This week we’re speaking with late-00s band My Satellite who have returned this year with their electrifying new album, Person. Eight years in the making, this psychedelic indie-rock masterpiece solidifies their position as a groundbreaking creative force. Person takes listeners on a journey through the evolution of a relationship, from initial spark to its eventual dissolution. Blending perfect pop grooves with pummeling psychedelic instrumentals, the album draws inspiration from artists like Stevie Wonder, Radiohead, and Tame Impala. This interview with frontman Bryan Stage delves into the album’s creation, exploring the challenges, breakthroughs and influences that shaped this ambitious project. From songwriting and recording techniques to the album’s overarching themes, Stage offers a glimpse into the world of My Satellite in this special On The Record.
Welcome to Unrecorded! For those who aren’t familiar with My Satellite, can you introduce yourself?
My name is Bryan Stage and I’m the founder and the lead singer of the Los Angeles indie band My Satellite.
Your new album Person has been eight years in the making, what were some of the biggest challenges and breakthroughs during that time?
Our biggest challenge at the time was just life. From jobs, to school, to a variety of personal issues, a lot of things came up that got in the way of working on this album. But we always came back to it and kept true to our vision. Our love of these songs helped us break through some really challenging writing and mixing issues. We were able to dissect songs that weren’t working, break them down to their essence then figure out the problem and fix it.. Previous versions of ourselves may have thrown up our hands and abandoned the song, or just released a lesser version of it, but since we were working in our own studio and had no deadline, we could spend the time to repair the problems. And what usually turned out to be the issue was the bass line. This was another revelation during this process: it’s all about the groove. If the groove wasn’t right, the song didn’t work. It’s kind of Music 101, but we had spent much of our careers worrying about melody and beat while bass was an afterthought. By refocusing our attention on the bass groove, we unlocked a new level in our writing and one that will stick with us the rest of our lives.
It blends pop grooves with psychedelic instrumentals. How did you strike a balance between accessibility and experimentalism?
Both Andy and I have an affinity for experimentation in music, but within reason. I feel that experimentation works best when it’s in the confines of pop music, or at least pays some deference to pop structure. Sgt. Pepper’s doesn’t work as well if it’s not within the confines of The Beatles’ songwriting. There is a finesse to experimentation for us and it has to serve the meaning of the song. It is easy for listener boredom to set in so the trick for us was to welcome every idea during writing, and then stepping away. We’d come back, make some mixing moves and step away again. We were never in a rush and that allowed the song to mature as we worked on it. Time is really the best editor. I don’t recommend that anyone spend as long as we did making this album, but it did have its advantages.
You referenced artists like Stevie Wonder, Radiohead, and Tame Impala as influences. Were there any specific albums or songs that have stayed with you as a source of inspiration?
We kicked off our journey for this album by dropping acid together one night and listening to Kid A and Currents. That was a very formative night for Person. It became clear in my head that we needed to make an album with the sensitivity and weirdness of Radiohead on the one hand, and the undeniable beats and bass lines of Tame Impala on the other. And with Stevie, Songs in the Key of Life is a major overarching influence. He does everything right. Incredible melodies, complicated chord structure, sexy beats. Very few artists define a groove like Stevie Wonder and that was ever present in our minds while we were putting this album together
Did the songwriting process involve any new instruments, effects, or recording techniques that were different from your previous work?
On previous albums I composed mostly with soft-synths from Arturia or other various synth plugins I have accumulated over the years. This time we committed to avoiding MIDI as much as possible so we used a lot more outboard gear like Nord Electro, Juno DS and TimbreWolf synths, and fully acoustic drums. This is also the first album of ours that we mixed ourselves, and while that made us work a bit slower, it helped us dial in each song to exactly where we wanted it.
What are the recurring motifs or symbols across the album that tie the songs together?
The complexity of relationships and all the ways they go right and wrong is the overarching theme of Person, but specifically it tells the story of one ill-fated romantic relationship. A lustful first meeting leads to a growing love which eventually falls apart and at the end we are left the same yet profoundly altered.
Were the lyrics based on personal experiences or did you take a more abstract approach?
My lyrics tend to be an amalgamation of reality and abstract. I typically take a particular mood or emotion from a situation I may have experienced and then expand upon it into abstract or fictional places. I can say that most things which I talk about in Person are based at least in part on something I’ve thought or experienced
Has your time in the Los Angeles music scene influenced your sound or approach to making music?
We’ve never been too deeply associated within any particular music scene here so, though over the years it’s definitely had an impact, it’s not something we’ve measured ourselves by or tried to emulate. Los Angeles itself has more sway on us. It is a beautifully tragic city and I think that the music we write fits nicely in a place filled with broken dreams and hazy memories.
After such a long journey with Person, what do you hope listeners take away from this album?
Listening to an hour of intentional art can be such a moving experience and our motivation for this album was to be in the pantheon with Sgt. Pepper’s, Dark Side of the Moon, Deloused in the Comatorium, and OK Computer. We hope that you come away from Person feeling what those albums gave us when we first heard them.
What’s next? Do you already have ideas brewing for future projects?
Right now we’re really focused on promoting the album, finishing new merch and bringing it all to a stage near you.
You can listen to lead single ‘Minotaur’ in our Indie Rockers playlist.
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