When the three members of Quilt arrived in New York City in April to begin the intensive recording process for their second album, the new and aptly named Held in Splendor, they stepped directly into spring. Anna Fox Rochinski, Shane Butler and John Andrews had spent much of the previous several months clutched away at “The Puritan Garage” in Boston’s Charlestown, shielding themselves from a winter of blizzards with the haven of their practice space and a set of fresh songs.
Since the release of their 2011 self-titled debut on Mexican Summer, they’d become more than kids just out of college. They’d become a bona fide hard-touring band, with stories to share from the road and experiences to distill into the narrative of new music. Though they continued to write and arrange tunes together, always an essential part of Quilt’s creative process, they brought songs to one another, too, making and modifying demo tapes for the first time. No longer rookies, Quilt began to approach their music like a lifeline. Coming to New York, then, just as the magnolia trees bloomed and the season of new life began to blossom, Quilt got to work.
“That was,” says Rochinski, “a magical time to be making a record.”
Indeed, when Butler talks about recording the kaleidoscopic Held in Splendor, he seems to speak of an ornate children’s playground. Whereas their first album was made mostly for free and mostly by friends over the course of a year of starts and stops, in sessions that captured the early and elemental and exciting efforts of a band finding its footing, Quilt entered the proper in-house studio located beneath the Mexican Summer offices in Brooklyn for this one. They’d allocated a solid month for recording, and they clocked full days, every day, with Woods member and producer Jarvis Taveniere.
The approach was wide-open: They tuned drums and recorded the same song with multiple microphone set-ups. They added bass and invited friends who added saxophone and violin, cello
Tracks
Arctic Shark
Saturday Bride
Eye Of The Pearl
Mary Mountain
Tie Up The Tides
The Hollow
A Mirror
Just Dust
The World Is Flat
Tired & Buttered
Secondary Swan
Talking Trains
I Sleep In Nature
Since the release of their 2011 self-titled debut on Mexican Summer, they’d become more than kids just out of college. They’d become a bona fide hard-touring band, with stories to share from the road and experiences to distill into the narrative of new music. Though they continued to write and arrange tunes together, always an essential part of Quilt’s creative process, they brought songs to one another, too, making and modifying demo tapes for the first time. No longer rookies, Quilt began to approach their music like a lifeline. Coming to New York, then, just as the magnolia trees bloomed and the season of new life began to blossom, Quilt got to work.
“That was,” says Rochinski, “a magical time to be making a record.”
Indeed, when Butler talks about recording the kaleidoscopic Held in Splendor, he seems to speak of an ornate children’s playground. Whereas their first album was made mostly for free and mostly by friends over the course of a year of starts and stops, in sessions that captured the early and elemental and exciting efforts of a band finding its footing, Quilt entered the proper in-house studio located beneath the Mexican Summer offices in Brooklyn for this one. They’d allocated a solid month for recording, and they clocked full days, every day, with Woods member and producer Jarvis Taveniere.
The approach was wide-open: They tuned drums and recorded the same song with multiple microphone set-ups. They added bass and invited friends who added saxophone and violin, cello
Tracks
Arctic Shark
Saturday Bride
Eye Of The Pearl
Mary Mountain
Tie Up The Tides
The Hollow
A Mirror
Just Dust
The World Is Flat
Tired & Buttered
Secondary Swan
Talking Trains
I Sleep In Nature