Actor/Actress
The 2nd Fascinations Grand Chorus EP was a lot of fun to produce due to the varied and interesting sounds we got on this release. When You Make Your Mind kicks it off and was a song that we had been working on for a long time. I love how this one came out from all of the tape bouncing we did. It gives the song a murky and mysterious feel that is why I love analog recording and trying to capture the sounds of 1960s recordings.
Actor/Actress is the exact opposite where we didn't do any tape bouncing and tried to go for a more focused and clear sound. This song isn't going to be a match to a modern song in the clarity department, but compared to the other stuff recorded in my studio, it does have a more up-front sound.
Up To You has some beautiful backing vocals to accompany Stephanie's lead. I tried to give them and the guitars a very pillowy and dreamy sound to them. I added some pedal steel guitar which also adds to the dreaminess.
Can't Make Everyone Happy closes out the EP and this one is the Phil Spector/Pet Sounds-era sound I think we've gotten pretty good at pulling off. There's some cool sound effects from a Hammond organ running through an echo unit. The sounds were improvised and manipulated in real time so what you hear is the result of a one-time performance. If you asked us how to duplicate that set-up again, there would be no way to recreate exactly as it sounds here.
