Mathieu Santos (Ra Ra Riot) Makes "Massachusetts 2010" Solo Debut
Mathieu Santos, founding member and bass player of chamber-pop quintet Ra Ra Riot, released his debut solo LP yesterday on Barsuk Records. The album, Massachusetts 2010, is available digitally, on limited edition hand-numbered white vinyl LP, and on even more limited edition cassettes via Working Man Records.
Ra Ra Riot’s breezy island jam, “Massachusetts,” off their 2010-released album The Orchard hints at the sounds and spirit of Santos’ new solo effort. He even includes a new arrangement of the tune, the title track – named for his home state, where he wrote the songs for this record.
Andrew Maury, longtime Ra Ra Riot engineer and live soundman, co-produced, engineered and mixed Massachusetts 2010, which features Santos’ unstoppable basslines driving the sometimes-stark, always-atmospheric arrangements.
Stream/download “I Can Hear The Trains Coming” off the record, here:
Mathieu Santos – I Can Hear The Trains Coming by MathieuSantos
According to Maury, the album was recorded in a carriage house on a friend’s property in Frenchtown, NJ…
“I brought my recording rig in there, and we set up and just went for it. Wes [Miles, singer in Ra Ra Riot] helped with the production, and played sax parts on “Massachusetts” and “Northern Mentality.”
Mat Santos at Blackdog Recording, near Albany
“The whole album had been demo’d extensively as Mat wrote the songs in 2010 – first entirely in MIDI, then again as live parts in GarageBand. So we had very thorough arrangements, which we used as the blueprint for tracking.
Our mentality was more or less ‘make it and don’t look back.’ A lot of decisions and sounds were recorded impulsively.
We finished tracking in 4 days and went up to Black Dog Recording Studio – where we made The Orchard – to attempt to mix it in one day. We were up all night…
“They have a ’76 Sphere Eclipse A console I wanted to try mixing on, and this was the perfect project for it. Some songs on the album are mixes straight off the board, and some are constructed from stems printed off the board. Either way, I think the board gave it a pretty cool flavor.”
Listen to the entire album stream at Paste.
Overhead view of Maury’s rig during Massachusetts 2010 recording sessions.
Andrew Maury at the Sphere Eclipse A console at Black Dog.
“Massachusetts 2010” mix map