Country Funk- Not This Time
Quatrain- Fields of Love
The New Tweedy Brothers- Somebody's Peepin'
Crazy Horse- Dance, Dance, Dance
Heron- You Really Got A Hold On Me
Bill Jerpe- Sittin' Here Satisfied
Elvis Perkins in Dearland- I Heard Your Voice In Dresden
Kashena Sampson- Greasy Spoon
Simon Finn- Big White Car
Arthur Russell- Come To Life
Chad VanGaalen- Pine And Clover
Willie Watson- Samson And Delilah
Here Lies Man and the loud, fuzzy marriage of heavy rock and Afrobeat.
Your music is described as Black Sabbath meets Afrobeat. Can you first describe your connections to the African sound and how you got into playing that style?
I was born into a musical family; my father owned a Latin music record label and my mother was a DJ on Spanish language radio in NYC. I was exposed to Afro-Cuban and Afro-Diasporic music from an early age.
It wasn't until my twenties that I fell in love with the music of Fela Kuti. The first time I heard it, it sounded so familiar to me; I was hooked from that point on.
Then I had the good fortune of joining Antibalas in 2003. It was the experience of playing with the band that allowed to me to find my musical voice. It wasn’t long after joining that I started experimenting with recontextualizing Afrobeat to create new variants in that tradition.
How are the heavy rock and Afrobeat genres so beautifully harmonious as heard on Here Lies Man?
Afrobeat music is driven by a series of musical figures in repetition and in conversation with each other, ordered by the clave. Riff-driven, heavy rock music shares these principles although not necessarily grounded in the clave. That being said, what I’m exploring originates in West African Funk and Afrobeat with a touch more Blues and a heavy rock aesthetic.
How did the band form? How was the style developed?
The thought occurred to me when I was recording the Antibalas album, Security, in 2005. I was learning the parts to a Fela Kuti song and it struck me.
If you listen to Fela's "Yellow Fever" the tenor guitar part is both melodic and rhythmic. To me, Fela's guitar riff sounds like a clave-based metal riff. I just imagined it with fuzz and being played with more abandon. The same thing applies to the main melody of the song. It’s super heavy.
I knew at that point that I wanted to start a project that explored this connection.
Can you give some insight into the captivating and powerful album art?
The label found the work of the photographer, Edward Echwalu. The image was so striking, and eerie, that as an album cover, it forces you to wonder what the music must sound like.
How is Here Lies Man different from your other project Antibalas? What does Here Lies Man accomplish for you as a writer and musician that's separate from Antibalas?
Aesthetically, they’re quite different from each other. HLM is primarily guitar-based with emphasis on riffs grounded in the clave. Antibalas is a much larger ensemble with a full horn section that drives the melodic contentment of the music.
To me, HLM is a distillation of the many layers found in Afrobeat played really loud and fuzzed out. I get the catharsis of moving lots of air with the guitar combined with the rhythmic satisfaction of playing music in clave.
Your drummer is Geoff Mann, legendary jazz musician Herbie Mann's son. How does his drumming style support your vision for Here Lies Man. How was his playing style influenced by his father's career?
Geoff immediately understood what I wanted to achieve and provided the rhythms that each song was asking for. I’d been wanting to start this new project for many years but, it wasn’t I tried out my musical ideas him that it really clicked. Playing with him in Antibalas, I always thoroughly enjoyed his relaxed feel and sense of swing. When he plays the drums, he’s communicating and serving the music. He’s one of the most musical people I’ve ever met. I’m sure there was some influence but it’s obviously in the genes.
The record is out on RidingEasy Records, a label we really admire and are impressed by. How did you get connected with them and what makes it a good fit for the record?
After we finished recording the album, I called my friend, Andrew Mason (aka Monk One), to ask him if he had any recommendations for labels that might be interested. He happened to be friends with Daniel Hall of RidingEasy. The next morning, Monk texted me back that RidingEasy was interested.
When I spoke with Daniel, he told me about his old project, Aphrodisiac Sound System. I remembered the Fela/Queen mashup they had done in the early 2000s that I had really liked because it was such an unexpected juxtaposition.
At that point, it seemed like an uncanny coincidence that he had a rock label and was a fan of afrobeat, so it then made sense to talk about RidingEasy releasing the album.
Netherland youngsters, The Homesick, describe recording their excellent new record, Youth Hunt, in their parents' basement.
Youth Hunt is the band's debut full-length record. Since releasing the first EP in 2013, how has the band's sound changed?
Some less lo-fi as from the Twist Your Wrist EP, probably a higher amount of post-punk and having experimenting some as well. With our latest album we also tried to make a more complementary sound by making use of more instruments.
What were some influences for the new record?
Very much depending of very different music we like. Like static music, noise, wavy music music from the 50’s, 80’s, etc.
For those who may not be familiar with where you're based, can you describe Dokkum, Netherlands and what the music culture is like there?
Dokkum is a small town in the north of The Netherlands. It has the most services and is in a agricultural region. Tourist come for the Saint Boniface statue and chapel. There are not many concert facilities. There sometimes are some local bands playing in a cafe or something but most bands play in the big cities in The Netherlands and Dokkum is far removed from that. However, there is a yearly big metal festival called Dokk’em Open Air where bands from all over the world play. Most people in Dokkum like the most popular pop music like probably everywhere but beside that also heavy metal and hardcore (a subgenre of electronic dance music) music is relatively popular.
The new record has a much more full and powerful sound than some of your prior work. What changed on the recording or production end for Youth Hunt?
We did almost the whole production process self at Elias his dad’s house, besides the mastering of the album - a mastering person with the right gear did that. We tried to record the album as good and professional as we could. Elias is also very experienced with recording artists and we have bought new gear and used an analog mixing table to record the album. We also used a tape recorder for recording the album which had influence on the sound as well. We have tried to find the right acoustics in the house and with all that together we have done the recording process.
How did The Homesick form as a band? How does each member contribute to the songs?
We’ve met each other something like 4 years ago. Erik met Elias because they had the same drum teacher. Elias knew Jaap because he knew his sister and knew from him he had had kind of the same taste in music. In the beginning we made very reverb style shoegaze music. Every band member contributes his own contribution. At the writing process in general one band member has an idea, mostly Jaap or Elias, which we work out together. In general every member makes his own parts they play in the music and together we choose the construction of the song and make one whole of it.
What type of things inspire creativity for you guys?
I think just to make music we like, and in a way we like to do it and make music in a way in which we express ourselves.
A previous release of yours contains a song dedicated to Johnny Cash. How has Johnny Cash or other American artists impacted your musical career?
It is music we like to hear as well as other American artists we like.
How has your youth been a factor in your songwriting and general mentality as a band? Any notable pros/cons to being a young group?
There might be different interests per age what can influence the music. Next to that there is no huge difference by making music when you are younger or older in my opinion but it definitely has influence on the way you deal with the situation. Being more aware of what you do is what we think is the biggest difference.
Stained Glass- Gettin' On's Gettin' Rough
Tidewater- Wild Horse Plains
Cotillon- Sfo
Crystal Syphon- In My Mind
N.S.U.- Stoned
Daniel Norgren- Black Vultures
Townes Van Zandt- Two Hands
Trummors- Mendocino
Kacy & Clayton- Just Like A Summer Cloud
Arzachel- Queen St. Gang
Robert Wyatt- At Last I Am Free
Love- Everybody's Gotta Live
Photo by Kevin Condon
A bulldozer going against traffic on the L.A. freeway, Tijuana red light district, and picklebacks: Dreamy D is hard forever.
You moved to Los Angeles from Charlotte, NC. What prompted the coast switch? What parts do you like most about Southern California? What do you miss most about Charlotte?
I’ve been in and out of Los Angeles since last winter. It’s nice to be so close to the ocean, mountains, desert, and the Tijuana red light district all at once. It feels like a different country down here. It's overcrowded, dirty, and I once saw a bulldozer going against the flow of traffic on the freeway. But all of that adds to the excitement. Also, all other tacos can fuck off.
North Carolina is very dear to me but it just felt like time to leave. I peaced out a couple years ago and have done a lot of bouncing around since. I do miss it. I miss my friends and family there. I miss Appalachia, Southern summer thunderstorms, and strangers saying hello. Also, Picklebacks.
The first Dreamy D record, Hard Forever, comes out this fall. What's the meaning of the record and how were you inspired during the writing and recording?
I’m not sure that it has any sort of specific meaning. There are common themes of love, sex, and betrayal between family, friends, and lovers. Some songs were primarily inspired by personal experience and others by things I’ve read. During the recording process, the band was a huge influence in how each song was finally produced. So yeah: experience, books, the band, hard liquor, and ganja.
How long have you been writing and recording the record? What was that process like and how did the move impact the schedule of the release?
Aw geez. This album was in the works for nearly three years. I made some demos and then we tried a D.I.Y. approach. After working on it for a year between tour schedules, it was decided that the home studio method wasn’t going to do the album justice. I eventually decided to switch up the roster a bit and go all-in at a nice studio. It worked. As far as the release schedule goes, until now we were never at a point to even think about a release date. Now is the only time that it has ever made sense. All that being said, plans for the follow-up to Hard Forever are already in the works. We found our groove and intend to stay in it. Most of the follow up, which may or may not be called Goin’ Platinum, is already written.
Photo by Ben Capron
What was the recording style for the record? Were you in a studio or doing it in more of a DIY environment?
The album was recorded live to tape at The Fidelitorium in Kernersville, NC. It was a great experience. Chris Garges from Old House Studio was brought in to engineer. We stayed there pounding away at it, day and night, for the better part of a week. I’m happy with our decision to go live. I think it supplied a bit of extra heat to the mood during the whole process. One song, “Thank You White Satan”, was written on the fly as we recorded. We then reversed the tape and re-recorded the same song on top of the backwards version. What I’m trying to say is that we are really smart and love art.
Have you been playing, recording, and performing music for a while or with other groups or is this a new creative expression for you?
I’ve done all of the above for a little over a decade now. This project still feels like a newer form of expression though. I’ve never embedded myself so fully into anything before. It is both terribly exciting and scary as hell. I’m walking a very fine line these days. Living on miracles, asking myself “What Would Dreamy Do?”
Your music and videos are all very cinematic and well produced. What role does visual/film expression play in your music?
Film actually plays a decent role in how I write. And “cinematic” is definitely a quality I keep in mind. I like to think that I’m making songs for some of my future favorite films. And oh yeah, also drag queens. The second single/video will be seeing the light of day within the next few weeks.
I’ve actually been attempting to solidify a Top 5 favorite movies list.
Current Draft of Top 10 (subject to change and in no particular order):
-Suspiria
-Dumb and Dumber
-Enter the Void
-The Devils
-The Proposition
-Alien
-The Thing
-Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
-Happiness
-The Shining
Hard Forever's pitch-black ballads charge forward through the record without reprieve. How was the arrangement of the record developed and how does the aggression of the record compare to you personally?
The arrangement of the album was decided as we learned and rehearsed the songs that week before the studio. We had the songs and eventually figured out a sequence that made the most sense to us. As far as aggression goes, I’m a puppy dog most of the time. But I got bad breath and those sharp little puppy teeth. I’ll say that Hard Forever feels about right.
Will there be some touring behind the release? What's your band like and what can people expect from a Dreamy D live experience?
Yeah there’s definitely gonna be a tour lined up with the release. I feel its safe to say that the entire band is dreamy as hell and any audience can expect to remember the show. We’ll bum you out or become your new favorite band. I’m game for either. Fuck it, both.
Drug Rug- For The Rest Of Your Life
Harumi- Hurry Up Now
Maston- Strange Rituals
Tim Maia- Flamengo
Shadowgraphs- Cloud Reflections
Anika- In The City
Rexy- Perfect Day
Eric Slick- No
Alex Chilton- Free Again
Manfred Mann- The Abominable Snowman
Trader Horne- Here Comes The Rain
Max Shrager- Thoughts of You
Badfinger- Regular
William C. Beeley- You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
San Francisco's Dire Wolves take an excursion to Cloudland with their new record that adopts psychedelic instrumental improvisation in lieu of conventional songwriting.
The band released its latest record earlier this year, Excursions To Cloudland. Can you tell us a little about the record and what the "excursion to cloudland" meant for you?
Sheila: We right away had the "cloudland" part of the name. Cloudland really seems fitting with this album's surreal and spacey moods and Lau Nau's exquisite vocals. The other version of the title that was voted out was Rehearsals in Cloudland and then there was the goth version Scarlet Cloudland!
Jeffrey: Rehearsals for Cloudland was my Tower Recordings reference that got voted down. Yeah that record really made an impression on me.
Brian: Cloudland wasn’t necessarily our direction since we hadn’t even planned to record an album. But a certain slowly unfolding vaporous presence started to manifest as we played. Couple this with our home base being Fog Town, USA (especially in summer when we recorded the songs that appear on Excursions, as well as on Oceans of Green (out in mid-May on Feeding Tube Records), and you find yourself lost in a JW Turner painting, albeit one featuring the Pacific Ocean.
The record features 4 long players, layered really well with tons of droney, psychedelic instrumentation. What's the writing process like for a 10+ minute psychedelic voyage like the opener "Enter Quietly?"
Jeffrey: There is no writing. I am not interested in that. I am only interested in feeling and listening and playing with others who do the same. That’s where the magic is. I want to improvise completely and get lost in the sounds. Some of the best things happen when I close my eyes and nod out, completely unaware.
Sheila: We all really enjoy playing together and somehow our chemistry comes up with these journeys in sound. We really don't know where this comes from because we all have different musical tastes, but you could say when you take our different styles and blend it together, it ends up being very psychedelic!
Jeffrey: For sure – everyone obviously brings their own musical orbit and that’s what makes live improvisation so exciting. The sounds that come at you often make you play something you would never think of. This is the drug. Throw a hippie, a goth, a metalhead, a folkie, and a minimal electronic musician in a basement. We all like Bob Marley though.
Brian: "Enter Quietly" is the first “song” we recorded with Laura, who was on a West Coast tour (as Lau Nau) in early summer 2016. Other than Jeffrey, the rest of the band had never met Laura until the moment we all converged at our space. There was no writing process as such. The entire album is made up of spontaneous compositions (with minimal overdubs).
Jeffrey: Yeah I met Laura while I was touring Finland in 2004 with Black Forest/Black Sea. Then, we played shows together on and off over the years here and in Europe. She is in an incredible talent with a lovely ear. Last summer, she was visiting and I invited her down to our practice space, introduced her to the others and then 2 minutes later (after the whiskey was passed around) we hit record and "Enter Quietly" came out.
How did you guys record Excursions to Cloudland and did that process mimic some previous record's processes? What things were different recording-wise for Excursions?
Sheila: What is great about Cloudland is that it was recorded in our practice space where we are really comfortable. It is literally a 10'x6' room in a basement in San Francisco. It also helps that Jeffrey is really good with recording and mixing.
Jeffrey: Ha, thanks Sheila! It was recorded to 8-track, everything close-mic’d. Except for the drum overheads that pick up everything but that’s kind of what makes it sweet. There’s enough separation to mix later but still that excellent live sound that just makes it real. I was a taper when i used to follow the Grateful Dead, and this was the mix i always went for – even on the shitty Marantz 2-track cassette that I used back then: 1 channel from a boom mic and 1 channel from a board feed (if we were lucky that night). We used to daisy chain those single board feeds all around the tapers section!
How did the band come together? What's the writing delegation like for the group?
Jeffrey: Well it started it as a way to blow off steam/just to mess around in the basement of an espresso bar cafe that I owned in Pittsburgh, PA. A kind of rawk power trio at first, and then more people joined, some people left, instruments changed, we put out a lot of tapes on different labels and it just kept getting weirder. We played a few shows at Zebulon in New York but didn’t get out of town much otherwise. Well, there was a short Midwest tour in 2010 (I think?) with some folks in the van who had never met each before we got on the highway (sound familiar?). Then at some point it was a weird trio with Liz on guitar, Daphne on trumpet and I was playing banjo. Then I moved to San Francisco and sort of forgot about it... started making new age music.
Sheila: But writing-wise, we all write and come up with our own parts and literally like something as a whole. We aren't the kind of band that nit picks this bar and that note.
Brian: I can only speak about the West Coast version of Dire Wolves, which began in 2014. I had heard the band when I was given the Jams and the Giant Peace cassette by the folks at Stunned Records in 2012 and really dug it. I also had met an ex-guitarist for Dire Wolves, Matt McDowell at that time. Three years later a mutual friend told me Jeffrey happened to work at the same museum as I did. I emailed him and suggested getting together to play music with Sheila and I.
Jeffrey: Yeah, Matt played drums at first and then moved to guitar, like J Mascis.
Brian: Everyone brings their own vibe to the whole. We have a couple members who drift in and out. We’re open to more drifters!
You've had 12 full length records released since 2008 when the band formed. What type of things keep the group creatively engaged to generate new and diverse material?
Brian: Probably having twenty people play in the band over the course of ten years and never having real songs.
Jeffrey: Hahaha. Things change with people and instruments for sure, but I kind of like the way that this has evolved naturally as a result. Since I started playing with Brian and Sheila, it's been more of a core sound than Dire Wolves has ever had. And now with Arjun’s violin – what a fantastic addition! It's a really solid foundation to build off of with other players and other sounds. But most importantly its fun. And why should anything else matter? We have fun, we experiment, we improvise. It's not always going to work, but that’s why we record everything.
Who are some influences for the psychedelic and folk arrangements in Dire Wolves' recordings?
Sheila: Again our combined musical tastes that seem to come up with this sound. Some influences are Pink Floyd, Electric Prunes, Rush. We are in such crazy times now in the world that it seems natural to gravitate to psychedelic side of things.
Jeffrey: At home I mostly listen to Joni Mitchell and Cocteau Twins.
Sheila: I wouldn't say influenced by the Cocteau Twins....replace with Bauhaus!
Jeffrey: What?
Brian: Musicians and non-musicians who play exploratory music or create their own unique sonic world. We get compared to Trad Gras och Stenar and Amon Duul a lot. I’m into a pretty wide spectrum of music/sounds, not just space rock. There are no arrangements on the album other than the ones that spontaneously occur. The music found its own form very quickly and mimic “songs” pretty well.
Jeffrey: I thought we played jazz?
What's the live performance like for the group and how has several years of playing together changed the performance?
Sheila: Playing live adds in the excitement/nerves and the audience vibe, which can often effect our sound. We definitely have had some times where we jump into some bizarre riff at the same moment and look at each other like "what the hell just happened?"
Brian: Sometimes we use code like “play a forest of tiny sounds” to generate inspiration before a live show. Also band members come up with song titles beforehand which we then attempt to describe musically. A good example of this is the title Sheila came up with, "Marching Goth Soldiers, Blood, Diamonds and Black Silk" on our cassette, The Bernal Codex.
Jeffrey: Vibes man.
Buy Dire Wolves' Excursions to Cloudland from Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records.
Brent Rademaker of GospelbeacH talks California, Beachwood Sparks, and his latest record, Another Summer of Love.
The first GospelbeacH record, Pacific Surf Line was released in 2015. How did the band form and how did Pacific Surf Line come together?
The band (GospelbeacH) kinda formed on a whim when Patrick Bossiel at Alive Records asked me if I had any solo stuff going on. Simultaneously, Neal Casal, Tom Sanford and I were checking out a studio in a basement in Chinatown putting down some songs we had come up with in the Crabshack, my little studio behind my house. Patrick asked if it would have that "beachy-gospel harmony" vibe and since we were planning on getting Nelson Bragg from Brian Wilson's band involved we said yes and called it GospelbeacH and the rest just kind of organically grew after Jason Soda and I partnered up to finish the album. Totally naturally, William Stout did the cover illustration and that just nailed the spirit of the music and there you have it! If it wasn't for Alive Natural Sounds there probably wouldn't be a GospelbeacH. We are so lucky to have them in our corner.
For a band with some highly skilled songwriters and players, how is the creative process split among the group?
It's like a good skate or surf session...you just gotta GO FOR IT. If you're feeling it and drop in or take off and by that I mean we try to get a vibe going and get each other stoked on the song, the part or the recording. Everyone does their part.
You and your brother Darren Rademaker are seemingly omnipresent in the California music scene playing shows and DJing around L.A. and the greater reaches of the West Coast. What are your earliest music memories with your brother? How did you guys get into the California country/folk rock style of playing?
My earliest musical memory was when Darren would play the Beatles on a little stereo (those black records with that green Apple logo) when I was like 4 or 5 and when he told me they "broke-up" we cried. I couldn't understand it. It just seemed so sad - the pictures from Let It Be and the lyrics to that song. I felt like something was really wrong with the world. I think our love of the Byrds was the gateway into the "country/folk rock" style. Moving here to California in 1987 probably had the most to do with getting us into it.
The first GospelbeacH record came after the last Beachwood Sparks album, Desert Skies. How did your time with Beachwood Sparks influence the sound and aesthetic of GospelbeacH? Is GospelbeacH an extension of some of the sensations you cultivated with Beachwood Sparks or is it more of a independent creative entity entirely?
That is an excellent question...The Beachwood Sparks Desert Skies album was made from recordings from 1997-98. That was before Beachwood Sparks had any success and we were just making the music for the pure fun of it. People thought we were crazy to do a country rock band. That really inspired me to do something like that again - just a pure labor of love with friends. GospelbeacH has so much to do with early Beachwood Sparks aesthetic. We wanted to play anywhere we could as much as we could. We also wanted to play the music that we were listening to at the time, not the music of the modern day. It's just history repeating itself with the hindsight not to make the same mistakes or better yet to do the same good things you once did. The results make me very happy! It's a good formula. I'm lucky!
We recently caught some of your performances in The Tyde, Beachwood, and GospelbeacH at this year's Huichica Music Festival in Sonoma. The atmosphere and sensation of that place was really electric and exactly the landscape and mindset we imagine your music is best delivered. How does a California consciousness impact your writing? What parts of living on the West Coast give you the most creative inspiration?
It really is the perfect place to hear our music. That is the best festival going...Huichica!
I really set out to write about our lives as they are today here in California. The first album has songs that were more fictionalized or loosely based on my time in Florida and the history of California. Another Summer of Love is the here-and-now California. Joshua Tree was probably the most inspiring to me as Kathleen and I were lucky enough to get a cabin on 5 acres down that way - if you listen to the lyrics it comes up a few times. That being said, my many years here in Los Angeles definitely shaped and inspired the songs, like The City Limits etc... California really makes you look inward at yourself and even challenge yourself on a daily basis to be a better person...it's so beautiful.
The new record, Another Summer of Love, was released a couple of weeks ago and has a timeless sound and sunlit warmth all the way through. What was the inspiration behind the record's songwriting? What was the production process like?
The songs had to reflect something special and that is mainly my lady, Kathleen. I told her I would wait 10 years before I would write her any love songs as that would give us time to actually create a real life together. I set out to do that but I wanted the songs to be to the point. I asked my friend Trevor (Beld-Jimenez) to help me keep my songs from straying and he did that and so much more. These songs are so special to me and I can actually listen to them as an outsider because of his amazing input. Production-wise it was 1979 all the way! That's the sound I love and that's the gear we used! We cut it live in the studio and let Jason Soda work his magic. Jason is 100% responsible for all that "sunlit warmth." We recorded it all at his new studio, Palomino Sound.
As a veteran of the West Coast independent music scene, what are some of the changes you've seen in the recording and performing side of things in California from when you first started putting out music? Who are some of the younger artists you're most excited about and what traits do they express that you're most captivated by?
The "indie" scene has gone a little corporate. Everything's a "festival" sponsored by something. The radio stations and promoters don't want to know you unless you hire a team of publicists or have a corporate underwriter. When we first started putting out music you could send your record to the local station and they would play it or you could get a gig opening for Pavement if you sent a tape in...nowadays no way. They don't wanna know because they have to play the same 5 songs and you have to have an army of followers on twitter or whatever to get a gig - it's kinda lame. That being said, I still try and am so grateful for ALL the exposure and support from folks like New Commute. I am always trying to help new artists, young and old. I am excited about Mapache for their natural talent to sing harmony, play like veterans of the Grand Ole Opry and write great songs. That is captivating. I also really dig The Mastersons, Parting Lines, Trummors, George Is Lord and Christpher Owens new band Curls! There's so so many more. It's a great time for music out here!
Purchase GospelbeacH's new record, Another Summer of Love, from Alive Records. Find GospelbeacH's tour dates here.
Hoops- Benjals
R. Stevie Moore- I'm Only Sleeping
CAN- She Brings The Rain
Gram Parsons- That's All It Took
Faces- If I'm On The Late Side
Andy Bey- Celestial Blues
Clarence Carter- She Ain't Gonna Do Right
Flo Morrissey and Matthew E. White- Look At What The Light Did Now
Tom Zé- Jimmy, Renda-Se
Floating Action- Edge of the World
Drug Cabin- Easy
Martin Denny- Angelito
Scott Gilmore- Europe
We're giving away a pair of 2-Day festival passes to Huichica East taking place on August 25 & 26 in Pine Plains, NY.
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TO ENTER: follow @huichicamusicfestival, comment here and tag a friend. One entry per person. A winner will be selected at random on Monday, July 10 at 12PM EST.
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Huichica East is the second annual Hudson Valley incarnation of the popular Sonoma, CA music, food and wine micro-fest. Set at the beautiful and expansive Chaseholm Farm just south of Hudson, NY, with epic pastoral settings, great music, tasty farm-grown food, and lovely people
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Chaseholm Farms is the site for Huichica East. Located 25 miles south of Hudson, New York, the farm is outside the town of Pine Plains. It is a pastoral, 300-acre grass-based dairy operated by third generation farmer Sarah Chase. They produce milk products for direct sale and to supply the artisanal Chaseholm Farm Creamery, operated by Sarah’s brother Rory, as well as organically farmed grass-fed beef and pork.
Tickets are still available here.
Photo by Loulou Callister-Baker
Kane Strang discusses leaving his home in New Zealand as a teen, touring America for the first time, and his new record, Two Hearts And No Brain, released by Dead Oceans.
You grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand which seems to be a place known for having a large number of colleges and students living there. What was it like growing up within the culture of Dunedin and how did you get into music?
Dunedin was a cool place to grow up. It’s really beautiful and there are definitely a lot of creative people hanging around here. I got into music properly in high school mostly because of what my friends were up to and because my dad played in bands.
What were your earliest memories going to shows or playing around town? Was there a rich music culture with plenty of opportunities to practice and perform with other kids your age? What type of tunes were you into early in your music-making career?
Apart from lunch time concerts at school, my first gigs were a part of something called the Chick’s Project. It was a thing run by the council here where you’d tour Dunedin with other young bands, playing all ages shows to kids and mums and dads. It was a really good experience. After that I started playing solo at this little alley way bar called Mou Very heaps.
You moved to Germany as a teenager. Was this move done solo or did you have friends or family there? What made you choose Germany? How did the transition impact the Kane Strang writing and recordings?
I actually went with my friend Rassani who is now the bass player in my band. We had a friend there who had been an exchange student at my high school and, seeings as we both didn’t really know what we wanted to do after school, we decided to go visit him. I think that was where I really started writing heaps, probably because I was super homesick a lot of the time.
You're record Two Hearts And No Brain is out today on Dead Oceans. For your second record, what was different in the writing or recording process from your first album?
I collaborated with my band for the first time which was nice. We wrote about three songs together and I wrote the rest pretty much straight after I self released Blue Cheese on Bandcamp. The recording process was very different for me because I did it in a studio with a producer for the first time.
Your debut record, Blue Cheese, came out last year and really impressed us as an introduction to your music. Two Hearts showcases an impressive improvement in production and songwriting. Is this a product of time and effort enhancing your processes or a change in influences since the last record?
It’s definitely more a product of time and effort. Even though Blue Cheese came out officially last year, that album is probably 3 years old for me and I’ve learned a lot of stuff in that time.
What do you do to inspire creativity? Is songwriting something you are constantly occupied with or does it come in phases?
It comes in phases… I’m usually best at writing straight after I finish an album because I’m desperate for a break from whatever it was I was working on.
You played a string of US tour dates including a stop at SXSW. For you, how is playing in the US different from New Zealand and Europe? Do you enjoy the touring lifestyle?
It’s obviously really exhausting but I enjoy it most of the time. You kind of get on a bit of a roll after a week or so and I’ve started to like all the problem solving that touring involves lately. I also get to do it with my best friends from Dunedin so that helps.
The US was definitely more intense for us because we were playing way more shows in a row and didn’t have a tour manager. With Europe we were just doing the main centers and had more off days which was nice.
Your single "Hypochondria" was featured in The Secretly Group's Our First 100 Days project. How did you decide on the song you featured? How do you feel it represents the vision of the project?
The song wasn’t written specifically for the project, it was actually something I planned to put on Two Hearts until Steven I decided it didn’t fit on the record. I recorded it quickly myself one afternoon when Our First Hundred Days approached me because I really wanted to be a part of something that was doing so much good.
Purchase Kane Strang's new record Two Hearts And No Brain from Dead Oceans.
Member of Charles Bradley's Extraordinaires and Dala Records founder, Billy Aukstik explores 1970s soul and rock and roll production styles with his latest project, The Hook Brothers.
The debut single from The Hook Brothers is out on Dala Records. How did The Hook Brothers come to fruition and how long has the group been playing or writing music? How have your music backgrounds gotten you to the sound and aesthetic of The Hook Brothers?
The Hook Brothers is a spur-of-the-moment collaboration between four long-time friends based in NYC. The group was born one summer day last year after seeing William Bell perform and then heading to my house to hang. I had a 4-track cassette machine setup at the time and I decided to roll the tape and get some spontaneous ideas down. We instantly wrote “In the Park” and I knew that we had something special on our hands. Combined, the group has been playing music for over 30 years but only recently have we all begun seriously composing songs. Three out of the four of us are horn players by trade (myself on trumpet, Freddy on sax, Ray on trombone) so all instrumental music is a big part of our background. Steve is a guitarist and songwriter/lyricist at heart so the combination of us all makes for some eclectic tunes.
Dala Records is a new label that seems to have a passion and mission of pure, raw recording and production styles from the past. What are some of the methods that the label utilizes in the studio to achieve the distinct Dala sound?
Up to this point I’ve recorded and mixed all of our records on either a 4-track cassette machine or the Tascam 388 8-track. Those machines not only give our recordings a certain sonic quality but also influence songwriting and production choices during the recording process. I love using these machines because they force you to make decisions on the spot and not save mistakes or bad takes to be fixed later. To me, it was a no brainer to work in this fashion after witnessing countless analog sessions at Daptone or Dunham Studios where the workflow was seamless and the records made were beautiful. My goal is to take what I’ve learned from my mentors there and carve our own path with Dala.
As a label, Dala Records has cultivated a supremely impressive cast of musicians and songwriters across different genres from soul to country or Old-Time. What are the common threads that make for such a seamless and cohesive collection of recordings and artists?
The common thread between all the releases in our catalog is high-level musicianship. Each artist as well as every musician on our records is bringing years of experience on their instrument to the table. The main reason our roster feels so tight-knit is because the majority of us have been good friends for over eight years. Most of us met while attending New York University’s jazz program and have since grown to take interest in many other genres of music. When I bought my first tape machine and was starting to get into production, the idea to make records with my friends came naturally.
The group certainly has influences from the 70s soul and rock and roll. Which artists and albums from that era most inspired you to restore those tones and sonics in your recordings? Which artists' sounds are the most difficult to imagine recreating or emulating?
On the rock side of things, The Beatles, Link Wray, Buffalo Springfield, and The Band are all big influences for us. In the soul realm, most of us have been collecting 45s for years so ideas from different cuts we find tend to seep into our songs. Influential soul artists that come to mind are Allen Toussaint, Sly Stone, Willie Mitchell, and Curtis Mayfield. One element of arranging that we tend to borrow from an artist like Sly Stone is the use of the Maestro Rhythm King drum machine. If we’re creating a demo or even cutting a track, using this drum machine gives us a rock solid tempo as well as interesting analog percussive tones. The most difficult sound to recreate on those classic records is the vocals. Oftentimes they were mixed dry without reverb and still sound incredible so, for us, matching those performances is our greatest challenge.
You have worked with several artists from Mark Ronson to Charles Bradley. What are some of the most valuable tokens of knowledge you've received from those folks? How has your time with other established artists helped you in your own personal art?
The biggest thing I’ve learned from working with Mark, Charles, Sharon and other Daptone acts is showmanship. Knowing how to present material in a thoughtful manner and put on an entertaining show requires a lot of preparation and these artists nail it hands down. My work ethic on the trumpet was also whipped into shape as I started touring with Charles and Sharon as they required 110% out of their band night after night.
You've been a touring member of Charles Bradley's band the Extraordinaires for several years. How did you get involved with Charles? How has touring with the group helped your independent creative processes?
I was introduced to Charles’ producer/songwriter/guitarist Tommy Brenneck by my friend and fellow trumpet player Jordan McLean of Antibalas in 2011. I had met Jordan through Miles Arntzen who joined Antibalas on drums around the same time and was in my class at NYU. Charles had just released his debut album and Tommy was looking to form a permanent road band so one week before my junior year began I got the call and decided to drop out to join The Extraordinaires. Touring with the band has been an incredible learning experience not only onstage but also off stage. The amount of great music that the band has exposed me to still amazes me and even now I'll hear something new when we all hit the road. Collecting and discovering records while touring is one of the best parts of being on the road and my knowledge of soul records has grown exponentially since we started. As a songwriter and artist, these records served as my education and now inform most of my compositional ideas. At first I was trying to recreate the records to a T but now I feel myself finding my own voice.
What does The Hook Brothers' debut Watch What You Say b/w In The Park bring to the label? How does the band differentiate itself from their labelmates?
The new Hook Brothers release is a slight departure from our previous records but I find it a natural growth in the label’s catalog. Nothing we’ve released to this point sounds quite like it and I think it opens up a gate for us to explore similar styles of music down the road. The thread connecting it to our previous records is there but I find the Hook Brothers exploring pop music as an exciting new opportunity for Dala. Their method of composing songs together in the studio is also a new approach for us so we’re all excited to keep this momentum going.
Purchase The Hook Brothers' Watch What You Say b/w In The Park from Dala Records. Explore the wonderful Dala Records catalog here.
Today, and every Tuesday for the foreseeable future, we will be releasing a brief playlist on Spotify. Our intention is always to promote the artists and labels that create the sounds we admire and honor. Please purchase records and go see live music.
Thank you for listening.
Photo credit: Angelina Castillo
On the release of their new record, ism, Jeremy Fetzer, one-half of the Nashville duo Steelism, discusses the origin of the band, achieving their 1970s hi-fi recording aesthetic, and working in the evolving culture of Music City.
Ism is your second full-length record. How is it different from your last record?
With our first record, 615 to FAME, it was about sidemen coming to the forefront and exploring what we could do as an instrumental band. We experimented with many genres while recording it in both Nashville and Muscle Shoals and putting the history of those 2 places into the album. If that record was in black & white, we wanted ism to be in full-blown color. We knew we wanted to have the addition of vocalists for this record, while attempting to fully integrate them into our instrumental Steelism aesthetic, without distraction. We wanted the the vocals to become another branch of our steel and guitar and flow through the record like a film score. We are still an instrumental band though, as the voice is another instrument.
How did you guys meet? What were your first musical collaborations?
Spencer & I met in London in 2010. I was on tour with singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose in the UK and reached out to him as I knew Spencer had spent some time in Nashville previously. Spencer took Caitlin & I out for drinks at a vampire bar called Garlic & Shots in Soho, and naturally, we kicked it off. He then joined the tour the next day after sitting in with us for a gig on steel. It instantly clicked and Steelism was conceived during the soundchecks on that tour. Spencer moved to Nashville not long after that tour and here we are...
You two have played with many musicians from Nashville as supporting guitar and pedal steel players. How writing Steelism record different from those types of collaboration? How does stepping away from a songwriter's vision allow you two to create more independently?
When we play with different artists it’s all about supporting their song and vision - while always sneaking some of our Steelism flavor into it. With Steelism, we put our wacky musical ideas into the band that we can’t get away with while playing with other artists. Steelism is our escape.
What things have you learned being supporting roles that was most helpful writing the Steelism records?
We’ve spent so much time in recording studios and around professional songwriters over the years that we’ve become producers and songwriters without even intending to be. The creative journey of Steelism has happened organically. Musically speaking, we’ve also developed a lot of restraint in our playing and writing from those supporting sideman roles. It’s always the goal to say more in 3 notes than someone else can say in 20 notes.
Jeremy Fetzer has been pretty active in design for other artist's album covers and tour posters. How does visual art creation differ from musical creation for you?
I approach music and graphic design in the same fashion - piecing together musical ideas and visual designs are very similar to me. Finding the perfect few parts and colors and aligning them together while constantly striving for minimalism. And of course everything is inspired by the vinyl age of the music industry.
The record doesn't really sound like a quintessential Nashville record. I think some of my favorite recent records are from artists who started in a country role and moved into different, less twangy directions musically. How do you see your country instrumentation experience impacting the sound of this record? Were you trying to do some genre-bending with the record?
We love to put the pedal steel and Telecaster in new situations that you don’t always associate the instruments with. They can musically and tonally do so much and we purposefully don’t include many country elements into Steelism. However, we did bring in legendary session man and “Nashville Cat” Charlie McCoy for the ism sessions to play vibraphone and harmonica. He helped put Nashville on the map in the 1960s in both country and rock n’ roll genres and we’re honored to have him on our record. He had an instrumental band called Area Code 615, which has been a source of inspiration for Steelism. They were basically a prog-rock honky tonk group.
How do you like living and working in Nashville? We've heard people discuss "new Nashville" and "old Nashville." What's your stance on these shifting tides some people are seeing in Music City?
We still love Nashville. Nashville is currently evolving culturally and is going through some growing pains at the moment, but it continues to be a creative mecca and collaborative atmosphere for all us. There’s a reason so many people want to move here. There may be more traffic and it may take longer to find a table at restaurant than it used to, but it’s mostly bringing in all kinds of new people from all over the world, which is great for work. The town is slowly becoming a real city. My major concern with “New Nashville” is many of the city developers don’t have enough respect for the past and are tearing down a lot of Nashville’s vibrant history before it can be protected.
What were the motivations behind the sound of the new record? How did you select the contributing artists featured on songs like Shake Your Heel and Roulette?
The sound of ism pulls from so many different aspects of our personal record collections… Brian Eno, Serge Gainsbourg, AIR, Pink Floyd, Ennio Morricone and on and on. It’s almost similar to how a hip-hop producer pieces old samples together for a track to create something new and original, but we strive to do this in performance in an all organic and analog way. We went into the studio with the intention of striving for a hi-fi 1970s recording aesthetic made to sound great on a turntable.
Ruby Amanfu was the first artist we reached out to once we decided to add the vocal element to ism. Steelism had previously performed live with Ruby on many occasions, but this was our first true collaboration. We worked on the lyrics together to form Ruby's cinematic femme fatale character for “Roulette”, drawing from some of John Barry's James Bond themes with Shirley Bassey. There’s no better singer in Nashville than Ruby Amanfu.
We’ve also been fans of Tristen for many years. Our co-producer Jeremy Ferguson had previously worked with Tristen on several projects including her solo records and reached out to her to help us finish “Shake Your Heel,” which we were struggling to finish. It began as an instrumental that we wrote on the day David Bowie died. Spencer had some lyrics for the melody and Tristen helped us finish them in the studio right before doing her vocal take. It was the last session of the album.
Purchase Steelism's new record, ism, from Intoxicating Sounds. Find Steelism tour dates here.
Derek Wycoff, who creates collage art and graphic design as Maple Fortress details his influences and creative processes for show posters and album art, including designing the record cover for his band, Naked Gods.
How would you describe your graphic artwork as Maple Fortress? Is there a particular aesthetic or style that you try to subscribe to or is it a more organic approach based on whatever the project is about?
I would say it’s mostly project based. Overall, I like to keep things less refined and just zone out and make stuff.
Every time I start working, I’m just looking to create something I can be okay with in a few months, years, or even the next day. The key for me has always been trying to maintain a feeling of looseness and excitement.
I gravitate towards more pop and op-art kind of stuff, but I really try to be open to any new influences and use improvisation as much as I can to achieve results.
Your portfolio includes album artwork and show posters and an array of other projects. How did you get started doing graphic art and what were your earliest inspirations?
When I was a kid, I would draw and make comics. I started playing music and being in bands as a teenager and that’s where my interest gravitated. In high school, I started designing really simple websites. They looked horrible, like most things on the web back then, but that took me on the career path I have now. My day job is a web-developer.
At a certain point, music brought me full-circle into art and design and I figured out how to integrate everything. My earliest inspiration was album covers and show posters. That is still my biggest influence and the main way I find many graphic artists I love.
What role does music play in your work? How does the music of an artist you're designing a piece of art for dictate your design, if at all?
I’m usually listening to podcasts when I work! Honestly, an artist or band’s music doesn’t have much influence on the work created. Most of the time I make stuff based off a feeling or inspiration of a particular moment. If I can create something quickly without thinking too much, then I have all I need to get started. The rest of the process is editing and reshaping.
You are the drummer for one of our favorite bands, Naked Gods, from Boone, NC. How is your creativity utilized differently as a drummer than as a graphic artist? What similarities are there in your processes writing drum pieces and designing as Maple Fortress?
When I started playing drums I was constantly breaking sticks, warping drums heads, and cracking cymbals. I’ve listened to some of those recordings and I really loved how much soul and creativity was lurking under the surface of the sloppiness.
At a certain point I learned how to not break things and my style became a little more focused. When you become technically better at something there is always a risk of losing the charm that made your playing interesting. Recently, there’s been a process where I’m trying to integrate the two styles of playing, the reckless with the newly refined. I feel like that is my mission statement with most things I make. Trying to reclaim the wild parts and make them presentable.
Are you contracted by bands to do show posters or is it something you do independently to promote shows? What's been your favorite band to work with?
Sometimes it’s the bands, but most of the time it’s the show promoter or a friend. I like working with everyone!
Your artwork is the album art for your band's latest self-titled record. How is it different doing art for your own product than for a client? What was the inspiration behind that album artwork?
The band has given me a platform to freely create which I am very thankful for. It’s a lot of work trying to add a visual element to this thing you’ve already spent so much time writing and recording.
I am very lucky to be in a band with thoughtful/creative people who are very supportive. Our guitarist also creates art and is a talented screen-printer. Most bands aren’t lucky enough to have two visual-artists. I feel like we kind of tag-team the visuals and that keeps things interesting.
As far as the album artwork, Corita Kent was probably my biggest influence. I was really into her color palettes at the time. I love the overwhelmingly positive nature of her artwork and her story is amazing.
I was listening to this at the time as well. Maybe the cover art was somewhere in my subconscious? Add in a heady-dose of the 2015 NBA playoffs and that pretty much sums it up! I’m actually watching the 2017 playoffs as I’m typing this…
Are you taking on new clients currently? What's the easiest way for someone to get in touch with you to contract out some design work?
Of course! Just shoot me an email: yes@maplefortress.us. I work with all sorts of people on all sorts of projects. Don’t be a stranger.
Check out Maple Fortress here.
