the Mirror Stage
Jonathan Mcintosh
About the Mirror Stage
The Mirror Stage crafts music that is greater than mere notes and lyrics. Its complex and intriguing songs epitomize the marriage of thought and instinct, of letting inspiration lead the way in a quest for perfection. It’s a lofty goal, certainly, yet one they’ve achieved on their debut EP Ten Thousand Tongues—five songs that are more inspired by writers such as Samuel Beckett and T.S. Eliot than musicians or songwriters. The writing of vocalist/guitarist/wordsmith James McAnally comes from a desire to communicate those moments that usually leave us speechless. “Some people respond sitting at a piano, hearing it resonate, or in front of a symphony, picking out the parts,” he says. “I get it when writing, because I am trying to take all of these disconnected sources and weave them in to a story that attempts to make sense of a world in which the atomic bomb and Lazarus are supposed to coexist. Our best and worst as a society are both present in each of the songs.” Yet The Mirror Stage isn’t solely lyrically focused; its thoughtfully constructed words are backed by intricate instrumentation that builds into well-composed crescendos. Each of its members is musically trained, from theory to opera to performance. James studied experimental music in college—including chant theory, which explains the chant and choral parts of Ten Thousand Tongues, as well as the unorthodox instrumentation from hammered dulcimer to unmetered percussion. Through ongoing musical study, Gregg Roberson contributes a variety of sounds to the band, including piano, guitar, bass and synth. And with her background in opera, keyboardist/vocalist Brea McAnally lends a gorgeously artistic touch. As she explains, “Opera training showed me there aren’t any limits to the sounds one can make with the human voice.” James traces the enigmatic narratives of Ten Thousand Tonguesback to an elegy given by his Methodist-preacher father. He recalled an Irish proverb which speaks of “thin places”— spots on earth in which angels come to watch us and where we can hear them move. “The thin places are people or places,” says James, “certain songs or chord progressions, those unnamable things that change us that we’ve never known how to talk about.” A fitting rise to the music of The Mirror Stage; you listen, you try to find the words to express your feelings but, ultimately, you just give into them. Good art doesn’t have to be explained to be appreciated. If it moves you, if it inspires you, if it challenges you, somewhere along the line you realize it has changed you ever so slightly and, whether quiet or loud, it is still humming below the surface. http://www.myspace.com/mirrorstage
Taken from Last.fm
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