Rubbernekkerz is a genre-crossing musical hybrid characterized by melancholy chords, synths and acoustic guitars. 2006 saw the release of the debut CD, 33 1/3rd, with themes of youth and aging. An upcoming CD release dealing with topics such as the moon landing, is all but complete, we are just awaiting the spacecraft with mobile recording facility to touch down.... and the astronauts are so far not responding.
The debut CD from Rubbernekkerz, "33 1/3rd" (Thirty Three and a Third), delivers an introspective range of alt-pop songs that create an emotional mood from a layering of sounds. Acoustic and synthetic textures blend to create a spacey backdrop for lyrics that circle around the reflective and often melancholy themes of time, youth, and aging.
The person behind the Rubbernekkerz madness is Toronto area musician Mark Harrington, who is joined by a second guitarist (Clay Phillips) on three tracks, and an occasional extra voice. Harrington released a number of independent solo recordings in the late 80s, and 2 CDs in the 90s: 1993's Capricorn Flakes, and 1999's Trash Icon. Rubbernekkerz music is different in feel from most of Harrington's previous music, hence the new name.
Phillip Hong from SRN mediaworks recently interviewed Mark Harrington about his long career in the music industry and how the Rubbernekkerz CD 33 1/3 came into being. Here is a sample of the interview...PHIL: What inspired you to write your latest featured track, "Sometimes"? From observation, there's a bit of rock, an anti-climax in the middle... let's just say it's like a hurricane.
MARK: The music was lying around from the Rubbernekkerz "sessions". It sounded too upbeat and happy to be in that collection. I started ear-marking it and a bunch of other songs for a later "Mark Harrington" CD release.
So, back to the track, "Sometimes", I had the basic tune, started from layering different frequencies of guitar (low to high) on a drum groove. Clay Phillips added some of his trademark bluesy guitar noodling to the track (about 2002), giving it fresh direction, and I continued to rework it for four more years! My focus recently has been on sonic textures first, then adding words at the end. Getting the correct match of words to tune is often tough, and sure enough, I had to erase some vocals from this tune that didn't work. You can read the rest of the interview here.
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