“But I didn’t want to be tied down to anyone’s schedule but our own. “We felt we had found a soul mate in Nick Launay,” Murphy says. I’d write a song and then we’d go in and record it then I’d write another song, and we’d record that one.”Īlthough they enjoyed working with Nick Launay, who produced “Feeling Strangely Fine,” the time-consuming approach they took in recording forced the band to produce “All About Chemistry” themselves. So we tried writing and recording one song at a time. “The moment when the lyrics are done, and it’s fresh and everyone thinks it’s really cool - that’s when we play it the best. “I wanted to get as close as possible to the moment of first inspiration of the song,” Murphy explained. In an effort to capture the most enthusiastic performance possible, the band decided to take an unorthodox approach when recording the album. Murphy’s songs on “All About Chemistry” cover agamut of issues - loneliness, lust, friendship, and the search for the elusive “One True Love.” Different types of relationships, from fun to disastrous, would be occurring among the group.” Each song would tell the story of what one of these people is experiencing in their love life. “I imagined the album being about a group of friends who have gathered together.
SEMISONIC CLOSING TIME YEAR FULL
“I envisioned a party album, something you could play at a party full of friends, but also an album about a party,” he says. I didn’t want to write that very introspective, intimate kind of material that we had done on ‘Feeling Strangely Fine,’ because I was so energized by playing on all those big stages for so many people.”Īfter writing approximately 20 songs, Murphy hit upon the direction he wanted the new album to take. I wanted to find a way to make the songs speak from a larger stage. “Secondly, I was moved by the experience of playing to so many people. I had a lot of ‘What is the meaning of all this?’ emotions running through my head. It was literally disorienting, I felt myself spinning.
“One was the amazing experience of our album being such a huge hit. “As I was writing the lyrics, I was thinking about two things,” Murphy said in a recent phone interview from England, where Semisonic was on a promotional tour. He says the group’s success was both awe-inspiring and energizing. Shortly after ending the Feeling Strangely Fine tour in the summer of 1999, Murphy turned his attention to writing. The trio plays the Theater of Living Arts on April 12. Led by the single “Chemistry,” Semisonic’s new CD, “All About Chemistry,” should put any “one-hit wonder” apprehensions to rest.
The group’s fortunes changed in 1998 when “Closing Time,” a single from its second album, “Feeling Strangely Fine,” became one of the biggest international rock hits of the year. Their 1996 debut for MCA Records, “Great Divide,” garnered the band critical praise and a fan base, but no hits.
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