Music Sessions from Studio C: Mary Timony

The Download.com Music Sessions is a series of exclusive podcasts with a wide range of artists. Each session features a combination of live songs and interviews with Download.com Music staffmembers. Check back regularly for updates. For this session, our guest is guitarist, singer, and songwriter Mary Timony.

Known for fronting the Boston-based noise-pop trio Helium, singer/guitarist Mary Timony was born and raised in Washington, D.C., later studying viola at the city's Duke Ellington School of the Arts. During the early 1990s she fronted Autoclave, a short-lived but highly-regarded girl-punk quartet which issued a pair of EPs on Dischord before dissolving; after graduating from Boston University with a degree in English literature, in 1992 Timony replaced Mary Lou Lord in an early incarnation of Helium, assuming full creative control of the group prior to the release of their acclaimed debut single "The American Jean." "Hole in the Ground" preceded the trio's 1994 Matador EP Pirate Prude; the brilliant The Dirt of Luck LP appeared the following year, and in 1996 Timony teamed with Shudder to Think bassist Nathan Larson, Dambuilders violinist (and former college roommate) Joan Wasser and drummer Kevin March in the alt-rock supergroup Mind Science of the Mind. Returning to Helium for 1997's The Magic City, Timony's songs revealed an increasing fascination with the fantastical imagery and sounds of prog-rock, a trend continued on her 2000 solo debut Mountains.*

In 2002, Timony released her second solo album, The Golden Dove, featuring elaborate melodies balanced with pop-sensible hooks, recorded with Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous and Christina Files of The Swirlies and Victories At Sea. While many critics felt this record was more aligned with her work with Helium, the inclusion of more provocative and personal lyrics mingled with the fantastic and otherworldly landscape that Timony has developed and expanded upon throughout her musical career illustrated growth as a musician and songwriter. At the same time, Timony was participating in various musical and film projects including the mostly instrumental Green 4 and scoring a short film, "Dream Machine," notably.

In 2004, Timony began work on the songs that would become Ex Hex, her latest solo album, with drummer Devin Ocampo (also of the band, The Medications) and producer Brendan Canty, of the band Fugazi. She had relocated from Boston to Washington D.C. and most of the sessions were conducted at the legendary recording studio, Inner Ear. Built around a foundation of guitar and drums, the album's 11 songs are a combination of stark art-garage stompers and beautiful spiraling musical landscapes all informed with Timony's signature vocals and lyrics. Ex Hex is Mary Timony's first release for Lookout! Records, the California label known for having started the careers of Green Day, The Donnas and more recently the home of Ted Leo & The Pharmacists and The Oranges Band.