working with brass

This album, it’s funny, I went back to brass. I always do, on Debut, Homogenic...maybe because I still think I have a long way to go with brass. People think they are bold instruments, about power, that it’s this controlling army music, quite hard-edged. I think I prefer it more matt and warm and sort of human. You know, folky. Because I love trumpets, trombones, tubas, and the noise they make can be like a sad voice, a cry, a human uttering something. Brass has real power in that way when you use it right. Like on Wanderlust – making brass sound like ship flutes, something coming in, yearning for you.

TheLipster.com, April 10 2008