The Violet Mindfield

“Tell Me” b/w “Moonlight Love”

John Duran: “Tell Me” came from an acute period of self-reflection and the meeting of a very special person in my life. I wrote it several years ago and for a while it was a staple in our live set, sometimes extending to over 20 minutes. For the single, the idea was to retain the vibe of the original version but to do something a bit different as far as instrumentation than what we normally do.

At the same time, I wanted to maintain a relatively cohesive overall sound with the other work we’ve been putting out lately. To do this, we shortened the song to around two-and-a-half minutes or so and recorded everything to four-track cassette tape for an authentic sound.

For the instrumentation, instead of using electric guitars primarily, we swapped them for acoustics, with the fuzz from the ‘60s Maestro fz-1a (through a Silvertone 1448) appearing only here and there. We added the Danelectro baby sitar and a low Hammond drone through a Leslie rotating speaker for that elusive extra touch.

“Moonlight Love” lyrically is a result of my interest in occult literature and practices, particularly sex magick in this instance. For the recording, the notion was to follow the lines of “Tell Me” to a degree, as this song was intended to be the flip side for this single from the get-go.

Singles are pressed on 7-inch, 45 rpm vinyl records.