Original album cover:
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Jane Siberry: vocals, guitar, misc. keyboards
John Switzer: bass, (percussion)
Ken Myhr: guitar, (apple drum percussion)
Al Cross: drums, (linn overdubs)
and:
Doug Wilde: keyboards
Jon Goldsmith: keyboards
Jeff Wolpert: piano string ambience
Rob Yale: Fairlight programming
co-produced by Jane Siberry/John Switzer and Jon Goldsmith/Kerry Crawford
music and lyrics by Jane Siberry
(except Extra Executives: lyrics by Jane Siberry, music by Jane Siberry/John Switzer)
arrangements by Jane Siberry and the band
mixed in Toronto, February 1984.
mastered by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York.
This recording was done in 2 parts. The 1st part was intended to be an independent
release and included: Waitress, Symmetry, Extra Executives and Dancing Class.
I had a thing about dinky bass drum sounds and made the drummer (Al Cross) keep
changing his drums and skins for 3 days. These days if anyone takes longer than
15 minutes to set up drum mikes, I get impatient. it seems so much is done in
mixing that all you need is a straight, unadulterated sound and that's fine.
John Switzer and I produced it together. Shortly after recording mixing this
EP, I signed with a small Canadian label and went into a studio with 2 more
producers (Jon Goldsmith and Kerry Crawford). This was my introduction to sampling
and sequencing although I wasn't interested in it then and just let everyone
else do it. I loved what they did though. Mimi On The Beach was created from
a guitar based song that I was slowly forming in my solo gigs. It started with
a girl pointing to a snapshot and saying "That's Me On The Beach".
The guitar solo in waitress always reminds me of sandpipers running along the
edge of the waves at the ocean. In dancing class i used the voice of a german
woman i met when i lived in a small village on Crete for a few months. I stayed
in touch with her and called her twice with words I wanted her to say for "Dancing
Class" and later "Vladimir Vladimir". There was something very
moving, haunting about her accent and the quality of her voice. Christiane Fischer.
"I Muse Aloud" had the sound of bantam roosters crowing for a while
live, but we left it out on the record. It goes well with the sentiment of feeling
good, though.
Original album cover: