Making Time

Who is Bill Ricchini? The 26-year-old singer-songwriter’s barely got a CD under his belt, but there’s already plenty of disinformation out there. What with his debut Ordinary Time getting an official release on West Philly’s Red Square label this Friday — after months of buzz and self-distribution — isn’t it time we found out about this soft-voiced man of mystery?

City Paper: Are you from South Philly as some local publications have reported?

Bill Ricchini: I’m a Philly boy but I’m actually from the Northeast. I moved to Center City a few years ago, and I’ve been in South Philly for about a year.… It’s really its own world over here south of Washington Avenue. On random Monday nights I play Scrabble and drink screwdrivers with my neighbors Rose and Annie. They’re in their ’80s.

CP: Are you still in Mazarin?

BR: I was in Mazarin for a short spell last fall but I’m no longer a card carrying member. They asked me to come on board for their fall tour and help out with vocals and keyboards.

CP: How do you pronounce your last name?

BR: The hard c can be tricky so listen close. It’s pronounced (ri kee nee). Rhymes with bikini. You can imagine the trauma of grade school.

CP: Any other myths about Bill Ricchini you want to set straight?

BR: One rumor that is actually true.… The guys from The Wondermints gave Mr. Brian Wilson my CD recently, and I hear he really digs it. But for all I know it may not have gotten past Carnie.

CP: That CD has been out for a bit, but now it’s finally getting "released." What will the difference be exactly?

BR: Ordinary Time has a nice cult following in the U.S. But with the label release on Red Square the CD can now reach a larger audience (U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan). You’ll be able to find it at most indie shops and through mail order at Darla.com. The big difference with the label-released version is that the CD is now mastered for the first time with the sound quality extremely improved.… You can hear each cello, trumpet, harmony the way it was meant to be heard. Pretty close to what I had in my head. The CD will also have completely new packaging. Sort of a Smiths meets Radiohead sleeve. And lyrics too. Very cool.

CP: You’re a former rock critic, describe your disc like a crit.

BR: Oh boy. Good Review: Ordinary Time combines Ricchini’s knack for chamber pop orchestrations full of lush strings, horns, guitars, pianos and harmonies (Brian Wilson, the Velvets, Belle & Sebastian, The Kinks) with a quietly beautiful set of hushed folk pop (Elliott Smith, The Smiths, Simon and Garfunkel). Ricchini is a genius. Ricchini is the greatest. Ricchini is cuter than the Strokes.

Bad Review: When will the nightmare end? Ricchini shamelessly rips from his favorite songwriters for a 43-minute set of Beach Boys and Belle & Sebastian worship and musings about his depressing romantic obsessions. No way is Ricchini as cute as the Strokes.

CP: The disc doesn’t feel underproduced like a lot of home-recorded stuff. Was there a conscious effort to give the CD a bigger feel? What equipment did you use?

BR: It was all done digitally. I recorded everything on my computer, running a small collection of microphones through a preamp and then right into the computer’s hardrive.… I wasn’t interested in low-fi. I really heard big arrangements for these songs so I tried to record them as ambitiously as I could. I wanted a lush orchestrated sound like you’d hear on old Spector, Beach Boys, Zombies, Left Banke records. I really tried to do a budget Pet Sounds . The songs are arranged to keep catching your ear as they move along, introducing a guitar, strings, trumpet, drums and harmonies hitting all of the pleasure points. I tried to make the songs layer sounds as they move forward to build to a big finale at the end, a wall of sound. I wanted my record to be 10-feet tall yet sort of intimate and conversational.

Bill Ricchini CD release party, with The Trouble with Sweeney and Honeychurch, Fri., March 22, 10 p.m., $7, North Star, 27th & Poplar sts., 215-684-0808.