Mesmershade On the Making Of ‘Echoes of Elegy’
What was the creative process like for this particular 'Echoes of Elegy?'
M. Munigant: As Juniper and I are living thousands of kilometers and several time zones away from each other, a lot of the creative process for this EP is asynchronous. Our general workflow usually involves me writing multiple versions of each song and letting Juniper choose which version she most likes. We then work out ideas through rough mixing and arranging until we come to something that clicks.
Sometimes I’d write things that I love but couldn’t imagine how vocals could be put over it, but then I’d be getting back something that did what I thought was impossible. I like to think of the entire creative process for our EP, Echoes of Elegy, as a continuous series of overcoming the impossible.
Juniper Jow: It’s funny to hear that M thought of it as impossible, because for me, it sort of felt like an incredibly natural process, like we were absolutely aligned and completely on the same wavelength from the very beginning. We basically met over the internet, formed our band, and wrote our first six songs together over the space of a few weeks. That initial excitement of forging an immediate connection was just an incredible creative rush – we were trading work back and forth at a fevered pace and finishing new songs in a day. Everything seemed to come together so smoothly – it sounds like it shouldn’t have worked, but it felt like it was just meant to be that way.
M: That’s not exactly how it went! I think we may have put things together over a period of weeks, but that was followed by a long series of tweaks and rewrites and remixes to make the final EP what it is. So the basics of the songs were there almost immediately, but the final product took nearly 6 months to put together correctly.
Could you discuss the lyrical themes or messages conveyed in 'Echoes of Elegy?'
J: I would say that the Echoes of Elegy EP has an overall theme of lost love. I wrote the lyrics for “Moth” on the day after my grandmother passed away at the age of 93. On that morning, the first thing I saw as I walked out my door was an enormous black moth, which in Hawaii is believed to be the spirit of a loved one returning to say goodbye. The same species of black moth is also considered an ominous portent of impending death in other cultures. That strange difference in potential interpretation fascinated me, and this song is what came out.
“We Don’t Have To Wait” is kind of about that frustration that bubbles up when you feel like you are in a job where you’re no longer appreciated, which is kind of a love lost, in a way. “Vicissitude” and “The Best That I Could Invent” both firmly fall into the category of classic breakup songs, about the devastating self-doubt that hits in the face of unrequited love. “We Sleep” was actually inspired after I attended a town hall meeting where I heard a native Hawaiian rights activist speak – and while it might sound strange to describe that situation as a lost love, I do think the wounded feelings that linger in communities reckoning with the long-lasting effects of colonialism are very akin to a bad breakup. “Death’s Lover” is technically a love song, but the kind of love that you know from the start you shouldn’t want because there is no way it will end happily – the kind of love that can only end in a tragic loss.
M: What I find amazing about this is that Juniper managed to almost read my mind in terms of what I was thematically thinking for each song. When I’d get back her lyrics and vocals, I’d always be blown away, not just by how good they sounded, but by the way she seemingly picked up on the exact theme of each song without me explicitly telling her. I knew we were a special kind of match when that started to happen.
Which song do you like the best and why?
M: For me personally, my favorite song on the EP is “The Best That I Could Invent.” It’s short and melodic but experimental in a lot of ways, partially using Sega Mega Drive generated drum sounds and a lot of discordant layered synth sounds that are beautifully brought together by Juniper’s vocals. Overall, it has a certain relatable pathos to it that I still feel every time I hear it, which is in no small thanks to the beautiful singing.
J: My personal favorite is “We Sleep.” The drums and creepy horror soundscape Munigant wrote for that song are just so good. When I was writing the lyrics, I swear those beats haunted me in my dreams, but in the best way.
Can you recall a particular moment, artist, or experience that had a significant influence on your music?
M: I’m mainly influenced by three things: 80’s horror movie soundtracks, especially movies like David Cronenberg’s and John Carpenter’s movies, which is most apparent in “We Sleep,” which is almost a sort of call and response to They Live; a wide variety of hardcore/screamo music, from which I tend to be influenced by things like discordant chords, driving noisy parts, and the time switches you’d find in bands like Rye Coalition, At the Drive-in, Hell No, Les Savy Fav, Universal Order of Armageddon, and the Murder City Devils; and dark, gritty sounding hip-hop production like you’d find from producers like the RZA, Mathematics, and Blue Skies/Black Death, which gives our songs their somewhat hip-hop sounding beats. It’s a weird combination of influences, which leads to somewhat experimental sounding tracks.
J: OK, this is a funny one. I think I have to say that my primary influence, in terms of my vocal style, is jazz, like the great American songbook of the first half of the 20th century. But Munigant hates jazz! I don’t know how he ended up with me!
Was there a pivotal moment in your life when you decided to follow your path as a musician?
M: For me, my start as a musician began after going to a battle of the bands when I was 13 years old. The bands were mostly punk and hardcore bands, and I fell immediately in love with the raw sounds and DIY spirit of the whole punk/hardcore scene at the time. I knew on that day that I wanted to make music. For the most part, I’ve been making music ever since that point, playing in multiple hardcore/screamo bands throughout the years in both the U.S. and Japan.
Obviously, it’s been a long, strange, winding trip from my punk roots to the music that I’m creating now, but I still feel like the general essence of all of the songs still has a punkish influence. This is the first project I’ve ever been a part of where I write all of the instrumentation, so it’s been exciting to be able to fully express myself musically and also to meet and work with Juniper to make this EP a reality.
J: I really only started writing music a few weeks before we formed the band. Before that, I’d spent decades trying to write novels and poetry and always felt dissatisfied with the results. But I took to writing songs in a way that I never could with any other form of writing. I love how music enhances the story in a way that words alone can’t – so songwriting is the only way for me, going forward. When I stumbled across Munigant’s dark edgy instrumentals online, I was immediately inspired and knew that I would be able to write lyrics if he wanted them. On a bit of a daring whim, I reached out and asked if he wanted to collaborate. It happened by chance, but it’s completely changed the trajectory of my life, for the better.
