Pitchfork

After relocating from San Francisco to the chillier climes of Detroit, The First Time Records has lined up a full slate of winter releases. Next out the door is the latest collaboration between Madder Rose founders Mary Lorson and Billy Coté.

n It's been a busy year for Lorson-- 2002 saw the release of Tricks for Dawn, the beautiful sophomore effort from her Saint Low project, and the birth of Roman, her son with Coté. On January 21st, The First Time will release Piano Creeps, a mostly instrumental collaboration from the pair. A simultaneous UK release is planned on Cooking Vinyl Records. Tracklist:

n 01 E Guitar
02 Turtle Song
03 Dig a Hole
04 Newfield Baptist Church
05 Che
06 World's Fair
07 See The Stars
08 Piano Creeps
09 Old Man Dance
10 Near End Theme
11 Americana #1
12 Joe's House

Lorson and Coté have been composing original music for films in recent years, including a current project scoring an HBO documentary about photographer Sally Mann. Coté also released an album under the name The Jazz Cannon (on Function 8). She was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for Pitchfork about her recent work.

n Pitchfork: What was the inspiration for the Piano Creeps project?
Mary Lorson: The project just kind of grew; we didn't plan it! A couple of the pieces ("Joe's House" and "Newfield Baptist Church") were just song starts which I had fooled around with with Billy and [violinist] Joe Myer. Also, Billy and I had scored a few short films and realized that we liked the pieces, and as we did more projects, we just kind of amassed this funny collection of compositions which we thought could stand up together.

n P: Was this album a long time in the making?
ML: I guess from start to finish it was about three years, but again it wasn't really a conscious process.

n P: What was the most interesting part of making the album?
ML: To me the most interesting part was the liberation to arrange in as eclectic a way as we felt like... and it happened in confluence with a real shift in the way I look at music [in Saint Low] and a parallel shift in the way that Billy and I create music together. In Madder Rose we were going very consciously for the rock-pop thing, and it was Billy's ship to steer and his vision. Creating music for films is fascinating in that there's a very specific goal for each piece, and it's different every time, and you have no lyrics to fall back on. It's very stimulating and challenging. It's also a neat switch for me to go from the singer's role to the anonymous creator's role, and I'm very comfortable there.

n P: What are your musical plans for the coming year?
ML: Still plugging along. I always write, and so there is a new batch of songs brewing for Saint Low but I'm in no rush to record them as yet. Billy has finished a beautiful new Jazz Cannon [album], featuring the singer Uniit Carruyo and hopefully that will come out too.

n Lorson and Coté are planning a couple overseas gigs in the next few weeks, with some full-band dates expected in Boston and NYC in March. They have tentative plans to play the SXSW festival in Austin, TX and hit the west coast in the spring. Currently scheduled dates:

n 01-31 Antwerp, Belgium - DeNacheten Festival
02-01 London, England - The Borderline
04-05 Ithaca, NY - Castaways

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