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The Good Life
an interview with Tim Kasher by Mike Diver / pictures by Paul Heartfield

(excerpt)

The other members of The Good Life - Stefanie Drootin, Ryan Fox and Roger Lewis - have no lyrical input whatsoever; the words on the records - 'Album Of The Year' was preceded not only by the 'Lovers Need Lawyers' EP, but also by 'Blackout' (also on Saddle Creek) and 'Novena On A Nocturne' - are Kasher's only. "We kind of keep to our own departments," he says. I wonder if that's why certain compositions on the album seem too upbeat for the lyrics they're attached to?
It's all in the way it's perceived. Like, if I step back from 'Lovers Need Lawyers', it's really poppy, with all these strong, melodic hooks. But I see it as just part of the bigger story. I see it as the wild excitement of the male, so it's very urgent. It's a happy song! It's the male trying to say, 'Hey, nothing ever happened, and I love you'. So, it kind of goes with the right chords.

Perception, now there's a subject. How do one person's feelings translate to another person with a totally different set of experiences? Do the lyrics in The Good Life's songs affect people in different ways, or on different emotional levels?
I'm not really sure how to answer that, just because I'm not really sure how my feelings are on it. Only because if I was to say, 'Oh, this song's happy, and it'll affect someone at some deeper level', then that only perpetuates the problem with my style of songwriting...

(excerpt)

CWAS #16 - Autumn 2004

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