The Motet’s annual Halloween run has become a Colorado institution, but this year finds the band with a new album that has been their most collaborative to date. While The Motet has always been a band that functions as a sum of its parts, the stipulations for recording the band’s new album was that everything that was brought in must be in an unfinished form so the band could collectively finish it in the studio. This jigsaw way of putting together an album allowed for some interesting experimentation according to lead singer Jans Ingber. When Listen Up Denver! caught up with Jans he was doing a little garden work but he wasn’t to busy to tell us about the new album and how it has brought The Motet closer together, and of course Jans filled us in on that hallowed of Halloween Colorado traditions, The Motet’s annual musical costume.
Pulling kale from his home garden in Portland, Oregon, Ingber, in a relaxing and easygoing manner, related the tale of growing a cohesive record from the ground up. “There were parts that were completely organic. There were parts we laid down in the studio and ‘boom’ a melody came, and ‘boom’ a hook was there, and there were parts that we agonized over. It all happened in a myriad of ways; sometimes the horns would give us four or five different horn lines and we would listen and say ‘What if we took the front part of this one and hooked it on the back part of this one.’” Putting together disparate parts can offer some challenges but according to Ingber it was well worth it. “It was a really great process and it brought our band much closer together and has been paying dividends ever since.” Those dividends manifested themselves in an interesting way that sheds a little light on how The Motet has been a powerhouse in Colorado and a nationally touring act for over ten years.
A common way that bands work up new material is that one person may bring in the structure of a song and lyrics to the rest of the band and then they work it up to the stage or studio, but this method has challenges of it’s own admitted Ingber. “In this band and in other bands, a way that the songwriting process works is that someone will write a song and then bring it in and work hard with the other musicians to play it like they hear it in their minds. I can say from my perspective as a songwriter that sometimes it just doesn’t fit. Sometimes you just wanted it to be a little bit different, a little more this a little more that and there’s a level of frustration there.” What is interesting is that The Motet recognized this problem and came up with a very synergistic and ingenious way to solve it.
The Motet is a perfect example of a band that plays together and stays together – which is especially important since some of the members live in the northwest and some in Colorado. To remedy this the band got together for some whirlwind songwriting sessions. “We scheduled four days together, ten hours a day, and everyone brought in ideas that were not fully finished, that were either one section or two sections but it wasn’t the whole song; it wasn’t the melody, it wasn’t the lyrics, it was just some ideas for grooves. What that did was allow everyone to make their mark on every song. So everyone contributed to every song on the record. We all had our stamp on it. That buy-in from the band increased our audience and our business and it’s been a great ride since that time.” So not only did the collaborative process bring The Motet together as a band but it also strengthened them as an entity.
“When everyone collectively has written the song and everyone has written their own part, you’re like ‘Oh yeah, I’m excited to play this one cause it’s in my wheelhouse. It’s what I’m good at.’ It just makes for a happier band,” said Ingber. The synergistic nature of the collaborative process also afforded the band some room to experiment in the studio. “The writing process did not stop until the very moment we said print the mix. We were constantly tweaking, changing melodies, or adding clavinet parts, double guitar parts, and harmonies. I think any band would be like that. We couldn’t help but tinker with it.” The band had two of Colorado’s premiere studios to tinker in – Scanhope Sound in Littleton and Immersive Studios in Boulder. “We experimented in the studio and learned a lot about the gear in there. We got really into using the Roland Space Echo, kind of gelling it out and getting our delays and getting weird in the studio.” This exploration allowed The Motet to become a tighter band in more ways than one. This overall tightness has allowed The Motet to give their home state fans one of the most looked forward to events of the Halloween season, The Motet’s musical costume.
In the past the Motet has paid tribute to such luminaries as Earth, Wind, and Fire, Tower of Power, Talking Heads, The Grateful Dead, and Madonna. But last year the band changed up the format. “At a certain point there were bands that we could do and continue on with the band thing but then we got this idea. Let’s do an entire year.” So, last year the band debuted their new idea and did some of 1980s finest. Doing an entire year instead of doing a band’s catalogue has some advantages. One is a greater variety of material, and the other is when a group does the notable songs from a specific band you can be sure of some of the songs you’re going to hear. But when you do an entire year it leaves a little more to the imagination, which is good for the band and the audience. While Ingber says that there were many years considered by the band, they picked 1975; a particularly heady year for the genre The Motet does best: Funk. “As far as the music we do, which is Funk with analog electro synthesizer stuff in it, 75’ was the peak of that.” While Jans wanted to leave some to the imagination he did have this to say about this week’s Halloween run which starts in Beaver Creek tonight and then comes down the hill to Fort Collins, Boulder, and Denver. “There’s gonna’ be lots of surprises and amazing dance party music.” Colorado get your dancin’ shoes on.
THE MOTET – MIXTAPE 1975
Tuesday, October 28th
Vilar Performing Arts Center
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Wednesday, October 29th
Aggie Theatre
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Thursday & Friday, October 30th & 31st
Boulder Theater
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FRIDAY SOLD-OUT
Saturday, November 1st
Ogden Theatre
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