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The Membrane Domain

Rock N' Roll Romper Room Interview With Aqua Mann

Excerpts from The Rock N' Roll Romper Room


An Interview With Aqua Mann

by

C. Moore

Welcome, Aqua. I have been listening to the Spontaneous Combustion album non-stop. There are several areas I would like to cover:

  • The scientific overtones of the album.
  • The production of the album.
  • The diversity of the album.

    Would you mind explaining the meaning of some of the songs as they relate to "science?"

    Hmmm ... most of the songs explore some aspect of how science effects are thinking -- both for the better and worse. Take for example About Crond ...., it looks at the relativity of time:

    Father Time is knocking,
    knocking at your door.
    You might think he's the Grim Reaper.
    I've got news he's no sleeper.
    He's coming after you. No matter what you do.

    Then there is Underwear Under Where, a twist on the "Emperor's" underwear. "Hi, this is Sidd again." Sidd won't give in until the people listen to him ... he ain't goin' along with no stinkin' hoax.

    Other's include "Gravity is Only a State of Mind," "The Calamity of the Clarity of the Polarity," "The Inertia of Love," and "Wow! I've Never Seen Anything Like That Before."

    Remember, the recording session was unrehearsed. Apparently while acting as a soul receptor, I was invaded by Newton, Aristotle, or soemthing..

    Wow! You mean to tell me this stuff wasn't discussed first? Nothing written down? And, the recording method?

    The music and lyrics were performed spontaneous in a makeshift recording studio. I wanted to use sound clips that were available courtesy of Glistening Trail Records via the world wide web. So, we set the equipment up around my computer. My keyboard was on an ironing board. I downloaded sound clips throughout the sessions and used my "enter" key like a musical instrument. Since there was only three of us ... and Wind Storm blew in late, leaving us with a duo for some of the songs, the conditions forces me to compensate by playing the keyboards, the computer keyboard, singing and playing the guitar simultaneously. No time to stop and set up a loop or what not.

    There was one microphone set in the center of the main room. One microphone was strapped to my head. A small Mackie mixboard patched the computer, keyboards, and two microphones direct to mini-disc. The songs were left pretty much in order. A couple songs were moved from one disc to other (or one side of the tape to the other.) That way the harder edged songs could be kept together, and the transient trance songs togehter ... we cut out the pee breaks and runs to the refrigerator for beer.

    Cool. I wish you had some video. It is hard to imagine ... especially when you consider the diversity of the music. When I buy new music, I am always disappointed that all the songs sound the same. I would much rather listen to an album that covers more territory. In your case, you start with your feet planted firmly on Earth and end up on Pluto. No one was on auto-pilot. What happen? And, can you tell me about Whole Lotta Love?

    I can not explain how it happened and find myself listening to the album over and over. It grows with each listening. On disc version, we included some 4-tracks from our C Squared demo and extra web sounds ... making for a bizarre experience when listened to on "random suffle."

    Whole Lotta Love came out of nowhere. Wind Storm usually doesn't play keyboards. In fact, this was probably his tenth time ... ever. (Now that I think about, Earth Quake hadn't played drums in over nine months either.) Anyway, lets just say the Wind took us away ... rendering the tune onto a new plane.

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