Zak Sally on his new album Fear of Song:
"In typical La Mano fashion, it's a handmade, signed and numbered deal, with me doing the printing i was able to do myself and each copy hand assembled
right here, by me (with some help from my crack intern Maddie and whatever pals i can bribe into helping out).
and this is where we get into some weirdness, because obviously, Zak Sally, is, you know-- ME. so if i were someone else, i could go on about my years
in the minimalist rock trio LOW, (and stints with other outfits such as Enemy Mine, the Dirty Three, Kid Dakota), and how i started making this record
in my basement over a year ago just to see if i could finish ONE SONG (this being something that had been a REAL PROBLEM for the previous 36 years of my
life), but then actually started enjoying the process until finally i went over to my good old friend Ben Durrant's (Andrew Bird, Dosh, tons of great stuff...)
Crazy Beast Studio and slowly tore our hair out strand by strand until, LOOK-- a WHOLE RECORD! NEAT!!
and, if i wasn't me, i could say-- it's a good record. i set myself with the goal of making EVERY SOUND on the thing, and so that's what it sounds like.
it sounds like me.
and, to be honest, whether you like the music or not, i think you'd be hard pressed to find a physical object containing music on it where the artist was
MORE INVOLVED in every aspect of the thing; i mean, i made all the sounds and all that, but i also designed it, and laid it out for printing, then made
the plates (poly, on a hopped-up HP computer printer), then PRINTED the damn thing on my OWN PRESS, and did all the machine trimming and folding, then
HAND GLUED a 4" square to the front of each one then a 2" square to the BACK of each one then HAND folded and taped each sleeve (which i ALSO printed)
and inserted the disc and then just to beat a dead horse i SIGNED AND NUMBERED EACH ONE and shoved it in a vinyl sleeve, and it's just about 97% sure that
I'LL be the guy packing it up and sending it to you, and...look: I DID EVERYTHING BUT MILK THE FUCKING SQUID ON THIS THING. i'm not listing all this to
toot my horn or to impress you (because it's not like someone was holding a gun to my head telling me to do it this way, you know, it's just that this
kind of stuff is WHAT I LIKE), just because...you should know what your $13 bucks is getting you. this isn't a PRODUCT. you know those cd's in jewel cases
or digipaks? well this isn't that. this is something different, and all this is stuff I'D want to know, so i'm telling you here."