#daniel schiffer

[paranoiasnfm]

Filming a Dramatic (mostly) Handheld Sequence! | Behind the Scenes

Este rapaz é genial!!!

Que trabalho fantástico!

Daniel Schiffer

  Fonte:

Daniel Schiffer – YouTube

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[allstonpudding-blog]

I can say with certainty that the last eight or so months have been some of the worst of my life weather-wise. Of course, last Tuesday night was no different. I left the comfort of my Allston apartment to venture down to Church. As I was biking through the downpour, I seriously considered turning around and going home. Fortunately, I decided to pedal on and was rewarded by a beautifully harmonious set by Seattle rockers Ivan & Alyosha.

To clear things up, there is neither an Ivan nor an Alyosha in Ivan & Alyosha. The band is made of Tim Wilson, Ryan Carbary, Tim Kim and Pete Wilson with the additional help of a recently enlisted drummer. This was the band’s first time in Boston and they got to wrap up an awesome night of music put together by mysecretboston.com.

Opening with “I Was Born” Ivan & Alyosha played most of their recent EP Fathers Be Kind along with some songs off their 2009 release The Verse, The Chorus. I was most impressed by their four part vocal harmonies which reminded me of a certain band from Liverpool. They also had great chemistry on stage, making jokes and clearly having a good time. My favorite song was “Beautiful Lie” off their first EP and they wrapped up their set with “Glorify,” the final track of Fathers Be Kind.

I got to talk to Pete and Tim after the show and they were very down to earth. If I had to point out a negative part of the set, it would be that not enough people were there to see it. They have a universally enjoyable sound and I believe they’ll draw a much larger crowd when they come to Boston for a second round.

-Daniel Schiffer

Photo credit: Daniel Schiffer [email protected] 

[allstonpudding-blog]

A Bandcamp phenomenon, Cults (Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion) released “Go Outside” a little over a year ago, and the song spread like rapid-fire, capturing the ears of many. I guess that’s the way cults work, huh? Anyway, if you haven’t heard it, the song opens with a sound clip of cult leader Jim Jones who led a mass suicide in 1978. Eerie undertones mixed with innocently charming female vocals… I was hooked. Having just released their first full-length/self-titled album, Cults has hit the road for a summer tour and stopped at Brighton Music Hall the other night for a sold-out show.

Before Cults, Guards took stage – Guards’ front man happens to be Madeline Follin’s brother, Richie Follin. Sibling camaraderie at BMH?! Guards’ music kind of caught me be surprise – it just has that quintessential lo-fi summer vibe. They even have the look with their long locks – any dudes with better hair than me deserve mad props. “Crystal Truth” was sexy and slow with an impassioned buildup at the end. Every now and then, Richie would hit just the right high note… I started to wonder which Follin I liked better…

Guards’ entire set flowed seamlessly from one song to the next; contrasting resounding hums of reverb with heavily energized choruses and climactic endings. “Long Time” was ironically short and sweet - instantly stuck in my head. Everyone should definitely check out “Trophy Queen” – the recorded version features Caroline Polachek, singer of Chairlift. After “Trophy Queen,” Cults and friends took the stage to sing happy birthday to Guards’ keyboardist with Dunkin Donuts lit by candles… precious!

Finally, Cults came on and opened with “Abducted” (Fun Fact: a friend who managed to get backstage told me Madeline wrote her entire set list with red lipstick). Cults modernizes a 60s jangle pop vibe. Their songs pile layers of sound, weaving in clips of mysterious voices. Shining through this hazy cloud of resonance, Madeline’s sultry girlish vocals are nothing short of charming. Cults’ music is playful yet accented with uncertainty. Most of the songs make me think of tainted innocence – like that moment when a kid realizes how much things/people can suck. Holden Caulfield could have easily written “Oh My God.”

Madeline delivered a great performance during “You Know What I Mean” – most of the crowd joined her in the chorus, giving the song a truer sense of vitality. Madeline, I so know what you mean! The crowd’s eyes feasted on Follin, who swayed back and forth to the rhythm, playing with her mini-dress as if she were innocently teasing the audience. In a few songs, Cults utilizes both girl AND boy vocals, sometimes using the call-and-response approach. The most notable call-and-response was in "Bumper," which had this pleasantly retro sock hop kinda feel.  Although Madeline was front and center, Brian stole the spotlight every now and then with animated guitar solos. 

The crowd was overjoyed when Cults finally played “Go Outside.” It’s the upbeat, catchy verses then slowdown of dragged vocals at “I knowww what’s goooooood” that gets me every time. Cults’ encore was “Oh My God,” which I didn’t think was their best song of the night, but twinkling bells and overall sounds of innocence didn’t lose their novelty to the crowd. Plus, for his last guitar solo, Brian made his way into the crowd, delivering full energy at the close of their set.

-Brittany Bosacker

Photo credit: Daniel Schiffer [email protected] 

[allstonpudding-blog]

Perry: Girl World//Golden Girls 

Daniel: The Day Is Coming//My Morning Jacket

Jarrett: Cry//Gayngs

-AP

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Perry: Black Rabbit//Pujol

Daniel: New Desert Song//Desert Soap

Jarrett: You Know What I Mean//Cults 

-AP

[allstonpudding-blog]

A few weeks ago, I got to catch up with Simone Berk of local “dream pop” band, Sugar Snow. They have an upcoming show at the Cantab Lounge on Friday June 3rd  (event details here) with Amber Spyglass and The Milling Gowns. If you can’t make it out to that (shame on you), they will be playing on Tufts’ WMFO on June 9th, at the Sommerville Armory on June 27th, and at the Cantab on July 1st. 

Give some background on the band (who plays what)?

Simone Berk-guitar, vocals; Lennie Chasse-drums; David Armillotti-guitar, vocals; Joe Salesi-bass

How/When did the band form?

Three years ago, I went to Ladies Rock Camp in Brooklyn for a weekend. It was kind of a lark on my part, never having performed music before, but always having been a huge music fan. It was my first experience in a band, writing a song and singing in public, so pretty cathartic for me! I came back to Boston and decided to put a band together, even though I couldn't play more than three chords and had never written a song, other than "Crumpled Sheets" at Rock Camp. But I managed to fake it well enough, and learned as I went. And here we are, faking it a lot less than I used to. That sounds naughty!

Is there one principle songwriter or is it more of a collaborative effort?

I do all the songwriting, in that I bring lyrics and melody and basic song structure to the guys. We then collaborate to make it into what it becomes. And you never know what that is going to be. Sometimes a song I have in my head as slow and mournful ends up fast and angry. It sort of takes us where it needs to go, and fortunately, I work with such great musicians, that they follow it. And gently push me to follow it if I resist. :)

What are some of your favorite venues to play in Boston?

I really enjoy playing at The Cantab, because I love that Mickey Bliss (the booker) is open to bands and treats them with respect. Precinct is loads of fun-we played our CD release party there. The Middle East has great, great sound and great sound guys. There are a lot of stages I'd still like to have the opportunity to play, like The Rosebud, or TT's main stage. 

Who are some of your favorite local bands to play with?

We always have fun when we play shows with our friends Melt and Anarchangel, but my favorite is Daniel Ouellette and The Shobijin. Daniel is one of my favorite people on Earth, and he is an amazing entertainer. Every show is an EVENT. We have a great show coming up on June 3 at The Cantab with The Milling Gowns and Amber Spyglass, which I am really looking forward to.  And there are a lot of bands I would love a chance to play with--Mellow Bravo, Parlour Bells, The Rationales, to name a few.

What's one good record you've been digging lately/ whats one good show you've seen recently?

My ipod has gone missing, so I have been listening to Sirius in my car, specifically "70's on 7". Nothing like segueing from "Dazed and Confused" into "Macho Man. " Highly entertaining. And I always, always go back to Elliott Smith. And 80's-90's local music, like The Cavedogs and Scruffy the Cat. They never get old.

The benefit for John Sands at The Paradise was a great, great show. It was fantastic to see Aimee Mann in a smaller venue. Every club show is interesting in it's way. I saw a band at TT's that made their music on a Nintendo controller, which was pretty damn cool. I know I sound super PC saying that. Not all shows are good, just like not all shows you DO are good. But you learn something every time.

Are there any plans for a studio album in the future?

I would love to get into the studio to record a few new songs with an ear toward a full album sometime in 2012. Our debut album is still pretty new, and I am still promoting it relentlessly!  Go listen to it at sugarsnowmusic.com or on Soundcloud!

What is your ideal gig- basement show? club show? etc?

An ideal gig is less about the venue and more about the people involved. A great club with a rude sound guy and cranky bartenders and other bands that don't acknowledge you makes for a sucky show, period. If everyone is on board to make it a great night of music-all the bands, sound guy, crowd-it will be a blast of a show. And I HATE shows where the other bands don't listen to each other. Or even say hello. Unless we smell as a unit, there is no excuse for that.

Where did the band get its name?

I'd like to say that there is some cool drug or literary reference that brought the name about, and in general, I do nothing to discourage that belief. But in actuality, it's a lyric in one of our songs, "The Word Yes." When we were trying to pick a name, we literally had a list of 500 and only could agree on Sugar Snow. I love that people think Sugar Snow is my name. It wish it were. 

What are the band's future plans?

On Saturday, May 28, we will be on Evolvement Radio, WXGR in Portsmouth, New Hampshire from 8-10, in which we will do an acoustic version of one of our songs with  a kick ass glockenspiel solo. We are fortunate to be playing some great shows this summer  and, within the next few months, we'll be filming a music video that is scripted to be moody and pretentious. The success of the video will lead to the purchase of a Sugar Snowcopter that will allow us to avoid all the Cape traffic and land us at our Truro compound. In short, world domination. Dress appropriately.

-Daniel Schiffer

[allstonpudding-blog]

Perry: I Should Have Left the Bushes Hours Ago//Bunny's A Swine

Daniel: My Imagination//Spirit Kid

Jarrett: Juniper//Minks

-AP

[allstonpudding-blog]

There are certain musical experiences that come into your life almost perfectly. Sunday night, the weather still a mystery, classes out for summer, and the false alarm/hilarity of the Rapture already history, a set of serene yet cerebral tunes was the perfect remedy. Junip could not have made a stop at the Brighton Music Hall at a more appropriate time. Those who are familiar with Jose Gonzalez for his spectacular solo work know that while he is armed solely with a nylon string, his music is anything but simple. I quickly made the discovery on Sunday night that Junip adheres to this same trend, but are equipped with more tools and a diverse display of talents to create expansive layered constructions that are pleasant both to the ear and the mind.

Marking the final show of their US tour, Junip brought along Brooklyn up-and-comers The Acrylics to start the night off. The band provided a terrific warm-up filled with brilliant melodies from their recently released full length, Lives and Treasure. Tunes like “The Catacombs” provided a glimpse of what direction these guys are headed, somewhere in the realm of a less spacey Beach House, and more jovial sounding than the XX. The already packed Brighton Music Hall seemed to really enjoy their set, sending them off with warm applause. The crowd was noteworthy as well; A nice mix of young hipsters and older folksters, there to witness how Junip’s LP, Fields, converts to the live stage. 

Junip has a bit of a story to them, one that you can read more about in the interview below, but to sum it up briefly, they have become the band they are today through persistence. Ironically, their music contains a very similar quality. Beginning with a simple rhythmic or melodic idea, their songs require both a bit of patience and a bit of thinking. By the end, however, they have built elaborate and involved pieces of work, paired wonderfully with Gonzalez’s hauntingly beautiful voice. “It’s Alright” is a great example of this. Starting off with two simple chord’s of Gonzalez’s acoustic, Tobias Winterkorn eventually stirs in hints of new-wave as Elias Araya pounds out a head-nod inducing beat. By the end, it feels almost like a techno song, with each subtle element being gently layered to create the final product. Even the smallest of contributions made a significant difference. At one point, I was fixated on the percussionist, Joel Wastberf, as he included methodically placed taps on a glass jar, acting as both a metronomic and melodic fixture. It was for reasons like this that Junip didn’t have to force any sort of improvisational aspect into their live performance. The simple building of their complicated structures was awe-inspiring in itself.

The Swedish trio carved through material from Fields as well as a few old ones such as “Black Refuge.” For those who enjoy Gonzalez’s solo material, there were definitely hints of folk in the songwriting, but the overall sound that they achieved was much different. To me, it drew similarity to Hail to the Thief era Radiohead, or some of Broken Social Scene’s more laid-back material. However you care to classify it, their sound has the ability to appeal to a wide variety of tastes, hence the diversity of ages in the audience. As Araya provided a solid backbeat, I even felt potential for hip-hop beats in some of their songs and wondered how Kanye West is yet to get his hands on them. Junip makes music that is great for both thinking and relaxation, which in itself proves a certain kind of versatility. If you are looking for one of these things, or simply care to hear some music that is a bit different, do yourself a favor and pick up Fields. If you want to get the full experience, however, you cannot miss Junip live next time they come through Boston. To get a bit more familiar with the group, I had the pleasure of talking to Jose and Tobias about the origins and future of the band.

Thank you for having me guys. To start, how about you introduce yourselves and say who plays what: 

Jose: I’m Jose Gonzalez, I play guitar and sing.

Tobias: I am Tobias Winterkorn and I play keyboards. We also have Elias Araya on drums. Touring with us, we have Johan Grettve on bass and Joel Wastberf on percussion.

How did the three of you guys first come together? 

J: Me and Elias grew up together, so we have known each other since we were seven. We started playing music together around fourteen or fifteen. After playing in many different bands, we met Tobias, who lived in a nearby city. We were playing in different hardcore bands and we just decided to do something different, so around that time we started playing as a trio— just guitar, drums, and Tobias was playing organ and Moog synthesizer.

So then in 2005, you guys released the EP Black Refuge, but from there you took a break when Jose found solo success. What inspired the reformation of Junip and the release of a full-length last year? 

T: We had always talked a lot about doing something, but never actually got together to attempt to make a record. So we sat down in 2008, when Jose was about to release In Our Nature, and we decided that after that release, we would really get back together and make an album, so that was the inspiration to start— just to know that we were actually going to start recording it. When we started, it didn’t feel that weird to be playing again, because it wasn’t just like five years when we didn’t do anything, we actually would get together every once and awhile to play. The record came out quite good….. I think.

Explain to me the songwriting process. Is there one principle songwriter, or is it more of a collaborative effort?  

J: We write the music together. We always start by jamming and we built a studio so we can just record at any time. Usually we jam and when we find something we like, we record it. We take it in steps to make it more and more like a song, and for the very last step, I write some lyrics and we do the vocal melodies. 

So Jose, when you personally come up with an idea for a song, how do you know if it’s something you will end up doing solo, or something you bring to Junip to try to bring to the next level?

J: It’s easy because I never bring anything finished to Junip. I don’t really even bring an idea for a song. It’s more just sitting down with these guys and jamming until it sounds fun. Whenever I’m just at home and writing, it’s only for me. If we have an unfinished song with Junip, I might go home and figure out something, but it is always the foundation of the song that is done together with the three of us.

You mentioned that some of your earliest influences were hardcore bands. How did the stylistic transition occur where you went to playing hardcore music to come to play the style of music you are now?

J: I wouldn’t say it was an inspiration. It was more like we were playing hardcore music for a little bit. When Junip came together, our inspirations were more 60’s and 70’s music combined with more moody music from the States. 

T: Hardcore music was really just kind of a side interest. We started off listening to a lot of different types of music, and then there was like four years of hardcore music, and it came as sort of a disease!

J: For me, I was playing in a hardcore band at the same time I was writing my acoustic songs and at the same time as Junip was starting, so yeah, there was never a real switch of “I’m going to only do this,” it was more a matter of us getting more positive feedback with solo stuff and with Junip than with the hardcore band.

Gothenburg, Sweden, where you guys grew up— what was the music scene like there?

J: It was pretty good, there were a lot of underground shows. People would just set up a PA in these weird little basement venues. There were some cool bands, like Silver Bullet and some other ones as well. 

Fields is Junip’s first full-length and you guys worked with Don Alsterberg. Tell me a bit about the recording experience. 

T: We recorded in our rehearsal space/studio and we recorded it digitally. Don came, sometimes just to listen how far we had gotten with the recording of the songs. He would give us instruction to play faster or slower or whatever. When everything was done, we took the computer to his studio and we transferred everything to tape. Fully analog mixing, but fully digital recording.

The songs that went into Fields, were those written recently, or did they date back to when you guys were first playing before the hiatus?

J: We decided to start fresh and write all new stuff. Everything we’ve written from the new album and EP is all new material. I don’t think we had anything we really wanted to keep from the early sessions. There’s some stuff like “Official” and “Black Refuge” and maybe one or two others that we still like, but that’s basically it.

From a listener’s standpoint, Junip is really unclassifiable in terms of genre. There are a tremendous amount of stylistic influences to pick out, but one that seems to be very apparent is folk music. Most people seem to associate folk music with just a singer and an acoustic guitar, but you guys seem to grasp a lot of folky elements. What is your perception of folk music and how do you incorporate its elements into your sound? 

J: I think it’s fun to try and do something that not that many people do. When we started, we thought it would be good to keep the nylon string guitar, but not necessarily hold back just because it was an acoustic instrument. By using different instruments, we can have more of a dynamic range, which by itself sets us a part from many other people who only play folk. I would say we take elements from many styles and combine it into our own, and by being in between (acoustic and electric), there are fewer people who are doing that.

One of your upcoming gigs is this year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival. Is this your first trip down there?

J: I have been there solo, but it will be the first time for Junip

You guys have played a number of European festivals, what are some of your expectations in terms of Bonnaroo being an American festival as opposed to a European one?

J: We’re playing on a Sunday at like three in the afternoon, so it will be really hot and sunny, so hopefully there will be a bit of a hippie vibe while we’re playing.  Otherwise, I think we’re coming in late the day before, so unfortunately I don’t think we will be able to see that much.

What does the near future hold for Junip? Do you see another full-length in the works?

T: Yes, we have a couple of new songs, and then some songs that we wrote for the EP, so I guess that we have the flow now. We’re in the writing zone!

J: After the festivals and summer, we’ll take some time off to write and record.

When can fans expect a new album?

T: April 21st. (laughs) 

J: Next Spring hopefully.

T: That should be possible.

J: It’s definitely possible.

T: Everything is possible.

J: It’s not improbable

Alright! Thanks guys, and good luck with everything.

-Perry Eaton

Photo credit: Daniel Schiffer [email protected]