tUnE-yArDs is the extravagant moniker of Merill Garbus, a woman who is as equally experimental with music as she is typography. Debut album ‘BiRd-BrAiNs’ was compiled using only a Dictaphone and free recording software, yet the result was an incredibly distinctive lo-fi record painstakingly put together. The follow-up, ‘w h o k i l l’, saw the same creativity used in a studio setting. Saxophones and a live band were added to the mix and chopped up sporadically in the recording process to retain that cut-and-paste DIY feel.
“I started recording when I was in-between things, let’s put it that way,” says Merill from New York via a crackly phone line. “I’d just quit my job as a puppeteer and was living with my parents until I figured out what I was going to do. It was a bleak scenario,” she remembers. “The only glimmer of hope was these weird songs I was playing with a Dictaphone and a ukulele.”
Those weird songs formed the first album. “The beginning was wonderful because I had so much control. I spent hours with that Dictaphone. By the end I’d maxed out the system and it was so slow and I thought ‘I can never do this again,” she recalls. “The other cool thing about doing it that way was it gave me freedom and I didn’t have to spend all of my non-existant life savings on recording.”
For the second album Merill had to contemplate where to take her sound. “I went through a lot of painful questions. What does Tune Yards sound like? Do I have to put everything through a Dictaphone to get the sound I want or can I go into a studio?”
She opted for the latter. “When you’re in a studio you’re always limited by the number of hours you can spend there because it’s really expensive or because the engineer’s going to need to sleep at some point,” she laughs. She managed to capture the same playful experimentation in the studio, never compromising on her ululating vocal style or ever-shifting rhythms. Having received modest success via her debut, she was overawed by the way ‘Whokill’ garnered acclaim. “I never really saw where the second album could go. It’s been really surprisingly well-received but I thought I’d made a pretty challenging album, by the time it was over I was like ‘shit, this is tough stuff’ and I wasn’t sure who was going to like it and who would discard it. There were other people around me at 4AD (the label she’s signed to) who saw where this could go but I don ‘t think you can imagine what this is until you’re living it.”
The reception to ‘w h o k i l l’ and its tough subject-matter – dealing with violence, gender roles, with animalistic imagery – was hugely positive and propelled her into a whirlwind tour. “We just came back from South America and I can’t believe the reception we got there. It’s amazing how many times we’ve been over to Europe too.”
Her live show has gained even more critical acclaim than the albums. Using loop pedals she builds textures from ukulele, drums and her voice. Even when the pedals break mid-set it merely endears her further to the crowd. “As a live performer with many years in theatre I’ve just learned to keep going, and it’s true that those moments can make the audience feel involved.”
She’ll be playing the inaugural Nova festival this year (5th-8th July), a creatively focused festival which perfectly suits her inventive nature. . “It’s brilliant to be part of the first ever one. The people behind it are so forward-thinking that I know it’s going to be a brilliant one. There seems to be so many quirky little things going on,” she enthuses.
Words by Simon Butcher
Photo Credit: Chloe Aftel