On Friday, November 5, John Hall of 1970s pop band Orleans (“Stay With Me,” “Still the One”) will kick off NYS Music in Motion Season 3, as he sits down with our host, rocker Frank Palangi.
Sponsored by Helping Friendly Hemp Company, the series brings together seasoned musicians who hail from the Empire State or have made New York their home, alongside Palangi, a Warren County native.
Guests for Season 3 of NYS Music in Motion include Hudson Valley guitarist Kristen Capolino, Lake George multi-instrumentalist Rich Ortiz, PEAK guitarist and front man Jeremy Hilliard, Glass Pony drummer Chanda Dewey, and Ithaca-based promoter Dan Smalls.
Tune in starting on Friday, November 5 for each installment of Music in Motion on the NYS Music YouTube and Facebook page.
Palangi will have a sit down conversation with each artist, with a lineup of musicians from across New York State. A homegrown indie rock recording artist, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Palangi fuels his positive ambition naturally by serving up a feeding frenzy of edge heavy guitars, with a side of deep, gritty vocals. With a no-quit mentality, Palangi draws on influences from 80s & 90s rock, including post-grunge and heavy metal.
NYS Music in Motion Season 3 Schedule
November 5 – John Hall November 12 – Kristen Capolino November 19 – Rich Ortiz December 1 – Jeremy Hilliard December 8 – Chanda Dewey December 15 – Dan Smalls
Early birds at this year’s tenth-annual Governors Ball Music Festival were treated to a high-energy performance to kick off the festival’s second day. That band, Brooklyn trio Nation of Language, deliver a fresh take on the synth-pop sounds that emerged in the late 1970s/early 1980s that is fun to listen to at home and even more of an experience to dance and groove to in a live show.
Tonight, November 4, Nation of Language are returning to their hometown for a show to celebrate the release of their second full-length album A Way Forward due out November 5. The show is taking place at Market Hotel starting at 8pm with special guest Cutouts. (Tickets and more information are here).
While NYS Music was at Governors Ball, we had an opportunity to talk to Ian Devaney (vocals), Aidan Noel (synths), and Michael Sui-Poi (guitar) of Nation of Language about their experience at GovBall and creating new music during the pandemic.
Steve Malinski: Starting off, how did you guys come together as a band and start making music in your current form?
Ian Devaney: I started kind of as like a, just like a personal writing experiment. I’ve been like making guitar music for a number of years and had this sort of like an epiphany moment when the song “Electricity” by OMD [Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark] came on. And I was like, it’s so simple, like, it’s synth music, but it’s so simple, and it’s direct and feels like urgent. And it was just like, very exciting. So I was like, let me switch and like, see how I could make synthesizer music. And then, Mike came on and, like, helps me record the first sort of demos that we put together. And then we got some friends together and started playing around, and then the lineup changed a couple of times. And when all of our synth players suddenly moved to Los Angeles, Aiden stepped up. And she learned to play since she never, she never played music before. So she heroically saved us from my doom and gloom.
Ian Devaney
MichaelSue-Poi: Yeah, Ian and I used to be in a band together. So it was a familiar experience to do demos together. Yeah.
SM: I want to talk a bit about your newer music and some new music you have coming out. So what was that like – releasing an album at the start of the pandemic?
Ian: We were initially quite pessimistic about it. Traditionally, it felt like the live show was really how we kind of, you know, like, really would get ourselves in front of people and kind of bring people on board with what we were trying to do. And so we were three days into a tour when everything closed down. And we were like, that’s it… see all these years of hard work and like, no one’s ever gonna hear it because we can’t play shows.
Aidan Noel: But thankfully that’s not how it turned out at all. We had people at blogs that were writing about it, and at radio stations that were playing the singles. And we ended up making so many new fans over the pandemic, people that were just stuck at home listening to music. And it meant a lot to learn of fans who found that was their soundtrack throughout those difficult times, and for us to know that it wasn’t all or nothing, and that it wasn’t the end of the road. Also in fact, you know, here we are, at GovBall, playing those songs. And even newer singles turned out ok!
Aidan Noell
SM: Was today at GovBall your first chance to play a lot of those songs out live?
AN: No, we’ve actually had a couple of shows leading up to [GovBall] locally. And we played a show in Boston and Philly. So this is our fifth show back in action.
ID: Yeah. Two New York shows and then this…
AN: …getting back into the groove of live shows, it’s been really fun.
ID: It’s also kind of crazy, because we’re getting back into kind of a different groove. Since so many of our fans basically found us during the pandemic, we haven’t met any of them, which is like a strange phenomenon. So going from kind of playing smaller rooms and not selling them out to playing like a sold out show at Bowery Ballroom I was like, isn’t there supposed to be something in between these two things? Just like with our set here at GovBall it’s like, it’s very bizarre.
SM: So how does it feel to play one of these big festivals in New York City’s backyard, your hometown?
MSP: I mean, it’s amazing to finally be playing at GovBall.
Mike Sue-Poi
AN: I’ve only come to GovBall once before and it was two years ago (as a fan) and got rained out. It was like a torrential storm. They had to evacuate the grounds… it was wild. So it’s cool to be here as an audience member and as a band playing this time. I would not have predicted that at that rainy show two years ago.
IN: Yeah. And like, it’s beautiful. And like yeah, we came yesterday to see Future Islands and Billie Eilish and there’s like a whole bunch of people that we’re really excited to see today. So, yeah, it’s crazy being on, like on that stage, knowing who else is gonna come on to it. And it’s like, super humbling, really awesome.
SM: Awesome. So your new album coming out this fall – did you write that in the middle of the pandemic? Or was it intended to be released earlier?
IN: Yeah, it’s kind of a mix. There are a few songs that have been around for a little longer. And then some songs were like, start to finish written in the pandemic. And other ones were, you know, finding old fragments of things and piecing them together. So it was a fun, kind of a fun way of bringing together ideas from right now and trying to curate them together.
Staten Island native, Michael Vincent Waller’s latest release — The Lex Luger assisted, CLASSIC$— has re-engineered the way we look at the compatibility between genres, opening new possibilities of unforeseen musical collaborations. A hip-hop album with trap drums and classical symphonies, with trap artists rhyming over it. Two separate worlds coming together, for a harmonious result.
Yet, MVW has always been a hip-hop fan, admittedly listening to the genre “exclusively” during his adolescent years. However, his musical palate broadened when he began to receive piano lessons from his grandmother, establishing a foundation for future endeavors.
His foray into instrumentation did not leave an immediate impact though, as he didn’t develop the urge for playing the piano until his time at NYU.
I didn’t think about music as something I wanted to do, I just loved listening to music. And then when I went to NYU, I saw it was a really artistic place and I was like, I want to play piano.
From there, he switched gears as his musical choices became varied. Indie Rock, Classical and Jazz became the new norm for a budding MVW. As a composer, he’s studied under, La Monte Young, worked with Phill Niblock and has had his music fill venues such as Carnegie Hall, ISSUE Project Room, Roulette and Palais de Tokyo Museum. At the same time, he often listened to Biggie and Wu Tang for inspiration while composing.
MVW’s Evolution
One might wonder what would cause an inherently successful classical composer to switch lanes and produce a hip-hop album, but like the rest of the world, life took a halt for MVW beginning in the spring of 2020. After the cancellation of annual music and film festival, South by Southwest, and being forced to record and produce remotely, Waller began to coordinate his excursion into the world of hip-hop.
After honing his skills remixing electronic records, he sought out platinum-selling producer, Lex Luger (known for his distinct trap drums and use of orchestral sounds) to assist on a remix of his own. The end-product pleased MVW enough to where he thought something bigger could come of it.
CLASSIC$ saw hip-hop and classical worlds combine.
I realized this is more than just a remix, this is something I could actually put to the next level.
Despite the lack of familiarity between the duo, their chemistry wasn’t that of complete strangers but, rather two accomplished musicians looking to expand their repertoire.
I reached out to him, he said he liked the music and I started sending him certain samples that I thought would be perfect for beats and everything he sent back to me was perfect. It wasn’t forced, we didn’t have to overthink it. Everything was organic.
Debut Album
Serving as the executive producer to his own project, MVW had to learn the ins-and-outs of putting together a hip-hop album. Which includes, recruiting artists for features, clearing them with labels (which is a meticulous process of its own) and hiring lawyers to make sure contracts were standard. As MVW stepped away from the role of musical composer for this venture, he picked up the duty of musical conductor, working hard to study chords and song structures to figure out how to turn compositions into convincing trap records.
I worked on the album for 18 months. I would work with the material for long periods of time. I had to arrange it, because I was given feature material, but I had to transform it into a convincing song, given what I had. That was the really creative part for me that I started to enjoy, tapping into the composer side of me.
Despite this being his first and an independently funded rap album, CLASSIC$ features a host of well-known trap artists, who best complimented the minimal drums and snares (Valee, LilGotit, Duke Deuce). While giving important, tone-setting roles to lesser-known artists (Jaydonclover, Shanique Marie).
Valee is the missing link that connects everything, featuring throughout the album
I got everybody who I wanted cleared. But I set practical goals, I didn’t try to get 15 people on the album.
His extensive work in putting the project together gained him an appreciation for the hip hop community, their accepting nature and for staying true to the music.
I was happy to know that people would appreciate my skills, because it can be nerdy. In hip hop if you have a good sound, that’s what they evaluate you on, ‘is it good?’ which is great.
On account of how much time, effort and persistence required to make this album a possibility, MVW does intend to gauge the public’s response. But while many artists refer to streams, charts and general statistics to determine success, he refuses to get bogued down by numbers. And as a hip-hop debutant, he has yet to be tainted by the commercial side of the music business. Instead, relying on the tastemakers of the hip-hop community to glean insight on where CLASSIC$ stands as a body of work.
Putting it out and making it happen, it already feels like a success to me because of how much effort it took and how much it makes it happy. I do it really for me, so I would say on that level it’s a success. The other thing that I’m interested in, is understanding how people respond. To me it’s not about charting, especially as an independent artist. But the fact that people who like and know music respond positively, and frames it to give me something to learn. Even if it’s just for people in the community of hip-hop, that means more to me than one song having a million plays. It’s definitely not trying to be commercial, it’s about art. As long as I can see the art is out in the world, influencing and inspiring people, then that’s a success for me.
Albany Symphony Music Director David Alan Miller will return to the Palace Theatre stage on Saturday, October 9 for the start of Miller’s 30th Anniversary Season. The program features Ludwig van Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” as well as JeanSibelius’ Lemminkäinen Suite, and Coincident Dances, by composer Jessie Montgomery.
Patrons are welcomed back to Albany Symphony performances for the first time since Spring 2020, with extra precautions in place for everyone’s health and safety, in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The concert, along with all Albany Symphony subscription concerts this season, is also being streamed live online to increase access for patrons who cannot attend in person or live too far away to come to the concert hall. Tickets, including live stream access, start at $20 and are available at albanysymphony.com.
We are so thrilled to gather again, and to be able to make beautiful music with and for our patrons and friends here in the Capital Region and beyond .This season is a special one for us. The musicians and I can’t wait to share this program celebrating heroism, community, and the healing power of great music with you.
David Alan Miller
The opening night program will include Beethoven’s “Eroica,” a symphony that launched the “heroic” middle period of the composer’s career and pushed the boundaries of the symphony form. Sibelius’ “Lemminkäinen Suite” brings Finnish folktales of the eponymous hero from the Kalevala to life in vivid musical vignettes. “CoincidentDances” by Jessie Montgomery, who is a frequent Albany Symphony collaborator, and draws from her life experiences in thoughtful and captivating ways.
Coincident Dances is inspired by the sounds found in New York’s various cultures, capturing the frenetic energy and multicultural aural palette one hears even in a short walk through a New York City neighborhood. The work is a fusion of several different sound-worlds: English consort, samba, mbira dance music from Ghana, swing, and techno.
Jessie Montgomery
Ahead of the Albany Symphony’s return this week, Conductor and Music Director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra, David Alan Miller, spoke with NYS Music about the upcoming season, the story behind his musical selections, and what he loves about Upstate New York.
Pete Mason: You were music director for the New York Youth Symphony in the mid 1980s. How do you recall the transition from the LA Philharmonic to New York?
David Alan Miller: The transition to the Capital Region was easy; we’d always wanted to come “back east” after our 5 years in L.A. We felt a little trepidation because there were so many fabulous restaurants serving foods from around the world in L.A. But we discovered that there was at least one excellent restaurant serving each cuisine here, and that was all we needed.
PM: The program for the 30th season celebrates heroism, community and the healing power of music. Where did these themes arise from, and what music represents each of those themes?
DAM: We wanted to design a season to celebrate all the things live music can do, the things we’ve missed so much during the pandemic. So, we programmed lots of the most iconic works of the repertoire, from Beethoven’s “Eroica” on the first concert to Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Gershwin, etc. on our subsequent concerts. In addition, we included works by our favorite living composers, and lots of passionate, brilliant solo artists. Everyone is hungering for comfort and spiritual uplift after the difficult 18 months we’ve experienced, and we hope our concerts can give that.
PM: In addition to conducting the ASO, you are also Artistic Advisor for the Little Orchestra Society in NYC, as well as Artistic Director for the world music festival “New Paths in Music” from 2006-2012. How did you first begin working with these groups?
DAM: I was asked to conduct some of the Little Orchestra Society’s concert about 6 years ago, and have been doing so ever since. L.O.S. is an amazing institution which normally runs 900 in-class workshops each year, teaching elementary students how to compose music, as well as presenting marvelous family concerts throughout the season.
PM: The American Music Festival celebrates up and coming conductors. How do these conductors arrive on your radar, and how do you go about curating this event each year?
DAM: Composers. I have a wide network of composer friends, professors, industry professionals, etc, who are always keeping me updated on the most interesting composers coming out of graduate programs and working around the country. Each festival is curated around a theme. This year it’s “Trailblaze,” a festival celebrating our new 750-mile-long Empire State Trail connecting communities across New York State. I’ve commissioned a whole bunch of composers to create new works inspired by aspects of the trail, our history, communities, the natural world. It’s going to be amazing!
PM: You’ve live in Slingerlands, and presumably have lived in Upstate NY for many years. What are some of your favorite non-music getaways within New York State?
DAM: I love all aspects of Upstate NY. I’m an avid amateur cyclist, so I’ve been riding the Empire State Trail recently, discovering areas I’d neve known existed, beautiful places like the trail connecting Troy through Kinderhook to Hudson. I’ve done a little riding down around New Paltz and Hopewell Junction, and am eager to explore that part of the Trail more fully. My ambition is eventually to ride virtually the whole Trail, from Buffalo to NYC at least.
PM: Do you have any favorite music venues, state-wide or world-wide, that you have enjoyed conducting or seeing performances at?
DAM: Well, I always get goosebumps when we play at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, which is defintiely one of the greatest acoustical spaces for live music in the world. I’m also partial to the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall, the two venues where I essentially “grew up” musically. I conducted three concerts annually at Carnegie when I led the New York Youth Symphony, and conducted many, many concerts at the Hollywood Bowl when I was the Associate Conductor there. I also love all our spaces here in the Capital Region: EMPAC, the Palace, and all the others. We are so lucky to have so many great venues for live music!
The Albany Symphony has adopted health and safety protocols for the wellbeing of all patrons, musicians, and staff in accordance with local guidelines and in coordination with partner venues. From now until the end of November 2021, patrons are required to present proof of full COVID-19 vaccination and matching ID upon arrival, or, alternatively, proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken within 48 hours of the event. Patrons are required to wear masks while indoors, regardless of vaccination status. These measures are implemented for the safety of patrons and may be extended or amended at any time if guidance or regulations change.
Guitarist/composer Ramiro Marziani is taking the NYC music scene by storm using his international style influenced by a love for culture. The Argentinian-born musician has recently released his newest EP, Sep ’20: From a Living Room in Brooklyn, on Friday, August 13.
Marziani is a young, worldly guitarist based in Brooklyn, New York City. He has previously performed at venues across New York and Europe, from NYC’s Sony Hall, to Le Bal Blomet in Paris and Prague’s Jazz Dock. He has also made appearances at Austin, Texas’ SXSW festival, California WorldFest, and was even featured in a Polynesian string-inspired NPRTiny Desk Concert with ukulele virtuoso Taimane.
Music played an important role in Marziani’s life since the beginning. Marziani notes that his family’s influence inspired him to take up guitar, due part from Argentinian musical culture. After gravitating towards the guitar from a young age, he began taking the instrument seriously at 11 years old.
Old Spanish guitars were always sitting around my family home growing up, I had an intense curiosity to pick it up and start playing.
Ramiro Marziani
Marziani’s earliest inspiration was 80’s rock band Asia, after attending a concert of theirs with his father. The revolutionary rockers opened a new door for Marziani to explore endless genres of music, fueling his passion for all forms of musical expression. He enrolled in professional lessons, studying traditional Spanish guitar as well as rock and other genres as he got into his mid-teens.
1980’s supergroup Asia
When you’re young, you have an aesthetic ferocity to try an instrument. How it sounds, how it looks, what it does. For me, it was the guitar, and the Asia concert made me think “yeah, I’m doing this.”
Ramiro Marziani
His musical training continued into attending Berklee College of Music which sealed his future as a professional guitarist. After graduating from Berklee, Marziani moved to Brooklyn in search of bigger and better things. He uses New York as a headquarters for music production and performance in-between travels while he continues on his journey as a blossoming international artist.
NYC as a culture capital is very romantic to me, it’s filled with amazing musical talent and has provided me with inspiration that I had not found anywhere else.
Ramiro Marziani
Travel is apart of the magic for Marziani, allowing him to indulge in his love for discovering new forms of music. His style is self-described as “putting together techniques from everywhere” to create something truly unique; the exchange of knowledge and culture seems to make music so enticing for Marziani.
It’s the fact that I’m not a tourist, and I have immediate access to meeting and learning from the people of any place I visit, the people that come to your shows. This is the biggest prize for a musician like myself.
Ramiro Marziani
Marziani in the studio
Marziani’s professional studies have guided him to an intuitive way of music-making, comparable to an orchestral composer. His process of creating is much less focused on just throwing things out and seeing what sticks. Instead, he takes an intentional approach, focusing in on the conditions behind the creation of an album. This unique approach to musical artistry allows for a freeform fluidity between genres to properly fit the music’s intended role.
I strive to create an environment of composition with my music that leads into intentional improvisation and collaboration. I want to make things feel purposeful, no matter the genre.
Ramiro Marziani
Marziani released another EP, a meditation music guitar album titled Cielito Blue, in July 2020. Cielito Blue is a short 20-minute album of eight solo guitar songs, written with a service mindset rather than a purely artistic goal. Produced in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, its purpose is to allow oneself to re-connect with the present, by quieting the mind through meditation, stretching, yoga or daily tasks.
Marziani’s newest EP, Sep ’20: From A Living Room in Brooklyn marks his return to the sound of high energy rock n’ roll guitar and extended jazz improvisation. The meditative period of Cielito Blue, is greatly juxtaposed by this new project, as Sep ’20 marks a return to normalcy.
Sep ’20: From a Living Room in Brooklyn, was recorded shortly after Cielito Blue, but was kept on the back burner while Marziani worked on other projects. It represents a fusion of cultures through collaborations with musicians from Brazil, Indonesia and Argentina. Best described as “jazz and American folk with a little rock n’ roll sugar,” be sure to expect some unique yet enchanting guitar rhythms.
Now is the right time to release Sep ’20, as it marks the moment in time when it was recorded, but allows us to celebrate that things are beginning to open up again.
Ramiro Marziani
Marziani looks to recreate a banjo-like sound through the electric guitar with first track, “Celtic Dreams.” “El Rio,” the second track, is a slower ballad where Argentine folk and country influence become present. The third and final song on the EP is titled “Oliver Oil”, which floats across dreamy Brazilian rhythms.
Other than creating and traveling, Marziani can be found teaching aspiring musicians of all ages as well as sharing various jam sessions and musical covers on Youtube. From just scrolling down his posts, ranging from Clapton to AC/DC and everything in-between, his musical ambiguity is clear.
Sep ’20: From A Living Room in Brooklyn is available now on all major streaming platforms. Stay up to date with all things Ramiro Marziani through his Instagram and website.
In 1989, New Orleans had its own gold lit resilience of funk around town. Many helped add to the consonant grooves inside legendary buildings turned nighttime studios. Every great musician in town was collaborating and famous artists were there to help feed in the rhythm. Tony Hall was part of this golden era and is still a staple in the New Orleans sound.
Hall had been grooving with the renowned Neville Brothers on St. Charles Avenue. Tony played the chilling bass line on their album Yellow Moon. The track “Healing Chant” off the album won best pop instrumental performance at the 32nd Grammy Awards in 1989.
Tony has gone on to work with bayou locals like The Meters, Dr. John, Aaron Neville, Harry Connick Jr. Trombone Shorty, and Marc Broussard.
He has been part of infamous studio sessions with Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Trey Anastasio, Dave Matthews, Willie Nelson, Joan Baez, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Jewel, Edie Brickell, Linda Ronstadt, Pretty Lights, Herbie Hancock and Maceo Parker.
Producer and musician Daniel Lanois felt these sounds in his soul. He assisted in some of these collaborations and on his own work. Tony covers bass for Lanois’ famous original composition “The Maker.” It has been honored with covers by Willie Nelson, Jerry Garcia Band and Dave Matthews Band with Victor Wooten.
Tim Reynolds said this summer of his old band mate Tony, “You know those guys when you’re playing a gig, he’ll look right at you? That’s him. He’s a bad ass.” This past spring Tony just released a new studio record with his band Dumpstaphunk for the first time in seven years. He took some time to talk about the timeline on these projects with NYS Music.
MR: Daniel Lanois claimed Oh Mercy was a record you listen to at night because it was, “designed at night. Bob Dylan had a rule, we only recorded at night.” What did that session look like behind the scenes in a house turned studio in New Orleans?
TH: We would go in at about 4 in the evening and Dan had a lot of ideas of the songs so we went through a bunch of them. Then… when Bob came… It would all go out the window. He’d start a groove and we would follow him. Let’s just match whatever he was doing.
TH: It was all of us in a circle in a room, facing each other. Very long hours on this record. So many different versions of songs.
MR: Well how about the funkiest collaboration on the track Everything is Broken?
TH: It started with Bob playing his line and we just came in. Willie (Green) grooves and I jumped in on the spot (bass line humming).
Ivan Neville, Keith Richards, Tony Hall, Don Was
MR: Was Dylan just playing harp on that track for his solo?
TH: No, he’s on guitar for that as well. He played guitar on a lot of songs and piano too. Brian Stoltz played with all of us as well on guitar.
MR: Was that just a studio experience? Did you get to bring that on the road?
TH: Just a studio record. Never got to play it live.
TH: My experience working with Daniel Lanois came from him producing the Yellow Moon Recording, Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy, and Emmylou Harris’ Wrecking Ball. I recorded on his solo album Arcadia. He had a completely different approach.
TH: He pulls everything you got in you…out. On “The Maker,” was me noodling and I kept adding parts. He even wanted to add a harmony part to one line. It has five different bass parts on that track
TH: I met Dave Matthews in the early 90s. The Neville Brothers and DMB did a show together. I saw him in 2001 at a Emmylou Harris show and he knew as me the guy from “The Maker” that his band went on to cover
TH: When we did the Dave Matthews solo record Some Devil in 2003 it felt so good. Brady and Trey all suggested we should be a band. “Hey let’s take this on tour.”
MR: How was it behind the scenes during that legendary studio collaboration with Brady Blade, Trey Anastasio, Ray Paczkowski, Dave and Tim Reynolds?
TH: Dave had all the songs written and we just came in and added our own parts to it. When you hire people to do a record, you have them bring what they do to the table, you know? So you can give them a lot of options. You play some stuff… like this? Sometimes the first thing is the one. “How about that?” No you did it already… (laughter)
TH: I had a lot of fun with that record. One of my favorite songs is “So Damn Lucky.” And the song “Too High.” I love the end. The groove on the end is killing. We even overdubbed The Seattle Symphony to it. The big line everyone is playing together is led by Dave on the guitar. It’s killing. Its a great record!
MR: Where does he come up with those unique sweet up and down chord progressions? Are they easy to jump on?
TH: That would be a question for him (laughter). Some of the chords are open tuning with a lot of different fingerings for it. But it’s cool as shit. It works well together.
MR: Then there was the Some Devil live tour that went to every major arena in America. Headlining sets at Bonnaroo and Vegoose Music Festivals. Even a Caribbean Cruise with Bob Weir special guesting on the boat. Who chose all those great covers ranging from Sly and the Family Stone, Chaka Kahn, Little Feat, Joe Walsh, The Band, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder, Hendrix, Zeppelin and Stones?
TH: That was Dave and Trey’s call any given night. Ya know during the break sometimes (laughter). Let’s go do this…
MR: After meeting Trey Anastasio and Ray Paczkowski at this project you ended up in the studio with him for his Album Bar 17.
TH: The Trey thing, musically, was very talented. I didn’t know him before Some Devil. He had me come to Atlanta to do a session and sent me the songs to learn. But it wasn’t a session. It was an audition. Which is a cool way to audition somebody. Make them think it’s a session so if it doesn’t work you pay them and they just go. You don’t have to tell them they suck (laughter). But afterwards they said hey you got the gig. I’m like cool… what gig? (laughter)
Brady Blade, Tony Hall
TH: But the composition “Goodbye Head,” that song I listened to and it was a very long jam. I thought, “Oh, I got this,” and during rehearsals Trey’s like, “You have it down?” (of course). But I didn’t check the end of the tape where there was a whole ‘nother section. It got to the jam part and I just stopped. This tune gave me a run for my money. That song kicked my ass, I got to tell you that right now.
MR: Then you went on a US tour with Trey Anastasio as part of an ever changing cast on stage in 2005 and 2006. It had special guests like Stewart Copeland, Bill Kreutzmann, Jon Fishman, Skeeto Valdez and Jeff Sipe along the way on Drums. Yet It always had you on bass and Ray Paczkoswki on keys as a constant. There was even Raymond Weber from New Orleans with you holding the bottom end down on drums at one point.
Trey Anastasio, Stewart Copeland, Tony Hall
TH: Yea Raymond ended up in the band after Trey came to sit in with us for the Dumpstaphunk show at B.B. King’s in New York City. So we call some stuff I got him to do, “46 Days” and um, “Cayman Review?” Raymond killed it on “Cayman.” He was like, “Damn you hear that on the bell? That reminds me of New Orleans.”
TH: But our official live band release came from Original Boardwalk Hall Style in Atlantic City on New Year’s Eve 2006. That was the most cast with an 11-piece band. Yea, but I had a lot of fun playing with Trey. He would kick into a groove and then I’d pick up. He’s like, “OK this is your job, when it mellows out you take the way.” I think it was good for him to have someone who’s like, “Come on. Come on.”
TH: He was always adding songs though. Like that Frank Zappa “Peaches En Regalia.” By it being new at soundcheck, I would learn it that night. So afterwards in Albany, between eating, I’m making notes before the start of the set figuring it out (laughter).
MR: Heading Back to The New Orleans studios in 2017 you were a part of Trombone Shorty’s record that has the ultimate cover of Ernie K Does “Here Come the Girls.” Shorty is also on your new record this year.
TH: Yeah that’s nice. I think George (Porter) is on the original version. I’ll have to look it up.
TH: We have known Shorty since he was young. Coming up he’s always been extremely bad ass. In the beginning he used to do some shows with us and then did his own shit. Then blew up. He’s the man and puts on a hell of a show. Phenomenal player on the trumpet and trombone. It’s like nobody can touch him. But he also plays everything else like drums, keyboards and sings.
Joseph “Ziggy” Modeliste, George Porter Jr, John Mayer, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Tony Hall
MR: Speaking of horns you were on legendary sax player Maceo Parker’s album released last year recorded at an old New Orleans hotel turned studio.
TH: Yea at Goat’s studio down in the ward, who’s Maceo’s soundman. It was fun and great to be on a record with his original track MACEO. Then great covers by Dr. John on “Right Place Wrong Time” that Dumstaphunk started doing.
MR: The new Dumpstaphunk record you just released this year has some just straight funk instrumental tracks. Where did the “Dumpstamentals” come from?
TH : Some of those came up at soundcheck. Me and the drummer Deven Truscleir started jamming on some stuff and other people came in. Ian (Neville) always records those on his phone and so do I so we can revisit them. Ian came up with Backwash when checking his rig during warm up and things like that.
TH: We recorded a bunch of these songs and didn’t finish them lyric-wise. Vocal-wise we can always change. It goes kind of like vice versa. We’re all a band that can sing and play too, ya know? We did two of our favorite covers by Sly and the Family Stone for “In Time” and Buddy Miles’ “United Nations Stomp.”
MR: How about Buddy with Band of Gypsies? He also covered “Don’t Keep Me Wondering” into “Midnight Rider” by The Allman Brothers for his own record.
Tony Hall Beacon Theatre
TH: He also covered their song “Dreams.” I know those from Buddy and I found out later they were Allman Brothers songs. Just like “Down By the River,” I learned that from Buddy and then found out after it was a Neil Young song
TH: Yea Buddy’s the man. He’s one of my favorites. One of my mom’s favorites. She used to play it all the time. His live release is one of the best records. One of my top favorites.
MR: Last time Dumstaphunk played New York State was headlining the 2019 Blues Fest in downtown Syracuse. After hours you and Deven Trescleir on drums came for a special sit-in with the band at Funk n Waffles for a bass-leading cover of The Temptations “Standing on Shaky Ground.” Less than a month later Dumstaphunk was opening for The Rolling Stones at the Louisiana Superdome in front of 60K. Are you ready to get at it like that again in 2021?
TH:That was a great show, Most of the time when you’re an opening act people are just walking in doing your set or the place doesn’t fill up until your last song, but that show the crowd was there and it was a lot of our fans, the energy was high and we felt the love. It was our home town, it felt great!
MR: The Woodstock 99 documentary just released features your performance with Brady Blade and Jewell. Any memories of that infamous Sunday gig in Rome NY?
TH: We drove over night to the festival, I woke up on the bus at the site. I didn’t do much. I watched a few bands from the side stage. We had a good set. We stayed to watch the Red Hot Chilli Peppers show and left right before everything went down. The people from the documentary reached out about my experience there. I was only able to tell them what I’m telling you (laughter).
Formed in 2014 by lead singer and songwriter Rob Morrison, The Booklights have cultivated a specific breed of futuristic Americana, equal parts orchestral and gritty. In addition to Morrison on guitar and mandolin, the band is made up of Lauren Molina (cello), Rachel Green (fiddle), and Benny Elledge (percussion). Their lofty vocal harmonies conjure up Appalachian psychedelia that speaks to the future of Americana and all facets of the genre.
When not playing with the Booklights, each member of the band can be found acting shows on Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV/film projects, composing scores, doing voiceover work, or playing in separate bands. The talented New York City-based group will release their debut EP, Into a Ball, on August 6 on all streaming and listening platforms.
NYS Music recently joined the members of The Booklights in a lighthearted tell-all to get to know the artists behind a new wave of Americana. The band discussed their multitalented backgrounds, upcoming music, creative process, group direction, and a recent surge of musical inspiration around the globe.
Matthew Perez Gin: The members of this group seem to have extensive backgrounds in acting, theater, comedy, and much more. How do you think this impacts not only the way you create music together but also perform together?
Rob Morrison: The Booklights are a pretty lively bunch, and we’re very instinctual. We know that as actors, it’s really important to follow our artistic impulses, so that carries over into how we make music. It’s not a judgmental group — we have a very encouraging vibe. I wouldn’t consider myself a natural leader, but as the primary songwriter and lead singer, I’m sort of the de facto leader of the band. And to me, that means harnessing the “yes, and” energy we all naturally bring to the table, rather than trying to be too controlling of any aspect of the band. And thankfully, with such funny people onstage with me, I don’t ever have to worry about coming up with good banter while I’m re-tuning my guitar.
Rachel Green: Being performers, we share a common language, respect and understanding. We’ve all had our fair share of amazing (and terrible) experiences as actors and musicians. I think that helps us be grateful for our time together, and makes working together fun and seamless. And we laugh a lot. Also our harmonies are sick. I love harmonies.
Benny Elledge: I think we all have a natural sense of play which helps in the creative process. We definitely all have similar performing backgrounds which makes for a lot of fun when we are together. It also helps because we aren’t afraid to try and fail at different attempts while coming up with parts.
We are all a bunch of funny people. When we make music it’s not just a gathering to make music, but make each other laugh. We enjoy the banter and the collaboration.
Lauren Molina
The Booklights perform live from Rockwood Music Hall
MPG: Who are some of your inspirations and influences?
RM: There are more influences than I can list…I always feel like I’m going to forget somebody important! For the Booklights’ music, one of my biggest inspirations would be Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Their music is hugely important to me, in not only in terms of how beautiful or haunting it can be, but because of their massive encyclopedic knowledge of folk music forms, the way they’re able to, say, reference a Son House lyric in the middle of their own song, and what that does for the listener…for me, my brain flags the homage, but also feels transported to another time and place. And it makes their music feel timeless. That’s a really powerful effect. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Band, John Prine, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Norman Blake, Lucinda Williams, Gram Parsons, and Townes Van Zandt are other big influences of mine from the world of (arguably) Americana. But I listen to a wide variety of music, a lot of which has shaped our music in more subtle ways. Some of my favorites include Radiohead, Soft Machine, Big Star, Fleetwood Mac, Randy Newman, the Kinks, the Bats, Tom Waits, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and of course the Velvet Underground.
RG: It really runs the gamut. I’m a huge fan of 90s hip hop and R&B, but I’m also classically trained on the violin and did musical theater for years. I love all kinds of soulful voices, from Aretha Franklin to Stevie Nicks. But also playing with bands and teaching myself to play in more of a fiddle style, I learned to really appreciate 70s rock, country and folk. The Band is iconic.
BE: My music tastes span a pretty wide range. As a percussionist, I love so much stuff from Buddy Rich to Neil Peart, Clyde Stubblefield, Carter Beauford. There are so many. I also grew up with drummers in my family, both my dad and brother are drummers as well so it’s always been important to me.
MPG: When you look at the current presence of Americana within the music industry today, where do you see it going in the future? What are you excited about and how do you plan to be a part of it?
RG: Both bands I’ve played with considered themselves some version of Americana. I think Americana is moving in the direction of society’s growth, where diversity is being more and more embraced. As an artist, for years I was told to “concentrate on one thing and get good at it. you’re spinning too many plates.” Nowadays, being a multi-hyphenate is accepted and encouraged. Humans are dynamic – why shouldn’t their music be? Plus, combining multiple influences makes for some really cool music.
RM: I think we’re at a really exciting time in Americana music…one of my favorite bands, Our Native Daughters, dropped one of the best Americana albums ever just a few years ago. And now all of those incredible women in that band (Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Allison Russell, and Leyla McCalla) continue to release absolutely mind-blowing work, and are really making waves. I think the folk music scene is going through a lot of the same, necessary changes that our country is reckoning with. There have always been amazing artists of color, in every music genre. These traditions have been practiced by a wide variety of people, in some cases for centuries. I think the more inclusive the Americana/folk/country music scenes become, the better that is for everybody, and the better it is for the art form.
BE: I don’t know if I can really speak to the presence of Americana. I am thrilled that artists like The Avett Brothers and Brandi Carlisle have come into the mainstream and people are excited about them. But honestly I’m just excited to be performing in any aspect, especially after this last year.
MPG: Clearly, Americana music has so many different musical facets, origins, and explanations behind it. What is “futuristic Americana” to you and how would you define it?
BE: Um… Rob?
RM: Well, I think “Americana” is a really intriguing term to start with. Imperfect, but intriguing. It’s not “United States of Americana”…it’s not even “North Americana.” So it could be applied to music from so many regions! And I think that’s lovely because so many of these musical forms that we might consider “Americana” are the result of so many groups of people interacting with each other — immigrants settling in a given area, and their music mingling with and being changed by music from other groups of people, either indigenous, or from other immigrant groups. A melting pot. As for “futuristic Americana,” that term was coined by a friend of ours. I gave him an advance copy of the EP, and asked him if any words came to mind to describe our music, because I felt a little too close to the songs to be able to describe them. For me, “futuristic Americana” indicates a willingness to bend tradition, and mix in sounds and textures that your average listener might not associate with folk music. I have a lot of reverence for musical tradition, but none of the songs on the EP are traditional songs. So it’s helpful to be able to dip into “traditional” or familiar sounds when we need to; it’s also helpful to channel Radiohead or Low, and get spaced out and eerie at times.
RG: I think Americana in the past was associated a lot with country, folk, and bluegrass. We definitely have a lot of those influences but also incorporate some cool rock sounds and other ambient and unusual styles and effects.
MPG: The Booklights is such a unique name for a band, can you tell us the story behind it?
BE: Hahahaha! Um……Rob?
RG: That’s you, Rob.
RM: Ha! So, funny story. At our very first live show (Spike Hill in Brooklyn, 2014) I played the first half of the set solo, then invited the band up onstage for the second half. I told the band in advance that I’d christen them with a surprise name at the gig, so when they joined me onstage, I said, “please welcome to the stage: The Booklights!” The response was hilariously underwhelming. But the name stuck! I realize it sounds like the object: a book light. That wasn’t the inspiration, but I don’t mind the connection. The inspiration for me was that feeling of writing a song, by myself, at night, with a candle or small bedside lamp throwing a little pool of light on my notebook, illuminating my ideas one line at a time. Writing is a very private experience for me; it’s almost like the only witness to my process is whatever light source is near me. Definitely not something the average person would deduce from hearing our band name, but I’m okay with that. And on the plus side, there weren’t a slew of pre-existing bands called the Booklights.
MPG: Your songs seem to invoke images, musical realism, and a strong ethos for so many listeners. What do you think is the importance of storytelling in your songs, and how do you go about finding that perfect story-song balance?
RM: There is a delicate balance between story and feeling. I think my approach to songwriting is to usually leave a lot up to the listener to decide; kind of a David Lynch approach to songcraft, if you will. It’s not important to me for everyone who listens to “Waywiser” to have the same idea of what it means. Individual interpretation is so much more exciting! Lyrical details are important. I can’t stand songs that say something like, “I love you, you’re my desire, you’re so hot, you’re like fire.” Oof. What do you love about that person? Can you find a way to say it without literally saying it? “My Woman, the Almanac” is about as straightforward a love song as I’ve written, but it doesn’t come right out and say much about love. There’s a lot of specific imagery, poetry in that song. The language hints at that feeling of romantic love. The listener goes on the journey, with the speaker of the song, and maybe they get something totally different from what I intended when I wrote it. Again, that’s really exciting to me, not a bad thing.
MPG: Your new EP Into A Ball comes out on August 6, would you mind delving into the creative process that went behind developing this, perhaps some of your starting points musically or lyrically?
RM: The Booklights were an active gigging band in 2014 and 2015…I broke my wrist in 2015, we took a little break while I healed, and then we all got pulled in so many directions as artists, so the band was on an unofficial hiatus until the pandemic hit. Like so many people, I lost employment opportunities, and of course we were all quarantining in our apartments, and it was a really hard time. I started looking back at all the projects I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of, and I thought, “gee, why didn’t the Booklights ever record anything? We’ve got so many great songs!” So I started talking with Lauren, Benny, and Rachel about making a record remotely. We tapped the wonderful James Frazee to produce, mix, and master the EP. James is incredible…I had a really great time incorporating his adjustments and ideas, things like adding or removing a chorus, layering in new overdubs that had never existed on a song before, that kind of thing. The whole process was honestly one of the few bright spots of 2020 for me. As for the creative process for the songs themselves, many of them date back to our time as a gigging band, some even before that. “Waywiser” was inspired by a trip to the Ben Franklin Museum (a waywiser is essentially an old-fashioned odometer, which Franklin built), and “My Woman, the Almanac” was written during a solo cabin retreat I took in the Catskills in 2011, inspired by my relationship with Lauren as well as all the nature I was taking in. I had the melody for “Slingshot” in my head for a while, but was having trouble with the lyrics, so Lauren and I collaborated and wound up with a playful song about summer flirtation. “Sweeter on the Vine” doesn’t sound anything like the 1930s blues and novelty songs I was listening to at the time, but it was definitely inspired by the work of folks like Bo Carter, the Memphis Jug Band, and the Dallas String Band. And “All Tomorrow’s Parties” …well that’s just one of my all-time favorite Velvet Underground songs. It works perfectly with the droney, space-folk approach we gave it on the EP.
BE: It was very interesting to record an entire album alone in our apartments without the others being there. And with no “in the moment” directions. But it was a great experience to learn that that was possible.
Rob is the major force behind the music, these songs are his creations. He comes with melody, lyrics, chords and vision, and then trusts us to build the “house” around it. All of our harmonies (instrumentally and vocally)
Rachel Green
MPG: What does this debut EP mean to you and what kind of mark do you aim to leave on fans listening to it?
RM: I’m honestly in awe of the end result. I’m so proud of everybody who came together to make this record. That includes our special guests Jay Julio (viola on “My Woman, the Almanac”) and Hilary Hawke (banjo and backup vocals on “Slingshot”) as well as our incredible visual artist, Elanor Gabriela. Making a record during the pandemic was challenging, but not making a record would’ve been even harder! Into a Ball is an apt title, because the EP rolls together all these genres, sounds, and emotions that we as musicians like to play with, and collects them into one, succinct 5-song statement. Working on the EP was a wonderful escape during a time when I really needed to be somewhere other than in the confines of my apartment; I hope it provides listeners with an aural escape too!
LM: I’m so proud of everyone involved in making this album. I love the songs and how each one takes you to a different place. I hope people feel something when they listen to it.
BE: I’m just really proud of us for getting something done during Covid and more proud of Rob for spearheading it and writing such amazing music and being such a great leader. I’m very happy the world gets to finally hear his music. I think people will really dig his unique style and his take on the “Americana” genre.
I really love how each of our songs tells a different story and has a different sound. I think fans will be taken on a journey, from breezy chillaxin’ to rockin’ out.
Rachel Green
MPG: You have also recently released a music video for the track “My Woman, The Almanac” on the EP, how was that experience for everyone? Can we expect to see more music videos in the future?
RM: Making the music video was such a joy. I want to give major kudos to our team Varya Rootwood (director), Yura Makarov (DP), Mackenzie Jamieson (key PA), David Withrow (wardrobe), and our hosts, the Big Victorian in Chester, NY. That shoot was a leap of faith; a few days earlier, we had lost our director and location, so Varya and Yura were brought on at the last minute. And they absolutely nailed it. I couldn’t have asked for a more professional team. It was also the first time our full band had hung out together in quite a while, so the camaraderie was through the roof! We hope to have another music video in the near future; I’ve been really interested in doing a stop-motion version of “Waywiser.”
LM: Shooting the music video was a blast. It was such a beautiful place with bucolic imagery. We shot it at an old Victorian mansion that had a dilapidated and beautiful feel. It was set upon a green hillside with a red barn and a swing on a tree. Our music fit so perfectly with the setting. It was magical. I hope to make more videos. It’s always fun to put a visual with a song.
RG: Working on the music video was a wonderful experience, from the amazing location to the costumes to the creative team. It was also the first time we got to hang out as a band (and friends) in 6 years! It also gave me a deeper connection to the song and its meaning or what it could mean. It was a truly beautiful day all around.
MPG: Does Into A Ball mark a new aim and direction for the band?
RM: Well, the Booklights had never recorded any of our songs before this EP, so in that way it’s a very new direction for us! We played a lot of shows in 2014-2015, so that was always our focus; putting together exciting sets of live music. It was a very different experience to take each song apart, role by role, or sound by sound, and decide what belonged in a recording, and what songs wanted a little extra juice. In the Booklights’ live shows, I usually play a resonator guitar, acoustic guitar, and mandolin. Having the flexibility to record on our own schedules, in our own homes, opened up a lot of possibilities. At James’ suggestion, I added some electric guitar overdubs to “Waywiser” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” tipping my hat a bit to British folk bands of the 70s like Fairport Convention, Pentangle, and Steeleye Span. Lauren layered several cellos on top of each other for “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and Rachel did the same with fiddle for that song. We created all new harmonies; “All Tomorrow’s Parties” had always been a solo vocal song for me, but we went all out with some strange, modal group vocals for the album. And adding wonderful outside musicians like Jay and Hilary also opened things up. It became less about replicating our live shows, and more about sculpting a cohesive, transportive sound for the whole record. So that was a really unique experience, to look at these songs in a whole new way.
LM: I’d say this was definitely a new aim as the debut album. The pandemic brought us back together after not playing for a few years due to people’s schedules. This new music feels like it’s blossoming into the world as it reopens.
This new music feels like it’s blossoming into the world as it reopens.
Lauren Molina
MPG: What is one message you would like to give to your fans and listeners?
BE: We know it’s been a tough year for everyone and this album is a great representation of pushing through and making something good come out of a bad situation. So thank you to everyone for listening! We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it!
RG: Do what you love, follow your own path and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
LM: Be good. Be kind. Keep others on your mind.
To anyone who listens to this record, I want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart. We made this EP at a time when I wasn’t sure at all about what the future held, for live musicians, as well as for the world. But we still somehow created something, in spite of all that uncertainty. So, if anyone feels inspired by the music on the EP, that would be the greatest reward.
Rob Morrison
Tracklisting For Into A Ball: EP By The Booklights
Two years after finding his new sound, producer and multi-instrumentalist Jake Huffman will debut his solo project at Lower East Side venue Mercury Lounge on Tuesday, August 10th. The performance follows the release of his new single “Just a Little More,” due out on August 6th. The performance will not only be Huffman’s solo debut, but also his first post-pandemic show, following a period of songwriting and refocusing over 2020-21.
Jake Huffman is best known as the drummer and lead singer for McLovins, a role he started at the age of 14, when a video of he and his bandmates performing Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself” went viral. The group would continue to play for nearly 10 years, garnering a strong fan base and leading Huffman to work as a composer and lyricist for Sesame Street, as well as performances with Blink-182, Jack White and Post Malone, and written dozens of songs for artist likes Ed Sheeran and Leon Bridges.
When COVID-19 hit and the music industry shut down, Huffman hunkered down in his studio and went back to college, getting a Certificate in Music Producation from Berkelee School of Music in Boston. Taking time to dive into his studio work, Huffman wrote about 50 tunes over 2020-21 because he was locked in, both physically (not being able to go outside) and mentally (focused on writing 6-7 hours a day), in addition to teaching music lessons remotely four days a week.
Huffman’s writing flows into an Indie rock/Indie pop mindset, with influence from early 2000’s alt-rock, combined with deeply personal lyrics reflecting on specific moments, with some left open to interpretation. The needs of a band can change from month to month, making it a journey for individual and group personalities. That’s where his head has been since McLovins called it a day.
It’s hard to be in a band for a long time, especially for Jason (Ott, bassist) and me, who were playing together in bands for 10 years. Then a lot of shit hit at the right time, and broke everything. All of us are probably better people because of it. I loved all the time and music and the people I met through McLovins. That’s what I’ve been writing about. At times I wasn’t sure what to write about, so some is ambiguous and some relates to that. The new music relates to the journey with McLovins.
Jake Huffman
When Jake got the call for the Mercury Lounge show on August 10, he was overcome with joy. Planning for an Indie rock vibe, he’ll bring a new set up – Huffman cites the influence of Milky Chance in the stage set up – so as to avoid feeling too stiff for the performance. Jake will be behind the kit, playing guitar, and singing throughout, offering a fresh look at a musician who had been cast into the spotlight since his sophomore year of high school. With his single releasing on August 6, expect to hear “Just a Little More” as well as more debuts of future singles that tell a story for an eventual EP.
Currently working as a producer and living in central Connecticut, Huffman will aim for more shows this fall, and notes how much he loved playing with McLovins, with reflections on how to move forward having learned lessons.
We were so young and booked these long runs of shows, promoted the tour and not the individual shows. I wish we did one show at a time and just blown out that one show. I don’t want to take for granted any of the shows played, just take it one show at a time until I can get to see who’s listening.
Jake Huffman
Get tickets for the Mercury Lounge show on August 10 here. Show time is 6pm.
Marco Benevento tended to his muster of peacocks near a seemingly innocuous building in Saugerties that serves as a porthole into the inspirational playground of Fred Short Recording. Later that week, he’d play at Westville Bowl for the third time this summer with Joe Russo’s Almost Dead before prepping for his upcoming 2021 solo shows, including one at Roots Rock Revival, and opening for moe. at Apple Valley. Amidst a wall of keys, eight-track players and plastic microphones, Marco discussed his creative process, upcoming tour, new music, tools of the trade, and life after shutdown.
Marco Benevento
A show and tell concluded the hour long chat. Marco shared some of his favorite devices that helped him access the mind that created his genre bending and catchy latest album Let It Slide. The whole experience felt like a movie filmed in the past, that took place in the future.
Upcoming Tour
Em Walis: How’s it going here with your tour about to start?
Marco Benevento: I was looking at my calendar and I just swipe to the right and I saw August and I was like, “Oh no, I’ve got lots of gigs.” Yeah. Which is great because, you know, gigs are back baby.
EW: I was thinking it might be a cool thing to talk about would be the idea of wearing different hats, shifting from home hat to tour hat. What does shifting from the creative process hat to, “Okay, business time. Let’s get it out there,” hat look like?
MB: I wear a bunch of hats in that regard. Because you’re like, weird musician guy. And then you’re like, also booking hotels and flights. So then we’re here, you record and how, how, you know, when that you comes out, and yeah.
Octagon Discs
Fred Short Recording
EW: Do you find for your flows, because I see you have almost different zones here, that if you’re working you have one place that’s your business zone and separately have an “I’m making stuff now” zone?
MB: I basically do it all in this one zone. I mean, here’s the headquarters right here sit behind the piano move and the piano tape machine all the gear here recording, but then here’s the laptop for music and stuff. Also dealing with manager emails. This is the office in studio basically. Yeah, this is the always curious, just how to change literally. Luckily, I have a booking agent and a manager. So there’s a lot of behind the scenes, those guys are making my days easier. That’s really so I can just focus on the music and that’s cool. And everything and even just being around the kids. Yeah, hanging out.
EW: So how many you have kids? Two kiddos?
MB: 14 and 11. One just went to a friend’s house. My other is inside just playing Legos. She’s like, “Okay, when you’re done with your interview…,” Daddy comes and goes. So it’s nice that people like helped me out. You know, making my life easier. So I enjoy being a dad.
MB: Yeah. It’s cool place. I did it last year. I just did a day workshop there. It’s just like, music camp. They have a lot of artists come in. People talk about music and improvisation. And, you know, everybody needs camp. I mean, I went to like, some heavy jazz camps growing up and learned a lot from cool clinics, you know, sleepover camps, or music all day. It’s immersion. And then you’re picking each other’s brains about stuff. On a loose level. You don’t get a lesson from a guy and you have an hour and that’s it. You’re at a camp that lasted for a week and, maybe later at night when you’re hanging out. You know? Yeah, just sort of shoot the shit about some questions you might have. Yeah, totally.
Outdoor Live Performance Experience
EW: How do you feel about like being in the “cool outdoor environment” places? I imagine with the electricity and things like that, it might be hard to like play the kind of music you want to play, or run into difficulties with like sound and light conflicts, or is it worth it when you’re in out in the middle of the woods playing at a place like Full Moon?
MB: I love that. I’m all about it. The outdoor stuff is cool. I always prefer playing outside because you’re not fighting the venue and the walls are the collection of all that stuff. Sometimes you get into a room and you’re like, “Oh, just sounds weird in here at soundcheck,” and they’re like, “Oh, when people come in, it sounds better.”
EW: The bodies right?
MB: Yeah, that does help. But for the most part, the trees in the open air, no walls by us, it’s so nice. That’s better. I’ve always wondered whether it’s preferred or not. For me, I like outside better. I’m curious to see what other musicians would say, but yeah, there’s nothing like playing an outdoor stage.
EW: What would the word be for it? If it’s not a room for us? It’d be really great woods out there. You know, the trees really just sounded great.
MB: We played this festival called Pickathon in Oregon. And they had this tree branch stage. It was just made out of branches, it was so cool, a little stage in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, it was just all these tree-like branches are all over you and around they make a dome that has branches and it’s really cool.
Marco Benevento’s Fred Short Recording
Creative Process: Starting
EW: Let’s talk creative process.
MB: I mean, creatively, I’m just in here writing and recording all the time. Yeah. It’s kind of funny, because most people, when they do their job during the day, and they come home, they want nothing to do with their job. When I do my job, and I come home, I want everything to do with my job again. Yeah, put the kids to bed and then hang out with my wife, and then she goes to bed. And then I’m in here writing and recording.
EW: The best hours?
MB: Yeah. The creative process for me is writing with playing along to a drum machine. Recording keyboards to a drum machine and then adding drums and then adding fade and then figuring out the lyrics after, if there are lyrics. Yeah, figure those out sort of, after the fact. But basically writing. Writing groups.
The creative process for me is writing with playing along to a drum machine. Recording keyboards to a drum machine and then adding drums and then adding fade and then figuring out the lyrics afterwards, if there are lyrics.
marco benevento
Marco Benevento finding inspiration in the Octagon
EW: Writing groups, that comes first. The late night is just the best creative time it seems like. Is it something about inhibitions that are just lessened at that time?
MB: Yeah. And talk about immersion. You’re just like, in here, and you almost spend too much time on one little particular thing. But then you get to the next morning, and you listen back and you’re like, “Oh, I’m glad I spent time dialing in. Yeah, that weird drum machine sound or there’s a mission.”
EW: Yeah, exactly an hour for the paper focus. Lasering in on something instead of having to have that bigger picture that seems like we feel so much pressure.
MB: Yeah, the bigger picture sort of comes after. I’ll get the groups baseline, I’ll figure out the arrangement, and then the bigger picture starts coming in.
Creative Process: Finishing
EW: How do you know when it’s time to like, start wrapping something up?
MB: It’s a good question. I find that like a lot of musicians. I guess it maybe it’s like, almost 50/50 I feel like there’s musicians that are just like, putting shit out, no problem., and not getting too hung up on certain things. Then I feel like there’s another side of musicians that says, “How long do you work on this record?” Two, three years in some cases, that’s a long time. You put that out, or even like longer, like 10 years, right?
EW: At what point does it start to deconstruct?
MB: I’m the kind of person that’s almost to the point where I should maybe be spending more time with it. But I’m like, “You know what? This is done.” And the good thing about being “This is done” is that you’re like, OK, you get excited for the for the next thing. So yeah, keep things fresh. that’s why. Recognizing when the freshness is starting to fade. I made this COVID record basically, over the last year. Now it’s starting to, fade, I’m like, I gotta put this out, because it’s just time for this to be out. I’m excited to be done with it. It’ll be done very soon.
Creative Process: Prioritizing
EW: How do you prioritize?
MB: I like deadlines. Especially when you’re planning your whole touring schedule and everything like that. If you want to know the music, you want to know the music’s ready and you want to time it. So when you do that tour, you have a new record. So by saying, “August 15, it needs to be done,” the signal will come out. Maybe the whole record comes out in the winter, but then you want to do a tour in the spring. So you time it all out. If you hold it up and the records are done, then you mess up everything down the line. So that makes so much sense, like planning a baby. Yeah, exactly. Keeping the ball rolling, that’s really it. I’m working like with all sorts of other folks, which is fun, on side projects. Specifically one with my friend Leon Michels, who lives across the river, and Ryan Cliff. He has his own thing called El Michael’s Affair. Check it out. He moved up from the city, we made my last record together and he’s just doing so many things with different folks, so he’s always having me over to like record on something that’ll eventually be used. He’s producing, having songwriting sessions at his house, it’s super fun and brings us to the Hudson Valley, it is nice to be up here. There are so many people with studios around here.
The Hudson Valley
EW: It’s the place where the real stuff is happening. This is where the people that have done well enough for themselves to make a home and be outside. And a lot of really, really amazing artwork.
MB: And there’s a lot of home studios, there’s a lot of people that are recording themselves in their side house studio, or their room or their garage or their basement and they’re really tasteful. They make great music. There’s so many folks around here and then even just professional studios. Applehead is nearby, and on the other side of the river where Leon lives, actually not far from him, it’s called The Clubhouse, which is another great studio.
Marco talks home studios and shutdown
EW: Especially after this year. It’s the home setup, for sure, and be glad if you have already had a place in the Hudson Valley.
MB: Absolutely. I know. I couldn’t have quarantined at a better place. It was ridiculous. Some of my musician friends were going through a really hard time. I couldn’t even imagine… I was like, “Okay, I’ll be stuck here for how long?Actually don’t even tell me, I’ll just do this.” I was so productive. Anytime anybody would like call me or FaceTime me. I’d be like, “Yo, what’s up?”
Live Streaming
EW: My family did a fake music festival with live streams. So when we were done texting we would be like, “Alright, I’m going back to camp and my sister would be like, get me a flannel and beer!”
MB: Online streaming things from festival stages, that was a kind of cool platform, and there’s a really successful tipping system where it’s really easy for people. You can scroll by all these comments, sitting here playing in my house, feeling like I’m playing and people just rolling through, so I liked it. Not a live show, it’s just something else, right? People are watching you on their computer, and we all know what that is. So it does feel somewhat rewarding, but it has its limitations, obviously.
EW: Well, if the home is interesting now, do you see an evolution happening with home fans that still will follow musicians around but not actually physically? Like, seen/listened to every show?
MB: I think that those platforms are hoping that artists don’t stop doing their online streams. It was funny, because I did a bunch of shows with StageIt and then things started opening up and my schedule got pretty busy again. I was playing shows and they were like, “Do you still want to do a StageIt show?” I thought, “I don’t know. Should I? Everyone’s going to shows, do people still watch stuff on their computers?” And they were basically like, “You know, that’s how we make our living.” So yes, of course, it’s still happening. I did one the other month, it was kind of fun. It’s still fun to do, because this room just looks cool with keyboards.
EW: They see where you hang out every day, and it can be funny when your cat knocks something over.
MB: It’s definitely more connected. Yeah, people want to go out to live but yeah, it’s more personal. It seems cool. It seems like at least I know for myself, like the gates opened a little bit more. It’s kind of cool to still feel like part of something. It’s definitely interesting.
Making memories
Return to Touring
EW: Have you found you’ve played a lot since reopening?
MB: Yeah, I play with this band called JRAD which is, which is Joe Russo’s Almost Dead and it’s like all the music of the Grateful Dead. I’ve done it a couple of shows with them in that place in New Haven at a new spot. It’s pretty awesome – Westville Music Bowl. I do love tennis and played so much tennis because of the quarantine. I’ve been playing with them, smaller shows, some smaller solo outdoor gigs which has been cool. I played with my band with Karina and Divi at Brooklyn Steel and cool stream from there. That was really, really fun. It’s fun to be able to capture the venue and do what I do, go into the venue and have a sound person that you know and everything, helping you out and doing it safely felt really good.
Connecting Post-COVID-19
EW: With the upcoming tour, do you anticipate there being a different energy or headspace in the crowd?
MB: Well, it’s not full capacity. For example, Westville in New Haven holds I think 12,000 people or something. If there were actually 12,000 people in that venue it would feel a lot different than it does now because I think they’re literally only letting in like 3000. That’s gonna be a little… it’s kind of like you’re aware but kind of wandering around a little because you have a little bit of wiggle room.
EW: Gratitude. In my experience, like it seems for some people it’s almost more of a religious experience than it’s ever been. Because artists that have been there for them through stuff, your streams kept people happy.
MB: I did feel that way, which was a nice feeling. Like, oh, I can I provide something that people like, they really love, and they really needed love, even if it’s not live, they need it through somewhere, somehow, and even as a musician, I also need that outlet as well. Even though I’m playing here all the time anyway, but just to have a concert where you’re like, actually emotionally connecting.
Cheap Keyboards
EW: And we’re like, “Yeah, music. It’s fun. It’s creative. This is who I am.” But then after it becomes like any relationship, where you were there for me, when I was going through this thing, and your music was there, almost saying “I got your back.”
MB: Yeah, I did feel that way. I also taught some lessons. I was like, I’ll just put my name out there. And if it’s just one person that wants to take a lesson every week, that’d be awesome. And they’re so stoked, they’re so stoked, right? This one guy, still takes a lesson with me. He just wants to shoot the shit about music and talk about how things roll and writing everything. It’s really loose, it’s been really cool. Now we have this connection and never met before. Now I know how smart he is. How great of a musician he is, and that’s so cool. I know that he was at this show, and for certain songs of that show, really freaking out that night.
This one guy, still takes a lesson with me. He just wants to shoot the shit about music and talk about how things roll and writing. It’s really loose. It’s been really cool. Now we have this connection, and never met before. Now I know how smart he is. How great of a musician he is, and that’s so cool. I know that he was at this show, and for certain songs of that show, really freaking out that night.
Marco Benevento on Teaching music
The Future
EW: What are you excited about right now?
MB: I’m excited. I’m very excited. I’m playing this weekend with JRAD. I played at the Newport Jazz Festival on Sunday with Christian McBride, John Scofield and Joe Russo, and some other people will probably sit. It’s like the the grand jam at the end. So I’m doing that and then I’m playing with my band at Levon Helm Studio.
EW: When you are into something, do you go so deep until the point where you’re like, “Alright, I’ve done enough in order to do more. Do I have to give up something else and therefore move on?” Or do you have different psych levels, where you have many things that you’re sort of slow cooking?
MB: That was that was a good way of saying it. Just lots of things that are still simmering in this. Song ideas. I rarely look back and think, “I spent too much time on something.” Getting a sound, maybe I look back thinking I spent too much time on maybe the arrangement of the song that seems to take me a long time to figure out which parts of where it feels like if it’s too scary or too much. For example, I had a song that was like, basically three parts in it, the whole thing repeated as a song form and it was an instrumental song, you know, whatever A, B and C, then I edited it, I listened to it and was like, this doesn’t sound right. So I flipped it around and see it was C, B then A – I was like, that’s on the song with the ending that I thought was the ending but it should be the beginning of the song. The middle of that regard, this is where it’s pretty awesome.
Four Track
Fred Short Show and Tell
EW: Then mixing and mastering – is that your people that do that for you?
MB: I love using tape machines and I have a four track recorder. I basically get all my tracks down to four tracks and I’ll have drums on one track, one bass. one vocals and then put it back in the computer. This is an essential tool for me.
EW: Do you find having a lot of gear can get overwhelming? Or do you love having tools and things around?
MB: I know how they all work. So yeah. If anything, I always love more.
Random Note
MB: This is called Random Note, it just does whatever you can adjust. You can adjust the speed, and then you can adjust the world. There’s the gear shelves too. This is a favorite too, this is a Wurlitzer kind of a classic sound. I mean, you’ve heard this. Oh, this is this is another new thing. You’ll like this one. This is cool. I just got this. I do like the cheap keyboards. I love these cheap keyboards.
“I do love cheap keyboards” Marco Benevento
You can adjust the speed, and then you can adjust the world.
Marco Benevento
EW: Why is that?
MB: It sounds so cheesy, but when you hear right, I use a lot of drum machines. This keyboard plays these discs, and it’s called the octagon, it uses a light. That’s why it’s called the optimal use of the optical sensor. It has these cool grooves and then you can play along with your right hand. So they all have these funky little album covers too that you get with it. These are cool, just found on eBay. So for example, your special effects, tambourine covers, track sandbox, and that’s what this one sounds like.
I spent a lot of time over here with this keyboard because it helps me get inspired right away. This sound is awesome, then it just helps me, like that. Even though maybe at the end of the songwriting process, this might be eliminated, at least it got me there. I might not use the original drum track that inspired the song, at least in the moment this is drum sound inspired me to write something, which is what everyone’s looking for when they’re being creative.
The Octagon
EW: It’s an intervention, sort of.
MB: Yeah, this is just a quick way, an intervention. Getting started really quickly. I’ll just randomly do shit like this.
EW: What is the story with the artwork in the corner over there?
MB: That’s Billy Martin from Medeski Martin Wood. The donkey is from my friend Battista Ebar, who actually made the artwork for my first record, Invisible Baby. I’m a fan of just making weird art. My record cover, obviously. I just like doing drawings like a staple in your book, and it’s the cover of our record called The Story of Fred Short.
The Pursuit of Color is an up and coming psychedelic indie rock artist from Dave Cooper, a guitarist, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn.
“I just released my first brand new single this week, “Biodiversity”, a tribute to my mother. “Biodiversity” is about trusting the people you love to help you face your fears.” It was released on June 11th, 2021.
Dave Cooper first got into music when he was a young kid. Growing up, his brother would play KROK and Q104.3 in their room, listening to artists such as The Strokes, and Linkin Park. Once he began playing guitar at 9, music was completely interwoven into his daily life.
I got the chance to interview the “Pursuit of Color” artist, answering questions about his music inspirations along with his asperations.
Cooper’s musical influences include Vampire Weekend, GratefulDead, Tame Impala and Anderson.Paak. When asked on how he would describe his music, Cooper says he wants his music to, “Reflect on a collection of everything I’ve ever loved and wanted to make combined together.” Using a funky, pop “Indie jam,” sound, he wanted to make unique music that, “Tugs on the Heartstrings, but also makes you want to dance and smile.”
He describes “Biodiversity” as a “bright and shiny song about a kid’s love for his mother, which is how the world looks when you’re young.” The song has an incredibly catchy beat, able to intersect the lyrics of the song with the vibe it gives off.
Through his music, Cooper tells stories of love, loss, and most importantly – trying to find the color to fill in between the lines of life.
The Pursuit of Color artist would one day love to collaborate with Anderson.Paak. Their styles of music are similar, with transcending beats propelled by a singing voice that blends perfectly with the beat. Take a listen to his brand new single, “Biodiversity,” below or on Spotify.
