Self Plays With Toys
November 2 -- It may seem odd for Self to follow up its 1999 effort, Breakfast With Girls, with a CD that some people will dismiss as a novelty item. But for Matthew Mahaffey Gizmodgery, written and performed entirely on toys, is a dream come true.
"If you were to read interviews I did in 1995, I said, 'Someday I'm going to have a toys album,'" Mahaffey recalls. And although other musicians of his caliber might shy away from a project like Gizmodgery, Mahaffey, who'd been drumming since age 4 and turned professional at age 12, views it as a challenge.
"It's an exercise in recording," he says, comparing Gizmodgery's reliance on toy instruments to the Grand Royal At Home With the Groovebox CD, where artists including Beck and Sonic Youth were required to submit songs composed entirely on the Roland Groovebox synthesizer. "Luckily I'm able to put stuff out that's my [own] version, that's comparable," he says.
Gizmodgery was, in fact, written and recorded at the same time as Breakfast With Girls. "I had to finish that record and tour for it," Mahaffey explains of the time lapsed between the two releases.
Gizmodgery has given Mahaffey's creative cogs some extra turns, but it hasn't been all work. Writing and recording the CD has also rekindled fond childhood memories.
"I remember looking through the Sears catalog at the Muppet drum kit and thinking, 'Ah, man, what I wouldn't give to have one of those,'" Mahaffey recalls. "And I'd get one every Christmas. And I'd trash it in a couple of weeks." But this time around, Mahaffey is taking much better care of his toys, especially the Schoenhut toy piano that the band had the revered toy company make especially for the CD.
One of the highlights is a cover of the Doobie Brothers' 1979 No. 1 hit "What a Fool Believes," which Self renders nearly note perfect — but not without some effort."We could only play a couple of notes at a time," Mahaffey explains of the limitations that the tiny keyboards presented when duplicating Michael McDonald's complex chords. "We layered [the recordings in the studio] to make it sound nice and big, and it worked!"
