Exploding Pop Inevitable

If By YesÕ Salt on Sea Grass

The pairing of Japan-born, New York-based multi-instrumentalist/producer Yuka Honda and L.A.Õs multi-voiced singer-violinist Petra Haden for their long-germinating If By Yes project created an ÒorganicÓ way of music-making, according to Honda. If you can call a bi-coastal collaboration organic.

This mutual admiration society called Honda and Haden began putting their heads together when Haden guest-sang on ex-Cibo Matto HondaÕs 2002 solo album Memories Are My Only Witness. The results were so oddly beautiful that they decided to pursue a further recording project, and after several years of cross-continental communication, theyÕve now released Salt on Sea Grass on Sean LennonÕs Chimera label.

ÒIÕve always thought Petra was one of the greatest singers, not just great technically but very unique,Ó says Honda. ÒWhen I was releasing my solo album and had the opportunity to do a record-release party, I thought I would just go crazy and do the things IÕd always dreamt of. So I flew her to New York with my frequent flyer mileage ticket; she came and we performed the show, and she stayed and we started to write little songs here and there.Ó

The duoÕs songwriting sessions were loose and informal, combining their varied yet resonant musical experiences in a way that would ensure a different character to the music ÐÐ an album might be the outcome, but theyÕd only record when and if they felt like it.

ÒWhen I collaborated with Yuka, she made me feel relaxed,Ó says Haden. ÒIt put me in a place where I wasnÕt so worried about if it sounds okay. And I felt like we had the same kind of style, kind of like the Beach Boys, with lots of harmonies.Ó

So two natural collaborators smashed their atoms together, and a zillion creative particles set fly. Honda (Plastic Ono Band, Sean LennonÕs solo album, Floored by Four with Mike Watt, Nels Cline and Dougie Bowne) and Haden (ex-That Dog, Beck and Rikki Lee Jones, and the creator of an all-a cappella version of The Who Sell Out) give Salt on Sea Grass an oddly affecting atmosphere loaded with sultrily melodicized soul-pop taken on rather complex rides across wildly diverse emotional terrains. The songsÕ frequent slides into darker and denser places is aided by contributions from guitarist Hirotaka ÒShimmyÓ Shimizu and drummer Yuko Araki, along with mixing work by electro-pop man Cornelius and guest work by guitarist Nels Cline and singer David Byrne.

The difference in this music is audible, maybe because Honda and Haden worked so slowly and intuitively toward the albumÕs fruition. That difference might also have to do with the intriguing egolessness of both Haden and HondaÕs musicianship.

ÒIÕm not so interested in chops, except maybe when I listen to Mahavishnu Orchestra or Jimi Hendrix,Ó says Honda. ÒI want to present my music more compositionally and not in terms of skill. IÕm more interested in creating the landscape and making the landscape as believable as possible.Ó

That may mean that she holds one note for eight bars, and that note might be a soft, near-inaudible sound that colors the air.

ÒIf you just want to listen to this music you can,Ó she says, Òbut if you want to dig deep, then thereÕs a lot of things you can find that are very unusual in terms of rhythmic structure, for example.Ó

She credits Cornelius for this non-traditional view of how to subvert the beat.

ÒHeÕs the most advanced innovator of the rhythm of pop music. He revolutionized how things need to be played, where nothing happens in the rhythm you know. And he completely deconstructed it, but also reconstructed it in a way that you can groove with it, so youÕll feel like itÕs still breathing. ItÕs easy to make things different; itÕs amazing to take it so far away, yet you feel so close.Ó

HondaÕs background as a Japanese music fan also plays a part in If By YesÕ alternative harmonies and pleasingly skewed rhythmic angles.

ÒIn Japan there are two categories: Japanese music and foreign music,Ó she says. ÒSo heavy metal and rock and hiphop and Brazilian music and The Godfather theme all go into the 'foreign music' genre. But I always considered all of them the same genre ÐÐ I just naturally hear them together.Ó

Viewed this way, the Haden-Honda connection makes its own kind of sense.

ÒI think what Petra brings to the music is very sunny and beautiful,Ó says Honda. ÒNow that IÕm working with L.A. musicians, I do think my world seems a little bit darker ÐÐ I tend to go to the gutter [laughs], to a New York dirty-apartment sound. But I did grow up on the ocean in Japan, so I think I have a sunny side to me too. And I really enjoyed finding this integration of worlds."