Jenny Toomey queries prolific pop marvel BARBARA MANNING about her third solo album, 1212
from Alternative Press (August 1997)
1212 beings with a six-part song cycle about an arsonist. What drove you to write such an ambitious group of songs?
I'd had a vision of an older woman watching a news broadcast concerning an arsonist; then in walks her son looking a little "crisp around the edges." It was the moment when she put it all together, you know, our son/arson. I didn't set out to write a rock opera, but for a while every time I picked up my guitar I was writing different aspects of this same story.
This was your ninth time in a studio to record a full-length in as many years. How has
your approach to recording changed?
The first time I went in the studio with (former band) 28th Day I was so excited that I walked
around school wrapped up in the excess reel tape. I didn't care if it looked strange; I was
proud. I'm still incredibly excited in the studio, but I have more control. It's less a crazy
drug and more a focused time to realize the vision of what I want to record.
Why did you decide to record with (Giant Sand's) Joey Burns and John
Convertino?
We'd been scheduling time to record together for a while. We knew that we were all busy
in September, but we didn't realize that we were busy then because we were all booked on
the same tour. Arrangements developed live, and we took them straight into the studio. The
crazy bass effects in "The Arsonist Story" -- the sound of a match being struck, the
catching fire and the gasoline being poured -- those musical ideas were all worked out live.
We tried to keep as much of them in the recording as possible.
