Will Yip—a multi-genre music producer, engineer, songwriter, and musician—is at least partially responsible for shaping the sound of American indie rock as we know it. He has worked on at least half the records released by the Boston-based indie label Run For Cover, including Tigers Jaw’s 2014 LP Charmer.
Now, after years of working closely with the label, he’s set up his own. It’s called Memory Music and he’ll be using it to release acoustic albums, side projects and other music from artists in the Run For Cover community. The idea behind it is to create a unique vibe, like what Sun and Motown did in the 50s and 60s, where the classic records all shared the common thread of being recorded in the same rooms. His first release is an acoustic Tigers Jaw session he recorded live in his studio (Studio 4). The show took place in September 2013 to commemorate Yip buying into Studio 4 Recording and becoming a co-owner alongside his longtime friend and mentor Phil Nicolo. We’re premiering “I Saw Water” from the session above, which originally appears on Tigers Jaw’s third and eponymous album from 2008 a.k.a. “the one with the pizza.”
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As the legacy of MTV Unplugged will attest, live acoustic sessions can go either way—they either bring out the best of an artist and make you appreciate their songwriting in whole new ways (see: Dashboard Confessional, or the more undisputed genius of Nirvana), or they go the slightly weirder way of Korn, in which case no amount of sentimental attachment will override the fact that it sounds like a box of pots and pans falling down a spiral staircase made of unsustainable novelty. Luckily, Tigers Jaw fall into the former category. They are, without gushing too obscenely, one of the best groups to emerge this side of the millennium even if one of their primarily songwriters did leave the band to make trap music about flexing in the club. Now the only two original members remaining, Ben Walsh, and Brianna Collins’ vocals go together like Miley Cyrus and nipple tape. In this case, stripping back the songs to the bare minimum only highlights just how strong their original framework is.
Have a listen of “I Saw Water” below and read what Will Yip and Ben of Tigers Jaw had to say about the project:
Will Yip: “The original idea for this “boutique” label started years ago, even before these acoustic shows happened. I was always inspired by original rhythm and blues and early rock n’ roll record label culture like Chess Records, Sun Records, Motown Records, etc. I loved how a label like Sun was also a studio and the records were originally done in house. It was so cool that, although their artists were very eclectic and special in their own way, all the records they were outputting had a particular vibe – not one that you can objectively pick out, but a creative vibe that glued all the records together. As if you could hear the room itself and every record captured how the artist interacted with that room in their own unique way. So I always wanted to create an “in-house” label where all the projects I put out are projects I believe in enough not only to release, but also produce in our room. That’s why the Tigers Jaw live session was the perfect first release, because not only do I consider them family and one of my favorite bands, but a live acoustic record like that makes you feel like you’re in the room with them.”
Ben Walsh: “For us, it was almost like reducing the song back to its original form. Taking a full band song and simplifying it to just vocals and a single guitar really puts the focus on the interplay between our vocals. Playing acoustic sets taps into a completely different presentation of the songs. It brings all the subtle nuances of the lyrics, vocal performances, and guitar work right up front, and while that can be a very vulnerable thing. It’s been a really fun challenge to reconfigure and perform these songs acoustically using a sort of “less is more” philosophy. The performance on the record is very raw and essentially untouched, which I am very proud of.”
Live in Studio 4 will be released on 6.30 via Memory Music.
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