When Wild Wild Wets frontman Mike Turi released the debut EP Everyday Obstacle from his solo project Emerald Rats last month, he opened a window into a cerebral world of psychedelia.
“It’s been exciting to be able to create on my own after years of always depending on guitar players and [other musicians] to make music,” says Turi. “Maybe one day I’ll learn the guitar, but with these small hands — arthritic from the [inflammatory joint disease] ankylosing spondylitis — who knows?”
Like minimalist dispatches from the collective unconscious, Everyday Obstacle explores a darker, more ambient and beat-oriented sound than those that Turi has pursued in the past with WWW, Trap Gold, and the Old In Out.
“It’s a lot of texturing for these [songs]. I just get high and weird and make simple chord changes and create a structure, then add what I feel [is] necessary to the song’s identity — usually starting with the drums —then the rest is mostly all synth, though I did mess with a bass guitar a bit on some of these tracks.”
“Heat So Heavy” really captures Turi’s distinctive, ominous, Jim Morrison howl (listen when he sings “Love is hot like a burning fire”), while his cover of the Kinks’ “I Need You” at the end of the EP showcases the synth-heavy aesthetic that permeates the album.
“The sound differs from the previous bands I’ve worked with because it’s more beats-driven. The simplicity of the loops gives it, for me, a sort of hip-hop/dance-music vibe underneath, but then I add a synth cherry on a mud sundae over it, add on the lyrics, then tweak the hell out of it and send it to Keith Sweaty [Keith Milgaten of Jamuel Saxon] to master.
Taking his name from a Kim Fowley lyric, Emerald Rats will play his first gig on Saturday, March 9, at the Casbah with Brooklyn bands Darwin Deez and Caged Animals.
When Wild Wild Wets frontman Mike Turi released the debut EP Everyday Obstacle from his solo project Emerald Rats last month, he opened a window into a cerebral world of psychedelia.
“It’s been exciting to be able to create on my own after years of always depending on guitar players and [other musicians] to make music,” says Turi. “Maybe one day I’ll learn the guitar, but with these small hands — arthritic from the [inflammatory joint disease] ankylosing spondylitis — who knows?”
Like minimalist dispatches from the collective unconscious, Everyday Obstacle explores a darker, more ambient and beat-oriented sound than those that Turi has pursued in the past with WWW, Trap Gold, and the Old In Out.
“It’s a lot of texturing for these [songs]. I just get high and weird and make simple chord changes and create a structure, then add what I feel [is] necessary to the song’s identity — usually starting with the drums —then the rest is mostly all synth, though I did mess with a bass guitar a bit on some of these tracks.”
“Heat So Heavy” really captures Turi’s distinctive, ominous, Jim Morrison howl (listen when he sings “Love is hot like a burning fire”), while his cover of the Kinks’ “I Need You” at the end of the EP showcases the synth-heavy aesthetic that permeates the album.
“The sound differs from the previous bands I’ve worked with because it’s more beats-driven. The simplicity of the loops gives it, for me, a sort of hip-hop/dance-music vibe underneath, but then I add a synth cherry on a mud sundae over it, add on the lyrics, then tweak the hell out of it and send it to Keith Sweaty [Keith Milgaten of Jamuel Saxon] to master.
Taking his name from a Kim Fowley lyric, Emerald Rats will play his first gig on Saturday, March 9, at the Casbah with Brooklyn bands Darwin Deez and Caged Animals.
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