story by Michael Todd | photos by Kat Buchanan
The only color in this room full of frequencies is blue. Studio lights flipped off, the remaining wavelengths hang on to the fog enveloping us, and Jason Meyer continues talking candidly about "Realistic Feel," the first Talking Mountain song released to the public ear outside of concerts in about two years.
The blue ambience in the basement of Meyer's house is only a segment of the larger light sequence, which includes lasers, of course. While he says the song was originally written about his divorce, the meaning of the lyrics has since shifted. The words are now relevant to his girlfriend with whom he has painted his house with greens, yellows, blues and pinks.
Bright skulls, light-up jelly frogs, a wizard staff and furry masks populate this home seemingly transplanted from Whoville. It's where his girlfriend's son is one of the very few who has heard what Meyer has recently recorded with the electronics he built, instruments from iPad apps and found sounds of subway cars and nature.
Keep listening as "Realistic Feel" plays, and further below hear Meyer talk about the song's origin, its gradual change over two years and what his girlfriend's son thinks of everything:
Q&A
Jason Meyer:
Hear Nebraska: Which part of a song do you think is best for personal change, the actual writing or the revisiting of it?
JM:
HN: I saw you play just acoustic guitar out back at The Sydney once, so is that how you write songs, with just guitar?
JM:
HN: You probably have a different process for each song, but for this one in particular, how did you create the rest of the music around it to make it dense and have dynamics?
JM:
HN: Do you always add on, or do you add on sometimes and then subtract?
JM:
HN: Do you use the instruments within Logic (a music production program)?
JM:
HN: Where do you work?
JM:
HN: Do you come up with the ideas that are reproduced around the country then in stores?
JM:
HN: You like color quite a bit, it seems like, but all of these cases have the same color, so why did you pick that one?
JM:
HN: I'd imagine you compose the light show, too, right?
JM:
HN: How long does it take to create a light sequence?
JM:
HN: Have you considered playing in a full band again?
JM:
HN: What does your girlfriend's son think of everything?
JM:
Michael Todd is Hear Nebraska's managing editor. He's imagining a world in which all interviews are conducted while fog machines are running. Reach him at michaeltodd@hearnebraska.org.