‘Mirror Sound’ Offers an Intimate Glimpse into What it Means to Create
words by Tallie Gabriel || photo courtesy of Mirror Sound
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This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
It’s rare these days to find a piece of art that feels truly unique, emotionally evocative, and nostalgic, and yet that’s exactly what the trio behind ‘Mirror Sound’ has accomplished.
‘Mirror Sound’ is a visual portrait that takes a closer look at the people and processes behind self-recorded music, showcasing twenty-seven musicians including Sharon Von Etten, Laetitia Tamko (Vagabon), and the late Emitt Rhodes. Conceived by writer and musician Spencer Tweedy, graphic designer Lawrence Azerrad, and photographer Daniel Topete, the collaboration profiles a collection of musicians whose work is a sonic reflection of their innermost selves.
Pure Nowhere spoke with Lawrence Azerrad about the project.
It’s wonderful to meet you, Lawrence. Would you mind starting off by telling us a bit about yourself?
I’m a creative director, graphic designer, art director, and Los Angeles native. I've been working in the music industry for 25 years with a range of different artists. I got my start at Warner Brothers records, then started my own practice in 2001. Lately, I’m doing a lot of work surrounding the idea of how design can deepen our connection to music in this kind of digital age.
Can you talk more about how design strengthens our connection to music? That sounds pretty fascinating.
Absolutely. To be specific, I've authored a program called Designing the Future of Music — ‘Mirror Sound’ is one component of this.
When you have this other component of a connection to music, say a detailed box set or concert experience that you remember really intensely, or a video that strikes your heart, the cultural experience from that storytelling experience, that emotional experience is a little less fleeting, as it might be when you're listening to music on a streaming service on your phone and just listening with the easy capacity to skip next. That serves a different type of function — streaming is wonderful and important, but it’s a different experience. The design-music relationship can lead to a more comprehensive artistic experience, such as seeing a short film that was created to advance the spirit and the music.
The book organically became an extension of that project for me as it became about more than recording exclusively, but also our connections to understanding creativity, our connections to understanding the creativity that we all have inside of ourselves, and our capacity to make things that hopefully inspire others to act in similar action. To uncover some of the challenges and risks and excitement of the process.
What was it about self-recorded music that the ‘Mirror Sound’ team wanted to explore?
Because the project primarily stemmed from Spencer’s own experience with self-recording, he taught me what that entailed. As Spencer and I became more creatively close and collaborative, we also talked about celebrating the agency, creativity, and the intellectual capacity to make art and music yourself. This became a key theme, that you can make this music yourself. Record yourself.
It is a pretty amazing thing about the digital age when you think about it.
The concept behind the project evolved a bit as we delved deeper into the project, that it was not just about recording, but also your relationship with the spaces in which you record, and what it means to do something without needing permission from labels or managers or other kinds of authority figures. No matter who you are, or where you are, if you believe in yourself and take those initial steps towards starting a creative project, it's in the realm of your capacity to do it, and you don't necessarily need these traditional gatekeepers.
And do you think that has been an asset to the music industry in general, or has it made it harder to get music in front of the right ears?
That's definitely a challenge. Certainly, big barriers to being able to make your own music and to get it out there have come down with sites like Bandcamp and SoundCloud and the ability to make music in your own home has become a lot more affordable. But the challenge that comes with this is that there are so many more voices in this kind of decentralized system of access to music. And because there are so many more places to get music, it might be harder for artists to get noticed now and build relationships with audiences.
“The design-music relationship can lead to a more comprehensive artistic experience, such as seeing a short film that was created to advance the spirit and the music.”
What was the ‘Mirror Sound’ collaboration process like? Was it similar to making music together in isolation?
It's important to note that the project started long before the pandemic, which is kind of funny, because so much of the book has to do with creating in some form of isolation, and a lot of people think that we timed it that way. So we were able to go to the artists’ studios and have these intimate moments in person with them.
How did you decide which artists to profile?
Fundamentally, the artist had to record themselves. Artists that did not work with producers, or do not work with engineers. And the book gets into this point, that these other people have a way of changing the art through the command in their realm, but there's also a beauty in the discovery, in the technical challenges — how do you work as your own producer and engineer and then also as an artist? So that was a key qualifier.
And then it also started a bit with artistic relationships Spencer had or business relationships that I had. But as we expanded that circle, some of it had to do with the desire to have a diversity of voices, and not just, you know, all indie alternative guitarists. We wanted to have people from different generations, certainly, from different musical experiences, and racial backgrounds, and stories, young people just getting started as well as more accomplished artists.
Was there anything that surprised the team when you spoke with these artists, any stories that stood out?
Like any project that's a labor of love, it’s the type of thing that as you go deeper and deeper into the project, there are things that come out that constantly continue to reveal themselves to you that are always surprising. Our conversation with Emitt Rhodes, who we lost last July -- It might be fair to say that our interview and our photoshoot with him was probably his last -- but he had such an iconoclastic story. He was kind of known as the one-man Beatle. He was able to kind of create these early versions of like late 60s pop, this rich sonic texture. And people couldn't believe that it was created by one person. Then he just stopped making music. Daniel went to his studio, which hadn’t been used in like, 20 years. So it was kind of like going into Pharaoh's Tomb or something like that, really surreal. To me, it felt like a story of talent subordinated by other factors.
Wow, that sounds rather heartbreaking. “Talent subordinated.”
Yeah. And as a counterpoint to that, there are a lot of artists in the book who really demonstrate lowering a barrier, the demystification of making music. You don't necessarily need to work with big labels or established studios. Take that first step, venture into creativity, and just show up and do it, follow through and remain consistent. Even through the bad days and the crappy days and the days that are frustrating, you continue to just do it. I am a firm believer that there aren't any magic tickets or special spells that work better than humility and determination. I think a lot of people in the book demonstrate that.
Why do you think DIY music approaches like lo-fi production and using iPhone memos in final recordings are so popular lately?
If you are digging deeply for something that is authentic and true from the heart, working on your craft, and staying dedicated to the idea, it doesn't matter if it's recorded on your iPhone or not.
I think that's to be celebrated.
And you see it in a lot of other creative disciplines too. For example, like in the old days, in the ’90s, to be a photographer, you needed a rep and an agent. And a portfolio and now, Instagram has largely changed that — same goes for graphic design and publishing. And there is a wonderful thing about those barriers being lowered to what is now the great equalizer. The democratization of that makes it incumbent on the practitioner to mine authenticity and bring art that resonates with people. Just because you can make photos or music or your album covers in your bedroom, doesn't necessarily mean that it's good. But if the song is good people will recognize it. It's just that it's incumbent on the practitioner to remain dedicated to doing it.
“You don't necessarily need to work with big labels or established studios. Take that first step, venture into creativity, and just show up and do it, follow through and remain consistent.”
What's the biggest thing that you learned making this project?
You have to be open to the evolution of an idea within a project. Yes, the book is about self-recording. But as we went deeper into the waters of the project, it became apparent that it's about so much more. It's about individual creativity and interdependence between people, where you get your inspiration from, and these larger aspects of creativity, even though at its most fundamental, it is absolutely about recording music.
But as you go on that journey on whatever project, it's important to keep your eyes open to these larger ideas.
And then I think it also becomes a little bit of a balancing act between nurturing that openness,
that broad perspective, and at the same time, staying on track with your core mission. It gets easy to have mission confusion and get off track.
So how do you balance between bigger ideas and your core mission?
Well, I have been working at becoming more mindful of these broader ideas, what might a project be about in a larger sense? Early in my career, I was essentially just a work for hire designer focused on making album covers. Streaming caused me to think, what’s the bigger story here? What is the relationship between art and music? And why does it matter? And what might we gain by paying attention to it? What can we celebrate in that space between the two?
The other half of your question, how do you keep on track? Just the regular stuff, keeping clear goals, keeping schedules in Google Docs. It’s the much less glamorous part.
What is the biggest takeaway you hope readers get from ‘Mirror Sound’?
Whatever you're doing, if you're a musician, or a designer, or a writer, or an artist, that if you believe in yourself and believe in the creativity and follow through on it, success can be born out of persistence and remaining true to your vision. Persistence sometimes gets a bad rap, people think of it as ‘stubbornness,’ but if you love and believe in what you’re doing just keep going and don’t give up.