In Conversation: Crystal Eyes
In Conversation:
Crystal Eyes
By: Shaun Lee
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Crystal Eyes are a Calgary based dream-pop group with a sound heavily rooted in shoegaze, post-punk and psychedelia. They recently signed to Madrid’s Bobo Integral label for the release of their second full-length LP, The Sweetness Restored. On a warm August night we sat down in my backyard overlooking the city to talk about the album, with the full moon rising above and mischievous dogs and cats providing an occasional distraction from our topic of conversation.
Shaun: Can you explain for us the concept behind the album title? Is it taken from the Leonard Cohen song “Leaving The Table?”
Erin: It is, yeah, it’s off his last record. When we recorded the album in Montreal…most of it was all written before we were there, but there were still some Montreal vibes and last minute things.
I remember when we were there we would just, like, do a big wander down St. Laurent and like, I dunno, sort of cheesy stuff. Like, we saw [Leonard Cohen’s] house and the little park for him there, and like, all of the saint names, like that opening line on “Wishes,” “Tonight I’ll be a saint”, that just sort of came from all of the street names of saints and little things like that.
Shaun: So, is there a holy aspect to the record?
Erin: I mean, there are religious themes on it for sure.
Jolene: Yeah, like, “No Heaven” is pretty choral and heavenly sounding. But that was almost, like, last minute. Well, not last minute, but we had played that song live before recording it and it didn’t sound like that when we played it.
Erin: Yeah, we took it to church for sure.
Jordan: It was evolving that way. And then suddenly it was like, let’s get some church organ going…
Joleen: And the choir.
Shaun: You didn’t bring the choir out to Montreal, did you?
Erin: No, I wish. So, certain little bits were recorded back in Calgary after the fact. But, the religious thing, I call myself a ‘recovering Catholic’ because I grew up going to church every week and I was an altar girl and so I was very indoctrinated until about grade 8, like, I’d reached the age of reason where I started questioning.
Shaun: What was the tipping point for you?
Erin: I just thought that there was a lot of hypocrisy and just, like, I don’t know. I remember writing an essay where I referred to God as a woman, in grade 8, and I got in a lot of trouble. They called my parents and told them, “Erin has a really bad attitude”.
Shaun: Well, there definitely is some divine femenine energy in your work in general.
Erin: Oh, well, thank you.
Yeah, well, the religious thing, it doesn’t really leave you. I never intend to do it consciously, but when I look at it after I’m like ‘Holy shit, there are all these bible references in here”.
Shaun: Yeah well, that kind of upbringing will definitely inform your world view..
Jolene: I was in catholic school until I graduated high school, so all of my schooling, outside of post secondary. I went to church every week. Also, I went to Polish nun camp with Marie [Sulkowski, a lifelong friend and fellow local musician]. So Yeah, like you said, it very much colours your worldview forever.
Shaun: Talking about the actual phrase, “The sweetness restored”, does that conjure a specific mentality for you? Is it a mission statement for you?
Erin: I don’t know. Something about it really resonated with me…
I mean, I think it’s like, ‘second chances’ right? I think the album is a lot about that. Trying to bring back what was lost.
Jordan: And I don’t remember when you [Erin] started playing around with that as a concept or theme, but I remember thinking we were about half way through the pandemic and feeling like there was something lost for everyone. There was something going on, right, where everyone felt like they wanted to be on the other side of it. It seemed like a pretty potent time for writing music for us as a group. These things kind of come up and down and go in waves and all of a sudden there was this time where we managed to get together a lot and write a lot of music.
Erin: It’s true that this is a pre-covid record. Like, it was conceived, written and recorded before covid. It was kind of a very different time psychologically.
And to be honest, I think I already had that phrase in my head for a long time. So almost nothing about the record was influenced by covid, other than how long it took to put it out (laughs).
Jordan: I think that, as a matter of fact, honestly the record is a collection of songs that, although there were quite a few written at a time, were songs that we wanted to experiment with musically at this point, because the band has gone through different stages of different types of music. A lot of it, I feel like, has to do with who are the people we are playing with at this moment in time, right? Like, if you were to listen to some other Crystal Eyes stuff, how much was that influenced by the people who were in the band at that time? This is an album of this specific group of people, right?
Erin: Yeah, it’s true.
Jolene: And I would say the collection of instruments that were there influenced it too. Like, we definitely had organ sounds when we were playing some of those songs live, but having access to, was it a B3?
Erin: It was a Hammond C3
Shaun: You had a Leslie [a type of rotating speaker] on that right?
Jolene: Yeah. Monty [Munroe, session bassist] helped set it up… it was a lot of work.
Erin: Monty called Jace [Lasek of the Besnard Lakes], and Jace was like, out on a canoe or something and had to explain to Monty from the canoe how to set up the Leslie speakers.
Jolene: Yeah, and even just like, discovering the Theravox [synth]. I had never seen one of those in my life. I saw it, I thought, “I want to find a way to work this into a song…”
Erin: It sort of became a defining instrument on the record by accident.
Jolene: Erin started playing piano. Did you have that written?
Erin: No, not at all. I just started playing this shitty ragtime piano thing randomly..
Jolene: And then I started playing the Theravox on top of it
Erin: and it became kind of like a two-part centrefold…(the song is the two part album cut “I Still Believe in Love”).
Shaun: So, the album, to my ears, has a very cohesive sound from start to finish. Did you have a sonic blueprint for production wise when you were going into it?
Erin: We definitely did a lot of pre-production work. I had a lot of meetings with Andrew Woods, who produced it. We talked a lot and he listened to everything before. I think it was more just the fact that we just did it in a very condensed period of time too and it’s all kind of the same group of people and the same producer on the same console.
Shaun: Was that live off the floor as well?
Erin: No, well, I mean, all of the bed tracks were. I can’t remember actually….
(Trails off as Walter, the dog we’re hanging with, is running off with Pumpkin the cat.)
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Shaun: “Walter…Sorry about that…Walter get back here now dude…”
Jolene: “Don’t lose Walter!”
Jordan: “He’s behind the hedge. There he is!”
Shaun: “What a ramblin’ man… Walter! Inside the fence. Come back here. Pumpkin, you too!”
Jordan: “Come here!”
Shaun: “Come and lay down. You’re being a bad boy. Come on, lay down here buddy”
Jolene: “Yes, good boy Walter”
Shaun: Did you have specific albums that you drew on for production aesthetic or anything you were trying to achieve as a watermark?
Erin: I mean, The Cure was definitely a band I was thinking about for sure. Also everything by the Beatles. You can definitely hear our musical heroes coming through.
Jordan: It depends on the song for me. I remember, you know, Monty was coming in and all of a sudden he’s coming a lot and playing on every song and were having conversations and it’s like, “yeah, I mean this song maybe is inspired a little bit by something from The Cure,” or there is a grungy song on there and so it’s like, “no, you know I want Weezer here.”
It was a real musical journey.
Erin: It’s a bit of a miracle that it sounds so cohesive actually.
Jordan: If you think it sounds cohesive, then I am impressed.
Erin: Yeah, Jordan is never always convinced that anything we do makes any sense together, but–
Shaun: Yeah, I think the whole thing stands as a thematic thing for sure.
Erin: Yeah, I don’t think I could explain how, because it was more like, a happy accident I guess, from the gods. The art gods.
Shaun: So how much of a role did your producer Andrew Woods play in sculpting the sound of the album?
Erin: A big role hey?
Jolene: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Erin: A really big role. Without Andrew, it would not have been the same record.
Shaun: What kind of contributions?
Jordan: Well, first of all, his energy was constantly inspiring. He would show up with this massive infectious energy. He’d be running around, bouncing off the walls, getting excited, bringing a higher level of energy than I do to anything. It was just infections, ok, and the positivity of it.
But then there were times too when he’s hearing these songs for the first time and he’s not just hanging around asking, “How do you feel about that?” He’s telling you what he feels about it. He’s saying, “You should do more of this and they should do more of that.”
Shaun: A true producer.
Erin: Oh, absolutely.
Jordan: Yeah, he’s like, running in while people are playing, like, “I hear this,” and “What about that?” You know? And all this with just, an incredible energy. And that is a huge piece of that recording. His overall energy.
Erin: Yep. Hire him. Hire him. He’s amazing.
Jordan: I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I’ve been on, oh, I don’t know, probably about 15 studio albums. I’ve never seen anything like that.
Shaun: It is a fantastically balanced record, as well, sonically. There is no muddiness in it.
Erin: Yeah, and that credit has to go to Mark(Lawson), who mixed it. Because he really is just so, yeah. The fact that it sounds like that is also a miracle.
Jordan: Yeah, I mean, that's the other one right? Like, it was kind of a “happy accident” or whatever, (Mark Lawson) ends up doing more than one song. Because originally what happened was, it was a bit of a timing thing. I think the expectation for Andrew was that he was going to mix the record, but then things were getting very busy for his personal life.
Erin: He was getting married too!
Jordan: There was that too. He had a lot going on. And then we were kind of saying, well, we’d love to get a single going. You know, like, we have to get at least one. And so he was like, let’s get Mark to do it. Mark’s got some free time, the next thing we know Mark’s doing the whole thing.
And honestly, so, Mark was never there during the recording process and we had never met him in person. We did it mostly through emails.
Erin: We used [social networking app] Slack to organise it.
Jordan: He’s like the conductor of the orchestra. RIght from the first few drafts he’s sending off mixes. I didn’t even realise that somebody could really just intuitively mix like that. It was just incredible.
Erin: He made it sound so good.
Shaun: It’s a very artistic mix. It’s so incredibly well-balanced.
Jordan: It’s just mind blowing to me. Having had some experience with situations of looking at tracks, and how much you sometimes have to, you know, be on the arm chair right there at the mixing desk, and you’re together. And that’s a great process too, but we couldn’t do that, of course. And I wondered how much we would be having to do that later on, you know, Skype or something. But these drafts were coming back and they were like, already beyond my imagination. That’s impressive.
Erin: Yeah. Hire him too. I think Sunglaciers ended up working with him too. Selci as well. It seems like he’s really down to work with people.
Jordan: And we were just really fortunate there. I mean, this guy has at least one Grammy on the shelf.
Erin: Being able to work with someone that talented! Like, he’s literally won a Grammy, and the fact that he’s down to work with us little indie bands is really neat.
Shaun: Yeah, well, there’s obviously love that he put into that mix.
Erin: It’s true.
Jordan: You know what else, I gotta say too, that it can never be underestimated ever again, is Kenny Murdoch shows up and, as a guy to play drums in the studio, like just unreal.
Erin: Hire him too.
Jordan: I can’t even believe it. There was so much stuff where it would just be like, “Oh, maybe we should do it more like that way” and he would be like, “Uh-huh” and then he would just do it and it’s not like he needed a minute to practice. He would just execute it and you would have that take.
Shaun: He is so “in the pocket.”
Jordan: The last song, as things were coming together I remember being like,”Hey, can you play a samba?” and he's just like, “Yep.”
Jolene: And Monty too.
Jordan: Monty, on most occasions there's like a nice kitchen lounge area in the studio and he would be like, “Hey, what are working on next?” and he would go and listen to that one on some headphones in the kitchen and be like, “Ok”.
Erin: While everyone else played video games.
Jordan: It's not like he had time to dig in beforehand.
Shaun: One of those guys you just give the key of the song to… I’ve seen Monty do some impressive shit.
Jordan: He just elevates the whole thing right away.
Jolene: I always think it’s a funny thing when Calgary bands have Monty on their album but not in their live band because then you have to take the album that Monty played on and have to try and learn his parts (laughs).
Shaun: What’s your guys’ writing process like?
Erin: Ah, we’ve got a couple ways. Like, sometimes I’ll have a part and bring it in or sometimes someone else like Jordan will have a part or Jolene or like, everyone you know, will bring in snippets of things.
Jolene: Like, we play randomly.
Erin: Well, ranging between a snippet to something more fully-fleshed and what floats kind of sticks you know.
Jordan: Yeah, it’s almost never that someone comes with a full song that's arranged and ready to go. It's a band jam process. Sometimes it's fully a jam process. Like, there’s gotta be a few things on there that’s like “What did you just play just there while I was getting a beer?”
Jolene: Yeah, like, I think I was just trying to find a sound on my synth and Erin was just like, “Keep playing that” and it turned into a song.
Erin: Yeah, like, I will usually record our jams and then I’ll spend a lot of time just walking and listening to it and then I start to hear like, “ok this is a song.” You know? I hear it. Yeah, so it’s pretty collaborative.
Shaun: So it’s not just someone sitting in their bedroom with an acoustic guitar.
Erin: Well, like, there are elements of that but it's not just that. It’s not like… if it was just me alone writing it, it would suck… I mean, it goes through many layers. Some of the songs, I would say, came together pretty quickly. Others took months. And like, fights, like, fighting over it.
Shaun: Which one took months?
Erin: “Pretty Dumb” was epic. We had like, existential battles of will.
Jordan: And it has been happening again lately a little too, where I’m like, I’m just playing stuff and I wonder if that could be a Crystal Eyes song or not, and then someone usually says, “Well, anything could be a Crystal Eyes song.” But that one [Pretty Dumb] was insteresting because the more it got going the more I was getting sort of, well, everyone was sparked into ideas, but it was starting to grow arms and legs and it was just so tough to contain.
Shaun: Speaking of which, I absolutely love the synth line on that song. What synth is on there?
Jolene: It’s either Monty’s Waldorf or Andrew’s Juno.
Shaun: On the gear tip, Jordan, I wanted to talk a bit about a little guitar shop with you because your guitar sounds are insane on the whole record. I think it’s a bit of an MVP turn for you. What’s your setup look like for this record?
Jordan: Well, for me it was interesting, because I was ready to get inspired by some of the amps that might be in the studio, but by the end of the day, I had been playing through a Roland Jazz Chorus so much for a while that I had this whole thing so dialled in. And I was getting really in love with this idea where you do the proper thing and mic both speakers. And then I thought I would have to use one of the other ones so we could get that grungy song and I was like, “Nope. Roland Jazz Chorus.” I mean, the chorus is off, but like, I’ve got a sweet overdrive pedal. The Earthquaker Palisades is incredible. At certain points in this band I would have two pedalboards going. Really, I feel like, for most of what was going on in that one it was pretty bare bones. I brought a handful of pedals in a suitcase kind of deal and yeah, its funny because recording that album, I listened to it after and I’m like, “Fuck, I wish a had a Strat for at least four of those songs” ya know? And I didn’t. I’m playing a Telecaster through the whole thing.
Shaun: On “I Still Believe in Love,” what the fuck is that answering machine message?
Jordan: I’ll be straight up with you… Erin is doing vocals, and it’s getting pretty late. And I’ve had a bunch to drink, I’m hanging out…
Erin: Haha, you were pretty wasted.
Jordan: I’m hanging out, and I’m pretty wasted in the studio and I’m starting to hatch ridiculous shit like, “Could we just do like, me sounding like I’m talking through a telephone bit?” Which I completely just ad libbed. But the other one that I was doing on one of those sessions was in the second part of “I Still Believe,” and you hear this rattling around, and there’s a kitchen because it’s in an apartment basically, the second studio (Andrew’s studio), and I’m like, ‘I’m going to put all these fucking pots and pans and cutlery and shit inside the underneath drawer of the oven. And I’m all drunk like “You’re gonna bring me a mic and I’m gonna start going like this inside the thing with the mic” and everyone is just like, “Yeah, that's great, let’s do it.”
Erin: Yeah, and then, I think we were all pretty drunk at this point, we started boiling a teapot and were like, “It’s in tune! The teapot’s in tune!”
Shaun: That's like some classic Beatles/Pink Floyd shit too.
Erin: It’s very just like, derivative…(laughs)
Jolene: I think that’s just kind of the energy of that song. Like, it kind of started with you noodling around on the piano and every other song you are playing guitar. And I remember the piano being there and it was this exciting thing.
Jordan: This out of tune piano [used on I Still Believe in Love].
Erin: Yeah, it was completely out of tune too.
You wouldn’t want to listen to the track all on its own, but somehow altogether it works.
Shaun: So, lyrically, I wanted to ask, Erin, are you the primary lyricist of the band?
Erin: Yeah, that’s true, that is the one thing that is basically all me. Other than the answering machine part (laughs).
Shaun: Well then, this question is for you and you alone. “Forgive yourself, forget your ego because you’re better than that.” That’s probably my favourite lyric that I caught. Can you detail some of the lyrical themes that you are grappling with on the record?
Erin: My writing style is very stream of consciousness, so I usually don’t know what I’m writing about until later on when I think about it and kind of realise. A lot of it is just my armchair philosophy.
Shaun: So, you signed with [Madrid based label] Bobo Integral for this record?
Erin: Yes. Although technically, we recorded it first and then shopped it around. So that’s how that came to be.
Shaun: Was there anything specific that made you decide to apply to them, or did you send out a blanket?
Erin: There were a few people who were interested and kind of flirting with my heart for a while, and then he was the guy who gave me the ring.
Shaun: So what has your experience been like as a signed band?
Erin: It’s been great. I really like and respect his label. I respect everything he’s putting out and think he’s a really hard working guy. I think it’s really cool that he does what he does and I really like his taste in music.
Shaun: They do [Toronto indie rock group] Motorists, right?
Erin: Yeah, Motorists are on that label too. Yeah, he really likes Canadian Indie Rock, which I think is really adorable.
Shaun: Yeah, which is kind of amazing that a label from Madrid picked up on you guys.
Erin: It’s random! But, he’s got a lot of different bands and it’s really good stuff. It makes sense that he likes what we do because I think we have very aligned tastes.
Shaun: I wanted to ask about your video for Wishes. Pretty cryptic occult imagery. Is there a theme? Is there a story that’s going on there?
Erin: Well, a certain fortune-teller told us it would… actually saw all of the cards.
Shaun: That was a thing! Yeah, fuck I blanked on that completely actually (writer’s note - as a side hustle during Covid I started reading Tarot cards. I first met Erin when the director of the video brought me in to do a consultation about how to proceed with the video).
Jolene: We’re like, jogging your memory.
Shaun: I forgot that was a thing!
Erin: It’s actually a really cool story because you came over and did that reading. We were supposed to start shooting in a couple of days.
Shaun: Oh yeah, and something was delayed or something?
Erin: So, [video director] Rebecca [Reid] was like, “oh yeah do this reading for our music video.” And the first card you pulled was like, the worst card, like, death or failure card [if I recall it was the blasted tower]. And you were like, “Oh, well this video isn’t going to happen right now” and we were like, “ Oh, haha, uh-oh… No, it’s just hocus pocus” but it was so prophetic because it’s exactly what ended up happening.
Jolene: We tried to make it happen so many times and then another wave of covid would hit, or someone would get sick. But like, every time we would try to have a meeting or look at locations, or anytime we would have some kind of plan there would be a wrench in that plan. Until, and it was, I remember you [Shaun] saying, it was after February. And it didn’t happen until after.
Erin: It was oddly strange how prophetic the reading was. It ended up being creepily accurate to all of the events that unfolded.
Shaun: Well, that’s very fascinating to hear.
Jolene: So hire Shaun.
Erin: Hire Shaun to do a reading before you do anything important.
Jordan: We’ll work a little blurb
Erin: So many hires to recommend.
Jolene: This is just one big ad for all of our friends.
Shaun: So I wanted to talk about live performance? How do you get into your live headspace?
Erin: Cram a bunch?
Jolene: I don’t know. We honestly don’t cram. I know we miss a lot of jams-
Erin: Don’t put that into your interview… (laughs)
Jolene: But, I feel like I’ve been in a lot of other bands, and I think that this group is actually pretty good at being consistent with our rehearsals. You know, like, we have the same day every week and for the most part we do it.
Shaun: Is there a pre-show ritual or anything like that, like, right before you hit the stage?
Erin: Well, we eat a lot of garlic fries usually. No, I’m just kidding.
Jolene: Because we’re always at the Palomino [local barbecue restaurant and venue].
Shaun: So, do you have like, a stated thing that you are trying to achieve spiritually, thematically, experientially?
Erin: I just really want people to feel good about themselves when they watch us. You know what I mean? I want you to feel good in your skin. I want you to feel good about yourself and hopefully be in the moment. And hopefully, yeah, I don’t know, feel a little bit cleansed, feel a little better, a little more positive. I do music and art because I want to put good things in the world. The world sucks and I’m just trying to make it.. If I can like, make you smile for like a minute, you know?
Shaun: So, let’s say, finally, 12 months down the road, what are you guys going to have achieved?
Erin: Well, hopefully we’ll have recorded or are recording our next record. We are kind of in the writing phase, which, I’d say is both the hardest and most fun phase.
Shaun: Will you be back to the same studio?
Erin: Uhm, probably not. We might stick a little closer to home. There are a couple of studios I’m interested in and a couple of producers that I’m interested in as well. So that’s still kind of shaping up. Probably wouldn’t go back to the same studio but not because it isn’t great, just because it’s like…
Shaun: You’ve done it.
Erin: Yeah. Kind of, it’s a kind of evolution and I think it will be a different kind of record. It won’t be the same kind of record. It’s going to change a lot. We’ve changed a lot. The world’s changed a lot. Yeah, it’s going to be very different.
Shaun: Do you have any general sort of direction in mind for the next one?
Erin: I mean, we’ve got a few songs. I think it's still kind of shaping up.I feel like it's pretty 80’s but we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.
Jolene: And there’s already a bit of a difference because you play synth on one of the songs.
Erin: That’s true. So there might be more synth stuff. I think it’s going to be a little more 80’s.
Jordan: It’s got a long way to go.
Erin: Yeah, it’s still got a ways to go.
Shaun: So, like, drum machines?
Erin: Yeah, like, a little bit more in that vein I think. Yeah, maybe a little bit tighter.
Shaun: Like, as in, tight spandex?
Erin: Yeah, as in, tight spandex. More like, more focused, right? Sweetness Restored was kind of just like, very pregnant with every idea. So many tracks, and like, so much. But can we squeeze that in? Can we get a little leaner? Can we get a little more focused, less just like, earthy in a way. I dunno if that makes sense.
Shaun: That’s perfect.
Erin: We’ll see what happens.
- Shaun Lee