PHOTO: JEN SQUIRES
WRITING
Harrow Fair is Americana duo Miranda Mulholland and Andrew Penner – one part stomping songs that echo early country
and rock and roll, the other gritty ballads that sound sweet and haunted. Their sophomore album, Sins We Made, is out now
on Roaring Girl Records. www.harrowfair.ca.
By Miranda Mulholland & Andrew Penner
A Peek Into Our Process…
Harrow Fair’s Miranda Mulholland
and Andrew Penner talk about
writing the song “Rules of Engagement”
from their latest album, Sins
We Made, available via Roaring Girl
Records/Fontana North
Miranda Mulholland: For four years, I spent
every spring cat-sitting in a little village in England
called Twyford. It’s charming and lovely and my
daily rituals involved long walks, attempting
finicky recipes, and satisfying my obsession with
BBC detective dramas.
Andrew Penner: I’ve been lucky to visit this
beautiful village with Miranda a few times on
tour. It sometimes feels like you’re living inside
one of those BBC shows!
Mulholland: One evening, as I was watching
Grantchester (sexy vicar, drinks whisky, likes jazz,
solves crimes), Poppy the cat stepped on the
remote – which is the only plausible reason why I
might have been watching a reality show where
contestants are trapped together in a location
and cliques form. I started thinking about bullying.
Earlier that day in the village shop, I had
heard the phrase “put me in the picture,” meaning
“explain it to me” and I loved it.
The first lyrics and melody came together
all at once: “Why don’t you put me in the picture,
‘cause right now it’s just a big blur, could
you tell me what you’re getting at, what are
those words you’re trying to say? Did you read
it in the scripture? A ready reason just to ditch
her. Can you tell me what you’re driving at,
sounds like a tedious cliché.”
I recorded a quick voice memo on my
phone as well as a text describing the opening
drum beat (“boom- a CHI-cka boom- a CHIcka”)
and winged it off to Andrew five hours
behind me in Canada.
Penner: I’m working away in my studio in Toronto
when I get a text from Miranda. A percussion
idea, lyrics, and a melody. I love it and start
working on it that night.
Mulholland: Once I sent the text, I forgot
about it and went off to bedfordshire! Zzzzz…
Penner: That night I add guitar parts, flesh out
the percussion idea, add bass, synth, organ,
and piano sketches. A week or so later I send
over what I’ve added and propose what the
form of the song could be.
Mulholland: I had literally forgotten about
the idea of the song when Andrew sent over
a fully-instrumented framework! Amazing.
Penner: It’s close, but we both agree it’ll probably
need another part. Not sure what just yet.
I also joke with Miranda through text that this
song idea is the closest thing to a blues song
we’ve ever written.
Mulholland: We made the decision to start
the song with the chorus. There are so many
songs we found that do that: “Ain’t No Sunshine,”
“Take a Chance on Me,” “Jolene”... If you
think of a song like a movie, beginning with
the repeating chorus that we both sing gave
us that first establishing wide shot, and then
we could snap in to make the first verse feel
more intimate.
Penner: We feel like this song shouldn’t let
up. It needs to keep escalating. I used the
metaphor of a prison in verse two and we like
the lyrics that come from that. “I want a friend
not a warden, Never have to beg your pardon,
Open the vaults, I’ve got some bills that you’re
gonna have to pay.” This song is starting to feel
like a fight and it’s heading towards conflict.
Sonically, it starts big and keeps getting
bigger. This subject demands force behind
it. Big drums, huge violins, crunching guitar,
synths, organs, and a wall of vocals are developing
and we feel like we’re really starting
to achieve this. We keep writing and an
idea comes for a bridge part where the main
conflict of the song can happen. We work
out the lyrics…
Mulholland: We really work like playwrights
a lot – dramaturging each other’s ideas and
phrases to really distill the essence of the
thought.
Penner: “You called me out in public as a casual
display, So I called in all my friends to come
and join the fray, Rallying our army and lining
up the prey, Daring you to go a different way.”
We record the song between two studios in
Toronto. My studio, The Cellar, and John Dinsmore’s
Lincoln County Social Club.
Mulholland: I’ve always admired how Joel
Plaskett uses sounds as riffs, not just melody
work. We experimented with some articulated
breaths and oohs to add some layers and
tension.
Penner: The tension we added with this vocal
layering coupled with the distortion and distress
of the melodies we’ve heard earlier in the
song help illustrate that a shift has occurred in
this relationship. We don’t know the exact details
or if this change is lasting, but something
big has happened.
The musical arrangement keeps evolving
to where they feel it’s ready. We hand over the
song and reference mix to James Bunton, who
is mixing the album.
Mulholland: After the song had been mixed,
we both felt uncomfortable with one of the
lyrics and decided to change it. We hashed out
alternatives, recorded it, and James mixed it in
seamlessly. Bet you can’t tell what was recorded
at the very last minute!
Penner: We signed off on the mixes and sent
it off to Joao Carvalho for mastering. Done.
Mulholland: Our friends in Los Angeles put
together an amazing choreographed dance
to it and filmed it on five iPhones, which we
edited to create the video! Check it out and if
you want a real dance challenge, give it a try!
58 CANADIAN MUSICIAN