On Saturday, I got to attend the LA Premiere of the documentary ‘The Journey’, which details the making of Eric Lilavois’ upcoming record ‘Salt, S(e)a, and Smoke’. Like me, we may not know about him, but Lilavois is a music producer, owner of Crown City Studios in Pasadena, who has worked with hundreds of artists (Atlas Genius, My Chemical Romance, Saint Motel, Surfer Blood, LA Font, Torches, The Happy Hollows, among many others). This time, he has decided to release his own music.
‘Journey’, a short movie is an inside look at the making of the album, following Lilavois and many career musicians as they recorded the album in Seattle’s legendary and historic London Bridge Studio, where so many famous bands such as Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Lilavois’ favorite Pearl Jam, have recorded their best work. But wait, if Lilavois owns a studio in Pasadena, why did he need to go to Seattle? For him, it was all about having a new environment and going out of his comfort zone, plus this LA native has declared to have a love affair with Seattle… this must be the rain!
Eric Lilavois, who has a vague Johnny Depp look, the type who likes to wear flannel shirts, hats and scarves, is a young guy with a taste for old-fashioned objects, he uses his dad’s super 8 camera, types his song with a type writer, releases vinyl (obviously) and uses analog recording, whereas lots of album are now cut digitally. He admits having a sort of nostalgia about all this stuff, but he also thinks that analog allows a true capture of the moment, with far less manipulation…’what’s there is there’. In a few words you have a good idea about what he is looking for, spontaneity and authenticity… don’t expect a lot of auto-tune and remix from this guy!
The record was made between Ojai (where he wrote the songs), Los Angeles and Seattle, and Lilavois insisted he wanted to capture a moment above anything else, a moment born with a few songs sketched on an acoustic guitar (templates to play onto as he said), then layered with many instruments to become a collective experience in Seattle.
The movie, directed by A.M. Bushe, is in black and white, and even features grainy shaky super 8 footages. It also features in-depth interviews, performances, and commentary from many career musicians including Ben Smith (Heart), Andrew Joslyn (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis), Danny T. Levin (Vampire Weekend, Julian Casablancas), David Moyer (U2, Snoop Dogg, Tears for Fears, Broken Bells), GRAMMY NW Chapter President Geoff Ott (Unwritten Law, 3 Doors Down), as well as many other engineering people (audio engineering, mixing) so you get to see how many people got really involved in the making of a record: a lot of them!
Since the recording, Lilavois has become a partner at Seattle’s London Bridge Studios, something he was so wishful for, ‘It was a natural choice to record the album there’, he said during the Q&A following the movie.
‘Salt, Sea, and Smoke’, which will be released in full on vinyl during the first week of August, is currently available for digital download in the form of three individual EPs on his bandcamp and website. The performances during the movie and following the screening (he did 2 songs live) revealed a heartfelt and melancholic brand of acoustic folk pop, with a slight exotic-island influence – try ‘Waikiki’ – as Lilavois was born in the US whereas his parents are from Haiti. But there are also songs with an expansive and ambitious sound with emotive strings, and strong but always emotional vocals… a central track, ‘The God in Our Glass’, seemed to be the song which mattered the most for him, since it was written for one of his dear friends who passed away a little while ago.
Lilavois put a lot of his heart and creative fiber in this new album, whose title is a metaphor for ‘where we come from and where we go back to’, and he did it with a real professional commitment. However, he is a producer and he admitted to be nervous each time he puts his own stuff out there. However, he certainly recommends to musicians to be challenged and to collaborate as much as possible. ‘I feel like an hypocrite because I am producing my own stuff, but musicians need this outside perspective’.
Catch ‘The Journey’ for an artistic behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create an album, and check out Eric Lilavois’ new music here.