In Conversation with
June 2006
A little background:
Vlor is a new project from Remora main man
Brian John Mitchell.
I first became aware of Brian’s work originally through
the release of his last Remora album ‘Enamored’
(released through silbermedia.com) after speaking
to Brian through my friend, Jen’s Yahoo group
‘Stratosphere Group shortly before this and that
interview followed straight through after that.
After that, I kept it contact with Brian over future
releases and interviewed Tara Van Flower
shortly after, but fast forward to only a few
weeks ago and I discover that Brian was releasing
a brand new project ‘Vlor’ which after reading
about it, I actually discovered was a old project Brian
was starting up following on from what Brian
said himself ‘While working on archiving out of print
releases for Silber, Mitchell realized what he loved
and missed about Vlor was the excitement and freedom
of music made with friends’.
This project was then developed with Brian sending
over almost 90 minutes of intial guitar Riffs and
arpeggios and sent them to six friends for Completion
of songs including Jon DeRosa (Aarkica),
Mike VanPortFleet (Lycia), Nathan Amundson (Rivulets)
, Jesse Edwards (Red Morning Chorus), Paolo
Messere (6pm) and long time Setting Sun favourite
Jessica Bailiff all adding all kinds of things from reverbed
guitarwork to serilist guitar to drums, percussion, Indian
instruments which frequently gives the album a out
of world flavour which certainly hints at Post Rock
but each different collerbator adds something which
in many cases takes the project beyond the realms of
just Post Rock.
for more information – please contact
Brian on silberspy@silbermedia.com
or visit the silber records website
Cheers for everything, Brian
AEN
Setting Sun:
How are tricks and what’s happening at the moment?
Vlor:
As far as Vlor goes, I think pretty well. The street date for the
new disc is August 2 & the promos only just went out, so I
haven’t heard too much back yet. But everyone involved with it
seems to think it’s successful. My girlfriend thinks it’s the best
record I’ve made.
Setting Sun:
Next can you fill is in on the goss about Vlor – Where all this started
from etc, etc?
Vlor:
Well, basically Vlor started when I was in high school. It was originally
supposed to be a pretty straight up alt-rock band, but there were problems
with getting a group of people to work together. This was in 1992 & I
owned a guitar (I think it had a broken string & I didn’t own a pick), but I
didn’t play guitar at all – I was just a singer & lyricist. So the band ended
up being me & Russell Halasz & he played acoustic guitar & on occasion
I’d play a couple bass notes on a child’s acoustic guitar that he had & we
did some Bauhaus covers & stuff like that & had a couple of original
songs that were kind of witty. But in January 1994 I ended up leaving
town for a year & a half & so it seemed like that would be the end of
the story.
In 1996 I moved back to Raleigh & I’d started to play guitar &
Russell & I started doing some stuff again.
So one night in 1997 we went to the racquetball court in the apartment
complex Russell lived in & recorded the material that would be released
as Lavished using a little handheld cassette recorder.
I had already started doing my Remora solo project & was in a
Bliss-pop band called burMonter, so I wasn’t quite as dedicated as
I could’ve been, so it was about six months later that we recorded some
more material on my 4-track that turned into Luxate. Then there was
one last recording session tentatively titled Sacred Places in the City, which
I’ll probably release as a free MP3 thing in a couple months.
In 2005 I was putting all these out of print Silber releases up on
Archive.org & I realized I wanted to start Vlor back up. So I got in touch
with about a dozen or so people I thought might be interested in
collaborating with me on it & I sent them 90 minutes of riffs & guitar
Arpeggios. In the end six people had the time & dedication to work with
me on it. Then I sat on it about six months before mixing all the parts
together trying to figure out the artwork & such.
Setting Sun:
I know from speaking to Brian about Remora – that this project is very
different from Remora and it also involved working with a lot of other
people – how does it compare to Remora in that aspect as from listening
to it – possibly from the thing it has a lot of different artists in it – it does
sound very, very different.
Vlor:
See, it’s funny. Because I write 90% of my material on an acoustic
guitar the initial versions of Remora tracks are somewhat identical to the
initial versions of Vlor songs. So I end up mainly hearing the song roots
when I listen to the stuff. But to me the biggest difference is that people
add stuff that I would just never think of or don’t have the ability to. I
wouldn’t add percussion in general because I’ve never figured out a way to
record drums that sounds good to me. I think the whole thing with working
with other people is getting them to do things I can’t do or wouldn’t do
Anyway. That’s the great thing about working with other people, you get
surprises. I was really surprised by pretty much all of the tracks I got back.
Paolo Messere sent me back my little pieces almost turned into rock songs
& I liked that a lot; but I never would’ve said to him, “Make these
Rock.” I never would’ve asked Jessica Bailiff to write lyrics & sing on
a song, but the results were great. I was kind of shocked with Mike
VanPortfleet’s contribution because I know he’s been doing more
acoustic guitar oriented stuff in his spare time & that seems to me
the obvious thing to add instead of a guitar that sounds like an angel choir.
That’s the whole thing with working with other musicians, they add the
things that are obvious to them instead of obvious to you.
Setting Sun:
I also notice from reading up on Vlor – the original material was
certainly a good deal rougher – recorded on a Sony Vas Recorder –
What equipment did you use in the recording of this new album
as although it is just as cool – it is certainly a lot different?
Vlor:
For my parts on a fire is meant for burning I recorded either on
to a 4-track cassette or directly into the computer using Sound
Forge. I’m not sure exactly what other folks used. Jessica Bailiff,
Jesse Edwards, & Nathan Amundson all recorded at Jesse’s studio
& I think that they used Cubase. I think Jon DeRosa used
ProTools. Mike VanPortfleet I believe used Acid. I really have
No idea what Paolo used. Then I mixed things in Acid & mastered
with Sound Forge. I don’t think the equipment is the only thing that
makes the early stuff rougher. It’s more raw because everything was
improvised & written at the moment. I think the most times we
would play a song when recording it would be three takes with
both of us playing together. I think I’m really lucky that this record
doesn’t sound like each part of each track was recorded 500 or
more miles apart & does still have a spur of the moment feel.
Setting Sun:
Probably my favourite track off the new album is ‘days like
smoke’ – what is the inspiration behind that track out of interest?
Vlor:
Well, the name is somewhat arbitrary in that it came after the
song was completely finished. There’s just a little guitar arpeggio
I wrote & then Mike VanPortfleet added the atmospheric guitars &
that changed its sound dramatically.
Setting Sun:
Is Vlor something you could see being created in a live
environment?
Vlor:
Unquestionably. In my head I kind of have a plan that the next
Vlor record will be pretty much the same, but have a few more people
collaborating. The album after that would have all the collaborators
right some initial tracks & make it less of my thing & more of a
real band. & then for the fourth record I’d rent out a house
somewhere & set up a little studio & we’d all be there & write the
record together.
But who knows if things will work that way. As far as playing the
songs live, there’s a band Remora plays with kind of a lot called
Plumerai & I’ll have the drummer & guitarist join me for a
Couple Vlor songs.
Setting Sun:
What is the inspiration behind Vlor as a name also?
Vlor:
When I was in high school I went through this period where I
wore velour shirts all the time & so that was going to be the
name, but there was this band called Velour Deluxe that out a
CD – so it changed to Vlor (rhymes with “floor”).
Setting Sun:
Is it a project you could see happening again in the future?
Without a doubt. Just a matter of finding the time for me to
write my parts & then after that it’ll be ready in about a year.
Setting Sun:
Lastly, a daft little question to finish off with…. If you were not
rock and roll stars, what would be your dream job (s)?
Vlor:
I think I’d like to be an abstract painter or a comic book writer. I
do both of those things anyway, but I don’t make money doing it.