This record is forever. After listending to it you'll realise that it doesn't matter that Asa Irons plays in Witch with J Mascis as well as the acclaimed folk outfit Feathers. This record needs no associations and it's songs are so timeless that they feel as if they've been passed around for generations and hardly need any recording medium at all. This is the first release from Asa Irons and Swaan Miller but it sounds like they've lived within each others voices for a million years. Asa's deep-breath-voice lays down a mossy hill for Swaan's beautiful voice to tread upon. His guitar work is simply intricate and his fingerpicking perfectly suits the way their voices combine to become one. This record always has been and always will be. This record is forever.
“After spending years in New Hampshire and often Nova Scotia, I began writing songs about my Northeastern window through which I view the world. Most of the pieces represent strong fundamentals in my life such as living without comfort resources like electricity and running water, the building trends of carpentry and masonry with which I make my living, and the slow paced rural life in which I grew up. The land of Northeastern North America is very important to me and compelled me to describe it in the form of music. Many people in my life were musicians - my father, cousins, friends - so I had plenty of good examples to pull from and think about. My style of song writing, I believe, comes from the influence of these loved ones combined with certain deep-rooted melodies or images from books that have stuck with me. (Such as sound tracks of old cinema and authors like Tolstoy and Carolyn Chute.)
My older sister's art work has also had a tremendous effect on the way I see the world. Many of her primary subjects revolve around various representations of our own home place and the people who inhabited this and the other woods houses in which we grew up. One of the people connected to me through music and lifestyle is Swann Miller. She is the daughter of a man who was a good friend of my father's. Through the '70's our fathers built houses together around N.H. and also played a lot of music. So, I have known Swann my whole life and perhaps it was inevitable that we made music together. When I reached her house in the winter of 2003, I had just had my notebook of songs stolen along with other things. I decided to try to catalogue all I could remember by practicing them. Swann practiced with me. On a whim, her boyfriend - who works as a sound engineer - recorded the two of us singing in an abandoned yellow women's bathroom in the basement of the building where they lived. It all took about an hour and a half including set up of mics, recording, and breaking down. I borrowed a twenty year old Guild guitar from a friend of a friend which was very similar to my father's guitar that I grew up with. I am so happy to have had the opportunity to help capture Swann's beautiful voice and continue the music of our families.
The album is a quick glimpse of a world view from Southern New Hampshire through the voices of two old friends whose fathers were friends before them.” Asa Irons |