UTR Premiere: My Education - Open Marriages (Kerretta Remix)

Texan instrumentalists My Education are set to release new album Schiphol in March and got the promo ball rolling with excellent first single 'Open Marriages' a couple of weeks back. Later this week the band will follow up with a selection of remixes of the single that includes a couple of familiar names - one of those names being local band Kerretta who's take on 'Open Marriages' we have the privilege of premiering today ahead of it's official release. Tuck into both versions of the song, and below we've got a quick Q+A with guitarist Brian Purington...


Here's the Kerretta remix...

Hi Brian, how are you? Where are you at the moment...

Hi! I'm at my home in East Austin, Texas.

Please give us a quick introduction to My Education…

My Education is an instrumental Kraut/Post/Psych-Rock band that formed in Austin TX in 2001. Over the years we have released eight full-length albums, several singles, various compilation appearances, two improvisational LPs with the Salt Lake City band Theta Naught, and a 12" collaborative EP with the avant-hip hop duo Dalek. We will be releasing our latest full length album, Schiphol, on March 3rd. The current line-up is: James Alexander - viola, Earl Edward Bowers IV - drums, Chris Hackstie - guitar, Kirk Latkas - keyboards, Scott Tells - bass, Skye Ashbrook - digital and live visuals, and myself (Brian Purington - guitar).

You’ve been fairly regular in your output over the past 10 years or so - where does Schiphol fit within your work to date?

We were commissioned to score a documentary called Mud, Mules & Mountains, made by our friend, Carty "C.M." Talkington (Love & A .45), who also happens to be a big fan of the band. The payment we received for scoring Carty's movie was spent entirely on recording this new album (our 8th studio album), giving us a larger recording budget than usual to work with. We were able to take some time and choose who we wanted to work with to record the album, and we decided to call upon Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead, Heartless Bastards, etc) to produce the record. We tracked it at Public Hi-Fi (Spoon's studio), then sent it to be mastered by Howie Weinberg. I think it's by far the best sounding and most cohesive record we've done to date.

Have you been working on it long?

We actually finished it a little over a year ago but had to delay the release due to a couple of band members having babies. Overall it took about a month to track and another month to mix. As usual with us, it took about a year to write, hone and bring the songs together.

We know you’ve become a dad in recent years and no doubt other members have families also - how has impacted how you make music together and/or your approach to music?

It's hard to describe how things have changed... I find that after having a child it's hard to recall what life was like without them, but I would say being a parent you find that you don't have a lot of free time, so I try to be as productive as possible in the moments I am able to dedicate to music. I think being able to demo at home is important, as I don't have a lot of time to hammer songs out by jamming with the full band. I still pick up a guitar every day, and - even if it's only for five minutes - I try to work on new ideas. I believe it's called "living the dream".

‘Open Marriages’ is the first single to be released from Schiphol - how does it sit within the album as a whole?

The song is based around a riff I wrote which I thought had a 'Popol Vuh' feel to it. After presenting it to the band it eventually evolved into a piece with three distinct movements: a Krautrock influenced first section, a reflective midsection and a hard-driving ending. We've been kicking off our live set with if over the last year and decided it would be a good opener for the record along with being the first single.

You're quite fond of remixes - what do you like about this process and how did you decide on the artists for 'Open Marriages'?

One of the things I like most about being a musician is being able to travel the world and make connections/collaborate with other artists. Remixes are a great way to collaborate with other artists, no matter where in the world they are. Also, the delay between recording and releasing the record allowed us the lead time to get a number of remixes done. I'm glad we were able to take advantage of that.

I was able to con a couple of New Zealand artists into doing remixes (Kerretta and Nich Cunningham). I met Kerretta when they were here in Austin playing SXSW back in 2010 (we played the same showcase), and we've stayed in touch over the last seven years, catching up in person when we happened to be in the same city at the same time. Last year, Hamish (Kerretta's drummer) and I happened to both find ourselves in New York at the same time, so spent some time talking music and hitting up shows (Napalm Death, The Melvins) together. Kerretta and My Education also share a German record label, Golden Antenna.

I met Nich Cunningham at a Jakob show at the King's Arms when I was visiting family in Auckland in August. I had a lot of fun working with Kerretta, and Nich, and I hope to do more collaborating with Kiwi musicians when I move to Auckland in April.

The other artists who did remixes are (friends/colleges/partners in crime of ours from Austin) Total Unicorn, Beat Imprint, Knifight, 811, and the UK based Petrels (who we played with last time we toured Europe).

It must be fun getting remixes back, like opening presents...

Yes it is! You never know what part of the song the remixer will focus on but it's always refreshing to hear something you've recorded in a completely different context.

Will you be touring the release?

Yes, we are playing the following US dates and are currently booking European dates for the fall. I'm hoping to be able to bring the band to New Zealand late this year or early next.

January 28th - San Angelo, TX @ The Deadhorse
February 11th - New Orleans, LA @ The Circle Bar
February 17th - College Station, TX @ Revolution
February 24th - Houston, TX @ Satellite Bar
February 25th - Lake Charles, LA @ My American Pub
March 10th - San Antonio, TX @ Limelight
March 12th - 18th - Austin, TX - SXSW
March 25th - Austin, TX - Record Release Party @ Sidewinder
May 6th - Austin, TX - Pecan St. Festival

Shiphol is out 3rd March and you can pre-order it on vinyl over HERE

Photo by Kat Alyst