Pressure busts pipes, but sometimes, it makes you turn in a complete finished studio album in less than 14 days. Such was the case for The Like. The all-girl rock group had the chance to work with Mark Ronson under a strict deadline and jumped at the opportunity. YRB sat down with the band to talk about working with the super producer, keeping it funky and why other rock groups have been doing it all wrong.
YRB: Tell us about the album.
Z Berg: We did the whole thing live and it took two weeks to record and mix the entire thing. We recorded six days with Mark Ronson and three days with the Dap Kings. We finished the record and it took a couple of days of overdubbing.
YRB: This was a new process for you. What made it so easy?
Z Berg: What made it easy is that it was not an option. It’s all the time we had. It’s all the time Mark had. We only had six days with Mark so it's either you make a record or you don’t. If those are your options, you’re going to fucking do it. You’re going to step up. I’m really thankful that we were so limited in that way because if we had time I don’t think that it would be the record that it is.
Annie Monroe: We had to do it. There’s something so magical about it because it could’ve not happened so easily. We had lost our bass player right before we went in the studio.
Z Berg: There are a million things that could’ve gone wrong to make it not happen but it was like capturing lightning in a bottle. You just have to get the magic done and get out.
Annie Monroe: It was very exciting.
YRB: Did all the extra pressure help?
Annie Monroe Totally.
Z Berg: I realized that I respond very well to pressure. I’ll be rather unpleasant and I'll probably drink a lot but I'll get it done.
Annie Monroe:There will be lots of crying in the bathroom on my end. There was a lot of crying in the bathroom for this record. (Laughs)
YRB: What’s your songwriting process like?
Z Berg: The process starts with me getting up in the middle of the night and leaving them in bed to go in the hallway into the elevator and shut the door so that I can record something. I’m so terrified of anyone hearing me work on anything.
Alex Greenwald, who co-produced the record, has to write in front of people I’ve been been friends for 10 years so I've had to put with that for a long time. Besides it being really annoying, it’s amazing cause he can go anywhere and get stuff done. For me to write I need to be in a vault.
It usually starts with a melody or lyric that drags me out of bed. Sometimes songs are done in half-hour and sometimes in a few months. But it’s the way that I process the world and everything that happens and the only way I know how to deal with it and remember is by writing because my memory is terrible.
YRB: How would you describe the sound of this record?
Z Berg: Sounds like us.
Annie Monroe:The Beatles were desperately trying to copy American rock 'n roll but failed miserably because it didn't sound anything like it. In a similar way, we took inspiration for all these things but it doesn’t mean that it sounds like it. The idea is like a female fronted beat-band like The Animals. Like if the Supremes fronted the Animlas, That’s what we were going for.
Z Berg: There’s also trying to bridge the gap between the Slits and the Raincoats and the punky girl bands and of the past. I listened to the record the other day and I was thinking it of just sounding pretty '60s, but it just sounds insane and bizarre.
Annie Monroe: We’re using older equipment but Mark has a way of getting that drum sound.
Z Berg: It sounds modern but it has a drum machine quality because its so compressed and funny sounding. I was listening to the record the other day, like I do so often, to remind myself who I am and what i’m doing here, and I enjoy the fact that even though there are so many influences that we were trying to sound like it’s pretty interesting idiosyncratic music and the lyrics are very weird for this kind of genre. The bass arrangements and the organ parts are incredibly melodic.
YRB: You didn’t want that Mark Ronson Motown sound?
Annie Monroe: Of course we did.
Z Berg: We grew up loving Motown and as the backbone of this record that was an important thing but while also sounding modern and idiosyncratic like us. We responded to Mark because he understands that kind of music
Annie Monroe: And having the Dap Kings involved, it couldn't be any closer to Motown.
YRB: Are you going to keep recording live?
Z Berg: Definitely. After recording that way, I can’t believe there is any other way that is acceptable.
Annie Monroe: It couldn't have been more faun despite the fact that it was scary and intense. It was very rewarding because you know what you just did and being in the studio with young people not like before where we working with people from a different generation.
Z Berg: We’re children and no one understands children besides children. Parents just don't understand. (Laughs) I just don’t understand being a rock band and not recording live because now when I look back at recording another way it’s not fun. It’s not true. There’s no groove; theres no magic.
Tennessee Thomas: That's why going to live shows are such special experience because it magical and if you can capture that as closely as possible on your album… You think that would be the goal but it isn’t.
YRB: Why is that? Is technology to blame?
Tennessee Thomas: If you listen to pop music, there’s no one playing instruments at all anymore. It’s a bunch of computers.
YRB: You refer to yourselves as The Supremes in stereo.
Z Berg: The original Supremes are mono but they did a remix of the record where it’s super stereo and everything is super hard-panned. When heard it I was like, “Fuck, that sounds like our record!” It’s so epic because our record is so hard panned and so intense sounding. The guitars on one side and keys on the other. I feel like i’m getting punched on both sides of the head.
YRB: Anything you want to add?
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