podperson
No stranger to a clever turn of phrase, a bit of rough-hewn production and relatable misery, Mishka never disappoints. This is the sound of the jukebox in the corner of a biker bar with a warped record and a blown speaker.
...and that's just how I like it.
Favorite track: Professional Guest.
It started with a stranger and a guitar. In 2017, I was living in Atlanta, out of songs, out of ideas, out of gas. This dude I'd never met, Carl Adams, wrote from the UK to tell me he was such a big fan, he wanted to get a local builder to build me an acoustic. Cool, I like guitars. The local builder turned out to be Alister Atkin and the guitar he built me is the best acoustic I've ever played, possibly the best guitar I've ever played. Well, shit, the guitar deserved a record built around it but I had no songs. Travis Lipski contacted me about doing a song for his movie. I didn't even write 'You Were the Song,' just woke up from a weird dream and walked over to my guitar and played it all the way through. I tracked it with my buddy Chase Crawford on guitar and the bass player and drummer from the first song I ever recorded in 1993, James Sparber and Brandon Goldstein. The recording didn't make the movie but now I had one song. Professional Guest came out of an exhausted morning at my friend Aaron Lazar's house after 40 days on the road with Star Anna. I saw the hand of the daughter of an old beloved ex in an Instagram picture and that spawned Haunted Ghost. My main mama Kristine Levine told me I had to cover Trucker Speed and, goddamn, she was right. Glen Wool stole the title of his DVD 'This Road Has Tolls' from GoogleMaps and I stole it back and turned it into a song in a Motel 6 room in Pocatello, Idaho. I stole the chorus vocal line from HEELS and then tricked them into singing on the song with me, the poor suckers. Still, this record wouldn't have happened without the generosity of my friend Gar Truppelli who put up the money for me to record. But where? I wound up in Austin after Altercation Festival. My old friend Ian MacDougall connected me with the producer Stuart Sikes, who had recorded a couple of my favorite records. Stuart knew a keys guy, Don Cento. Ian and Don's contributions absolutely transformed the session and made this handful of barely fleshed out songs into, well, something resembling a record. When I ran out of money, Dave Le Sange stepped in to finish the mixes. Allison Langerak-- with whom I have been playing music with for twenty years now-- contributed her trademark heavenly, haunted vocals. In a fitting, last minute miracle, another stranger appeared, Mike Gruetzner. He played the clarinet that carried 'This Road Has Tolls' to its final form.
This is a long way of saying THANK YOU SO FUCKING MUCH. This record would not have happened without you, every single one of you.
credits
released July 2, 2020
Mishka Shubaly - rhythm guitars, vocals
Allison Langerak - female vocals
Josh McLane & Brennan Whalen - backing vocals on 'This Road Has Tolls'
Ian MacDougall - lead guitar and bass
Don Cento - Wurlitzer, B3, mellotron
Mike Gruetzner - clarinet
recorded by Stuart Sikes
mixed and mastered by Dave Le Sange at Munk Sounds
'You Were The Band' personnel
Mishka Shubaly - rhythm guitars, vocals
Chase Crawford - lead guitar
James Sparber - bass, keys, backing vocals
Brandon Goldstein - drums
recorded, arranged and produced by James Sparber
mastered by Scott Craggs
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This album is like cracking a cold 40 of steel reserve after fighting in a parking lot at 3 in the morning. If you could bottle youth it would be hard to get a better brew than this. databender