) available from Ticketmaster, Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and usual outlets. www.ticketmaster.ie
www.myspace.com/gregweeks
www.gregweeks.net
www.languageofstone.com
GREG WEEKS:I don't consider myself a musician so much as a musical thinker. I've never been great at playing instruments but I haven't let that prevent me from realizing the sonic ideas that bounce around inside my brain. What's saved me from utter technical despair is my producer's mentality. For me, great music isn't about what can be done by the individual so much as what that individual can accomplish alongside others. Thus I surround myself with folks who either have a great amount of talent, an excess of inspiration or a valuable combination of the two. In the end it's the collective energy that cements my recorded ideas and elevates them during performance. My biggest thrill is derived from guiding or shaping that energy.
It's ironic then that my most successful solo composition happens to be one of the few on which all instruments and their parts were written and performed entirely by me. I'm speaking of "Made," a melancholy slab lifted from the bedrock of my second full length Awake Like Sleep. This song was made most prominent by photographer Charlie White as soundtrack to his Addicolor instalment Pink (a short that went viral to the tune of over a million views). More recently "Made" was featured on the current season of Showtime's popular original series Weeds.
"Made," like most of my songs, strikes a very personal chord with listeners. My music is not of the high octane party variety. It exists to help folks work through what troubles them. It's personal and, unlike my work in Espers, very specific to my own life. Thus anyone who has been run through society's ringer and come out flattened (frustrated, angry, depressed) is likely to find something here to help them make sense of things, or at the very least commiserate with.
GREG WEEKS ON ‘THE HIVE’:Frustrated with new methods and mindset in recording technology I threw up my hands and built my own analog recording studio. My last album, Blood Is Trouble (as well as the first Espers record) was recorded on a 1⁄2" 8 track machine. Eventually I was able to upgrade to an MCI 2" machine and professional recording console which have allowed for better sound quality and greater experimentation. Having a home studio has allowed me to record and produce albums at a comfortable pace consistent with my own levels of inspiration.
Key to the album's sound was the acquisition of a vintage Mellotron keyboard. The Mellotron is doubtless my spirit animal in instrument form and is certainly one of the main inspirations behind The Hive. No other instrument conveys the characteristics of hive insects as well as this legendarily warbley tape based sampler. It's an instrument used by most all of my heroes: Robert Wyatt, King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, The Pretty Things, Krokodil, Canadian band Harmonium and all nine trillion Italian prog bands that I love!
The Hive is primarily a response to the atmosphere of apocalypse that permeates the lives of those who are open and receptive to their environment (not to mention the general global condition). That's not to say the album's entirely about misery and despair. Quite the contrary; I have a good amount of fun trolling through the backwaters of my own dank grey matter (often darkly comical), and each of these songs have multiple meanings, so glean from them what you will.
The Hive also contains a cover of Madonna's "Borderline", my first recorded cover since tackling Cat Power's "King Rides By" on Fire In The Arms Of The Sun. This was meant to be a future Espers release but I got antsy waiting for the next covers record to come about so here it is (after three years of simmering on my mental back burner).
ABOUT GREG WEEKS
- Greg owns and operates a 24 track analog recording facility called Hexham Head.
- Greg runs a label called Language of Stone which has released ten records since launching in 2007 including Lights, Mountain Home, Heavy Hands, Festival, Orion Rigel Dommisse and Ex Reverie.
- Greg is Executive Producer, co-songwriter and musician in The Valerie Project, a ten piece ensemble that performs a live soundtrack to Czech New Wave film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. The ensemble was featured at Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown Festival as his support.
- Greg is the Producer of (and co-songwriter and musician in) Philadelphia psych folk outfit Espers.
- Greg is working on a record with Mellow Candle veteran Alison O'Donnell under the name Estrus League.
MUSICIANS ON THE HIVE: Helena Espval (cello), Margaret Wienk (cello), Orion Rigel Dommisse (Wurlitzer), Jessica Weeks (flute, Fender Rhodes), Jesse Sparhawk (bass), Otto Hauser (drums), Alexis and Lindsay Powell (backing vocals)
GREG PLAYS: Mellotron, acoustic and electric guitar, Univox Mini Korg K2, Crumar Tocatta, Crumar Performer, Doric transistorized organ, autoharp, Arp Odyssey, Fender Rhodes, gong, and his own vocal chords.
