Thursday, July 28, 2011

Erin Boheme



Erin Boheme is a local Jazz artist from Oshkosh, Wis., who grew up listening to her parents’ music and singing in the back seat of her mom’s car. It was then that her dream of being a singer began. She attended Oshkosh West High School and sang in choir, church and participated on the TV show, Star Search.

“It was a very interesting experience,” Boheme said about Star Search. “I learned a lot about the process of how these shows work. The best part about it was meeting some really amazing people that I’m still in contact with.”

 When she was a junior in high school, Boheme signed a deal with Concord Records and moved to Los Angeles, Calif. 

“A friend of mine (who is also an Oshkosh native) and I made a demo together,” Boheme said. “He knew someone at Concord and just wanted to send it in to get a feeling of where I may be at. A month or so later they got back to Mike (Melvoin) and wanted a meeting with me. An hour into the meeting they offered me a deal!”

When she was 18, she released her first album, “What Love Is” in 2006, which was a tribute to one of her biggest influences, Frank Sinatra. This showed her love for traditional jazz. She started touring with well known artists and learned what it was like to get out in the world.

“I think the greatest thing is working with some of the finest musicians in the world,” Boheme said. “I mean, on my first tour, Esperanza Spaulding was the bass player. And look, she just won the Grammy for artist of the year! I am just always learning from them and it’s so exciting to never know what’s just around the corner.”

Boheme toured throughout the U.S., visiting cities such as New Orleans, Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, as well as other countries like Spain and England. She hopes to travel to Holland next.

“My mum is Dutch and I would really like to visit and have that experience,” Boheme said.

Boheme just finished making her second album with Michael Buble, which was recorded in Los Angeles and Vancouver over a five-year period, and will be released in 2012.

“We are looking at February,” Boheme said. “It’s a series of stories of my life, experience, pretty much all to do with love-the joys, the pains, the in between. I think that’s something we all can relate to.”

Buble has been a lot of fun to work with, according to Boheme.

“He’s silly like me…so we had a lot of laughs,” Boheme said. “Luckily, we have been friends for 7 or 8 years now, so it wasn’t something where it was intimidating or unfamiliar. Of course, because of who he is, it was very humbling for me to have him want to be such a tremendous part of this. His musical director, Alan Chang, served as co producer. He’s got a great sensitivity and understanding of the music and he brings a dimension and life to it that may not have existed before.”

Boheme enjoys her career and looks forward to each day, which has been her biggest success.

“I think getting to wake up every day and do what I love,” Boheme said. “They say if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. It’s so true. Don’t get me wrong, there are struggles and obstacles as with everything in life, but those moments make you appreciate the victories that much more.”

www.concordmusicgroup.com

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Evaline

Evaline is an alternative rock band with a story unlike many bands.

“We all sort of grew up together in central California and have been playing music in one form or another since 2001,” Steve Pedersen, bassist of the band said. “It started as a way to escape the monotony of small town suburban life. We wanted to make a lot of noise and get creative with it. After a while, we all fell in love with doing just that and dedicated our lives to Evaline.”

While in California, the band produced its EP with Quinn Allmann, one of the members of The Used, according to Last.fm, and was signed and continued its music with Maverick Records. Unfortunately, The band found out the record label was bought out, leaving the band back at the beginning. After a while, it found that the band, Placebo was signed to Riverman Music Management in England after a concert.

“Back in 2007, we toured with Placebo in the states and developed a relationship with the guys,” Pedersen said. “They are also with Riverman Management, so we just all kept in touch and a few years ago we were in need of new management, so we signed with Riverman.”

The band decided to drop everything and follow its dream to London, England, and Riverman Management became a home for the band.

 “We grew up going to shows in the U.S. and playing shows around here, so it’s all very familiar for us,” Pedersen said. “I think there is a certain level of excitement for us to play over in the UK, because it is still relatively new for us. There are plenty of music lovers on both sides.”

They have been influenced by Radiohead, Nirvana, At The Drive-In, Explosions In The Sky and The National, which hints to their experimental style.

“There are six of us who are all involved in the writing process, which makes for some pretty diverse music that we create,” Pedersen said. “We have been fortunate enough to have performed with bands we are influenced by, such as Deftones, Placebo, Elbow and Foo Fighters."

The band released its new album, “Woven Material” last month, which has been its greatest success.

 “It is basically a collection of all the songs we have written over the past four years,” Pedersen said. “It was a long writing process and we have gone through a lot as a band and each of us individually. It has really influenced a lot of the moods and themes throughout the record.”

The band has finished some European festivals and touring in Southeast Asia and hope to keep going in the same direction.

“Since our record just came out, we plan to tour as much as possible and get out in front of as many people as we can,” Pedersen said. “We want to break into markets, such as Southeast Asia. Try new things. There will also be another Evaline album to follow up “Woven Material.”

Evaline said it appreciates their future and current fans for their support.

“We thank you for listening to our music, for the continuing support from our old fans and for coming out to see us live,” Pedersen said. “Much love, thank you!”



Band Members include:

Richard Perry - Vocals
Christian Lewis - Guitar
Dominic Di Ciano - Guitar
Steven Pedersen - Bass
Greg Petersen - Drums
Daniel Petersen - Baritone Guitar

 http://evaline.co.uk/

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Midwest Beat



The Midwest Beat is a band with a 1960s style and a Wisconsin flare.

“We formed in Madison, WI, in the fall of 2005,” the band said.

The band has been influenced by Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Kinks, The Beatles and Bruce Springsteen.

“Angry bubblegum seems to be our favorite term (for our music),” the band said.

When asked about what inspires their music, they said it comes down to relationships.

“It would be nice to say that life in the Midwest is so inspiring. Blue collar, hard working, simple pleasures, fishing, camping, sailing, beer…but honestly the answer is girls,” the band said.

After the release of their first EP, The Midwest Beat has been looking on the bright side of their music.

“Having the first EP out on vinyl was great for us,” the band said. “It was our first introduction to many people and we got a great response and it’s still the record that most people know us by.”

One thing that has been the biggest hardship for the band is keeping its music original, but it is proud to do so.

“We Wisconsinites like to keep it cheesy. It’s easy to be cheesy,” the band said.

They had the opportunity to tour Europe this year.

“We play mostly in Wisconsin, but we’ve done a few tours to the South, East coast and we just got back from a three- week tour in Europe,” the band said.

In the future, the band said it hopes to record later this summer and hopes to return to Europe next year.



Band members include:
Matt Joyce - Guitar, Vocals
Logan Kayne - Bass, Vocals
Kyle Denton - Guitar, Vocals
Christopher Capelle - Drums

Sister Jane

Sister Jane, a Jim Morrison/Doors-sounding band, got its start in Blue Mountains, west of Sydney Australia.

“Three out of the five of us worked together in a suburban retail store and spent so much time talking about the music we loved to play and listen to that we decided to start a band,” Dan Davey, lead singer said.

The band’s musical style is a mix between blues and rock ‘n roll, which refers back to some of their influences such as Freddie King, Gram Parsons, The Smiths, The Stone Roses and more.

“Sister Jane’s music is like finding an old tree stump with its roots deep in the electric blues and country and gleefully grafting it with the indie rock we all grew up listening to,” Davey said . “From the outset, we took older music styles and dabbled in blending it with what we already knew just for the pure joy of doing it, which is probably why some of it is kind of sixties sounding.”

After the band started to play some gigs, they signed with Broken Stone Records.

“One of the owners of Broken Stone Records came to our shows and loved us and we became like an unofficial member of the Broken Stone family,” Davey said. “So it was only natural that when we’d recorded our LP, we’d play it to the guys at Broken Stone. They loved it and took us in from the cold."

"Most of our shows are in grimy old beer-soaked hotels up and down the east coast of Oz. We rarely get invited to festivals and such, but we kind of like it that way. In a small, sweaty venue, it’s like you own the stage, and the audience owns you, and it just feels so good to play and jump and go nuts.”

Their first LP, “Mercy” was recorded over a three-year period by their guitarist Liam Judson, according to Davey.

“We had all the gear at our disposal, but it was just a matter of fitting in time whenever Liam wasn’t working on a paid job,” Davey said. “It was tremendously frustrating at times when we just wanted it finished and out there, but in the end it made for a more interesting record.”

Along with their LP, they released a single called “Be Kind.”

“It wasn’t our first choice for a single, but the label really responded to it and their instincts proved right because people seem to absolutely love that song,” Davey said.

The band plans to record its next album in an old school house.

“(The school house) is owned by a relative of one of the label guys and is in an isolated bush location in northern New South Wales, called Wauchope,” Davey said. “It offers the chance to live within the recording process for extended chunks of time. We’re taking two months off playing shows and have begun rehearsing the new material ready to head up north for a week or two to start tracking the songs. We are very excited about it.”



http://sisterjane.net/

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Cape Race

The Cape Race is an unsigned punk rock band from Manchester, England, which was influenced by the likes of Say Anything, Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday and Manchester Orchestra.

“There are five of us,” Matt Sayward, guitarist of the band, said. “My main man, Scott, plays guitar also, our singer is called David, our drummer’s name is Jonny and Adam plays bass. Four of us used to be in a pop-punk band called The Honeymoon Suite, and that kind of came to a head where we felt we’d taken it as far as we could. The Cape Race was a natural progression of that.”

The band named itself after the area where the Titanic’s distress call was heard.

“Cape Race is actually a place - a little peninsula on the eastern tip of Canada,” Sayward said. “All there really is there is a lighthouse, and it's there that the distress call from the Titanic got picked up. We found out about it from a documentary!”

While touring, they have been able to perform with bands they looked up to and had the opportunity to open for the band Parachute.

“We've had a couple of really great shows that have been a lot of fun,” Sayward said. “We played at a festival a couple of months (ago) with a lot of heroes of ours from growing up in the ’90s, which was really humbling. Also, I've really liked a band called Parachute from the States for a long time and we got to support them when they were over in England which was a lot of fun.”

The band recorded their debut album “Now, Voyager” with producer Peter Miles and released it on the Fourth of July of this year.

“The actual title is from a short poem called ‘The Untold Want’ by Walt Whitman,” Sayward said. “It’s about people who don’t settle for what they are given and take it upon themselves to better their situation and create the life they want for themselves.”

The Cape Race’s musical inspiration comes from personal experiences and life observations, according to Sayward.

Sayward says the goals of the band are to tour, make music and do what they enjoy.

“We really want to be able to hit the European and American festival circuit next year,” Sayward said. “We’d love to be at SXSW in 2012. I just want to be able to carve out a living doing what I love with my best friends.”

Outside of the band, Sayward works at a record label in Manchester.

“I do some work at an independent record label in Manchester called LAB Records with a couple of my friends,” Sayward said. “I also have a creative media agency I set up with my friend Duncan. We’re currently working on some really cool new digital marketing techniques within the music industry.”



http://www.thecaperace.com/

Saturday, July 16, 2011

My First Tooth

"My First Tooth" is an upbeat, alternative band from Northampton, England, consisting of Ross K. Witt (guitar and singer), Sophie Galpin (violin, bouzouki, guitar, percussion and singer), Jo Collis (bass and singer) and Gareth Amwel Jones (drummer).

“It initially began as a solo project for Ross but he got lonely so he recruited Sophie,” Gareth Amwel Jones, drummer of the band, said. “They played together for a while before realizing that they needed a bit more sex appeal in the band. They naturally turned to Jo and I for this.”

When first starting out, they aimed for a simple name.

“I think that Ross was initially looking for something that evoked a certain simplicity and innocence,” Jones said. “The simplicity soon fell by the wayside and innocence passed us by a long, long time ago. Now we always get asked about the name and wish that we were called something really cool, like ‘Slayer’ or ‘Megadeth’.”

The band has been influenced by many bands, including “Neutral Milk Hotel”, “Okkervil River”, “Eels” and “Bruce Springsteen” and got their record deal with Alcopop! Records and have been touring the UK for a couple years.

“We’ve played a lot of festivals, including Glastonbury this year, which was amazing,” Jones said.

The band doesn’t define itself in one specific genre.

“We all knew each other from playing in various other bands before “My First Tooth,” Jones said. “I think that we’ve probably been in about a hundred bands between us, playing different sorts of stuff. The key thing is to write really good songs and not necessarily be too defined by genre boundaries.”

This month they start touring with “Athlete.”

“The tour kicks off next week and we’re all really excited about it,” Jones said. “It’s a massive opportunity to play to a lot of people every night and 99 percent of them probably won’t know who we are, so it’s a good chance to convert people. I think we’re going to have a great time.”

The band plans to continue what it is doing.

“We tour with ‘Athlete’ this month and we have a few more festivals to play before the summer is out,” Jones said. “We are doing a short headline tour in September and then probably are going to take some time to knock the songs for the second album into shape. I think we’re committed to trying to make the next record better than the last, making the next show better than the last. We have a lot of fun doing what we do and we meet some amazing people and you’d be a fool to not want to continue doing that.”




Oh Mercy



I had the chance to interview Alexander Gow, one of the members of the band”Oh Mercy,”  who got his start with the band in Melbourne, Australia.
“I’ve been playing in pubs around the country since I was 18,” Gow said. “We’ve had support from Australian radio stations and some of our favourite Australian bands.”

 “Oh Mercy” picked up their name from a Bob Dylan album and started making music.

 "(When first starting out), I wanted to make recordings and travel the world, playing music and meeting girls,” Gow said.

They had the chance to perform and meet with their favorite artists, such as The Traffics, The Church and Paul Kelly.

Gow said that one of the biggest opportunities was playing lead guitar in Paul Kelly’s band.

 "Oh Mercy" released their first album in 2009, called “Privileged Woes.”

“It was recorded with my friend Myles Wootton,” Gow said. “We recorded it all in his bedroom in Collingwood, Melbourne. His room was barely bigger than his single mattress. We would push his mattress up against the wall and could only fit the two of us in there at once. I thought we were recording demos. Myles turned out to be incredibly good at using his limited resources and the demos turned into a record.”

Then in March “Great Barrier Grief” was released, which has been a big success.

“I had the title before I had any of the songs,” Gow said. “I liked the way it looked and read. It sounds bitter sweet, which turned out to be consistent with the majority of the lyrical content on the album. It has the words ‘great’ and ‘grief’ in it. It’s awesome.”

The band plans to record its third album.



 Band members include:


Eliza Lam - Bass Guitar
Rohan Sforcina - Drums
Simon Okely - Lead Guitar
Alexander Gow - Rhythm Guitar

Youtube - www.youtube.com/ohmercyband
Facebook - www.facebook.com/ohmercy 

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Make

The Make is a new and upcoming band from Chico, Calif., who recently signed to the Green Bay Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers’ Suspended Sunrise record label.

“I have known Aaron for about 15 years,” Jeff Schneeweis, lead singer of the band said. “The timing was perfect for us together. He comes into the studio all the time, but it’s not because he wants to check up on us. It’s because he is a friend that just wants to hang out and have fun working with us.”

The inspiration for the songs the band comes up with are all original.

“It usually starts with a melody on my head. Then immediately I have to go to the studio and [it] recurs my ideas,” Schneeweis said.

One of which is their hit single, “Get It,” based off of an original cartoon by Schneeweis.

“To be honest, the song is about a cartoon I made up in my head of two snoopy looking dogs, a female and a male with a love/hate relationship,” Schneeweis said.

After releasing their single, the band hit the bowling alley to make their music video with the bass player of Sugar Ray.

“Murphy Karges is the mastermind behind the video concept,” Schneeweis said. “He is so creative and amazing.”

The band’s love for music and friendship has helped them go a long way and plans to start a US tour in the fall.

“The Make has yet to play a show,” Schneeweis said. “Everything has happened so fast and we are currently planning some shows right now for the near future.”

For the members of the band on their free time, they are just like everyone else.

“We try to live life to its fullest,” Schneeweis said.



The band is made up of Jeff Schneeweis and Trevor Sellers (originally from the band Number One Gun) and Sarah Ann (See You Soon).

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Summerfest 2011 Recap


This year, I couldn’t ask for better weather at Summerfest. I went to the Briggs Stratton stage to see Ryan Sallis, Malea McGuinness and Parachute perform on July 8th in Milwaukee, WI.
 
Ryan Sallis:
Ryan Sallis and his band introduced folk rock and soul. Sallis’ vocals were excellent, keeping the audience wanting more. The keys player had a great rhythm as well as the rest of the band. They had two encores, one of which introduced a new song they just finished. 


Malea McGuinness:
Malea McGuinness and her band had a southern twang with a Californian twist. Overall, the band had a great attitude and it was shown that they love what they do. The guitar players were excellent, having a few solos and harmonizing together. McGuinness’ vocals were great, keeping the audience moving with her. The band did their original songs, along with two great covers from The Allman Brothers. 


Parachute:
Parachute had a great intro for the band’s entrance for “White Dress.” Will Anderson’s energy encompassed the crowd. He came up to the audience, balanced on barricades, threw guitar picks and his jacket into the audience. Kit French did a great job on saxophone and keys and played with Nate McFarland in a duo. Alex Hargrave and Johnny Stubblefield played out excellent rhythm throughout. Each member kept the positive energy going. The band did a Tom Petty cover of “Won’t Back Down” while the audience sang along and ended with their hit single, “Something to Believe In.” The band told the audience that Friday's crowd was the biggest they’ve had in Milwaukee and were glad people came out.
At the end of the concert, the band did a meet and greet with their fans and signed autographs. Overall, the band did a great job. At times, the sound was off as the band battled equipment problems but they played through it.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Parachute

Parachute is a pop rock band from Charlottesville, Va., which formed during high school.

“We all just really like playing music and it was something that we enjoyed,” Will Anderson, the lead singer said.

The band had another name originally, but changed it to Parachute.

“We really wanted to change our name,” Anderson said. “We sat around for a while thinking of band names we could change it to. Finally, got around to where we had a chance to change our name and we thought of Parachute and we always thought that was a great name.”

The band released its single, “Something to Believe In,” which has been a great success.

“That song was one of the first ones I wrote after our first album,” Anderson said. “I kind of put it away for a while until Alex, our bass player, called. He remembered I sent it to him. He said, ‘we got to play this, we got to play this’, once we started talking about the new record. We played it, recorded it and it became our first single, which is out. But the lyrics just have a rallying cry.”

Soon after, Parachute went from opening for headliners to being a headliner themselves.

“When you are opening, you are trying to get everyone’s attention and hold that attention and prove to them you are worth something,” Anderson said. “When you are headlining, people are there to see you and you can have a little more lee-way and freedom to play with. We love opening. We love being hungry and being the underdog and going for it. Headlining is such a great thing to be able to just slow down and do what you want to do and play for awhile. It feels like two different shows. You’re doing the same thing, but you have two different goals in mind.”

As well as becoming a headliner, the band has gained a national audience.

“When you do TV shows and late night shows, it’s fun. You don’t really get to see the audience at all. You kind of play for the cameras. It’s kind of a weird, strange sensation in that you are trying to kill it and usually get immediate feedback in that we either killed it or we didn’t. With that, you don’t have any idea. We kind of call everyone you know and ‘How was that? How was that?’ A show like Leno, an iconic show, is very cool to be a part of and very cool to actually play on it and get to meet Jay. It gives us all something to believe in that we’re really proud of and really excited about. It’s a really good feeling.”

Their inspiration continues to keep their music going.

“I think for us, writing songs and singing and making a record we’re proud of is a big thing,” Anderson said. “I think there are a lot of bands out there who are cutting songs and making records they’re not proud of and don’t care about. All they want to do is be famous and sing a little pop ditty, be flavor of the month. I think for us, it keeps us going knowing that we’re making something we’re really proud of. I don’t know how the public reacts to that? Or critics react to that. But it’s something we are excited about and willing to play every night for two years to get people to listen to it. I think that alone is reason to keep going. I was talking with someone the other day and he has been in the music business for a while and he played in bands and he was like ‘Dude, if you believe in your music, keep going because it’s worth it.’ I think for us as long as we can keep doing something we’re proud of, and happy with and playing what people want to hear, we’ll keep going and doing it all.”

For the band’s future, it hopes to tour its new album.

“We really want to make music we’re happy about, and that is unique and something that we are proud of and that we can put our stamp on,” Anderson said. “Right now the plan is to tour for awhile and promote this album.”