photo by Jason O'Donnell
Lisa King has completed her debut album The Language of Birds. She calls her group The Hot Place.
LK: A patrolman apprehended the boxer Jack Johnson for speeding through his little town. He fined him $100 on the spot. Jack said, “Here’s a $100 for now and another $100 for later, because when I come back through, I’ll be driving just as fast.” The cop said, “Boy, if you keep acting like that, you’re gonna’ go straight to the Hot Place.” I thought, now that is rock and roll, and that’s what I’m going to name my band.
She began work in 2008, alternating between her snug ADAT studio and Atlanta’s Southern Tracks Recording (Stone Temple Pilots; Pearl Jam; Bruce Springsteen; Matthew Sweet; Rage Against the Machine).
LK: Southern Tracks has a serious history. Mixing my Gothic background with their professionalism made for a very unique experience.
Lisa wrote all of the songs on The Language of Birds. Although inseparable from her Mosrite bass guitar, she also played a roster of instruments, some raised from a steamer trunk of vintage guitars and analog synthesizers; others sprang from her wild antique menagerie like the 1920s Marxophone and the calliope-sounding Portatiev.
LK: I started piano when I was 5, although I did like my air organ and xylophone. I picked up a bass around 13. I ran it through my Marantz stereo speakers and learned bass lines by The Cure, Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Church.
Opening The Language of Birds is the cinematic “Petals of Ruin,” featuring an on-edge Mini Korg synth line mixed with a paisley whiff of 12 string guitars. The melody haunts you again as “Petals Reprise”, closing the album in a déjà vu of whirling tamboura drones.
LK: Petals of Ruin is about overcoming negativity and the disintegration of old habits of being.
The shimmering guitar pop of “Run Away Today” is the first song that Lisa wrote.
LK: They’re the first chords I learned on the Ovation acoustic my Dad gave me. It’s like a breezy, convertible top down sunshine day, but it’s full of young girl angst about running away from home.
Situated in the field of Titan, special guest Richard Lloyd of Television performs the guitar break on “Saturn Moved”.
LK: It’s a song about alchemy, which Richard picked up on right away—the cosmic sway. The album title comes from a line in this song, “Saturn awakes to the language of birds/And reclines on the shoulder of morning.”
“Nighttime Summerman” is a seven-minute circle of psychedelic pedal steel that “gets you into a trance and makes you miss your exit. It was the first time the album began to sound beautiful to me.”
Lisa grew up listening to her Dad’s Ventures’ albums, which influenced the Spanish surf bending of “Really Not True”.
LK: It’s a bullfight throwdown, like a matador with a Jazzmaster in a Picasso etching.
“20th Century’s” Fender Bass VI twang crosses cowboy with New Order. It’s a vibrato spy groove that appears onBirds in stereo and mono versions.
LK: Our Mastering Engineer, Rodney Mills, was working at a time in the 1960s when recording was far simpler, with only 3 or 4 tracks of information. After tweaking “20th Century” for a while, he raised an eyebrow and said, “Lisa, I’m not sure if you were thinking in mono when you did this song.”
A force for continuity on The Language of Birds is the HH solid-state amplifier. Pink Floyd used the HH in the film Live at Pompeii, and it became a signature sound for Marc Bolan of T. Rex and for Daniel Ash of Bauhaus. A rarity on American soil, the amp was imported from Glasgow especially for this project, and its buzzy distortion enhances the slight punk sarcasm of “Sad”.
LK: “Sad” is about being betrayed by your friends, and you’re not mad, you’re just…disappointed. It’s my only guitar solo on the album, and I guess you could say it sounds kind of Neil Jung-ian.
The album finishes with the cactus juice slide guitar-based “Begin the Fall” and “Two Steps Ahead,” a stroll down a ferris wheel lined boardwalk, soaked in California sunshine.
Lisa may have begun The Language of Birds by herself, but she hopes it feels more like a band called The Hot Place. She co-produced the album with The Swimming Pool Q’s’ Jeff Calder, who also played guitar, and contributed his multi-instrumental diversity within the album. The Q’s Robert Schmid played drums. Southern Tracks’ Steven Morrison mixed most of the songs and performed on piano, 12-string and vibes. Mike Lynn, formerly of Betty’s Not A Vitamin, was a contributing guitarist, as well.
Lisa King has a degree in Fine Arts from Georgia State University, specializing in cutting-edge printmaking disciplines like non-toxic etching and lithography. She’s been a member of the Atlanta bands Unminded and Threshold, and she’s played keyboards with The Swimming Pool Q’s and Glenn Phillips of the Hampton Grease Band.
Artist: The Hot Place
Album: The Language of Birds
Produced by Lisa King & Jeff Calder
Recording Engineers: Steve Morrison, Tom Tapley, & C.J. Ridings at Southern Tracks and Lisa King at No Big Wheel Studios, Atlanta GA
Editing & Additional Recording: Tim DeLaney at Electron Gardens, Atlanta GA
Mixed by Steve Morrison at Southern Tracks with additional mixing by Greg “Fern” Quesnel and Tom Tapley
Mastered by Rodney Mills at Rodney Mills Masterhouse