Sarah Conroy talks to Emmalee Crane and Miles Fender about Crux

Crux is the debut album from Canadian-turned-Californian musician Emmalee Crane. It is a soft yet majestic wash of instruments ranging from woodwinds and cellos to analog synthesizers and circuit-bent electronic toys. While Emmalee herself describes it as "drone", that hardly does justice to the orchestral swell and inventive melody that weaves throughout the album. I talked to Emmalee about how Crux came about and how she feels about the finished product, with some additional commentary from Miles Fender, who engineered the project from start to finish and who runs the The Streetlight Farm label on which it will be released later this month.

[SC] Congratulations on a fantastic album!

[EC] Thank you.

[SC] How would you describe it for new listeners?

[EC] Background music? I don't know, I tend to think of drone as music that you're really aware of but not consciously listening to. With my music, I mean for it to be relaxing, introspective.

[MF] It's very emotive though. I think a lot of people will sit down and really listen to to it. If you lie back on the floor with the lights dimmed and shut your eyes, you can be really drifting by the end of the album.

[EC] Yeah okay now you're scaring me.

[SC] How do you approach songwriting when there are no lyrics or rhythm?

[EC] I guess I don't really sit down and actually write anything. Sometimes I'll score the woodwind or string parts, but mostly I'm just hearing something in my head and then putting down the layers that will make it real.

[SC] So do you always end up with the sound that's in your head?

[EC] Oh God no. Maybe fifty fifty. A lot of Crux didn't turn out the way I expected. I'm really pleased with it, but it evolved in a way I didn't expect. It started out much more freeform and minimal, but as I was rehearsing I gradually started forming these fairly strong melodies that I couldn't shake.

[SC] Where there's a melody it seems like it's mostly driven by woodwinds.

[EC] Yeah, when I'm starting something new I usually start with the oboe, maybe the clarinet. Sometimes I'll go straight for a synth though.

[SC] Tell us about that. You seem to keep this strange balance between classical instruments and electronics.

[EC] I don't think it's strange. They're both just ways to make sound, one moves air and the other moves electrons - it's all just motion. The air came first though. I went through the usual progression when I was a kid - recorder, clarinet, oboe, also we had a piano in our house that my mother used to play all the time so I picked that up by default. The cello came later - I'm not so comfortable with that though.

[SC] It's still quite an impressive range though. Is there anything you can't play?

[EC] I can't fingerpick guitar at all - whenever I play guitar I use an e-Bow, or just strum it like mad. Also I'm not so great with horns, which is why I had you and Patrick help out on a couple of tracks. And I can't play drums at all.

[SC] There is actually some percussion in there though, right?

[EC] There's a ride cymbal trill right in the middle of the album, halfway through the middle song. It's there as a sort of pivot. Other than that there's no percussion at all. I find drums distracting, I don't like to be pressured to play right on the beat. Maybe I'm just a bad timekeeper.

[MF] I'll say.

[EC] [laughs] Well, my background is with the orchestra, so I'm used to being conducted and having visual cues from lots of other musicians. If it's just me playing then I'll imagine them.

[SC] And so where did the love of synths come from?

[EC] My dad bought me a Casio keyboard one birthday and I just loved the feel of making non-piano sounds on a keyboard. The sounds themselves were awful, but then I bought a [Yamaha] DX7 and a [Roland] Juno 106. The Juno really started my passion for analog. I was fascinated with how they worked too - with an oboe you can take it apart and see where the air moves, but take apart a synth and it's just a mess. You can't see the path. I did a course in electrical engineering a while ago and now I know enough to make some mods.

[SC] Circuit bending?

[EC] Yeah, that's what it's called when you take an electrical circuit that makes a particular sound, a synth, a kid's toy or whatever, and then tweak it to make it sound different. Sometimes you get something cool, sometimes it's a disaster.

[SC] You use a lot of distortion too. Is that the same thought process, making things sound different?

[EC] Oh, definitely. I love distortion, especially on natural instruments like the oboe.

[MF] We used all kinds of distortion. Fuzz pedals, plug-ins, re-amping, and every track went through a [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture at mixdown. We processed the oboe and clarinet tracks with [Ohm Force] Ohmicide, which is this amazingly rich distortion plugin. It really gave an extra dimension to the sound. The live room we used was fairly small and dry, so most of the reverb is from a UAD Plate 140 and Logic's Space Designer.

[SC] I have to say, oboe distortion is a new one for me.

[EC] It just fit what we were trying to do.

[SC] So what's on your iPod? What do you like to listen to when you're not working on your own stuff?

[EC] Mostly modern classical. Debussy, Mahler. There's still barely a day goes by I don't listen to Talk Talk or Mark Hollis, the arrangements on Spirit Of Eden and Laughing Stock have probably shaped my approach to music more than anything. Totally love Stars Of The Lid too.

[SC] And what's next?

[EC] I'm already working on a second album. I'm going to try to get closer to the sounds in my head this time. I can already sit down and shut my eyes and listen to the whole thing from start to finish, I just have to figure out how to play it.

Crux will be released on September 22nd 2009. To stay updated, follow Emmalee on Twitter, MySpace and Facebook, or visit emmaleecrane.com or streetlightfarm.com