Ghost and the Machine

Marc Bianchi of Her Space Holiday: "I knew that I wanted to return to electronics and bring in some strings back."

“As my body grows up, I don’t want to grow cold,” muses Marc Bianchi on “Anything for Progress,” the opening track to Her Space Holiday. That’s a fitting epitaph for his latest and last effort under his electro-pop moniker of the past 15 years, a radiant work that’s accompanied by the Black Cat Balloons EP, available for free download.

Off the Record:It couldn’t have been the weather, so what brought you back to Texas?
Marc Bianchi: I didn’t want to leave in the first place. Both my grandparents were getting up in years. I moved back home to help with the family. I was there for a lot longer than I was supposed to be. They passed about a year before I came back, but I just took some time off. I don’t remember it being as hot as it is. This is unbearable.

OTR: While there are parallels to bands like American Analog Set, some that would argue that Her Space Holiday was never really been part of the Austin music scene, that it existed outside of it.
MB: Austin has always been a very significant city to us. It was the first city that really embraced us, but I agree with that in two ways. Just by nature, I’m very introverted. I tend to work a lot on my own. Even when I lived in the Bay Area, I didn’t feel like I was part of the scene. Especially in Texas, there’s a real pride to bring from here. People take that seriously, and I don’t want to mess with that.

OTR:Did the move influence the new record?
MB: To be completely honest, I started this in the beginning of 2009, picking at the record a little here and there. Somewhere in the middle of it, when I moved to Texas, I really started losing my footing, not even creatively but just in life. I went to this tour in Japan, and I was supposed to play this show and right before I went on stage I just did not feel … I felt like I was stepping on a baseball field for the first time. It just wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t do it. It felt so foreign all of a sudden. For the past 15 years I always knew what I wanted to do, and suddenly it was completely and utterly gone.

When I came back I was kind of panicking a bit. I knew that I wanted to do one more record, but I wasn’t sure what it should be. I knew that I wanted to return to electronics and bring in some strings back. That’s at least something sonically that I understand, and it wasn’t there on the last record, which was very stripped down. I knew that I wanted it to be a pretty symphonic record. In a way, that could be me hiding behind stuff – the more stuff I pile on it would kind of hide that shakiness factor. But once we started working on it, it became more natural, like yes, I make music. I’ve been making music for years. And I got excited again. It was really weird.

OTR:It sounds like you regained your footing by the time you finished this process, so why are you retiring the project?
MB: It just doesn’t make sense in a way to do it anymore. I’ll always make music, and I’m very interested in production and scoring. But it’s getting so far away from what I wanted it to be in the beginning. When I started got a four-track and music was this brand new frontier. I’m 38. I’ve been in the industry for 15 years. This was a part of my life that I really loved, but everything has to end. It’s not on a sad note in any way shape or form. I’m very happy with the last record, and the way that it’s been received. I think it was the right thing to do. Also, I don’t want to take the chance of making another record that’s not good under this name. You have to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.

OTR:Looking back on those 15 years, it’s a completely different landscape now for touring electronic musicians.
MB:People are very accepting now. You can just perform with a laptop and a guitar now. I remember when I did that for a tour with Pinback, people would yell out, “You’re not doing anything!” … [Economics] does have a lot to do with it. On the last tour, I brought five people and lost a lot of amount of money, but I realize now that I can just go with a laptop for spot dates and do fine. If you can carry your gear on your back, you’re in a very good place.

OTR:So what’s next?
MB: I really want to score a full film. I’ve chipped away at it and done a few things here and there, but that’s the goal. I’m going to take a break from music. …

I just want to reset.