Tell me about your new album.
It's called Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, and it's once again on Ghostly International. I did this one a bit differently – usually I go for a feeling without editing or getting too precious about it. For this one, the songs took me a little bit longer to polish up. I recorded in my home studio and then took it over to producer Rob Schnapf [Tape Op #9] here in L.A. at his Mant Sounds studio. We took a couple of days to add overdubs, synths, and tidy up the songs before it was ready to be mixed.
Who mixed it?
I mixed it with Trevor Spencer at Way Out Recording Studio near Seattle. Alex [Scally] from Beach House suggested him, and we worked remotely. He didn't really do anything heavy-handed, but I told him where to bring out different instruments and he understood what I was going for. We got along great, and I'd love to work with him again.
Are there any guests on the record?
The first song is my friend Meg Baird [of Espers] singing and Walt McClements [of Weyes Blood] playing accordion through effects. It's really droney, and saturated with gorgeous colors. I visited Meg at her magical place in Arcata, California, and Ben Chasny [of 6 Organs of Admittance] came over to record her vocals. The second song, "Arrivederci," features synths from a hero of mine, Lol Tolhurst [of The Cure]. He said the song reminded him of being a child on the beach. "Blender in a Blender" features New Zealand guitar player Roy Montgomery. We became pen pals when I was in Wyoming at an artist residency. We'd sent files back and forth, but I lost the stems and only had this unfinished demo. Rob and I filled it out – I'm grateful to him for digging in with me and helping me get it into a good place. Rachel Goswell [of Slowdive] sings on the closing track, and Samara Lubelski plays some cool droning violin. I met Samara around 2010 when we were playing with Thurston Moore. There's even a bonus track (for Japan) featuring Bill Nace, who's a really mind-bending guitar player.
Wow, that's a lot of legends!
I often think about little teen Mary in her room, or awkward college age Mary, what she was listening to. Man, she would be happy! To hear how her harp is mixing in with her heroes' voices is the ultimate beautiful dream come true.
How did you first acquire your harp?
I don't want to sound like a brat, but I have two. [laughs] I've had the 47 string Lyon & Healy since I was a kid, and that will always be my baby. I won a Pew Fellowship in Philly in 2014, and I decided it would be a good investment to buy a harp in Europe, so that harp lives in Brussels. I put a nice pickup in it, and I use it when I tour there. It's made it so much easier because harps are so precious. For the person who owns it, it's probably their favorite thing in the world, so asking to borrow one or rent one from another harpist was not sometimes possible. I got tired of scrambling, and I knew that this was going to serve future Mary well. It's also there if other harpists want to use it. I'm just trying to spread around good karma.
What exposure did you have to music in North Carolina? Were you inspired by the traditional music of the Happy Valley?
I grew up in Asheville, but went to high school in Shelby, which is where Earl Scruggs is from. When my grandad passed away, my parents moved to his farm. My dad is now a cattle farmer, and my mom has a harp studio there on the farm, and she teaches a lot of students. That flat farmland part of the state outside of Charlotte must be what they call the Happy Valley. There is that traditional music, bluegrass and folk, that's all woven in there. I started taking harp lessons at age 11 and my mom gave me this harp when I turned 18.
Was she your teacher as well?
We thought there would be too many arguments, so I took lessons with Elizabeth Roth from the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. She's amazing.
Were you starting to mix classical with indie music when at Eastman School of Music?
I worked at two really cool record stores up there, absorbing a ton of music, but I never thought that I could blend the two. I had my very serious classical harp world at Eastman, and then I would ride the bus to the University of Rochester to work at the radio station. That was my other world. When I moved to Philly, I met some great musicians who were like, "Let's add some harp to the record," or, "Be in our band." "Are you sure? I have this giant 85-pound thing." But the timing was right.
When did the Line 6 DL4 delay come into play? It seems like you're always cradling one live, and it's such a crucial part of your sound.
It is. I'm so attached to it now. I feel like it's such a basic thing, but it's like another instrument and I know it really well. When I started playing in Fursaxa with Tara Burke and Helena Espvall, they both had Line 6 loopers and I thought Helena's cello sounded so cool through it. "What would the harp sound like going through this machine?" I started messing around and getting to know it. I spent a lot of time experimenting and failing with placing piezo mic pickups on the outside of the harp. I finally found this Seattle company, Dusty Strings, that makes a pickup called the Dusty Harp Pickup [P30]. It's the one that I put in both of my harps, and I even put one in one of my mom's harps on the east coast.
What did she think?
She was happy, because this harp belonged to one of her former students. This older lady loved her harp so much that she even had a golden crown put on the top of it. She named it Princess; and when she passed away she left my mom the harp. My mom thought that, rather than driving back and forth across the country, I could use Princess. She allowed me to put in the pickup, and I took "her" on the road with Beach House last year.
You recorded your first album, The Withdrawing Room, at Uniform Recording with Jeff Zeigler. Was that a big deal for you?
I had just finished playing with Thurston Moore on the record cycle for [his album] Demolished Thoughts. That was one of the highlights of my life, being invited to play on that record and then touring in a band. He went on to make another record without a harp on it, and I was sad. My dream had come true, but now it was over! So, I spoke to Jeff and we both decided I needed to come into the studio and work out these feelings. I sat and played for hours as he added studio shimmer to the harp and enhanced the colors. He also added sounds from his Korg Mono/Poly synthesizer as we were jamming together. Jeff is very professional, and we've done exact and precise work in the studio, but there's also a freedom and FUN working with him where there's room to experiment. Our brains are good at being weird together, and I think that he has done that with a lot of Philly musicians. Nurturing these one-of-a-kind recording environments that have carried our little scene across the world in a crystallized form.
You were awarded a Pew Fellowship in 2014, preceding At The Dam. The first song, "Otis Walks into the Woods," features some cool effects and echoes.
