Fine Print: Renminbi’s Surface

When we started this “Fine Print” series, we thought it’d be a good opportunity to geek out about album artwork, packaging and all their glorious intricacies. What does this or that lyric mean? Where did the pics come from? Why is the album dedicated to Ryne Sandberg?

In other words, we anticipated the series would give us more intimate views of records. What we didn’t anticipate, though, is that we’d also be getting more intimate views of the bands behind those records.

That all changed when we had a conversation with Renminbi’s SMV a few weeks back. A chat about some of the individuals who were thanked in the credits for the band’s recent, self-released Surface EP mushroomed into a larger discussion that brought us to the heart of the New York trio. From sad losses of family members to their unlikely partnership with Andrew W.K. to the full story behind their ties to Sonic Youth, the real Renminbi were revealed.

First, a little background: The sparse post-punk project was founded by SMV and her girlfriend, guitarist Lisa Liu, five and a half years ago. Renminbi were birthed as a receptacle for experimental material Liu couldn’t factor into her primary band at the time, Danger! Giant Ranger; the band’s earliest releases were noisy adventures, climaxing with its self-released 2008 debut LP, The Phoenix.

Rounding out Renminbi, Liu and SMV tapped the occasional drummer to help them record or perform alongside the close-knit couple.

“We’ve had five total people play with us,” SMV told IndiePit. “Initially, the concern was the quality of the drumming, how did we blend musically. But after going through some drama on tour, we started to realize that being in a band - I know this sounds clichéd - has this family aspect. You have to be able to spend a lot of time together in very cramped and often uncomfortable situations. And ultimately, personality sort of informs the entire thing - the music, the experience. So we’ve taken that more into consideration as we’ve matured.”

After The Phoenix took flight, Renminbi recorded Surface with drummer Jenny Johnson, who contributed to the writing of one of its songs too (”Toulouse”). She’s also been touring with the band in support of the free release.

That’s right - free, as in you don’t have to pay anything for it (unless you want to). Renminbi have been giving away downloads of their album at Cash Music, with a vinyl release pegged for August 25. Only 500 copies are being made, and pre-orders end August 17 (if you pre-order, they’ll also grant you unreleased music, video and pics).

“This probably sounds corny, but we were inspired by what Radiohead did with In Rainbows,” SMV said. The Phoenix got a good reception; “[People would] leave messages on our MySpace saying they were really touched by this or that.

“But what we realized was that it wasn’t translating into those people getting music into their hands, for various reasons. We were very unknown at that point. And even when people hear something they like, they’re hesitant to spend their hard-earned money on a CD. ‘What if the other 10 songs suck?’

“When we got ready to do Surface, we just thought, ‘We need to reconsider what our priorities are here.’ We’re not in it to make money, and what we really want is for people to be able to live with these songs, interact with them and have their responses develop over time.

“We’re realizing that the ‘music business’ - it’s such a gross term, I hate even using it - is just such a different beast than it was. If there’s a positive side to [the collapse], it’s that the focus is coming back to the music, and it’s stopped being about labels and becoming famous and having your #1 hit. This is about being a labor of love and wanting people to hear the songs, because we believe in them. Whatever we’re losing by giving [Surface] away, I think in the end we’re actually richer for it.”

We’re richer, too, for having heard the EP (again and again). More introspective and hushed than their other, noisier releases, Surface reminded us of Sonic Youth’s last six or seven albums: heartbroken choruses; long, moodily meandering instrumental passages; and smooth time-signature transitions, laid out over a bed of low-distortion guitars and brisk tom-tom rolls.

And it was uncanny, really - while falling for the release, we scoped out the credits, and discovered that responsible for the production and mixing was none other than Don Fleming, SY’s stalwart studio guy. While we were savoring that pseudo-serendipitous moment, we also noticed in the credits that Renminbi thanked, among others, Sonic Youth.

(Incidentally, Kim Gordon recently scolded Radiohead and the “In Rainbows model,” arguing it has adversely affected indie bands that can’t afford to give away their music for free.)

When we spoke with SMV, we got her to spell out the full story behind Renminbi’s involvement with Fleming and SY.

“When we were talking with Don about producing the EP, he actually suggested to us that we should consider recording at Sonic Youth’s studio. We were like, ‘Hey, we love Sonic Youth. They must have an amazing studio. Of course, Don, let’s look into it.’ And he actually got into contact with the band, and they were totally hip to it. They gave us the dates we wanted - which was not easy to work out with them, because they’re in the studio all the time. But they were willing to reorganize their own schedule to free up the weekends we wanted to record.

“They were very, very generous - although we never dealt with them directly. They allowed us to use a lot of their gear in the studio: microphones, some rack gear and stuff like that. … The band had just recorded The Eternal there, and demo tapes of theirs were lying around. It was crazy to have an inside look at how they spend their time in the studio.

“They’ve sort of been a ghostly presence all through this band - since we were kids, we’ve always been big fans, and this is something that brought us together when we formed the band. It almost feels cosmic that [we ended up recording in their studio].

“We felt indebted to them in many ways for the recording.”

Now here’s another twist: Renminbi weren’t just indebted to Sonic Youth for Surface; they also couldn’t have made the effort without help from fellow New Yorker Andrew W.K. This Andrew W.K:

He too is thanked in the EP’s credits. What on earth?

“We happened to have the privilege of meeting Andrew back in April of this year,” SMV revealed. “We played a show in New York at this place called the Santos Party House. We didn’t know this at the time, but Andrew W.K. is one of the founders of this place.

“Andrew W.K. was actually on the bill with us [the night we played]. So we had the pleasure of meeting him. Not only was he sweet, but when we went into the studio to record the EP, Andrew actually let [Johnson] use his kit for the recording. She was looking to upgrade her own kit but hadn’t been able to do that by the time of the recording. She was feeling hesitant about using her old kit … and when Andrew heard about this, he offered her this amazing, gigantic, beautiful kit. She loved it, it sounded great, so we really felt indebted to him for that.”

Despite that happy coincidence, Renminbi’s spirits were not always high during the Surface recording. Which brings us to the final curiosity we found in the credits: The release is dedicated to the memory of a person named Minnie (”Minela”) Gottlieb.

“That was actually my grandmother,” SMV disclosed. “Very strangely, during the writing of the songs for [The Phoenix], Lisa’s grandmother passed away. And actually, many of the songs for that LP were in response to her death. We felt like her presence was in some of that material, and Lisa ended up dedicating [it] to her grandmother.

“Well, then, in the course of us writing and rehearsing Surface, my grandmother passed away. It was intense. It was a little bit different in the sense that The Phoenix was still very much in the process of being written when Lisa’s grandmother died. In my case, most of the songwriting was there. But the one thing that had not been finished at that point were some of the lyrics. And the song called ‘Then We Came to the End,’ which closes out Surface - those lyrics were very much in direct response to my grandmother’s death.”

“I know some people have read it to be definitely a sad four songs, and I can see that thread in there.”

Check out the rest of our interview with Renminbi right here.

And don’t miss these previous installments of “Fine Print”:

Jeremy Enigk’s OK Bear
Weinland’s Breaks In The Sun