Author: Shea Gibbs

Accomplished local jazz musician John D’earth says people get too hung up on what is music and what isn’t music. Kids, for example, don’t need to play an instrument properly to be making music. They just need to be making noise.

If you’re too square for that jive, Suzanne Thorpe and Bonnie Jones are ready to blow your ever-loving mind.

The two electronic musicians launched Techne, a musical education project, in 2010. They’ve since been touring the country putting on concerts as companion pieces to three-hour workshops designed to teach young girls the art of electronica. Charlottesville will get its chance to give Thorpe and Jones a listen on July 11 and 12.

To prepare yourself for Friday’s concert at The Bridge PAI, clear your mind of any notions you may have about “electronic music.” This is completely different. While Thorpe plays something somewhat close to an instrument you might understand, the electroacoustic flute, Jones produces music through “circuit bending.” To put it in (somewhat) plain terms, she opens the back of digital delay pedals, which common bands use to make riff loops, and produces experimental sounds by manipulating the exposed circuit boards.

Thorpe and Jones don’t end the experimentation there. Not only does Jones make joyful noises using something that looks like it just came out of a busted smartphone, Thorpe jams with her.

“It is improvised, so we don’t know what will happen,” Thorpe said. “We have certain techniques that tend to be fairly consistent, and we are familiar with each other, but every space we perform in is different. We don’t know acoustically how that space will respond.”

Oh, so it’s like jazz, you might think. Don’t go there.

“It is problematic to use the term jazz. That is a loaded term with a lot of history,” Thorpe said. “The term creative improvisation is better applied.”

Fans of more mainstream electronica, not to mention music in general, won’t be completely left out when Techne takes the stage at the Bridge. Thorpe said she and Jones employ a lot of the same tools used by electro-poppers and their ilk, as well as “a shared approach to creativity.” Plus, UVA grad and classically trained guitarist Monika Khot will open the show with her own brand of electroacoustic songwriting.

The goal of Techne’s workshops, one of which C’ville will get a taste of on July 12, is similar to that of the duo’s music, according to Thorpe and Jones. Where their sonic experimentation seeks to throw off the trappings of what is traditionally thought of as music, the seminars are geared toward young girls because electronica and technology are male-dominated fields.

“Not only do we need more democracy in the field, we need better representation across the board,” Thorpe said. “I don’t think the white males that have been in charge have been doing such a good job, and we need more voices.”

While the stated goal of the workshops is to teach attendees how to make electronic tunes, Thorpe and Jones said girls can take more away from the proceedings than just the ability to make a noise more shocking than that coming from a novice violin player’s bedroom. They’ll learn the inner-workings of electronic music—circuitry and electric flow, voltage control, transducers—and they’ll be given the opportunity to break through the barriers that keep them from diving into technology and figuring it out themselves in the first place.

“One of our main goals is to introduce young women to technology in a space and place that has positive role modeling and is supportive,” Jones said. “We use electronic music as a vehicle.”

Girls 12 and up that grab one of the 10 available spots at the free seminar will learn how to make a contact microphone (basically a disc attached to a quarter inch cable that you plug into an amp) and build on that device to create a customized electronic instrument using a box and everyday items. At the end of the workshop, the girls get a chance to jam along with Techne using their homemade music-maker.

Thorpe and Jones said participants don’t need any prior knowledge of electronics to learn the types of skills they’ll teach them. All they need is the ability to keep their ears open.

“Listening is fundamental in any engagement,” Thorpe said.

Bridge executive director Matthew Slaats, who taught alongside Thorpe at an arts school in Manhattan, said the art Techne makes is important not only for its musicality but also for its application to engineering fields and other artistic disciplines.

“As an artist myself, I have used sound in a multitude of ways,” Slaats said. “Opening up the way sound and recording are used to create artwork is something I am interested in seeing happen more and more at the Bridge. This is not just concert-based; we’re thinking about how sound is a medium for creativity.”

Only 50 or so people will be able to crowd into the Bridge for the Techne show. If you don’t make the cut, take apart your smartphone.

What female musician inspires you? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

JD McPherson may be about to piss a lot of people off.

The singer-songwriter and virtuoso guitarist’s first record, Signs and Signifiers, was a faithful reproduction of old school rhythm and blues. He and his team, working with vintage equipment in a Chicago studio, knew there was an existing (mostly European) fan base just waiting to lap up McPherson’s good old boy accent and swingin’ guitar licks.

It’s that group of fans that may be coming around with pitchforks when McPherson’s second effort, which has yet to be titled, hits shelves this fall.

“The material is more broad this time,” McPherson said. “I was able to kind of stretch myself. All the time when we were touring for Signs and Signifiers, it was tough because some of that stuff got old. This is going to be an edgier record.”

Charlottesvillians looking to catch McPherson when he plays the Jefferson Theater on June 26 will likely be spared the disappointment and treated to a good mix of the old and the new. McPherson said the current tour is an attempt to remind a few key markets of his nostalgic noisemaking, while at the same time getting audiences fired up about what the songwriter can do if he gets a little more “sonically daring.”

For his own part, McPherson feels he’s had the ability to step outside of the old timey mold since the jump. While he admits that certain tracks, like the broadly appealing sock hopper “North Side Gal,” recreate a retro sound, deeper cuts like “Scratching Circles” and “Scandalous” have moved beyond the genre.

“The goal was to produce these songs that were indicative on a lyrical scale of stuff that was like Lieber and Stoller,” McPherson said, referencing the songwriting duo that penned “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock,” among a handful of megahits. “But I think I got more interested once I realized I could get away with pushing the boundaries and writing songs with a relevance to my own life.”

Whatever the lyrics, rock and roll and the blues are still the jumping off point for McPherson. He said he distinguishes his sound from other groups on the retro scene because “not a lot of folks are doing the R&B stuff.”

“It’s weird to me because there are countries on the planet that never moved on from those sounds,” McPherson said. “Whenever America has a really good thing going, it moves on to the next thing so quickly.”

One thing that won’t change on the second record is the role of guitar playing. The kid from Tulsa, Oklahoma has been honing his skills on the axe since he was 13, but he’s not a fan of egregious riffs for their own sake. 

“Guitar playing to me isn’t interesting when it’s served on a platter,” McPherson said. “The most interesting stuff Clapton ever did was when Cream was making records with all the elements working together. I was less interested when it became an innocuous record with the guitar right up front. The important thing about guitar for me is it should be serving the song.”

It’s been a long time since McPherson served up a song with a side of guitar—his first record was released on his indie label in 2010 and then re-released on Rounder Records in 2012. The four years since the initial release have given McPherson a lot of time to tour and reflect on his music career. When he first started in the business, he was still a working middle school teacher. He toured overseas even as his art students were left behind in Oklahoma.

And while the break has given McPherson time to ease into the role of full-time musician, it may have cost him some momentum—“don’t remind me,” he lamented. Still, he’s confident the time spent on crafting the forthcoming release will bring in a new legion of fans. 

McPherson turned to producer Mark Neill (The Black Keys, Old 97’s) and his Soil of the South Studios to develop his new aesthetic.

“We had access to some of the best sound humanly possible,” McPherson said. “He can get pretty much any record or any sound from any record.”

The result is what McPherson calls “a little more hi-fi,” and it’s pulled off by a band that has “really hit its stride.” While Signs and Signifiers was produced using bassist Jimmy Sutton’s house band in his Chicago studio, McPherson is now working almost exclusively with his own band, composed of himself on guitar and vocals, Sutton on bass, Ray Jacildo on keys (organ and piano), Jason Smay on drums, and Doug Corcoran, a multi-instrumentalist who plays sax, guitar, keyboards, and anything the band might need for an arrangement.

“I lean heavily on those guys, so I try to give as much credit there as possible,” he said.

McPherson said the strongest markets for his R&B tunes are in Minneapolis, Chicago, Philadelphia and his hometown of Tulsa, but he also has some ties to Charlottesville. One of his managers, Wes Kidd of Red Light Management, is based in town.

“It’s a good hang,” McPherson said of C’ville. “We love that part of the country.”

Time will tell if this part of the country still loves him.

Could Indecision have been DMB? Could the names Evans and Ibbeken have been synonymous with the C’ville music scene, instead of Dave Matthews? Could “Take It All In” have been “Ants Marching”?

Probably not, admits Indecision’s David Ibbeken. But the band, which made its debut in Charlottesville in 1984, was by most accounts a stroke of luck away from being every bit as popular as the handful of jam band staples that rose to prominence in the late ‘80s and ‘90s. The six C’ville natives, Aaron Evans (guitar and vocals), Craig Dougald (drums and vocals), Shawn McCrystal (bass), Doug Wanamaker (keys and vocals), and Chris White (acoustic guitar and vocals), in addition to Ibbeken (guitar and vocals), shared stages with the likes of Phish, Widespread Panic, and Blues Traveler, and played to houses packed with upwards of 1,000 fans.

“We were close, but we couldn’t quite get over the hump,” Ibbeken said. “We just couldn’t get some record A&R guy to put his name on us.”

Scott Johnston, the band’s manager at the time, said the near miss with national stardom was in part the band’s decision. “We had some interest, but we could never work out a deal that would help us enough financially,” he said. “It costs a fortune to stay on the road like we were.”

Getting that close to blowing up has led to a unique arrangement for the members of Indecision. Since they stopped touring full-time in 1993, they’ve managed to stick together to play a handful of shows every year. Now, they’re celebrating 30 years as a band. Ibbeken said that when Indecision takes the stage at Fridays After Five on June 27, the band will be as tight as it’s ever been.

“The music has evolved and is better now than it was 20 years ago,” he said. “We are better musicians, and we listen to more music.”

It’s been a gradual process to getting to where they are now, playing eight to 10 shows a year and practicing a couple of times a week. The band gave it up entirely for a year after the break in ’93. But a year later, Indecision played a show or two, and the next year, the fellas got together to play four or five gigs.

It’s taboo for bands to talk about making it big—or even making it at all, if “it” means anything money-related—but Ibbeken and Johnston agreed they would be lying if they said they didn’t think about what might have been.

“We definitely looked at the bands that got the big breaks, and also the bands that got smaller deals,” Johnston said. “We never quite took off, and that’s why we were out there, to get in front of people and sell millions of records.”

Ibbeken wonders if Indecision would have had a better shot if they were more inclined to write pop songs than jams, and he laments that maybe they gave things up just a bit too early, a few years before jam bands seemed to have their heyday in the mid-’90s.

These days, it’s hard not to see the jam scene as in a period of decline. Most of the biggest names out on tour have grown older, and the genre seems to absorb aging rockers better than it does new talent.

Ibbeken, who’s now senior counsel for SNL Financial’s legal department, said Indecision is happy with its place in the scene. The sextet is still writing the occasional original tune, and scoring gigs at the likes of Bonnaroo and Lockn’ gives the band something to work toward.

“We still have a good core following,” Ibbeken said. “We’re not playing as large of venues, but we still get several hundred people at every show, and with social media we are able to keep up with the old fans.” And who knows, maybe the jam scene has another good run in it. Ibbeken said he’s encouraged by the enthusiasm for bands at festivals “doing the same sort of stuff we do.”

As for the upcoming show at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Ibbeken said Indecision will deliver a good mix of originals and covers for the old diehards and the younger folks that make their way to Fridays After Five. Johnston said it’s an event that has a special place in the band’s heart.

“Those guys have been in C’ville for more than 40 years,” he said. “They were pretty much one of the first national bands to come out of the city. No matter where they went out and hit the road, C’ville is where they’re from.”

No, Indecision didn’t make it big. And the band isn’t playing to crowds anywhere near 1,000 anymore. The six members have day jobs, mortgages, and kids, and they’ve had to hold rehearsals partially online since McCrystal moved away to Atlanta for a medical sales job. But the band has no plans to stop what it’s doing anytime soon.

“We’re still all good friends,” Ibbeken said. “I don’t think any of us have any regrets.”

Share your memories of past gigs in the comments section below.

 A friend of mine once fell asleep at an Iron and Wine show. By the time the opener had finished and Sam Beam started in with his lullaby-like tunes, my buddy found himself a comfy spot on a pool table and succumbed to a serenaded sleep.

I always think of that story as a bit of a compliment to Iron and Wine, kind of like napping at the orchestra. The soft-spoken singer-songwriter has such a tender voice and a way with pleasing imagery that you might as well be in a dream state while you’re listening to his music.

But Beam has changed a good deal as he’s wound through a career of interesting side projects and one-offs to go along with his five full-length studio albums. These days, he sings with less breathiness and sprinkles upbeat pop numbers among the soporific crooners.

Ahead of his June 19 engagement at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Beam took time away from recording a covers album with Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses to talk to C-VILLE Weekly about projecting his voice, being a student at VCU, and the benefits of going commercial.

C-VILLE Weekly: Why do you use a stage name instead of your own?

Sam Beam: Blatant showmanship. Which is more interesting, Sam Beam or Iron and Wine? But I had always kind of envisioned it as a band. Now I just put several bands together. It’s a band with one permanent member.

Is there a benefit to switching up band members?

I have people that come and go; it’s kind of a pool of people, and it just depends on who is available and what style of music I’m pushing into. But yeah, it gives you a way to switch things up sometimes. It will be a five-piece that night [in Charlottesville], with Rob Burger, the fella that helped me do a bunch of arrangements on the last record, and a lot of my regulars. Matt Lux will play the bass, Jim Becker on guitar and all the shit with strings, Joe Adamik on drums.

You guys will be outdoors in C’ville. Does that matter to you?

I would prefer indoors. You have a bit more control of the sound. But at the same time I like being outside. Especially with the early material, it takes a certain kind of listening space, and it’s really appropriate for seated theaters. But after over a decade of putting records out, I’m not interested in regurgitating the recordings. We switch the songs around, pull the loud ones back to quiet, or the opposite.

I hear more happiness in your music these days. Is there anything to that?

I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten happier. I would say I have expanded the palette of what I was writing about. I was using what I had at the time. I didn’t have a band and was doing music in my spare time. I don’t feel like they are sad songs, maybe somber, but I’m not complaining about what a bad world it is, or what a raw deal I have. They are contemplative, but it has been nice to change things up over the years. The old songs can get a little tedious after a while.

You also seem to sing more clearly these days.

I definitely had to learn how to project over the years. That was how I thought I sang, and it felt appropriate for the sentiment of the tunes.

Having gone to VCU, can I assume you have some familiarity with Charlottesville?

We used to go to Charlottesville quite often to see shows or go camping. I saw a couple really good guitar players, like acoustic guitar, and some punk shows there.

What was Sam Beam like as a college student?

Well, I was super-cool, attractive, and intelligent. When I was in Richmond in art school, I thought I would be a painter. Then I got into the photography department and sort of got my interest piqued in film and went on to film school. I’ve had a lot of people approach me to do film stuff since I started making music. Before I started in music, I would have given a vital body part for that opportunity. It’s funny how life works sometimes.

Does your background in visual arts influence you as a songwriter?

I guess so. It all works together. I’m interested in visual communication, whether it is in painting or filmmaking, so I approach songs more like poems. I stick with visual imagery that a reader can respond to and then dabble in some emotion. But at the end of the day, it is a song. You start with the melody and then start daydreaming or whatever. If there were a nice roadmap to making one of my tunes, I would keep following it.

Whatever you’re doing, it seems to be going pretty well.

You can’t be doing it for the business. You have to do it because you like it. If you like it enough and you do it enough, and you keep working on your craft and your chops, you can make it. That said, I should be more commercial-minded. I should be, but I follow the muse. I think it was art school—whether it was technical training or just some kind of brain washing—but I definitely learned that whatever other people’s opinions were, you have to follow your own muse.

Fitz and the Tantrums just seem to have a way of finding the spotlight. Remember that video where they were all on those treadmills?

Oh, that wasn’t them? My bad. But who could forget when they played on that one rooftop that one time? Oh, right. That was every band other than them.

What about when they dressed up in tuxedos with Ellen and danced in the streets to plug the Oscars? Yep. That was them. And that was cool.

So maybe the indie pop band from L.A. doesn’t always find the spotlight. They certainly seemed like they were about to be huge when they released their first album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces, in 2010, but after three years of touring before releasing their latest, More Than Just a Dream, they lost a bit of momentum. Can they pick up where they left off?

In a recent phone interview to promote their gig at the Jefferson on June 13, Jeremy Ruzumna (keyboards) didn’t think it would be a problem.

C-VILLE Weekly: So are you guys always jumping into the air simultaneously, or is that just in publicity photos?

Jeremy Ruzumna: That’s a weird habit we all have. Actually, that’s why we became a band. No, but there is a certain energy there, and we try to bring that same energy whenever we go on stage.

Why did you take so long between LPs?

I don’t know. I think when the first one came out, we worked it as long as we could. It was all a blur because we spent so much time on the road. There was a bit of a delay because we signed to a major label.

How does your major label debut differ from the first record?

We actually wrote and recorded and finished the record before we signed to Elektra. The strength of it was one of the reasons they wanted to sign us. We were on a fantastic small indie label, which put us on the map, but going to an international, major label, they wield a certain power.

Most indie musicians these days say the majors don’t try to change them.

I think there’s something to that. In the old days, you couldn’t record anything other than a demo without a label. The record companies controlled everything. They had to find you, like you, and bring you into the studio, and they shaped you from the ground up. Now anyone can record an album. Our first was recorded in Fitz’s living room. The labels now want you to be fully formed, road tested, and proven.

My guess is that you guys are either working on a new one or about to start.

That’s up in the air. It depends on this album. We’re enjoying a really good ride, seeing success with “The Walker,” and we want to release one or two more singles. We could be out on the road for some time. Our agent took us aside and said, “pack your suitcases for two years.”

Do you ever think about your popularity or getting bigger?

We do think about it. Every musician is lying to you if they say they don’t want people to like them and listen to their music. But we’ve all been in a million bands, and this whole thing is an anomaly. In this business, the odds are against you.

What do you suppose makes you guys successful?

I’ve never worked as hard in any other project I’ve been in. From the beginning, we never said no to anything.

How do you guys write songs?

Fitz and Noelle sing the songs, so no matter what gets written, they have to like it. Fitz is the filter for everything, but when we’re recording, each person in the band tries to put their stamp on it.

Why do you guys rely so heavily on keyboards instead of guitars?

Mostly, there wasn’t a guitar player around when we started. Fitz is a keyboard player and writes from the piano. We said, “How can we make a sound that’s different from other bands? Can we flesh everything out with keyboards?” The whole first album is like that, and we’ve mostly kept with it. It gives the arrangement more room. But at the end of the day, you never want to be a slave to your aesthetic choices if you know it would sound better another way.

Ultimately, the way the song sounds is the most important thing. As a keyboard player, I love it. Admittedly, you feel naked at first when there’s no guitar. Now I thrive off of it.

How are the shows going on the current tour?

We are not going to let you sit down. Bring a second pair of underwear because you will be sweating your ass off. Every show we do is going to be the highest energy we can give. We leave nothing behind.

Your first release was a breakup album. Has it been difficult to move beyond that?

It was at first. The first album was great for me, too, because I was going through a breakup. Whenever Fitz wrote angry breakup lyrics, I was like, “Right on,” because I was in the worst pain. Then when things were going really well, it was like, “What the hell are we going to write about?” We had to open our eyes to what was really going on around us.

You guys have had a lot of success licensing songs. What is it about your music that’s attractive to advertisers and video producers?

Our songs are written to be catchy. It comes down to writing songs that have good melodies and hooks. It doesn’t hurt that before the band started, Fitz was a commercial music producer. Luckily, people like the songs.

 I was convinced that Taylor Hicks would not only win the 2006 season of “American Idol,” but would also become wildly successful as a recording artist. I was so convinced of his ability to appeal to a range of audiences, that I told anyone who would listen he’d be the most popular “Idol” of all time.

History has shown what a dope I am. But not all reality singing show competitors suffer the fate of the hapless Soul Patrol. “AI” has produced a couple of superstars—Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood—as well as scads of mildly successful pop drones—Daughtry, Phillip Phillips, Kellie Pickler. Indeed, the show has cranked out a good number of musicians, winners or no, who are not entirely repulsive.

NBC’s “The Voice” is a different story. The show with the revolving judges’ chairs, which has largely taken over as the most popular singing competition in the world, has somehow failed to produce any notable stars. Even with the likes of Blake Shelton, Adam Levine, CeeLo, Christina Aguilera, Usher, and Shakira “coaching” competitors through the show’s concerts, the most successful alumni is probably Cassadee Pope. And very few people reading this know who the hell Cassadee Pope is.

So what should we expect when Melanie Martinez, the funky indie chick who was bounced from “The Voice” after making the top six in 2012, plays the Southern Café and Music Hall on June 14? She’s arguably the most interesting contestant ever to run through the show, with her two-tone hair and melancholy rearrangements of the day’s biggest hits, but there’s something inherently odd about glorified karaoke singers taking the stage to do their own material.

Martinez doesn’t have much of her own material yet, but the lead single on her EP Dollhouse is compelling. While the concept is predictable—a cynical look into an ostensibly perfect American family—the melody is catchy and the hook sticks in your head. USA Today has gone so far as to compare the 19-year-old New York native to New Zealand’s international sensation Lorde.

“I’m just excited to be putting out original music,” Martinez said. “This is like a new slate for me.”

This tour is the second headlining road show for Martinez, who took her acoustic act around the country after “The Voice” ended. On that tour, she played covers, mostly those that she had made popular during the competition.

But don’t go to the Southern expecting to hear Martinez’s “Voice” covers this time around. The singer and guitar player is determined to leave her reality show roots behind and expects to play mostly originals.

“When I did the acoustic tour, that was all I was singing, because the audience just wanted to hear ‘The Voice” stuff,” she said. “I am kind of past that point.”

Martinez wants to position herself as a singer-songwriter, not a teen pop star. (“The audience is a lot of teenage girls, but these are really cool girls,” she said.)

The verdict is still out on whether she can pull it off. So far, she’s only produced the EP, a four-track teaser for the full-length she expects to release in July. Like the lead single, the three also-ran tunes riff on the same good girl-with-an-edge melancholia established by “Dollhouse,” a motif that is possibly the only thing Martinez contributed to the record entirely on her own.

“It’s always about concept, about story,” she said. “Then I get inspired by the music.”

Martinez calls herself a “lyrics girl,” someone who’s looking to tell a story with her music. The story is not necessarily her own, though. She grew up in a happy household, she said, a fact that’s obscured by her macabre lyrics.

“I just like telling stories in general. It doesn’t matter if I have been through them,” she said. “I write about everything. When I was younger, I used to write about sex trafficking and domestic violence. I love telling stories to make people aware of these issues. It is really sad music but covered up with this cotton candy facade.”

The facade is enhanced by Martinez’s eye for the aesthetic. She’s an amateur photographer in addition to a musician, and her sense of what looks cool goes beyond dyeing her hair two distinct shades.

“I take my own artist pictures,” she said. “The look of everything is very close to my heart, and that is what I am putting into my music.”

As far as melody and musicality, Martinez gets some help from a few veteran songwriters and will be joined onstage by Mike Squillante and Chris Miles. And while the young star clearly doesn’t want to talk about “The Voice” these days, she does claim at least one other well-known rockstar in her corner.

“Me and Adam [Levine] are still friends. We talk, and he is really supportive,” she said. “Early on in the show, you don’t really know your coach that well—you don’t have as many rehearsals with them—but at the end, that is when you get to know your coach and see them more often.”

Hopefully Levine has given Martinez enough tools to avoid becoming the next Taylor Hicks.

Do reality TV contestants have a shot at indie success? Tell us in the comments section below.