photo: Richie Wireman

Bebek

Musical Discoveries: Hi Nick and Lynn. Can you tell us about the songs on your new EP, starting with "807 Dub"?

Nick: This was a re-make of a song from the first album. The impulse to re-do it came from the fact that this album represents a totally different band except for Lynn and me. The new band has a new sound, you could call it a little dirtier, and as we began playing the song, it took on a different life than the one it lived before. We worked with a producer in Philly who really brought out what we were looking to do with this tune. In my mind, it sort of perfectly captures the organic electronica that I think Bebek has begun to define as its own.

Lynn: Part of the changes we made to this song was to add an extra verse that me and Nick did together. This song was really exciting for me to work on especially because our producer Brian was so into vocal presentation and lyrical textures that sound instrumental. It's interesting because I almost didn't sing the verses and chorus of this song and rather, sang the background parts, which end up blending really nicely with the ewi parts, laid down by Max. The great thing about the new version of the song, both in the way my vocals came out and the overall sonic picture the song takes on, is that you can really feel the paranoia that the lyrics are trying to express and as different musical textures enter and begin to roll. I was really happy with how it all came out.

How about "Lead"?

Nick: This was one of the songs we did in Nashville with Chris Mara. This song totally took on a life of its own in the preparation for recording. Chris helped a lot with arrangement ideas and we kind of wrote a new ending to help reflect and support the lyrical content. I wrote these lyrics thinking about a friend of Lynn's who sort of allowed her fears and insecurities about all the risks that life brings to run her life and make decisions for her. So this song is a reaction to that. I find that a lot of lyrics that I write represent dialogues, not monologues. This song is one of those dialogues between Lynn and her friend.

The first line is Lynn's friend speaking, and then Lynn responds. Then her friend speaks the next two lines. The pre-chorus about the bud and the field is Lynn and then the chorus which follows is her friend talking. The cool thing about how this song turned out and how Lynn sang it is that in the end, it really was Lynn singing to herself as well as to her friend. It was a song with a message to someone else that became something that Lynn began to feel really applied to our life as well.

image © Bebek Music 2006

Lynn: Yeah, this year since we released the last album has been a true test of our determination as musicians. We have had band members leave because they didn't want to tour and be part of the hard work that takes a band to the next level. And of course, the more work we have in the band, the more juggling we have to do with everything else in our lives. I think when I was in the studio recording this song--first of all we did it to tape, which lends itself to just going for it, because you know if you screw up, you're probably going to take most of the part again.

A lot of this past year was going through my mind and I think for the first time on record, I just came out and sang and wasn't so worried about how I sounded, pitch, or anything else and I'm actually really happy with the results. A lot of people who have heard that song, have told me, "wow, I've never heard you sing like that," and that makes me happy because this album, for me, had a lot to do with presenting the parts of my voice, both in terms of singing and expression, that I hadn't explored with the first album.

image © Bebek Music 2006

And what about the new version of "Good News"?

Nick: This was also a remake of a song from the first album. Lyrically nothing changed, but we were really excited about doing this because when the new band came together last summer, one of the first things we did was redo this song, just to put our new imprint on it. I think everyone did a really great job in sort of coming up with his or her parts to reflect their musical personality and Lynn's performance was gut wrenching. Personally, I'll say that this song represented for me, like "807 Dub," a new way for the band to capture its sound. We played everything through guitar amps--keys, sax, ewi, everything.

Even Lynn's voice has some distortion on it at certain points in the album. We did this not because we all fell in love with guitar amps, but simply because when you run a keyboard or a the ewi--which is like a keyboard except played through the body of a wind instrument--you sort of add another instrument to the mix. The amp is another component that contributes to the sound and helps the listener feel the 3-D effect of an electronic sound.

image © Bebek Music 2006

Lynn: this song was a big challenge, especially because we were taking to tape and the time, our producer wanted only one vocal track, one voice amid all the gurgling sounds that were going on around me. This song still holds a special place in my heart since Nick wrote the lyrics about dealing with his mother's death and while time has passed since she died, his mother's spirit is still something that lives with us and I find more often than not, then when I sing this song, in the studio, or live, that I am singing as much to her as I am to the audience.

What about the title track, "Open Eyes"?

Lynn: Nick and I co-wrote the lyrics to this one too. The initial inspiration for the song was my grandfather's illness, which he almost died from. It was one of those times when you look back on your relationship with someone who you love and you think about the possibility of them not being there and you just hope and pray and wish for a few moments more. The melody to this came very easily for me and Nick and it seemed that soon after the melody was done, the song just came together. Recording this song also came very easily to me, maybe because the inspiration was so real and is something that I still live with. It was kind of over and done before it began, which, in my experience, is rare in the studio.

Nick: "Open Eyes" in some ways is my favorite song of ours, only because I think it presents the listener with all of what Bebek does and what makes us a good band. Lynn's vocals and the bass and drums drive the song while the sax melody gives the contrast to the vocals that the listeners needs. This happens while Frank and I weave small themes in an out of the song throughout. We worked on this song with Duane Lundy out of Lexington and his production ideas were right on from the first drum take to the last overdub. The ability to throw in different textures, with vibes, congas, different, bizarre keyboards that he had--I actually recorded the organ part on this song on the same Fender organ Ray Manzarik from the Doors used--all of that is the kind of recording experience that we really wanted to present with the listener.

image © Bebek Music 2006

I think one of the differences between this EP and the last one is that, in our first record, we relied on synthesizer parts when we wanted to record different sounds and textures. With this record, we experimented quite a bit, using real instruments for a lot of things--a real piano, only real organs, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, shakers, congas, real vibes on this song. All that combined with the analog keyboards I still use helped this album fall out of the shadow of trip-hop bands like Portishead and Massive Attack and more towards the bands like Stereolab, Bjork and Radiohead whose music is more versatile and I think more vital in the long term.

Tell us about "In Between."

Lynn: The lyrics to this song, while very abstract, are actually about a very real emotion I have felt for a while as the band has continued to grow, which is that of balancing two worlds and all the pressures that come from being a musician, but also being an employee in a workplace--since I still have a day job--as well as juggling all the other roles in my life. This was one of those songs where I supplied most of the lyrical imagery and Nick set it words and a melody. Unlike Nick, many of my lyrics are things that are coming directly from my head in a certain situation.

The "me" in this song is truly me and I think when I listen back to it that this song accurately reflects many different sides of my voice, both as a singer and just as a human being. This song had one of the funnier parts of the recording session in Nashville when I was trying to record the final two lines where I am shouting through a megaphone while the band is taking the song out. I think it took me half an hour to get the lines out because it was so funny just yelling through a megaphone while the engineer and assistant engineer gingerly held up mics to the mouth of the megaphone.

image © Bebek Music 2006

Nick: This song is the oldest of our newer songs. I wrote the music soon after completing the first album which was a time when I wasn't thinking so much about song structure, but more about song texture. The song originally had an extensive counterpoint between the vocals, guitar, sax and bass. We ended up taking out the guitar counterpoint totally and lessening the sax part to help emphasizes the contrast between the driving nature of the bass and drums with the relative calm of the vocal line in the verse. The cool thing about this song is that it represents a trend that the band is going through which is that we are not afraid to be called an indie-rock band. I'm not exactly sure that's what we are, but we always play in rock clubs wherever we are and so, why not? The cool thing about this album is that Frank really took it upon himself to give the guitar a great deal of life, a real vibrant nature and I think from song to song, it really shows.

And finally, how about "Balance Beam"?

Nick: In some ways, this is also my favorite album on the song. This is the song that shows the experimental side of Bebek, the side that was I think was present throughout the 1st album. I don't like it when people call us a jam band, because it just doesn't fit with who we are and I think they call us that because we are not afraid to collectively improvise both live and on an album. The intro and outro are for the most part improvised on this song. What's cool about it to me, is that the improvisations happen with both electronic and acoustic instruments and I was happy about the seamless quality of the production that really brought out the shared sonic landscape between the two. I think Lynn's singing on this tune is the best of any song on the album.

This song is basically about two things: the intro and verses are all about my feelings about Bush winning the election in '04 and my despondency at hearing the results. I don't talk about these lyrics a lot because politics is touchy with a lot of folks, but it is what it is. The lyrics are some of my favorite I've ever done just because they are not about something that happened personally to me or Lynn, but rather about my feelings surrounding such a hugely important event as that. The end is again one person, probably me or Lynn, talking about the excitement one can find in life if one truly lives on the balance beam that we all walk in life when we live our life exploring our dreams and living with the fears that come at the thought of not having those dreams no longer be in your life.

Lynn: This is actually my favorite song on the album as well. It's interesting because looking at the recording process, I feel I put the most emotion in this song, even though the lyrics are about politics as they relate to Nick and I personally. In other words, while the other songs were more about personal situations and our feelings/reactions to them, this song, unlike the others is more about a personal reaction to a situation impacting the world at large. Similar to other songs on the album, this song is different vocally for me because of the amount of emphasis on expressing the emotion of what I was singing about rather than focusing on the perfection of the vocal performance technically. The end line of this song is my favorite lyric line of all of our songs. I actually think about that line when I am feeling overwhelmed with life situations…I know that I will never realize my dreams unless I am able to face my fears.