The Making of MOUNT EERIE by the Microphones - featuring Phil Elverum

Life of the Record

In this episode, Phil Elverum reflects on the experience of making MOUNT EERIE, the last album made under the Microphones name before adopting Mount Eerie as his project name. Phil gets into the process of taking a different approach from his previous album, THE GLOW PT. 2, and conceiving of a theatrical story about death and transformation. As his final album recorded in Olympia, Phil talks about embracing collaboration and enlisting friends from the Pacific Northwest music scene, including Mirah Zeitlyn, Khaela Maricich, Kyle Field, Karl Blau and Calvin Johnson to take on the roles of different characters. From the initial inspiration of driving around in Florida shortly after September 11th happened, to the difficulties of solo recording a 10-minute samba drum section to tape to taking inspiration from artists like Sade, Bjork and Timbaland to the young person’s search for meaning, we’ll hear the stories around how the record came together.