Valentine’s Day is still several months away, but island musician and singer-songwriter Ike Harmon is sending Vashon an early love missive in the form of a CD release and music video screening next weekend.
Five years in the making, Harmon’s album, “These Mansions Made of Sky,” was written, recorded, mixed, mastered and the video shot all on Vashon with island talent. This collaborative, and what he would say exceptional, nature is important and impressive to Harmon.
“When people get a chance to hear the depth, scope and majesty of the music, I think they will be gobsmacked that it was all done here,” Harmon said. “It sounds like it could have been done in Los Angeles or New York — the quality is that high. We are blessed with a unique concentration of world-class music, photographic, recording and art talent.”
Down a gravel driveway off Vashon Highway, a small building is tucked out of sight from the road. It houses Village Sound Studio, where The Beachcomber recently interviewed Harmon, studio owner and engineer Jeff Woollen, studio assistant Callie Wong and videographer Peter Ray to talk about the soon-to-be released CD and film.
The project began in 2012 with a song Harmon wrote in honor of island Vietnam veteran Chris Gaynor. He recorded it at Village Sound Studio, where he met Woollen and the spark of collaboration between the two ignited. According to Harmon, they cut their teeth on the song and realized they could do anything.
Anything turned out to be what Harmon is calling “Vashon Island’s Sgt. Pepper.” Like the iconic Beatles album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Harmon’s “Mansions Made of Sky” is designed to be a complete work of art, where each song stands alone, but together are meant to be heard as an entire symphonic piece.
“You start at the beginning, and each song sets up the next song,” Harmon said. “It is an emotional thing about society and growing up and loving and being hurt and dispirited and transcendence — the whole human story.”
The human story behind the CD and film involved over 20 island musicians being brought into the studio to record tracks to be laid into the final mix. Among the 20 are Wong, Ben McQuillin, Isaiah Hazzard, Rick Dahms, Luke McQuillin, Doug Pine, Rowena Hammill, Doug Davis, Andy James, Michael Marcus, Geran Webb, Emory Miedema-Boyajian, Barry Cooper, James Ferrari, Stephen Meyer, Wesley Peterson and Josie Chevalier. Over the three years of recording Harmon’s songs, more than 1,200 tracks were captured to create the final 12 rock songs. After Woollen finished the studio mix, audio engineer Martin Feveyear mastered it at his island studio and then gave the entire audio track to Ray for the video.
“I listened to the songs before we shot the video, so I had an idea of the timing,” Ray said. “We shot at locations all over the island from Maury to the airport, the ferry and front porch of Minglement. In the spirit of everything else, it was usually one take. There is a rawness to that. A lot are at night, dark and mysterious.”
Several of the videos are in black-and-white while most are in color. The film opens with Harmon singing “Nightengale Motel” on the Minglement porch and ends with the song “Into the Infinite” and video of more than 150 islanders and five dogs walking with the singer on Vashon Highway through the center of town. As part of the credits, Harmon gives a special tribute to Vashon.
“I thank the island and its spirit because a project of this scope could not have been done in any other comparably small and rural community such as Vashon,” he said.
And that begged the question so many islanders seem to ponder, “What makes Vashon a creative place?” Harmon attributes it to the location of the island between two major cities and close to an airport. Plus, he said, there’s a “certain sensibility of people who come here, with big character and big personality and they need space.” And for Harmon, creative people need both space and a rich natural environment not offered by a city, which makes Vashon “a perfect place to be creative.”
Studio owner Woollen agrees.
“I moved here 17 years ago as a temporary house guest, and thought I’d be here for a short bit,” Woollen recalled. “Then I realized this place is full of creative types, so I never left. I opened the studio in 2000, first to record my music, then I realized I really liked recording as much as making music. I wanted the studio to be a community asset for musicians.”
When Ray arrived on the island in 1982 to caretake Colvos Creek Farm for a couple of seasons, a booklet published by The Beachcomber under Jay Becker caught his attention.
“It was called ‘Island Life’ and had a giant list with painters, poets, graphic and visual artists, musicians and performers. A lot of the same names appeared on a number of different lists,” he explained. “At that point, I realized there are a lot of people doing a lot of stuff creatively here.”
For Wong, 17, growing up on the island as a teen was a “blessing in disguise.”
“We would say, ‘Oh, there is nothing to do here, we have to take a ferry,’ but none of this (the project) could have been possible without the people on the island,” she said. “I don’t think I could ever have gotten to meet these amazing guys in this room if it hadn’t been for Vashon. These people are my family, and I couldn’t be more thankful for them.”
Harmon remarked about the high level of cohesion among artists here.
“They help one another,” he said. “They would come in here and contribute something really good. That’s the wonder of it all. I’ve been antsy to get this done, but the mantra all along was: ‘We don’t know how it will end, but if it is cool, fun, communal, joyous and filled with the generosity of spirit throughout the entire process, we’ll end up with what we get.’ We are so proud because it is so much bigger and monumental than any of us knew.”
CD release and music video screening
The public is invited to a screening of islander Ike Harmon’s new music video from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, at the Vashon Theatre.
The screening will include a free CD and free popcorn. The film of the 12-song CD runs for an hour. Tickets are $25 at the door, and children under age 10 are free.
