In any language and by any professional standard (no matter which field), four years is a very, very long time between productions. Granted, the four-year period that Andy Magoffin and his band, Two–Minute Miracles, have taken to follow up 2003’s Volume III: The Silence Of Animals is not lengthy in a Guns N’ Roses sort of way, but when you realize that the duration of some bands’ entire careers—particularly now that the music industry and popular tastes shift faster than ever before—is less than four years, it has to be a concern. Magoffin, however, is quick to say that while other bands and their labels may worry about what sort of reception an album may receive after so long an absence, it is of little concern to him. “I’ve been getting a lot of flak from the label to get the album done, shoot it in the head and release it because I think they’re a little concerned about it,” begins the singer as he sits in a comfy seat in his home studio, House Of Miracles. “I can sort of understand why too. Think about it—anything you think you’ve built as a touring artist can vanish so quickly and so thoroughly now. As your record sells out—say you pressed 2000 of them and now there aren’t anymore at the distributor—if you haven’t played, you cease to exist except in people’s memories, and with the amount of music that is getting released these days, those memories have gotten shorter and you just fade away.
“It’s been four years since the last record and I think it’s been three years of recording and editing and that sort of thing but that’s mostly because I’ve been working unsupervised,” continues the singer. “There’s nobody around to kick my ass [laughing]. Even after four years though, we’ve never been particularly encumbered with people expecting things from us because we’re a little unorthodox as bands go. We’re not part of a scene and not adhering to a style and I’m pretty sure that we’ve effectively dodged being pigeonholed so I don’t think we have to worry about expectations except from ourselves. You have to be careful to make sure that it’s still good and it still speaks to people. But I don’t think an absence of four years means that you have any extra responsibility to make good with people or anything like that. Do we feel like anyone that has enjoyed our music has been let down because it took a while? No, they could still be listening to volumes one through three. That’s the thing too; even if you’ve been gone a while, your record still sticks around; it’s not like a freakshow where the shows are all there is.”
During the downtime, band members left the group—in some cases they left town too—and were replaced, shows were played to break the new members in; songs were written and dropped, the House Of Miracles got renovated and all the while, recording on Volume IV continued. “We did have a bass player quit on us,” concedes Magoffin. “That’s it though; largely the band was the same five guys for a long time and then the bass player became a teacher so he quit, so we’ve been playing with Greg Smith who also plays with FemBots and Weakerthans, and Justin Nace is the new guitar player in the wake of John Higney’s departure. John moved to Ottawa and that’s just a little too far away for us to handle, so Justin is our new guy on guitar and lap steel.
“Clay’s departure didn’t sabotage the recording at all,” says Magoffin reassuringly. “I actually did call him to play on one track. There’s a song that we played live for a long time before we recorded it and Aaron and I were tracking it one day and couldn’t see any reason why we shouldn’t ask Clay to come down and do it and he was happy to even though he doesn’t play with us anymore. We’ve had the new guys come down and we spent a couple of weekends tracking songs; we got some new stuff out of it so that was cool.
“Last November we unveiled the new House Of Miracles too,” beams the singer as he looks around his now-finished and remodeled space. “There used to be a sequence of smaller rooms and one fair-sized one that we used to cram everyone into. You can still see the scars on the floor where the walls used to be. It was really tight and we’d end up having amps in doorways.
“Everybody loves the room now though,” giggles the guitarist. “Half the time, they’re just sitting there shaking their heads going, ‘Man, this is such a great space.’ I’d actually say that less work gets done because everyone’s marveling at what a great time they’re having. Plus, it’s also really nice to be able to set everyone up in one room with all the gear out where you can see it.
In a serious and tender moment, Magoffin quietly confides that his home studio is now actually the home of his dreams—literally. “At one point I realized that the house has become my dream home. I remember drawing a picture of a house when I was a kid—it was this little A-Frame cottage—that I wanted to live in. It had a big, open space in the front for recording, then further back there was a loft up top, and a kitchen and a bathroom in back. Essentially though, it was just one big, open space—and I forgot about it. I realized though, that somehow this house has become the one that I dreamed of and drew when I was a kid.
“So I’d have to say that I’m living exactly where I always wished I would.”
Perhaps to check people’s interest in the band, Two-Minute Miracles’ label decided to release a few of the songs plus one exclusive one as the Volume 3.5: Rats EP—designed as a teaser in advance of Volume IV: The Lions Of Love [to be released on October 9, 2007 through weewerk]—however, according to Magoffin, due to some problems with Canada Post, while the EP was originally scheduled to have a limited run on a physical medium before being available only via the Internet, fans of Two-Minute Miracles will now have to go online in order to get an advance taste of Volume IV. “Phil [Klygo] from weewerk did a little press release for Volume 3.5 and the idea was that it’s just a precursor—like a warm-up—to Volume IV,” explains Magoffin of the Rats EP. “He says he’s been getting a lot of response, and all of my friends keep asking me about it, and now that I have a date, it’s nice because now I can actually tell them when the next album’s coming out [laughing]. A year ago, it was ‘between now and February,’ then the Fall, and now we finally ‘officialized’ when it’s going to come out with the distributor.
“It’s been really tough to finish the album off because I’m inclined to second-guessing myself and I change my mind regularly about things.”
Two–Minute Miracles
Volume 3.5: Rats EP
(weewerk)
– and –
Volume 4: The Lions Of Love
(weewerk)
Have you ever had one of those friends blessed with the ability to make even the most painfully ordinary of conversations sound poetic and profound? If you haven’t got a friend like that but wish you did, go buy Two-Minute Miracles’ new full-length album and share a moment with Andy Magoffin. The band’s first record in four years finds the Miracles and Magoffin in the finest form of their careers as songs including “Small Face,” “The Minus Ball,” “Night Of Rain” and “Since We Were Married” pour their hearts out in front of listeners and watch them scramble to claim some of that precious essence for themselves. Magoffin, of course, sits front and center of each track with his acoustic guitar in each of Lions’ 16 tracks and revives the notion that tuneful, unaffected and confessional songwriting is still possible and capable of being genuine in rock ‘n’ roll with the singer’s reflective vocal tone and plain-spoken, often comical lyrics that betray universal truths if you really listen. These are songs for listeners to take home and inhabit, and Magoffin, for his part, offers them fully furnished with every hook in easy reach and every comfortable amenity at the listener’s disposal.
As a sort of overview, the Rats EP collects a few choice cuts from Lions and adds one more unreleased track for good measure. While these songs are good and representative of Lions, they are only a couple of dots to connect in the long-player’s picture; a great way to introduce the band to the uninitiated, but Lions is the treasure. Rats will acquaint you and whet your appetite for the full-course meal that Lions offers, it’s a good souvenir, but do yourself a favor and get the full experience on Lions; it does not disappoint.
Volume IV: The Lions Of Love is out October 9 on weewerk
For more on The Two-Minute Miracles, click here: www.myspace.com/twominutemiracles
