The Resonars reign supreme as the ultimate Garage Pop band on Earth, and ‘Electricity Plus‘ could easily claim the title of their finest masterpiece yet. The enhanced richness of their sound and celestial harmony vocals take you on a sonic journey, but it’s truly the unforgettable songs that steal the spotlight. With 16 irresistible earworms, these tunes are destined to be cherished for a lifetime.

I requested Matt Rendon to reveal his tale behind the new album.

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You can find ‘One Nobody Knows’ showcased on the Best Power Pop of 2024 Spotify Playlist.

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It appears that you enhanced the sound of The Resonars on ‘Electricity Plus‘, making it richer and more robust. Am I correct in this observation, or am I simply swayed by the electrifying nature of ‘Electricity Plus 1‘, the opening track, which delivers an unexpected surge of energy, unless one considers the title, of course?

Yeah, Johnnie (Rinehart) knocked it out of the park with his synth arrangement on Electricity I and II. He came in with an ARP Odyssey and a Moog, laid the tracks down really fast, then we added a backwards 12-string Rickenbacker. That wild swirl of a beginning really lifts the album off. If the sound is richer and more robust, it should be accredited to better microphones and compressors. We acquired a pair of LA4s and a Neumann U-47 clone made by WARM. And we have a Mellotron now, but we use it sparingly and only in ranges that sound authentic. It’s wonderful because I’ve always wanted strings and horns on Resonars records, but the expense of hiring those musicians is way beyond our budget. Now we have hundreds of musicians from 1963 at my disposal!

Matt, I am eager to proclaim the excellence of this new release. Would you be interested in sharing your own enthusiastic endorsement?

As far as my own enthusiastic endorsement, ha, all I can say about that is by September 2023 I was despondent about the record. I knew I had a handful of good songs but they weren’t working as a unit, no cohesion, no sequence that worked, and I started to really doubt myself. However, in October I spent a month in Europe with no access to those tracks – never thought to upload them to my phone. Upon return, I played the tracks while sitting on my back porch with a sixer and it all sort of clicked. What REALLY brought it together was the addition of Gold to Blue and Little Grey Man, which had previously been released as a single by Hypnotic Bridge. When they were integrated in the sequence the whole thing came alive! So yeah, I’m pretty happy with it!

While harmonious vocals are a trademark of nearly all the records you are involved with, on ‘One Nobody Knows‘ you seem to have reached a pinnacle in my view. Did achieving this level of vocal excellence require immense effort and dedication, or did you thoroughly enjoy the process of recording the vocals?

As to One Nobody Knows – I wrote that while reading an ABBA book called Bright Lights Dark Shadows. An exhaustive biography if there ever was one. I’d listen on headphones and try to discern what made their harmonies so magnificent. One could say the song was written as an exercise to experiment with harmony arrangement. I thoroughly enjoy recording vocal parts, but it’s also the most frustrating because I’m constantly chasing the overtones and the blend, and that’ll dictate whether I sing in falsetto or full throat, loudly or quietly. It’s hard work but man, the payoff is always worth it. The vocals were tripled, the first time I had ever done that, and also, I layed down two rhythm guitars, one at normal tape speed, and one with the tape speed slightly sped up. This was an old ABBA trick from the early days. The guitars sound enormous together,

Did you handle the production of ‘Electricity Plus‘ mostly on your own?

I produced all of the record except for Johnnie’s synth compositions.

Was there a specific song on this album that surprised you with its transformation from the initial concept to the final rendition? What was it about that particular song that caught you off guard?

The song that caught me by surprise was At Journey’s End. Again, a song that was written as an experiment to combine classical themes and a touch of Laura Nyro’s oddball arrangements (mainly California Shoeshine Boys). I didn’t expect it to come out as well as it did but oftentimes if you add a honky-tonk stomp to songs it can really lift them up. The main idea was – what if you wrote a simple pop song about having good friends but then broke up the verses with madrigals? I know this must sound extraordinarily pretentious hehe but I’ll try to get ideas from anything when in a songwriting slump.