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John Poultney
Anybody who thinks pop songs are all cranked out to the same old formula has never listened to They Might Be Giants. TMBG, as they sometimes call themselves, don't just spice up radio playlists; they're one of the world's most critically acclaimed bands as well. They deftly combine the best elements of pop, jazz, rock, Spaghetti Western, and other styles with lyricals that teeter between absurd and brilliant. Noted musicologist Ira A. Robbins, author of The Trouser Press Guide to Records , call the group "almost beyond belief" because of their inventiveness and song-crafting prowess. TMBG write incredibly catchy songs that make you want to sing along at the top of your lungs to lyrics like, "Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads on their real heads."
The group's core is the songwriting duo of accordionist/saxophonist/clarinetist/keyboardist John Linnell and guitarist John
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Flansburgh. The two have long used computers in the songwriting, pre-production, and recording processes, and have only recently turned to recording primarily with live musicians instead of sequences. John Linnell took some time out from recording the band's sixth full-length album to chat with Music & Computers about technology, music, educational songs, influential composers, and self-propelled tribute albums.
So you're working on a new album? Yes, we are. The as-yet-unnamed record is being recorded at River Sound in New York. This week I'm in my home studio listening to rough mixes, and I've been cutting up and pasting little bits of music to try to create a bridge for one song.
When you use a computer for songwriting, at what stage does the computer enter the process? Do you write at a piano?
I use the sequencer to construct the form of the song. That's its main role as far as composing. I'll take sections and move them around and figure out what the complete form of the song is. The sections I come up with just playing a keyboard and singing, or just singing, or playing the accordion and singing. But when I start assembling it in [Mark of the Unicorn] Performer, it's time to copy and paste sections. That's one of my favorite parts of writing, actually, coming up with the form.
Has the computer changed your songwriting?
Oh, sure. It's...