It’s an icy Wednesday night and I’m back in Bushwick for what promises to be an evening of mellow folk rock and softer pop sounds at the Silent Barn, one of the remaining DIY spaces in this rapidly changing neighborhood. The cover charge for shows here is usually around $8, and it’s worth it; the musicians who play here tend to be innovative and have great respect for their craft. There is an outdoor area for seasonable months, but tonight’s event is inside the gallery. Walls covered in abstract designs lend to the adaptable nature of the venue. An ominous looking black triangle over the center of the stage brings a psychedelic vibe to the room, and shifting blue and rose lights give the illusion of being in an aquarium.
Fieldings is the first band of the night. The brainchild of Australian producer Lucinda Hearn, Fieldings has the crystal, dreamy sound of 90’s alternative rock laced with pop. Shining, broad notes from the guitar hang in the air and drift by like smoke long after they’ve been picked. This brand of rock is romantic without being precious. It is innocent and sensual, like falling in love on acid. Hearn’s voice whips up and down the scale and weaves around backup vocalist and keyboardist Melodie Stancato’s birdlike soprano tone with abandon. The stripped down pop style of the Smiths-like guitar gives Fieldings the raw sentimentality of teenage lust in all its simplicity and urgency. Their music would be a fitting soundtrack for a high school hipster’s make out session. Fieldings has a show on February 24th at Our Wicked Lady, if interested readers would like to know.
Swoon Lake is the second act, also featuring Melodie Stancato, this time on lead vocal as well as keys. Fluttering three part harmonies climb like ivy around an eerie violin played by Aviva Skye, who seems to play exclusively in the minor key. Swoon Lake call themselves “spooky folk” and it’s an apt label as far as vocals are concerned. The drums are pure rock and roll and even the violin sounds dipped in grunge. Ryan Surrano and Paul [last name unknown] switch roles as drummer and bassist throughout the set. Their songs evoke a wintry melancholy, one minute delicate as a snowflake and then heavy as heartbreak. Stancato’s voice has the same rich yet airy quality as Ingrid Michaelson’s, and the focus of their repertoire does seem to be on the vocals. The synth, violin, bass and drums all seem to support and showcase the impressively sung polyphonies, but what really knocks the listener out is when the weight of all the parts of this ensemble collide explosively at opportune moments in the composition. The music gets more haunting as the set goes on and by the final number, Swoon Lake is deep into some experimental discordance that solidifies the ghostly rock sound they have cultivated.
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| Swoon Lake. From left to right, Paul [last name unknown], Ryan Surrano, Melodie Stancato, Aviva Skye |
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| Half Waif. From left to right, Nandi Rose Plunkett, Adan Carlo. Zach Levine on drums in the back. |
Unfortunately because the show started so late, and I do have to get on the train for a very long ride, I am forced to leave before hearing the final band on the bill, TIGUE, but I hope to catch them another night. Before I head back to my corner of Brooklyn, I thank Nandi Rose Plunkett for a beautiful set and ask if she’d be down to do an interview for Hydrogen Jukebox. She’s as warm and energetic offstage as she is in performance and she agrees to chat with me. Below is our interview, conducted over email, and edited only for grammar.
Q. Your work defies typical classification, beyond perhaps the singer/songwriter category. How would you define Half Waif’s sound?
A. It’s bits of a lot of different things. We recently came up with the term “mood ring pop” and I think that fits it pretty well. But at the heart of all the layers are just songs, and while I don’t necessarily identify as a singer-songwriter anymore, that’s where I started from and I hope to always have good songs at the center of interesting sounds and textures.
Q. Who are your strongest musical influences?
A. Early on, it was Tori Amos all the way. Then Bjork, Radiohead. In college, I was into early 20th century composers and their use of harmony and tone color – Debussy, Stravinsky, Messiaen. More recently, strong female singers and producers like iamamiwhoami, Joanna Newsom, Weyes Blood, My Brightest Diamond, St Vincent, and Lydia Ainsworth.
Q. Your lyrics are quite poetic. Do you attribute that to any specific literary influences?
A. I love to read! Especially things with really juicy imagery, like Lorrie Moore, Karen Russell, David Mitchell, Milan Kundera, Sylvia Plath, Pablo Neruda. Whenever I’m feeling particularly stuck or burned out on music, I turn to these writers and they sort of kick-start the wellspring again.
Q. How do your heritage and upbringing play into your composition? Your performance?
A. I don’t overtly reference my heritage/upbringing but I do think it comes out in ways. People sometimes say that I sound Irish when I sing. I grew up listening to a lot of Celtic folk music, which is lilting and heavily adorned – not totally unlike Indian classical music. Beyond that, growing up in a multicultural household in a very homogenous area always gave me a sense of uniqueness that I clung to as a way of ‘being somebody.’ My mother, an Indian woman, was a refugee from Uganda and our family is scattered all over the place; our family history is so fluid. That feeling of placelessness – and yet having so many homes – was the source from which this project grew.
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| Press photo by Celina Carney, courtesy of the band |
Q. You’re releasing a full-length album in the spring! How have you changed, musically and lyrically, since KOTEKAN?
A. Yeah super excited to share this new material! The whole process for recording these two albums was very different – KOTEKAN was recorded in a studio, Probable Depths was more DIY. Many of the sounds on Probable Depths were sampled from the house I grew up in, in Massachusetts. So there’s perhaps a more organic, earthier feel to it. Lyrically, the last album was written when I was living alone whereas the newer one comes at a time when I’m living with someone, sharing my life with someone – so there’s a difference in how relationships are talked about and explored.
Q. Your band is gaining some traction. You’ve made several EPs, videos, and you’re starting to do more traveling for gigs! What are the challenges you’re facing now, and how do they differ from the challenges you experienced when you began Half Waif?
A. Half Waif has evolved so much since it began as my solo project 4 years ago – different band iterations, different influences and sounds. The challenge for a while was how to find the right band, and did I even want this to be a band, or did I want it to just be me? And what does “me” even sound like? For the first time, I really feel like it has become a band made up of these three specific people, and it’s these three people’s sounds that are influencing the music and pushing it forward. I’m still mostly writing the songs, but the process is becoming more collaborative, because I trust Zack and Adan more than anything, and really value their creative input. The challenge now is just to write the best music we possibly can, keep refining our live arrangements, and find what sounds like “us.”
Q. What is your favorite song that you’ve written so far, and why?
A. My favorite song is a super new one that will be on our next EP. It’s called “Magic Trick.” It’s the shortest song I’ve ever written, only two verses, but I feel like I said everything I needed to say in those verses. The arrangement is built upon a sample of me singing with my friends in an echo-y room in California – I made it into a keyboard and it creates this really cool effect of voices sliding around in harmony. Using found sounds to make synths and beats is one method I’m using more in an effort to create unique, space-and-time specific music.
Q. Do you have any favorite venues to play in Brooklyn or Manhattan? Any favorite local bands?
A. Fave venues – Shea Stadium, Palisades, Manhattan Inn, Baby’s All Right
Fave bands (taking local to mean NY/Philly/NJ) – Palm, Alex G, Long Beard, Fraternal Twin, TIGUE, Mitski, Big Thief, Zula
Q. What are your plans after Probable Depths debuts in May? What’s the next step for your band?
A. We’re going on a tour out to the Midwest and up through Canada and back in late May/June. And then we’re going to start working on the next EP!
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Half Waif has scheduled their record release show for Probable Depths on May 12th at Baby’s All Right.
Watch their trippy video for "Ceremonial" here, then find their music on iTunes and BandCamp!
HJ
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