Kyp Harness - January/February 1999
by Sarah Chauncey
Sound: The love child of Bob Dylan and Lou Reed.
People: Kyp and a stellar supporting cast.
To contact: Steve or Lisa at SlapHappy, 15 Woodward Ave., Thornhill, ON L3T 1E3 (905) 709-2556, FAX (905) 709-9274.
If this album were a vegetable, it would be one of those organic onions you find at a food co-op, still covered in the original dirt and far tastier than those overly-manufactured shiny ones. Working with producer Dale Morningstar (The Dinner is Ruined), Harness explains, “We recorded most of it in one night. It just seemed to work best; I’d played the songs with the band at a bunch of shows,” during which they’d worked out arrangements. Nearly every song is first- or second-take, and all were recorded live off the floor. “There were a couple of songs that night that didn’t have whatever, so we did go back and re-cut them another time.”
About “The One and Only”, Harness says, “I was thinking we might have to record it again, because there was something about it I didn’t like.” He re-recorded the vocal without erasing the original, “so it kind of gives a cool sound to it, kind of double-tracking, but not really.” For many of the songs, Harness adds, Morningstar “did a lot of editing of ‘One’,” actually cutting [pieces of the tape] and taping them together.”