I had the opportunity to talk with Cuddle Magic's Alec Spiegelman while the band was en-route to a gig in Portland, ME. We chatted about the band's history, the new album, Info Nympho, the concept of "indie chamber music" as well as the band's creative process:
DG: Give us the backstory on how Cuddle Magic began: you were all students at NEC, correct?
AS: Yes, that's true. Ben Davis (songwriter, bass, banjo) was writing music he wanted to hear fleshed out with various instrumentation. Essentially, it was Ben who pulled in Chris McDonald (keyboards), then me (woodwinds and guitar), then Kristin Slipp (vocals, glockenspiel) and drummer David Flaherty - it all came together pretty quickly. We began recording initially inside practice rooms at the conservatory, then moved on to The Lily Pad (a Cambridge performance space) and a house in Jamaica Plain. As time went on, and all felt comfortable with the idea that we had become an ensemble, we embraced this project as the perfect vehicle for our collective talents, and began truly collaborating. Eventually, we added Cole Kamen-Green on trumpet, and that's when everything seemed to gel.
DG: At one time, you guys were living in New England, but I understand you've all migrated from here...
AS: Four of us (Ben, myself, Kristen and Cole) now reside in Brooklyn, NY - Christopher and Dave are living in West Philadelphia.
DG: Listening to your music, I detected nuances of contemporary classical and minimalism, not surprising considering your academic backgrounds.
AS: I'd consider that a fair assessment.
DG: How do you feel about the label (affixed to Cuddle Magic by some critics as) "indie chamber music"?
AS: I'm comfortable with that - we definitely balance ourselves like a chamber ensemble, and there are obvious orchestral textures which we utilize within our music, especially those of contemporary classical composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass.
DG: On your website, I caught videos (created by Sleepover Shows) where you incorporated spoken word into your music. Is that something you guys have done in concert?
AS: Surprisingly, no. Those videos were basically a one-shot deal between us and spoken-word artist DJ Pancake. They were a blast to do however, so maybe that's something we'll consider in the future. We've certainly integrated hip-hop cadences on the new album, Info Nympho, so spoken-word wouldn't be a major leap for us. If we do decide on that, we'll give you a shout-out in the credits....
DG: That's awesome - thanks. Now let's talk about the new album - how did the recording of Info Nympho come together?
AS: The band was in the middle of a tour last fall - we were very excited at the prospect of recording a new album, and energized by being on the road and performing live. We took a three-week stretch and immersed ourselves in a "songwriting intensive" - bringing the tunes into our live shows and fleshing out the details. When we felt good about where the songs had ended up, we went into Trout Recording Studio in Brooklyn (under the direction of a very sympathetic and incredibly talented engineer by the name of Bryce Goggins,) and recorded the whole thing live in the room, much like how we were doing the songs on the road.
DG: So, no overdubs?
AS: That's correct - on our last album, we messed around a lot with post-production techniques and overdubbing, but here we wanted the songs to sound on record exactly the way we were performing them on tour.
DG: And what is the creative process like in terms of songwriting, since it's a collaborative effort?
AS: Though we're all literate, schooled musicians who can read and write music, we approach our songwriting the way a folk or rock band would: people don't come in with "finished scores" for the other members to play - instead someone will come in with an intriguing bass line, for example, and then the rest of us will bounce off ideas for overlaying a particular melody or counterpoint that works, and the whole thing seems to come together from there.
DG: What about improvisation? Does that ever enter the picture?
AS: Oftentimes, we improvise our way into various parts when performing live, but there's not a lot of that going in the band - although we all play around with improvisation in various other settings, in the context of this band, we don't improvise as much as folks might think when listening to our music.
DG: I feel like there's a kind of "organic spontaneity" that comes through in your songs, so I can see where people might assume there's improvisation going on...
AS: I don't mind if people get that impression, because it does stem from the music sounding organic - at no point in the process are we "reading it off the page" so to speak - it's just internalized in such a way that what's worked-out sounds improvised and occasionally, the other way around.
DG: Cuddle Magic returns to New England this Thursday - I consider myself to be pretty up-to-date on cutting-edge venues, but I gotta admit, I've never heard of performance space Yes.Oui.Si - I had to google it to find the website....
AS: Yeah - well, we like to mix it up. We've played the standard local venues like the Lizard Lounge, Club Passim and the Middle East, but we've also played the Lily Pad (a more performance-art type of space) and the Oberon Theatre last fall. The space we're playing Thursday is a little more underground in nature - we expect to be playing to a slightly different crowd than more conventional venues we've performed in, so we're looking forward to what happens.
DG: I think it's amazing that a school like NEC could produce such interesting grads like you guys, and also produce someone like pianist Christopher O'Riley - that's true eclecticism. Speaking of Chris O'Riley, have you guys ever considered applying your indie chamber chops toward interpreting alt-rock songs?
AS: As musicians, we love that idea, and have explored it on projects outside of Cuddle Magic, but that's not something we've seriously considered, simply by virtue of the fact that we have so much original music we've yet to record. That said, I should mention we've recently finished a pretty radical re-imagining of a Captain Beefheart tune that almost ended up on Info Nympho, which was a lot of fun to do. The timing isn't there for us to do a covers project right now - there's so many songs of our own and not enough time to put them together. But that's a great idea, and it would be a fun project for us to take on someday.
Cuddle Magic share a bill with Cowboy Band at Yes.Oui.Si this Thursday, March 29th. Show starts at 8 pm. For more information and tickets, call: (617) 429-9771.
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