For the last 20 years Seattle's Green Pajamas have been cranking out great records. Since their debut album, Summer of Lust, in 1984, to their latest releases of Northern Gothic and Through Glass Colored Roses the Green Pajamas have maintained a strident DIY ethic while not sacrificing quality for it. I sat down to chat with Jeff Kelly and Joe Ross about their accomplishments over the years.
How did you record "Summer of Lust" in 1984?
Jeff Kelly-We recorded it on an old 7" Teac 4-track (it was a very good machine), and we had one, or (maybe) two mics at the most.
Joe Ross- We could only do one track at a time. The basic tracks were mono.
JK-We'd do the drums and bass at Joe's and then take it back over to my house...
JR-We could play loud at my house, but at Jeff's house we played quiet. So we would record the guitar, drums and bass, one or the other; I would play either rhythm guitar or bass depending on the song, then go down to Jeff's house and bring the deck back...
We would record 4-tracks on the reel to reel, do a mixdown to cassette and then copy the cassette back to 2 tracks of the 4-track. By that point we would have two more blank tracks on the reel to reel 4-track. So they were basically 6-track recordings.
What kind of cassette machine did you use?
JK-It was a Teac. Joe still has it too. We could edit on it without a click on the tape. Cassette decks always made a click.
JR- It wasn't just a click, there was no delay. It was powerful enough that it would start up right away. On "Summer of Lust" we do a mix from the 4-track to the cassette deck and there would be a few times that we would be rolling tape, hit pause and then hit pause again, the cassette would start up again and it would be seamless. That was the beauty of that cassette deck.
What mics did you use?
JK- I had an Audio Technica $30 one. I had a stereo mic too, but I only used one side of it...
JR- You put a 9 volt battery in it and it separates out. It was a Realistic with two things that separate out. It sounded really great. A little later I got a PZM mic from Radio Shack with a little battery pack on the chord. That sounded really cool. If you put it in the center of the room, it sounded natural.
How long did it take?
JR- Almost a month to the day.
How did you do your vocals on "Summer of Lust"?
JR-We did basic tracks at my parent's house (drums & guitar), but then going back to Jeff's to sing.
Did you just put a mic in the center of the room and move in and out from it?
JR-Most of the vocal tracks definitely. Harmony vocals were often done at the same time. If there was a tambourine, or a piece of percussion we would hold it in our hand and when it came to a chorus in order to not waste a track we'd play a tambourine for that part, quit playing the tambourine and then sing again.
When you listen to the solo the tambourine comes on and when the solo quits the tambourine stops and the vocals start again. When we're mixing we gotta quickly adjust the level.
How did you mix the record?
JK-Just on my Advent stereo system in my bedroom, because I was living at home.
JR-There was no mixing board used. The Teac 4-track had an Output volume knob for each track on the deck, because we always set the volume, but we didn't have a mixing board. There was no EQ either. There was also a switcher box with "Left/Right/Middle" switches. Everything was either hard pan left, hard pan right, or in the middle and there was no pan at all. You can definitely hear that. It has that, "Rubber Soul" sound where it was all hard right, or left. That was all The Beatles were doing. I don't think they said "Let's pan it over" they probably just had those three options; Middle, Right or Left.
Did you use any effects?
JR-No outboard gear at all. We didn't own any digital effects (reverbs, etc...). We could echo on the deck [using Simul-Sync & Playback function].
JK- All effects were done as it was going onto the recording. Mainly tape echo.
It was setting one track on Monitor [while recording] instead of in Record and then playing the second track back to the first in Record . We would send the signal from one channel to the other and that would cause the Echo to happen and then record it on the first track.
JR-If it was the last track left we couldn't do it, but if we had a blank track we could do it. It's only one speed, was [7.5 IPS or 3.75 IPS].
What were your Influences?
JR-We both loved the way "Rain", the Beatles song sounded. As a bass player I've always tried to achieve somewhere between, " I am the Walrus" and "Rain". That's what turned me on.
JK- That wasn't hot then, it was [the bands] The Rain Parade and the Three O'Clock.
JR- The Paisley Underground.
JK- There have been so many diverse influences. There is that "Baby You're a Rich Man" sound, where we go "let's get that cool groove." Joe and I were just talking about [the Band] Joy Division and I was playing the bass, trying to make it sound like Joy Division's album "Closer" when we wrote the riff to "Kim the Waitress". There is always a diverse mixture. I was really into the Paisley Underground. When I played my guitar loud, I played in a sort of primitive fashion and almost a sort of droning sound which Karl [Wilhelm] and Joe and I clicked on and led to that sort of Psychedelic Sound.
JR-The Paisley Underground wasn't what we were first hearing, we loved the Paisley Underground [movement], because we could tell their influences were ours and they were doing what we were doing. We loved, "[Our] Satanic Majesties, Request" [by the Rolling Stones], which was also a big influence on the "Summer of Lust" at the time, and the "Baby You're a Rich Man"/"Rain"/"Its All Too Much" era Beatles. We were blown away when we heard the Paisley Underground [movement].
JK-REM were influenced by the 60s. I wasn't influenced by REM. I thought that first album was cool with the Rickenbacker guitars and stuff, but its not like REM influenced us.
JR- I remember Jeff saying, "Wow, Listen to this!" It confirmed the concept that we could do this too.
What made you want to make a record like "Summer of Lust"?
JR-We were jamming a lot that Spring at my parent's house in the upstairs where my drum set was. Karl [Wilhelm], or Frank Walsh, Joe Bauer, Jeff or I both played drums too. We would jam up there. One time Karl, Jeff and I had a ghetto blaster and we just recorded this jam. Jeff was really on fire that day making up songs, and I remember playing it the next day for him and it was the skeletal works of "Katie Lied", "With a Flower in Her Hair" and "In This Castle".
JK-I listened to those jam sessions on the way to work, and thought, "Those are some pretty good ideas." Joe came and said 'Let's make a tape', (because people in those days instead of making CDRs or their own CDs made cassettes and put them out themselves.) "so let's do that." "Summer of Lust" was almost already done.
JR-When I met Jeff the Summer of '83, he already had his whole top dresser drawer in bedroom full of 90 minute cassettes of original tunes that he recorded on his 4-track. It was definitely my idea to market a cassette as a product and the "Summer of Lust" concept.
JK-We got the inspiration.
JR- Cellophane Square [a record store in Seattle] would have cases full of home made cassettes.
Did you run the duplication yourselves?
JR-No, we took it to Horner Audio [in Bothell Wa]. His little logo [for Horner Audio] was on the first batch of 50. The Rocket [magazine] thought we were a Bothell band. Horner listened to the tape, EQ'ed a little bit and made a production master. Any time I called him, he would run them off and I would pick them up. I did that for about three years calling him about every four or five months and picking up another batch of tapes.
What's sort of Band Gear did you guys have? What kind of instruments?
JK-I still have the same Telecaster!
JR- My bass was an old $40 Lyle (SG copy) bass.
JK- And an old gray Supro amp.
