more than we seem - Marina Day

More than We Seem

The songs in this collection are in various stages of finish. Many were raw recordings she made in her bedroom with GarageBand, to remember them until she could get into the studio and record professionally; some are from open mic nights at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, Georgia, or recordings friends made with their phones in random places. Only one, More Than We Seem, was an engineered final version.

Some songs Marina wrote from pure inspiration, some for college homework, and some were commissioned by friends wanting something special for a dance performance or other project.

She would have preferred studio recordings, but these are what we have. By request, one of her close friends, an exceptional sound engineer and musician, devoted many hours to spiffing them up, removing background noise and other artifacts and modulating levels.

So when you hear buzzy strings around the slightly off-placed capo, her younger voice at age fifteen, the tripped-up lyric, missed note, or bustle of friends around her, just imagine she’s sitting with you singing — no affect, no “performing”, just our cherished Marina, doing her thing. ~Sharon Day, 2015

All vocals, violin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, keyboard, sound samples, lyrics, and melodies by Marina Day except on Clever, with thanks to The Day Trippers (you know who you are) and on More Than We Seem, with thanks to Ben Holst for drums, bass, and audio engineering, and more thanks to Melanie Hammet for extreme nudging.

Thank you to Kyle Gann for inspiring Marina to make Going Up, the last music she created.

Thank you, Eli Walker

Original artwork by Marina Day

Thank you, Trey Pasquariello, for making it look pretty

Inspired by the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran-Foer, Marina wrote Eye

to Eye, performed it once at Eddie’s Attic, and maybe a few other times. Mostly it laid dormant, waiting until she could get back to it one day and fluff it up into its fullness.

Linked here is her saved-for-reference version, which she quickly whipped out one day onto Garage band on her Macbook when she had been lamenting to me about forgetting some of her earlier songs. I suggested she record them fast-and-dirty just for remembering, so this is what we have here.

A few years ago, Mike began listening to Eye to Eye a bit obsessively and started talking about finding someone to record it in a more professional form. After much simmering in the background of my life (and huge project list), a sudden brainstorm last year set me in motion to create something magical as a gift for Mike. I didn’t know at the time how special it would become, all I knew was that my whole body cringed at the thought of random people tinkering with Marina’s music.

The brainstorm (accompanied by my whole-body YES!) was that it needed to be done by people who knew her, loved her, and therefore would be most likely to infuse their version with her life-force and vibe.

I secretly (not-so-secretly) hoped that if I chose people she loved, she would also be more inclined to drop in with them and frolic alongside them.

DeDe Vogt took Marina’s sketchbook version of Eye to Eye and teased out the fingerpicked guitar part, then cobbled it together with gorgeous layers of percussion, bass, and synth, giving it a delightful new architecture.

After a few weeks of getting it where she wanted it, DeDe ferried it across the ocean in magical transport software to Sofia Dragt, who teased out a vocal line then added her own brushstrokes — a little more

this, a tad less that, a new vocal touch — massaging it into a shimmering new art-piece.

These brilliant professionals who each loved Marina conjured a magical art-piece together.

They never once spoke. Never emailed.

The three of us “met” together for the first time a week later, to revel, to celebrate, and to smile BIG.

Sit down, friend, maybe even ask Marina to sit with you (she definitely will). Take a few deep breaths. It’s (literally) breathtaking.

I hope you love it. The three of us have been delighted by the whole process. ~Sharon

Day, March 12, 2021