Deep Dive: Interbellum – Partners

Interbellum is the musical project of Lebanese songwriter Karl Mattar. With their Our House Is Very Beautiful at Night album due out next month, Karl has given us an insight into featured track Partners as part of our ongoing Deep Dive feature. The folkish flavourings of Partners will appeal to fans of Joni Mitchell, Elliot Smith, and Sufjan Stevens.

Lyrics and genesis of Partners

 The album explores the idea of ghosts as intergenerational trauma and deals with memory, time and the past. In this song in particular, I was thinking about the intimate bond shared between people caught in an abusive relationship, and the cyclical nature of intergenerational trauma. How we unconsciously choose someone to re-enact trauma we were victims of, and the walls we erect to protect ourselves from the truth. The notion of being partners in that sense really moved me and I felt compelled to put it in song.

Instrumentation

One thing I settled on early on for the album is having dense layers of instrumentation, with instruments double and tripled, lots of parts coming in and out – ghosts emerging and dissolving. There are acoustic guitars, electric guitars, organ, piano and lots of sound effects buried under the layers.

Pascal Semerdjian, who drummed on the album, sent me two drum takes to choose from and I ended up using both – each on a side of the stereo field. I also used two vocal takes. I sort of wanted to keep to that theme of partners, of pairs. And I like it when parts are doubled but not perfectly in sync, it creates this sort of echoing effect, like an auditory motion blur, a dislocation.

Recording the song

 I recorded most of the instruments at home, starting with a demo that slowly morphed into the final recording. The process was messy. I often recorded parts in isolation, playing along to a drum machine without having the structure fully laid out. So, I never knew how many bars to play and I had to do a lot of editing and stitching. That’s why the ending stumbles like that. But I really liked the collage-feel it gave to the arrangement, and that feeling of the song coming apart at the seams.

One funny piece of trivia is I realized too late that the acoustic guitar was tuned slightly flat, so I had to tune down everything else to fit it. I was later rewarded for my sloppiness when the only piano I had access to turned out to be equally flat. I think it might have even been 432Hz? The frequency of the universe!

Where does Partners sit within your overall sound?

 The previous album was sort of synth and electric guitar based. This one’s more organic and acoustic, which was partly a by-product of recording it myself at home. I’d say the song is pretty representative of the upcoming record. There are a few sound/ambient pieces on there and softer/heavier songs but it’s generally dense folk-rock-y songs with DIY production.

Partners and Interbellum’s back catalogue can be downloaded on Bandcamp and is also streaming on Apple Music and Deezer. Our House Is Very Beautiful at Night comes out on the 7^th of April. Head over to Facebook and Instagram for news about live appearances and more new music.

Header photo by Rachel Tabet