Victor Mitrani, who records his music as Little Oil, says, “I don’t know how people wrote songs before they could record themselves.” Sitting at his desk in his Richmond home, describing the process of making his new album, Twelve Songs, he adds, “I record all my parts in my bedroom at home, just my guitar, some bass and vocals. I do several takes, until the song sounds good to me.”
Mitrani uses GarageBand and a click track or drum loop to make a basic demo. He sends that to his friend, Jason Gonzales, to mix. When he’s satisfied with the mix, he sends that version to his drummer, Cody Rhodes. “I give him minimal, oftentimes zero, direction,” Mitrani said. “Sometimes he takes them in a direction I didn’t see coming at all, but I end being pleasantly surprised by his take.”
The tunes on Twelve Songs feature arrangements that highlight the entire history of pop music, from folk to modern rock, with an added dash of international music. The set opens with “Sweet Fruit Jar.” Simple piano triplets, suggesting an R&B tune from the ’50s, introduce Mitrani’s keening vocals, as he sings about drinking away his troubles in an empty bar.
“Hey Judas” is a mellow psych-rock tune. Mitrani croons lead harmonies with his friend Mary Hurely, with a great guitar hook and sustained organ chords adding to the ambiance. “The title is a reference to the Beatles song,” Mitrani said. “I thought it would be fun to write a song to cheer up one of the most hated people in history.”
Mitrani plays Django Reinhart-flavored riffs on “Is that You?,” a tune with music inspired by the Hot Club de France. Kyle O’Brien guests on fiddle, as Mitrani sings of boredom and salvation. “Long Ago” is a waltz that tips its hat to Jacques Brel. It’s a quiet ballad that describes a man washed up on shore after a shipwreck, coming to terms with solitude. Clanging percussion gives the song a funereal air.
“I like to write all kinds of songs,” Mitrani said. “I have no agenda, no point to make. The album is all about the songs, so I thought it sounded good to name it like a short story collection, ’cause that’s how I view the songs. They’re connected by an invisible string that even I can’t quite put my finger on, but I can hear it and feel it.”
The record will be released on The Fountain Inc. Tape Collective, an indie label out of Oakland started by Derek Barber and Jake Sucher. While putting on backyard shows during the pandemic, they realized they had a talented group of musician friends. They started a tape label to help that community grow. They put out a compilation last year, Friends of The Fountain, to benefit the National Network of Abortion Funds and the East Oakland Collective.
“Putting out a tape with them just seemed right,” Mitrani said. “I’m excited to help them flourish, so we can start covering some production expenses for artists and grow our community.”
Mitrani said his musical tastes, and desire to make music, evolved as he grew up. “My dad was born in Mexico City,” he said. “My mom’s from New York, but my folks met on a kibbutz in Israel. I was born after they moved back to Mexico.”
Both parents enjoyed music, but there were no musicians in the family. “I grew up listening to hip-hop. Then my mom played me ‘Your Mother Should Know’ by the Beatles,” he said. That led him to guitar-based rock, Dylan, and then back to the blues and folk music.
After his parents split up, he moved to San Diego with his mother and became an avid skateboarder. The music in skateboarding videos opened his mind to a whole world of music. “I heard Sonic Youth, the Pixies and even Thelonious Monk on skateboarding videos,” Mitrani said. “I realized I wanted to write songs, so I got a guitar and took lessons for a while.
“Songwriting seemed natural to me,” he said. “I’m surprised when people who love music never dabble in it. I’d come up with lyrics and interesting chord progressions, not that they were any good, but it was fun. Nobody taught me how to write songs. You make it up as you go along, and refine it. I’m still refining it, today.”
After getting an economics degree at UC Santa Cruz, he moved to San Francisco and played in bands. He traveled to Spain, where he taught English as a second language, before returning to the Bay Area and starting a band that shared his interest in exploring genres without limits.
“I found out that holding a band together is frustrating and challenging,” Mitrani said. “It’s like holding a marriage together, with four people. After that project ended, I decided to go solo. Collaborating with others can be difficult. Striving for a happy medium is not always the best way to do things. Sometimes being a dictator is the best way to go.”
Little Oil’s ‘Twelve Songs’ will be available on his BandCamp page on March 28: littleoil.bandcamp.com/album/twelve-songs. The album-release party will take place at The Lost Church, in Santa Rosa, on the same date: thelostchurch.org/santa-rosa/.
