Biography

For many decades now the Pacific Northwest has been a fresh source of innovative boundary-pushing music, and since 2010 Seattle native and musical veteran, John Morgan Reilly, has been continuing that tradition with his eccentric brand of songwriting with his band, Radioactive X Girlfriend. Although the band's sound is perched nicely on the darker limbs of the Electro-Folk genre, its current flight pattern can soundly be traced upwind to their 2011 full-length alternative rock debut, The Art of Splitting (Orange Allies).

The current lineup features both Jol'e Williams (So A.D.D.) and John Morgan Reilly on vocals, with supporting musical contributions by prolific (and bearded) co-producer Jonathan Plum, as well as Davey Brozowski (Catheters, Tall Birds, Black Whales), Jessika Kitzman (Seeing Blind), Bill Ibsen (Remission), and Philana Goodrich.

The band’s second full length release, All Blade No Handle, steers toward the moodier moments from The Art of Splitting (ie: Resurrection, Fade Into Forever, Comb Over, Hold You) and showcases some haunting candlelit storytelling similar in feel to that of Leonard Cohen, Mark Lanegan, or even Nick Cave. And rather than duplicating the aggressive and quirky riffs that grace their debut effort, All Blade No Handle builds itself gracefully around the unique musical dialogue between John and Jol'e.

SUPPLEMENT: All Blade No Handle Interview

Kim Lavarello sat down with John to discuss the new release, and also to possibly find out the age old question of "If a Seattle musician records an awesome record and it isn't released to vinyl, is it still an awesome record?"

OA: You've come up with a unique sound for this record. Is this a new direction for Radioactive X Girlfriend?

JMR: As I was arranging these tunes for the new record I had been really getting involved with the Psytrance and Electronic scene in Vancouver, B.C., and I knew I wanted to respond to Splitting with an electro vibe. So I began to incorporate that Vancouver Psy-Chill Vibe with the folk approach to songwriting and the result is a record that I believe is sonically unique, and I plan to expand on that approach in 2013.

OA: Whereas the debut record was mostly written in a band format, you've said that All Blade No Handle started purely acoustically.

JMR: All Blade was written mostly on a cheap Brazilan guitar I picked up in Rio de Janeiro. I took a trip with my nephew who has his own audio company in Hollywood and so we were just relaxing and talking about movie ideas and song ideas for weeks. It was very inspiring, so I took that nylon stringed guitar to the beaches, pubs, and cafes down there, and worked through a lot of the songs in a completely relaxed state.

OA: Did working on music in the open create any interaction with the locals? Were there distractions?

JMR: Well, I don't speak any Portugese but a lot of locals would get curious, wander up and 'ask me for a light' maybe to find out who I was. {laughter} I was relaxed, and felt inspired being in such a beautiful place.

OA: How did you get the basic songs that you worked through into their final recorded arrangement?

JMR: At first I 'Frankensteined' many different songs that were bouncing around in my noodle and forced them to stop being merely interesting ideas. I completely re-arranged many of the songs, and all of them deserved an existence where both traditional stringed instruments and electronic music could live sonically together. My co-producer, Jonathan Plum, is responsible for many of the important musical details on the record, including some integral bass lines, keyboard effects, and some great guitar lines. Collaborating with him is always a rewarding process. I'd say we have great musical chemistry.

OA: Speaking of that chemistry, you and Jonathan have now co-produced RxGF's first two full length releases together, and prior to that have been making records together off and on since 1994. How has that relationship impacted your songwriting and producing?

JMR: Jonathan has helped bring a lot of order to my chaotic approach. When Jonathan and Geoff (Ott) decided to purchase London Bridge in 2005 I was excited for them. That's when I began exploring bigger orchestrations and experimenting live in their studio. I literally walked into the studio one day and told Jonathan, "I have this concept, and a ton of songs to support it, so let's start recording them." Jonathan asked me where the band was and I told him there wasn't one this time. He sort of scratched his head and looked at me like I was crazy. And musically speaking, I think that's about right. I'd jump on the drums and lay the entire rhythm section down and then ask him what he thought of the song. Of course he had no idea what I was hearing in my head until I finished all the parts musically and laid down the vocal tracks. I mean, here's a guy that works with major labels and artists, and is used to hearing the songs up front and working with the bands before they actually even arrive in the studio, and then recording tight takes where you can hear all of the expected parts. Then I walk in and ask him to listen to my brain and read my mind.

OA: That sounds insane. So how did he bring about any kind of order without stifiling the creativity of the sessions?

JMR: Creating order out of chaos took some time. I kept on asking Jonathan to be honest with me and slap down any ideas that he didn't like, but the challenge was that he genuinely liked all of my ideas. At first I just thought that he was being nice, but he truly enjoyed what I was doing, and I think he was just fascinated with how anyone could begin recording a song by sitting down on a drum kit. It was totally orthoganal to anything he'd seen before. Every other time he'd worked with me I had a band and it was easy to discern what was happening. But when you start with a rhythm and end with vocals you actually don't even understand the song until the session is almost over. I was doing things 'backwards', but to me it made perfect sense because I already knew the song and the arrangement...in my head. I can say that I draw a lot of power and emotion from playing against a drum track, but I wasn't beginning with a recorded guide track for him to reference.

OA: So he let you do your thing, but that process changed, right?

JMR: Yes, the apparent novelty of my approach wore off. {laughs} He said something like "Reilly, I love your wacky approach to recording but you're kind of keeping me in the dark working this way." People that know Jonathan know what I'm talking about. He takes a soft approach to smashing you on the head. I realized that for songs that began on acoustic guitar with a guide vocal, essentially a folk version of a song, that he was immediately able to suggest ideas that never would have come to light by recording them in another way. This is probably very elementary to most recording artists, but it's something I hadn't thought through since I could already hear everything in my head. I was very self-absorbed, which was an awful trait that I think I've now tamed.

OA: We're glad he set you straight there.

JMR: Somebody needed to. I also give some credit to a wonderful songwriter and friend, Molly Thomas. During the recording of the first record, I also co-produced and arranged a song on Molly's Make Everything Bright Record. Her approach to songwriting was more traditional than mine, even though we were both classically trained. She'd been working with a lot of amazing musicians, songwriters, and producers in Nashville including my friend, Matthew Burgess who played on Art Of Splitting. Watching the Nashville process was grounding and her talent inspired me to simplify my songwriting approach, which eventually allowed me to be bolder with the arrangements.

OA: So tell us about how you went from rock to acoustic format to electro folk.

JMR: For Art of Splitting it was mostly a band process and it was a rock record. I introduced most of the songs to the group and recorded the songs on an old Roland VSS-880 for pre-production. I then brought in those songs as a guide and we re-recorded them. For All Blade No Handle I recorded mostly everything on acoustic guitar and vocals first, then used both vintage keyboards and some of the latest plug-in keyboard software to create textures that complimented the guitars and vocals. I deliberately avoid the technical approach to songwriting, but I've been using Ableton Live for almost a year now and with warping and morphing it's a great tool for creating framework and soundscapes for new tunes. I definitely had a lyrical theme and a distinct purpose for this record, and I carried it out very much like an exorcism. I cast out everything that didn't belong. Notes, words, tones, harmonies, sometimes even melodies. This record took over a year to complete, which is a very long time for me...the bulk of my time was spent deciding upon what kind of sound I wanted to project. I experimented a ton. You can hear the difference between the edgier songs and the more symphonic songs on the record, but all of these tunes can easily be played live with just a handful of musicians.

OA: Interesting, and creepy too. Do you equate making a record with exorcising demons?

JMR: For this record, yes. I think it's because the first record created certain musical demons in the first place. Now that the soul is cleaned up there's more focus and less distractions. I've hit a songwriting, recording, producing, and performance groove that I've never experienced before. And that can only happen when you are working with top talent. Iron sharpens iron.

OA: Tell us about the musicians you feature in this rendition of RxGF.

JMR: There's so much talent here. First off, in addition to being a great engineer and producer, Jonathan Plum is a very creative musician. His bass line on Fantôme is classic. That bass line alone inspired several arrangements on the record. Working with Davey Brozowski was fun too. Davey approached my songs with almost an experimental flavor and he's a master at tuning drums, so everything he played sounded that much better. Geoff Ott ran those engineering sessions and the drum tones we got on the Neve 8048 mixing board for our sessions was fantastic for the record and worth sampling for loops in future material. Jessika Kitzman added some great depth to the record on cello. I definitely want to continue working with her for future arrangements. Bill Ibsen, who played with me in Limping For Sympathy, helped out with drums in pre-production on Art of Splitting. For All Blade No Handle he contributed what I consider to be 2 masterpieces of drumming on both Sweet Control and Jim Jones Death Tape. His style is like a cross between John Densmore and Bill Bruford, and it's stunning because his current project is a band called Remission which is more like Incubus. He's a very dynamic player,and also is very humble, which I really admire. Then there's Jol'e Williams. Her vocals are so emotive, and she has her own style and sound going on. She's featured on lead and background vocals for half of this record. I've known Jol'e since 2006 when we began writing acoustic songs together and playing coffee shops. We're going to continue to play this record live together and explore writing together for the next record. In fact, we already have an EP recorded for release in early 2013.

OA: What about mastering?

JMR: I'm glad you mentioned that. Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering in LA did what I didn't think was possible. He was able to cement the final mix for this record by ensuring that all the competing instruments and frequencies obey the mix and intent of song. He's done 3 Lady Gaga records and a ton of alternate bands, so he was really able to blend impossible things together. He's a genius. I know Jonathan was also really pleased, so when the whole production team is happy then you have a perfect situation. I also liked that Gene likened the album to a Massive Attack project. This really told me that he was into the record, and I'm glad he enjoyed working on it.

OA: So are you going to release anything on vinyl??

JMR: Well, I think that's a question you can better answer, seeing that you make our humble little label tick. Maybe when there's enough people that want vinyl, we'll do a limited pressing and give them away on the air or something. Ask me about DJs and remixes.

OA: No.

JMR: Ok, well I'll end our discussion right now and say that I'm already distributing stems to some DJs for inclusion in their live sets. This to me is so much fun just seeing what the possibilities are. A lot of musicians don't like the whole DJ movement because they feel that DJ's are stealing or borrowing their music and aren't, themselves, very musical. I'm discovering that the new wave of DJ's are actually musicians that are channeling their skills in a different direction and I think the musical world is a better place because of it. Case in point is Josh Greenberg who played drums on most of Splitting. There's an entire movement where DJ and musician are coming together and I want to be a part of that.