Background
In an interview published in December 2003, Kevin Moore revealed that he had started work on a third Chroma Key album, but had put it aside to work on the first OSI album, Office of Strategic Influence. When Moore stopped working on Chroma Key material, he had already recorded two songs. "The big difference with the new is that there are more real instruments," Moore said. "I've hooked up with a bunch of friends that made hand drums and didgeridoos. And I did a lot of recording with that. This new Chroma Key is going to be more organic, and less digital."
Theron Patterson, a friend of Moore's and former classmate at California Institute of the Arts, was working in Istanbul, Turkey and invited Moore to visit. Moore, who had been living in Costa Rica, stayed with him for two weeks, then decided to settle in Istanbul and record the third Chroma Key album there. Moore signed to InsideOut Records. "They've been really great supporting this; they sent me out to Turkey when I told them I wanted to record out there, basically supporting the whole process," he said. The first project Moore worked on after he moved to Istanbul was Ghost Book, the soundtrack to the Turkish film Okul. Moore enjoyed the experience and decided to write the third Chroma Key album as an alternate soundtrack to an already-existing film.
Moore decided to use a film in the public domain to avoid any rights issues. He looked through the Prelinger Archives to find a film which matched the mood he wanted for the Chroma Key album. One of the first films he found was the social guidance film Age 13. "It was kind of rich for musical accompaniment and the cinematography and everything is really beautiful, kind of surreal," Moore said. The film served as Moore's main inspiration and source of audio samples.
When deciding on musicians to perform on the album, Moore said that he "picked people who were around". His girlfriend, Bige Akdeniz, performed vocals, Theron Patterson did programming and Patterson's drum teacher, Utku Ünal, performed the drums. The only musician Moore actively sought out was guitarist Erdem Helvacıoğlu, who performed on one track. Moore noted that none of the music was technically demanding, "it's just more of a feel that we’re going for so it was just a matter of getting comfortable and getting in the mood and playing stuff together."
Moore ranked Graveyard Mountain Home as the most enjoyable project he had worked on up to that point. "I never felt like 'Oh fuck I have to finish this record, I have to do one more song, I have to do something to this song to make it better,'" Moore said. He described the process of making the album as feeling "more like I was playing with this film and I was playing against it so it felt easy somehow".
Read more about this topic: Graveyard Mountain Home
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