Tim Quirk and Jay Blumenfield – the dynamic musical duo that are Wonderlick – released a new album on the 9th of October entitled Wonderlick Loves You. It features songs about those who perhaps are in need of love: a boy who’s jealous of all the attention a teenager with leukemia gets, a daughter who can’t stop worrying, a daredevil who jumps over increasingly ludicrous things to command our attention.
It is an album filled with songs that could have been recorded in any one of the numerous studios across the country and backed by any number of musicians who are used to backing up singers on rock and folk albums. Wonderlick decided to take a different approach.
According to Tim, he and Jay wanted the album to capture the energy, immediacy and abandon experienced during their acoustic house shows. But when doing house shows, “it’s just me and Jay, two acoustic guitars, two voices,” he said.
Tim added, “So we wanted to capture the vibe and the intimacy, uh, but still have it professional sounding and radio ready. So that’s how we came up with the idea of going to Appalachia and finding some old-time musicians.” So they hired a mobile recording engineer and fiddler named Mike Mitchell in the town of Floyd, a tiny Appalachian community in Virginia, where every other citizen just so happens to be a virtuoso player of old-time music.
If that sounds to you like a formula for a folk album, you can be forgiven but you would be wrong.
“We weren’t trying to make a folk record,” Tim told me. “We weren’t trying to make an old-time record. We were trying to see what happened when old-time musicians played our weird indie rock songs.”
Still, the folk influence is there. For example, there is young Margo MacSweeney. Tim and Jay had a particular vocal style in mind for “How To Fly,” an ode to Evel Knievel. Then at a jamboree in Floyd on a Friday night, they heard the 15 year-old banjo player singing.
“She had the voice that we’d heard in our heads,” Tim told me. “And we could not believe it. This teeny tiny little girl with braces, right? And this voice comes out of her that’s, like, 2,000 years old. It sounds like (it’s coming from) a 1920s scratchy record.”
They got permission from Margo’s mother and she is indeed featured on “How To Fly.” She also can be heard providing background vocals on several other songs. Since “How To Fly” is about Evel Knievel, Tim asked her if she has ever heard of him. Her reply? “I don’t really know modern musicians.”
Wonderlick Loves You, as already noted, is not an album full of love songs, at least not in the traditional sense. It nonetheless does explore the theme of love – what it is, how people perceive it, and what they hope it will be. “How To Fly” may celebrate Evel Knievel but at the same time reveals him to be a daredevil who jumped over increasingly ludicrous things – to gain our love?
“I think this is the third song I’ve written about Evel Knievel,” Tim told me. “He’s a…. Well, hero’s the wrong word, but you know he’s a figure I can’t stop thinking about. I worshipped him as a kid and I think the Evel Knievel stunt cycle was the greatest toy ever invented.”
“Eric” is a bit more personal for Tim. “I guess it’s about how fucked up I was when I was a kid,” he said. “But when I was in fifth grade or just after fifth grade, I read this book called Eric by a woman named Doris Lund, who was Eric’s mother. And it was basically her memoir about her son’s ultimately losing battle with leukemia.”
Upon reflection, Tim realized, “I wanted to be Eric, right? I didn’t want to die, but I wanted the attention and the love his mother was giving him. But, it’s not like I had a miserable childhood or anything.” With age came a different perspective. “Now I want to be like Eric’s mom. I want to love other people the way she did.”
“Eric” – indeed the entire album – was recorded within days of the death of Jay Blumenfield’s mother. The chorus to “Eric” mentions how much Eric’s mom loved him, and how the person singing it wonders what that kind of love might feel like. Tim insisted on singing that part because he did not anyone to think Jay felt unloved by his mother. Tim knew no child of Susan Blumenfield would feel unloved. And Tim had loved her and felt her love almost as much as Jay did.
After brief reflection, Tim had a request. “Since we mostly spoke about lyrics and stuff, just make sure you give Jay his due, because none of this would work without him.”
Jay’s contribution indeed is present throughout the album. From recognizing the impact of Margo MacSweeney’s voice to his intuitive guitar playing to his own (and Tim’s) unique voice Jay’s influence is there.
Wonderlick wouldn’t be Wonderlick without Jay Blumenfield. And Tim Quirk, of course.
