"It was a real love fest" exclaims singer/cellist Marika Hughes on the making of 2 Foot Yard's scintillating sophomore effort Borrowed Arms, "very easy…very natural."
This ain't your father's idea of a rock 'n' roll band; but rock they do. The trio, which consists of Hughes, vocalist/violinist Carla Kihlstedt, and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily along with many, many special guests, are classified in their press materials as "chamber pop." However the hallowed New York Times covered the Yard's latest in their March 2008 “jazz reviews” section. What gives?
"Change happens so slowly that no one notices, then they look up, and the topography of the world is different" notes Kihlstedt. "Twenty years ago, there was no such band doing what we're doing now. Sure, you had performance artists like Laurie Anderson, but with regard to rock music, I had never seen a cellist playing non-classically -- nowadays you can't throw a stone without hitting a string player who can improvise!"
The thirteen tracks which comprise Borrowed Arms run the gamut of popular and not-so-popular genres. "Octopus" and "Newbury Street," two torch songs worthy of Tori Amos/Kate Bush, sit comfortably amongst the bluesy swamp shuffle and minor key motifs of the title cut which would not seem out of place on a vintage John Lee Hooker album. The odd time signatures, screeching counter-point, and heavy metal riff-age of "Crisis" are the stuff of King Crimson and Metallica. 2 Foot Yard's classical instrumentation blends so seamlessly with the traditional bass, drum, and guitars configuration that it's hard to figure out who's zooming who.
Says Kihlstedt of the trio's varied yet instantly identifiable repertoire, "Well, we're not very methodical writers. Usually one of us will come in with a two bar nugget of an idea, especially Marika, and we play with all the lights off so we really have to listen in a different way and not defer to visual information."
With the exception of two tracks, Borrowed Arms was road tested before the recording process commenced. "When we first went into the studio to make this record we were well aware that something special happens when the three of us play live" Kihlstedt emphasizes. "We don't know a song until we perform it a bunch of times."
Remarkably, Borrowed Arms is mostly self-produced with the help of engineer Joel Hamilton - upon whom Hughes and Kihlstedt lavish much praise. As for the band's modus operandi of a "creative democracy," some opinions counted more than others based on what Hughes termed as "the hue and passion" of a particular viewpoint.
The laundry list of guest musicians on Borrowed Arms attests to the mutual respect 2 Foot Yard has among their peers. For the record (pun intended) Hughes has worked with numerous San Francisco Bay area symphonies and chamber groups including Grammy nominated Quartet San Francisco and has recorded with Tom Waits, Santana, and Xiu Xiu. Kihlstedt counts Tin Hat and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum among her many musical endeavors. Ismaily has traveled to such far flung places as Bali, Pakistan, Japan and Morocco, Brazil, and India to study music and has composed works for film, dance, and live theater.
"And if 2 Foot Yard were to end tomorrow we'd still be friends" laughs Kihlstedt. Of course, they're already writing their next record. Stay tuned.
--Tom Semioli [March 26, 2008]
Photo: Carla Bozulich
