Happiness is Easy

"It is difficult for me to refer to them as songs, since many are instrumental and play more off different sounds coming and going than a traditional structure. Maybe that's why the name Misc seemed appropriate. It's a miscellaneous mix of the last few decades of styles, various sounds and pieces of things."

Misc. is the moniker for the studio project by Badman label founder/producer Dylan Magierek. Over the last few years Magierek devoted portions of studio time with some of the artists he has recorded to create a full length album; The result is a moody, cohesive, instrumental heavy album -with vocals by gifted Los Angeles poet-songwriter Daniel Ahearn lending fantastic, stirring, ardent stories to half of the tracks.

Misc. constructs soundscapes for listeners to get lost in or just support their own life movie. There is a tremendous amount of atmospherics and a pacing meant to affect the listener's heart rate.

"I started Misc. back in the late 1990's as an outlet for experimenting with recording machines, instruments and effects. I would record mostly in the dark, just working by the lights of the tape deck and delay units' L.E.D.s. I think you tend to create music that is very visual, with a weighty atmosphere, when you work like that. I would then often ask a great vocalist or other musicians to take the sounds further and create a realized song," Magierek reveals.

Happiness is Easy was recorded with friends from American Music Club, and fellow Portlanders Tracker and Weinland. Misc.'s debut contains ten tracks including a cover of the Low track 'Sea" –which was originally featured on a tribute album for the band.

"I recorded the early portions of what became this album mostly on my own in the same Haight Street flat that Mark Kozelek and I worked on his album of AC/DC covers, What's Next to the Moon. I think that gave me some confidence in trying to record more of my own "songs" there," says Magierek.

Badman has released albums by such quality artists as My Morning Jacket, Mark Kozelek, Hayden and the innocence mission. They just celebrated their 10 year anniversary.

Misc. travels some of the same atmospheric, yet song driven territory as Mogwai, Bedhead and Explosions in the Sky.