The Bubble, who are directed by Steve Zimmerman but exist as a massive collective of more than 35 people, sprout from the ‘90s Princeton scene.

In the early ‘90s, Zimmerman was working at the famed Princeton Record Exchange when he decided to record an album influenced by the psych greats- Love, The Move, early Pink Floyd, Pink Fairies. With these inspirations, Zimmerman began recording at the studio of Claude Coleman of Ween. Initial tracks were laid down on a four track… and then three decades of work, re-work, manipulation, editing, re-recording, and re-imagining began. For the next thirty years, Zimmerman moved from Princeton Record Exchange to Arizona to Delaware, where he founded the now iconic Jupiter Records. All the while, recordings for The Bubble were laid down in many studios while songs were crafted and re-crafted. Because the recording process was so extended, the number of people heard on the record are legion, including John Mark Painter (Ben Folds’ frequent collaborator), Shawn Setaro (of the Dresden Dolls), Claude Coleman (of Ween), Eric Feigenbaum (of the High Fidelity TV show), Michael Ronstadt (nephew of Linda), and even some people who are now dead- Somewhat ominously, Chris Czarnik and Zimmerman recorded the song ‘Play Dead,’ before Czarnik’s untimely passing. You might think focusing on one album for thirty years is kind of insane… and you’re totally right.

The result is ‘Swimming,’ a spiraling album that pulls from psych landmarks as filtered through Zimmerman’s vision. “I don’t care what people feel when they hear the different aspects of ‘Swimming,’” Zimmerman says. “People can feel what they want to feel. I just want them to listen and hear this thing that has been thirty years in the making. Finally, it’s complete.”

“The vision was just for a fun psychedelic record”

Tell us how you originally started and what led to the formation of Bubble?

Steve Zimmerman: I was mostly doing home recording stuff on my 4-track (sometimes two synched up). I played in a few basement ensembles, but mostly focused on writing/recording. The Bubble was a merger between two bands I was in during the early 1990s, one was The Great Glass Elevator, and one was Dreampipe. Personnel changes mostly led to the merger. The name was coined by drummer Ben Chatrer.

Were you part of any other bands before that?

No bands that made it to the gigging level, though some were “boombox” style recorded. I was 19 when I was in both The Great Glass Elevator and Dreampipe, for a frame of reference.

‘Swimming,’ your upcoming debut album is finally coming together. Why did it take more than three decades?

The recordings started back in November 1992, and culminated at a stint at Claude Coleman’s house, AKA Stonybrook Studio (I think?) in 1998. All analog, primarily cassette, 4 track cassette and then 16 track reels. I shelved them to pursue other projects, got married, had a couple of kids, moved around a bit here in the States. It was only about 6 years ago when I met Daniel Smith (from Danielson) through a friend, and I started transferring the old tapes to his cool barn studio. Since then, I’ve been diligently combing through tapes, re-assembling songs, and in some cases, starting from scratch on a proper recording, though I did frequently add in sounds from the older 90s cassettes. About 2 years in from the start of working with Daniel, I arranged the tracks for sequential album releases, and have been working on them.

When did you start working on it and what was the overall vision for the project?

The oldest track on the album, ‘Gravy,’ was a “boombox” style recording of live drums/guitar, and that was recorded in November of 1992. The next chunk of songs, ‘Lagoon,’ ‘Blue Porpoise,’ ‘Outback’ and ‘Smiles’ came shortly after, maybe Spring 1993, with the rest following throughout that year. The vision was just for a fun psychedelic record, seemingly set in an alternate reality with talking animals and where food has feelings. The vision hasn’t really changed since its inception, but it has evolved here or there

Where is the material recorded?

99% of the material was recorded in my basement Central New Jersey studio at the time, Stonybrook Studios, and Daniels studio, Familyre Studios. Some bits were recorded on trips, or in other states, but the bulk of it was at home or these other 2 studios.

“There’s a consistent wave of flow coursing through the record”

Is there a certain concept behind it? Would love to hear about the writing and recording aspect of it.

There was no concept per se, save for the talking animal/food feeling stuff I mentioned above, but the songs have a flow to them. And maybe it’s because I think it’s there, and it may not be, but for me, there’s a consistent wave of flow coursing through the record. References, melodies exclusive to itself, and revisited sparingly. It’s been a composite of old and new, keeping to the integrity of the old demos and what’s in my head. We’ve used 30 year old tracks and blended them with more recent instrumentation/vocals. The record is definitely lo-fi, but it was a blast to make.

Are you excited to have this finally out?

Yes, it’s been at the back of my head for most of my adult life, and though we did self-release a cassette as The Great Glass Elevator which shares many of these songs, I was never excited by the quality of that tape, so this has been gangbusters for me.

Were you part of any other project during all this time?

I played tabla in a band called Weird Candy in the 2000s, we made one record which is super cool. I played in some free jazz ensembles during my stint as co-owner of Revolver Records in Phoenix (2007-2011). I had a live music series there called the Outer Bounds of Sound, and I started to click with a few other folk, one of them was James Fella (Gilgongo Records), and he’s released maybe 3 records of our spaced out improv jazz/noise on his own label.

What’s next for you?

Record #2 is like 95% done and mixed, so I’ll be turning my focus to the 3rd record, which was written between 1997 and 1999. I’ve got my plate full, there’s still about 65 more songs to get through.

Klemen Breznikar

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