If you’ve been paying the least bit of attention to Chicago’s dense and diverse music scene over the past few months, then My Gold Mask need no introduction. The dark, art-rock duo consisting of vocalist and percussionist Gretta Rochelle and guitarist Jack Armondo have taken the windy city by storm.

In early January, My Gold Mask released a short but powerful collection of songs titled A Thousand Voices. The EP featured the track, “Violet Eyes,” which has seemingly put the band on the map with its pulsating drums and angular, church organ-like guitar work. Not to mention an incendiary vocal hook from Rochelle full of gothic and violent imagery.

Then there’s “All Up In The Air,” which offers an uncanny tribal-swagger before a pure pop vocal delivery and frantic, almost-synthesized guitar lines. “Fingerprints” is a moody, atmospheric slow-burner that unwinds into a bombastic drum climax. Armondo even conjures up his inner Macuilxochitl, the Aztec god of music and dance, for the voodoo-esque introduction to “Circle Mass,” before Rochelle’s anxious wails take grasp.

If there is one criticism of A Thousand Voices, it’s that it’s too short. A confident, focused and musically magnificent EP was one of the thousand reasons My Gold Mask ended up on our list of 10 Chicago Bands To Watch In 2010. Recently, I had a chance to sit down with Gretta and Jack to discuss many topics – most of which focused on their latest effort.

In part one of this interview, we’ll discuss A Thousand Voices’ writing, production, and lyrics. Part two, which will be posted next week, will deal with a number of other topics including remixes, the 1980′s, their music video for “Violet Eyes” and personal heroes. But for now, sit back, relax and read on for an in-depth look at My Gold Mask’s A Thousand Voices.

LLP: On A Thousand Voices one big difference I noticed between it and your self-titled debut is that it seems like the guitars and the vocals were evened up on the mix. Was this intentional?

Jack: I think that has more to do with the pedals that I’m using – the reverbs and stuff. I think the reason why it sounds like that or part of the reason it sounds like that is because since the first record I introduced more layers of effects on to my guitar. I got into the idea of making my guitar sound like it’s not a guitar, like on “Violet Eyes” especially. That was what I was trying to do. It was a fun thing for me. I don’t play keyboards, I mean I conceivably could, but I enjoy playing guitar as a physical instrument. So, I think maybe that’s why the vocals and guitar sound more even is that the guitar is a lot more round, and it’s not as sharp and spiky.

Gretta: The vocals have a lot of reverb, and so do the drums. So, everything gets filled out super big.

Jack: We’ve been very big on filling it out with reverb. So, we were intentionally mixing things to sort of blend more. Where as there is probably a little more seperation on the first record.

LLP: Speaking of reverb, how much did you use the studio as an instrument on A Thousand Voices?

Jack: We do a little bit of everything. Sometimes it’s microphones that are placed far away.

Gretta: Room mics have a nice natural reverb.

Jack: Then sometimes when we’re in the mixing, we’re like put more, and we’ll use effects more at that point. It just depends on…

Gretta: Where the song is going at the time we’re mixing it.

Jack: Exactly. When we are recording a record versus live, there is a little bit of a difference, and we’re okay with that. I like it personally, and I think [Gretta] does too. Like when you watch a band live, and they’re a little bit different than on record.

Gretta: Oh yeah. Because then you’re pulling away something different from both. When we’re writing a song and we record something, we’re making sure something isn’t going to be missed if we play it live.

Jack: The song doesn’t leave stage one until we get it to a point by ourselves in a room like that, and we’re happy with it how it sounds. If we decide in the studio to add more effects or an overdub or something like that, it’s fine because we know when we play it stripped down, it still sounds done. It still sounds full. That’s what we do. That’s how we decide what’s going to added on a record. The song has to sound done one way or the other. When we’re live, it’s a different experience. You’re standing in a room, and people are watching you. There’s an energy in that room that you can’t really replicate on a record anyway. Just being in a big room just fills things out. On record, it’s more like how do you get the record to be as engaging as the live sound because we’ve always have had fun playing live and have had a pretty good response live.

LLP: Going back to the writing process for the songs on the new EP, I know you did an interview with the Chicagoist. They asked you how you write your songs, and you said it was fifty-fifty. But it seems like these songs on A Thousand Voices, even though they have deliberate chorus and a verse, it’s just not obvious. It’s very organic how everything blends together and is a journey from beginning to end. So, how do the songs really come about?

Gretta: It’s not always like this, but a lot of the times [Jack] comes up with a riff. He’ll play it, and I’ll tell him to loop that. Then I’ll try to find a vocal melody.

Jack: A song can start many different ways, and we don’t have a formula for how we write. That said, occasionally certain ways for writing happen more than others. A lot of times I’ll come up with a bunch of riffs just from playing around. And [Gretta] becomes this filter on the riffs where I’ll be playing something and it has to inspire her. She’s got to feel something from it. If she’s inspired, she’ll start singing to it with a melody.

Gretta: So, out of that handful of riffs and melodies, we choose our favorites. The ones that seem to us that will go through that journey. Then we take that into the practice space and develop it a little bit further. Then naturally the next part will come out.

Jack: Sometimes it gets to the stage like okay now what do we pull out of this. We’ll write a lot of stuff, and it gets to the point like now what can we remove and still have a song. When we’re playing live, there aren’t a lot of instruments. It’s the same way with song writing. Sometimes it’s what you leave out and not what you’re putting in.

Gretta: Putting in drums too is also challenging because at that point I have to make sure I can play the drum part and sing.

Jack: Which you always get eventually.

Gretta: I always get it eventually.

Jack: That’s at the point where it’s looping things over and over until it becomes second nature. As far as the fifty-fifty thing goes, it really truly is. Sometimes when I’m writing a riff, she will suggest at that point going to a different note or playing it in a different order or something. So, even at that point it’s very fifty-fifty. Likewise with her vocal melodies, sometimes I’ll say that’s a great vocal melody, but it’d be cool if you went this direction with it. And I’ll give her a suggestion. Sometimes she’ll write all the lyrics and other times I’ll write the lyrics with her. With the beat, sometimes she’s doing it completely alone, and sometimes I’ll give suggestions with what to do with the beat. So, she’s suggesting to me and I’m suggesting to her. I think that that is what we mean when we say it’s very fifty-fifty.

Gretta: We tamper with each others’ ideas.

Jack: Some bands are like, “Well you play your part and I’ll play my part. And don’t tell me how to play my part.” I mean we’re not like that. It’s very collaborative. We have a hand in every part of it. It has to satisfy both of us. In order for us to be happy with it, or for it to be a piece of art that we both appreciate.

LLP: This is an extension of that question, do you ever get pigeonholed while playing? Do you ever get tired and think this is as far as we can go with just drums and guitar?

Jack: I sure hope not!

Gretta: I think it’s interesting because the reason we started this project is that the drums weren’t an instrument that I had played before. That’s what is fun about it.

Jack: This is still new for us. We just started, really.

Gretta: The different things that I can learn to do on the drums on a daily basis is so challenging. It helps the creativity.

Jack: That’s what has been great about this whole thing. I’ve never played a nylon string guitar as an electric. Using a nylon strong guitar, playing it through the effects, that’s another thing that goes back to that softness of the record. The nylon strong can get some different sounds. We’re giving you these quote-unquote secrets, but they’re not really secrets. The secrets to our sound is that we limit ourselves in a way with what we have to work with, and we started playing things that we never played before. So, it spurs creativity because when you put a new instrument in your hand, a whole new world opens up to you.

There’s no rule that it has to be just guitar and drums. The rule has to be – if there is one – that we’re pushing ourselves. On record we play some different instruments. Not a whole lot, but they’re there. There’s some organ on some parts, there’s even a xylophone, there’s a lot of different type of percussion instruments, and I even play a mandolin on [A Thousand Voices' track] “Circle Of Mass” as an overdub. We’re not against all of that. Right now, when it comes to playing live and being on stage, we enjoy it just being the two of us. But who knows? Maybe one day, it’ll be the two of us, and there will be someone else on stage playing something else. We don’t have a structure that we’re adhering to. Really, it’s about continuing to grow and experiment.

We’ve done a lot with just a guitar and some drums. Sometimes, even just picking up another guitar or using another pedal will cause you to play in a different way or do something different. Actually, [Gretta’s] going to add a cymbal soon. If you listen to our records, there’s not a whole lot of cymbals. There is very little cymbal. Only “Violet Eyes” and “Fingerprints” have a cymbal – they are only two songs that we’ve ever recorded that have cymbals.

LLP: There aren’t a lot of cymbals, and that gives some of the songs sort of a tribal quality. So, that wasn’t intentional?

Gretta: Well, it was primitive anyway because I’ve never played drums. So, it does have a primitive feel to it.

Jack: It is a tribal thing that [Gretta] does with the toms and all that sort of thing. But to answer if it was intentional or not, it is and it isn’t. Because, as you were saying the music was organic, you have to let it be organic. We don’t have a strict plan before we start doing everything. You start playing the instruments, and you start hearing the sounds. They inspire you to play in a certain way. Yes, it’s intentional after the fact. But you might not have gotten there from some grand plan in the beginning.

LLP: Speaking of “Violet Eyes,” I’ve never met a single person who didn’t love that song. Did you realize how awesome of a hook you had when you wrote it?

Gretta: When you write certain songs, there are ones that stick out that you continually sing at home and say, “God, that song is still in my head!” Then we’ll think, yeah, it was actually a pretty hooky song.

Jack: It was stuck in our own heads is what she’s saying.

Gretta: I honestly never thought that it would actually be that liked.

Jack: Or be this well received. I mean you hope things are well received, of course. We want people to listen to our music, but you can’t think too much about that stuff before hand. You have to just let the song grow. Otherwise, you’ll start second guessing things in a weird way. Not that we don’t appreciate people’s opinions, but we don’t like to take into consideration people’s points of view. I try to get all that stuff out of my head including even music influence. I try to create as much as possible inside a vacuum. Obviously I listen to music and I love music. But when we’re playing and writing, I try to clear my mind of that stuff as much as possible.

LLP: Keeping with “Violet Eyes,” that song has some pretty violent imagery in the lyrics. Where did that come from?

Gretta: I don’t know. I guess I’m kind of noir-minded. I mean I’ve written poetry for a long, long time. My poetry has always been kind of sappy and dark.

Jack: Not really sappy.

Gretta: No, not sappy I guess. Whenever I write something, I like to push myself into…like if I’m writing a lyric or something there’s no talking, and I turn off the lights. Just because I try to get in my head.

Jack: Sometimes she’ll write things and I’ll be like, “Whoa.”

Gretta: Like where did it come from? I don’t know where it comes from honestly. I’m kind of a dark person.

Jack: But she’s not though. That’s what is funny. Gretta’s a contradiction. She’s bubbly on one hand, but then sometimes you’ll read something she writes and be like, “Wow.”

LLP: How was working with Balthazar de Ley from La Scala as producer on A Thousand Voices?

Jack: We should clarify. We did co-produce it. He engineered it and definitely has a hand in helping us shape the sound, but more accurately, we co-produced it. Because we were also in charge of how it sounds. We also mixed it together with him. Gretta, Balthy and I sat there and we all mixed it together.

Gretta: But he’s awesome to work with. He’s a friend of ours, and it’s always comfortable to work with him. He’s got his own little place in his house that we set up shop in and do vocals and overdubs and stuff.

Jack: We have a long relationship with him, and the thing that’s cool about working with Balthazar is that we know how to communicate with him. It’s easy for us to express our ideas to him. He understands our funny way of talking. Sometimes when you’re working with engineers, it’s about communication. It can be frustrating if you’re working with someone, and you’re not getting the sound that you’re looking for.

Gretta: It’s like if you take your car to the mechanic and say it sounds like “Waaa Waaa Waaa,” and they’re like, “Oh, yeah.”

Jack: We can use our very un-technical terms.

Gretta: And he can weed through them.

Jack: That’s a communication thing, and he’s a friend. So when you have that kind of working relationship, it’s way more pleasureable. Sometimes there are some long hours recording, and you don’t want to be stuck with someone…

Gretta: He’s pretty patient.

Jack: He puts up with our shit.

Gretta: He puts up with our shit. (laughter)
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Be sure to catch part two of this interview next week! And check out My Gold Mask at the Empty Bottle on Monday, March 15. The show begins at 9:00 p.m., is 21+ and FREE!!!
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