MYRNA LOY in an interview (1/2): “… that music can hit you from the inside like a kiss.”

Myrna Loy released her debut album “I Press My Lips in Your Inner Temple” 35 years ago. Now it is entering the digital world with its expanded, remastered version. After decades of silence surrounding the band, which doesn’t fit into any genre boundaries – but is somewhere between (dark) wave, ambient and pop rock – we now have an exclusive interview with singer Victor. In the first part, we take a journey inside.

How it all began …

Orkus: Let’s start at the beginning. How did the desire or need to found Myrna Loy come about in the first place?
Victor D: We were all music enthusiasts and intended to shake up the rock-heavy music scene in Bonn with a different sound. After the first album, we became more ambitious and wanted to make our mark on the German music scene.

O: Why did you choose the name of the now deceased silent movie actress?
VD: On the one hand, we liked the name of the Twenties icon, on the other hand, the name didn’t allow any conclusions to be drawn about the music. We wanted a band name that didn’t directly place us in a particular musical genre. Which also fitted in with our strategy of not allowing ourselves to be pigeonholed …

Delicate kiss

O: Let’s stick to the subject of “names”: How did the album title “I Press My Lips in Your Inner Temple” come about?
VD: The title/slogan of the album should express that the music can hit you like a kiss from the inside. “Sing Garden”, for example, describes how a person sitting on a bench enters a meditative state and in the end, still sitting on the bench in the rain, becomes aware of his role in life. The whole album is a journey into everyone’s inner self.

Timeless

O: Your debut album recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, and was remastered and released digitally for the first time to mark the occasion. How did it feel to get back to the first album after such a long time?
VD: I think our bassist Cord summed it up well: “Myrna Loy has arrived in the eternal digital memory of mankind, saved for eternity.” There is a certain pride in the fact that you still get an appreciation after so many years. Apparently we have created something timeless.

Head voice

O: One special feature is your incredible vocal range. When did you “discover” it and how did it develop from there? Did it require any special work?
VD: I’ve always sung a lot. As a small child, according to my mother. As a teenager in the church choir and to my guitar. However, I only really discovered my head voice in the rehearsal room when we had the idea for “Sing Garden”. The sequence with the head voice came about spontaneously and “Sing Garden” itself was created in one evening. Many of the vocal ideas were inspired by the bizarre samples from our keyboarder Alex and certain guitar sounds from Mikele.

Origin

O: How can we imagine the creation of “I Press My Lips in Your Inner Temple”?

VD: In the first year of our band, we created around 30 tracks and almost 80% of the songs were discarded according to certain criteria. In retrospect, I have to say that some of the songs that have now been released as live bonus tracks are better than I thought they would be at the time (for example “Your Friend”). “I Press My Lips in Your Inner Temple” was initially only supposed to be a four-track maxi. We went into a studio and recorded the tracks with a lot of time and leisure. The recordings are great, but were never released because we won the Ruhrrock Festival at almost the same time. We started all over again in the Conny Plank studio. In hindsight, I would say it was a mistake to record them again in a hurry in the Conny Plank studio, as the original recordings were much more lively and represented the idea of our music much better.

O: How did you go about recording professionally? And how long did it take until “I Press My Lips in Your Inner Temple” was in the can?
VD: There was a MIDI pre-production (all the electronic tracks were already recorded on tape) – we only had five days in the studio to record and mix everything. We didn’t like the first “Decamerone” version. Fortunately, we were able to persuade Eduard (the head of our record company) to give us another day.

Opera-like?

O: Speaking of the “Decamerone”: Is there a story behind it?

VD: A piece from the early phase. The very first version is even still with (real) clarinet. I was more or less persuaded to sing a kind of operatic voice, which I didn’t really like at all. At some point I mentioned that I used to sing in the church choir. As no one believed this, I gave a sample, and it worked for “Decamerone”. On the occasion of the new release, I listened to all the versions again with Alex and I have to say that the best versions of “Decamerone” have not yet been released.

Bach vs. wave and pop?

O: “Lebetor” also captures Myrna Loy ‘s broad musical spectrum very well. Do you remember how this piece came about?
VD: “Lebetor” is inspired by a Johann Sebastian Bach praeludium with its opposing sequences of notes (fugue). In the first step, Alex and I were two people in the rehearsal room and programmed and experimented with a kind of march. However, I still remember that the basic melody and the basic theme of this piece were created in just two hours and the framework was quickly established. “Lebetor” is a successful mixture of wave and pop and was always a real hit live.

Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg

The next part is about lived rock’n’roll, memories, the present and the future.

Line-up:
Victor D. – vocals
Mikele – guitar
Cord D. – bass
Alex – keyboards, sampler
Lothar Loy – drums

Listen to “I Press My Lips in Your Inner Temple” on Spotify. You can read a review here .