fluffyvera (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fluffyvera) wrote,@ 2006-11-09 13:27:00 |
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and another
here is a heartwarming piece our german friend (lives in hamburg) frederik wrote last spring when he visited new york. it was written in german for a hamburg paper and he translated it in english.
****************************************
Going to meet the band
New York - after 60 hours in this city there are already enough reasons for hating it, yet at the same time you can't help loving it. Leaving behind me the madness called midtown Manhattan and walking through some small lower east side streets, it appears to be reasonable for the first time that New York is not only home to shoe stores and business people, but also to a very diverse artistic scene.
It's not until I'm already walking up the stairs that I realize that a button of the band I am about to meet is still stuck onto my jacket - Schwervon! After momentarily thinking whether that might seem to calculating, I am standing in front of the door on which only a sticker insigned "Olive Juice Music" hints at the fact that this is the home of absolutely great music.
It takes a few knocks on the door until the loud music echoing from behind it is overturned and Nan Turner opens the door and lets me in. Nan is the drum-playing and singing half of Schwervon!, and explains to me that her guitar-playing and also singing bandmate and partner Major Matt Mason is helping a befriended singer named Phoebe Kreutz recording in the apartment's own studio.
Over a cup of tea Nan tells me all about the stress of the recent days and weeks - stress, however, that has lead to the new, third Schwervon! album, being just about finished. And Nan is not only happy that the hard work is done for now, but she's also rather euphoric about the result of this hard work: "I think it's turned out really great! I think it rocks even more than our second album." Promising words for everybody familiar with that second album entitled "Poseur", released in 2003 - although the number of those people is still not as high as it should be.
Despite having earned a name within New York's Antifolk scene in recent years, and also pleasantly surprising audiences this side of the Atlantic (i.e. opening for Antifolk "legends" like Jeff Lewis and Kimya Dawson) with their mixture of uncomplicated garage (or rather living room) rock and absolutely charming lyrics, superstar fame and fortune are not quite there yet for the band with the suspiciously german-sounding name (which supposedly originates from a TV commercial involving card-playing dogs). Nan admits that she has a part-time job for a bank, while Matt invests a majority of his time and heart into Olive Juice Music, the label that gives not only its mothership Schwervon!, but also many other artists from New York and elsewhere, a chance. Just like Phoebe, who is now joining us along with Matt to answer a few interview questions for Nan. Among those questions the one I was going to ask Nan next: "What does Antifolk mean to you?" - "Folk - just not so good" is Phoebes first, laconic answer, before adding a little more seriously: "You can't just say this music is Antifolk and this is not, it obviously includes a variety of different music styles, is more of a mindset." And both Matt and Nan seem to agree with this answer.
Up next is a small tour of the apartment, with the living room-turned-recording studio standing out. And again one of my questions is answered before I get to ask it, this time by a White Stripes poster hanging on the wall: After seeing Schwervon! play for the first time, I remember that the obligatory quest of comparing the just-seen and -heard had ed fairly soon to bands like The Kills and those White Stripes. Not just because of the similar line-ups of these bands (although Matt and Nan have never claimed to be brothers...), but also in regard to their music.
Here in the holy halls of the studio (Matt: "This is where the magic happens."), I get a sort-of-exclusive pre-listening to two of the brand new songs, and Nan has not promised too much: honest, home-made rock & roll, which makes you look forward to the new album, which is set to be released in June.
Only the fine-tuning on the songs is not yet exactly finished. While my amateur ears can barely make out a difference, Matt and Nan are still discussing whether certain vocals should or should not be turned louder. And Nan explains that it is quite often details like which are fairly time-consuming: "The order of the songs on the album, even the length of the pauses inbetween songs - even when you are done, there are still enough things that can make you go mad. But it's still an awesome feeling to be finally done with the recording, and only having to worry about such minor details."
During the following dinner in a near-by Thai restaurant, life stories are being exchanged. That of Nan Turner for example, who left her home state Washington to study drama near New York. Or that of Matt, who as a young musician once made the understandable move from Kansas to NYC. Where, one day, he met Nan - and the rest is (band-) history, which now already lasts for years.
Although both consider Schwervon! their main project, both Matt and Nan are also musically active both solo and in other bands - Matt with the also very listenable Kansas State Flower and Nan with Pantsuit.
In response to my question, what separates a Schwervon! song from a solo song, Nan explains that many of the songs are actually written jointly by both.
The show that was planned for the next evening then gets canceled - the place was double booked, Schwervon! gets postponed, the fate of a small band in big New York. Instead, there is an open mic at the Bowery Poetry Club that Nan and I go to. Here, absolutely awful and rather brilliant musicians and comedians take turns, and the audience seems somewhat satisfied, at least with the can of beer in their hands. Until Nan steps onto the stage, keyboard in hand. While she is telling us about elephants and the elemental beauty of life with all it's problems in her songs, the place appears to be listening peacefully for a few minutes. And a similar feeling is spreading inside of me as I walk home through the nightly streets later that night, with the Schwervon! in my cd-player making New York and the whole world seem like a slightly better place.
here is a heartwarming piece our german friend (lives in hamburg) frederik wrote last spring when he visited new york. it was written in german for a hamburg paper and he translated it in english.
****************************************
Going to meet the band
New York - after 60 hours in this city there are already enough reasons for hating it, yet at the same time you can't help loving it. Leaving behind me the madness called midtown Manhattan and walking through some small lower east side streets, it appears to be reasonable for the first time that New York is not only home to shoe stores and business people, but also to a very diverse artistic scene.
It's not until I'm already walking up the stairs that I realize that a button of the band I am about to meet is still stuck onto my jacket - Schwervon! After momentarily thinking whether that might seem to calculating, I am standing in front of the door on which only a sticker insigned "Olive Juice Music" hints at the fact that this is the home of absolutely great music.
It takes a few knocks on the door until the loud music echoing from behind it is overturned and Nan Turner opens the door and lets me in. Nan is the drum-playing and singing half of Schwervon!, and explains to me that her guitar-playing and also singing bandmate and partner Major Matt Mason is helping a befriended singer named Phoebe Kreutz recording in the apartment's own studio.
Over a cup of tea Nan tells me all about the stress of the recent days and weeks - stress, however, that has lead to the new, third Schwervon! album, being just about finished. And Nan is not only happy that the hard work is done for now, but she's also rather euphoric about the result of this hard work: "I think it's turned out really great! I think it rocks even more than our second album." Promising words for everybody familiar with that second album entitled "Poseur", released in 2003 - although the number of those people is still not as high as it should be.
Despite having earned a name within New York's Antifolk scene in recent years, and also pleasantly surprising audiences this side of the Atlantic (i.e. opening for Antifolk "legends" like Jeff Lewis and Kimya Dawson) with their mixture of uncomplicated garage (or rather living room) rock and absolutely charming lyrics, superstar fame and fortune are not quite there yet for the band with the suspiciously german-sounding name (which supposedly originates from a TV commercial involving card-playing dogs). Nan admits that she has a part-time job for a bank, while Matt invests a majority of his time and heart into Olive Juice Music, the label that gives not only its mothership Schwervon!, but also many other artists from New York and elsewhere, a chance. Just like Phoebe, who is now joining us along with Matt to answer a few interview questions for Nan. Among those questions the one I was going to ask Nan next: "What does Antifolk mean to you?" - "Folk - just not so good" is Phoebes first, laconic answer, before adding a little more seriously: "You can't just say this music is Antifolk and this is not, it obviously includes a variety of different music styles, is more of a mindset." And both Matt and Nan seem to agree with this answer.
Up next is a small tour of the apartment, with the living room-turned-recording studio standing out. And again one of my questions is answered before I get to ask it, this time by a White Stripes poster hanging on the wall: After seeing Schwervon! play for the first time, I remember that the obligatory quest of comparing the just-seen and -heard had ed fairly soon to bands like The Kills and those White Stripes. Not just because of the similar line-ups of these bands (although Matt and Nan have never claimed to be brothers...), but also in regard to their music.
Here in the holy halls of the studio (Matt: "This is where the magic happens."), I get a sort-of-exclusive pre-listening to two of the brand new songs, and Nan has not promised too much: honest, home-made rock & roll, which makes you look forward to the new album, which is set to be released in June.
Only the fine-tuning on the songs is not yet exactly finished. While my amateur ears can barely make out a difference, Matt and Nan are still discussing whether certain vocals should or should not be turned louder. And Nan explains that it is quite often details like which are fairly time-consuming: "The order of the songs on the album, even the length of the pauses inbetween songs - even when you are done, there are still enough things that can make you go mad. But it's still an awesome feeling to be finally done with the recording, and only having to worry about such minor details."
During the following dinner in a near-by Thai restaurant, life stories are being exchanged. That of Nan Turner for example, who left her home state Washington to study drama near New York. Or that of Matt, who as a young musician once made the understandable move from Kansas to NYC. Where, one day, he met Nan - and the rest is (band-) history, which now already lasts for years.
Although both consider Schwervon! their main project, both Matt and Nan are also musically active both solo and in other bands - Matt with the also very listenable Kansas State Flower and Nan with Pantsuit.
In response to my question, what separates a Schwervon! song from a solo song, Nan explains that many of the songs are actually written jointly by both.
The show that was planned for the next evening then gets canceled - the place was double booked, Schwervon! gets postponed, the fate of a small band in big New York. Instead, there is an open mic at the Bowery Poetry Club that Nan and I go to. Here, absolutely awful and rather brilliant musicians and comedians take turns, and the audience seems somewhat satisfied, at least with the can of beer in their hands. Until Nan steps onto the stage, keyboard in hand. While she is telling us about elephants and the elemental beauty of life with all it's problems in her songs, the place appears to be listening peacefully for a few minutes. And a similar feeling is spreading inside of me as I walk home through the nightly streets later that night, with the Schwervon! in my cd-player making New York and the whole world seem like a slightly better place.
