Nord Express’s two Slumberland LPs were recorded in the mid-’90s on a 24-track ADAT, or Alesis Digital Audio Tape, a “kind of revolutionary technology,” Harrity says, and they taught him “how good sounding records could be made on the cheap.” (Alanis Morrissette’s 1995 smash, Jagged Little Pill (Maverick/Reprise), was one of the first major albums recorded with ADATs.)
Harrity moved to California in 1997 and continued to play music, but also began taking recording more seriously as a craft. “I immersed myself in recording textbooks and collections of interviews with engineers,” he says, citing work by Steve Albini (who has engineered more than 1000 albums, notably ones by the Pixies, Nirvana, and more recently, Joanna Newsom’s Ys) and Bob Weston (Mission of Burma, Polvo). They’re purveyors of a “Chicago sound” — where the frayed ends show but the production remains lush — that’s pretty distinctive in the city’s alt-country scene.
After moving to Maine in 2001, Harrity began an unpaid two-year internship with Steve Drown at The Studio in Portland. “Steve’s a really versatile engineer so it was really informative to see how a jazz session versus a loud rock session versus a choral session would work,” he says. “I was doing freelance graphic-design work during the day, and basically staying at the studio until pretty late at night most of the week.” This led to a year-long paid gig with Studio engineer Jim Begley.
In the meantime, Harrity was performing and recording with Harpswell Sound. Peapod Recordings was conceived more or less as a brand name to put on self-released records that were put out through larger distributors in Europe. Three Harpswell Sound discs were released in this manner, and it wasn’t until the group disbanded in late 2006 that Harrity decided to make Peapod a full-time part-time job.
All-nighters
“After Harpswell broke up was when I decided it was time to pursue the label a little more seriously. I had the opportunity to rent the Map Room from Anna Hepler [a local artist and Bowdoin lecturer who ran an exhibition space on upper Fore Street] ... I decided I wanted to be crazy busy, so I got all kinds of projects started in there, including what’s become some of the most recent releases,” he says.
Harrity held photo shoots and even a “Map Room session,” where he invited bands and artists to “react to the space however they saw fit.” The occasion will result in CD/photobooks to be released later this year.
These days, Harrity records in a studio on Casco Street that he shares with his wife, Diane Toepfer, who runs the East End boutique Ferdinand (her wares have been featured in the New York Times style magazine, among other places). The space isn’t exactly professional — Harrity says it used to be a “giant laundry facility” — but it’s an inexpensive studio that allows for a unique sound. “Diane and I are both pretty stubborn about the DIY idea, and try to not let having the perfect piece of equipment from getting stuff done.”
Both spaces have already yielded excellent releases. Among the Map Room recordings, Dead End Armory’s new release, Hope You’re Good, is a standout. Like the music of many bands Harrity works with, it’s a languorous love letter to the guitar sound of 1990s college rock, generously fuzzy with creaking chord changes. The long, sometimes meditative songs are subtly produced — Wesley Hartley’s Frank Black-meets-Neil Young vocals are double-tracked on a couple of songs — but maintain a lived-in intimacy.
