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Pine Interviews Elevado!
You can't miss the van. Splattered with paint and often parked in front of ISP in Atlanta, the name Elevado shouts from its side, making anyone passing by wonder what it is. And on the surface, the answer is easy. It's a band and a pretty good one at that. Its members are Justin Sias, Cain Wong, Don Dudenhoeffer and Eric Holder. Together they create a sound that is chaotically appealing and charming, a lot like what the guys have going on besides their band, a little space in Atlanta called ISP. With an East Atlanta storefront, the group has created a venue, a recording space, a gallery and record shop. Others are involved with the space, making the whole thing somewhat of a family affair between some of Atlanta's more popular indie bands.
And just as the space is a collective, so is the sound on Elevado's latest release, This World Is On Fire. Although the songs flow together quite nicely, they are all a bit different, utilizing the various strong points of the band's different members. I have my favorite songs, like "Our Turn Came Tonight," a track that could easily play the soundtrack to a Saturday night as you go from bar to bar looking for, well, whatever it is you need that night, with the search -- and the song -- getting more intense as it progresses. Other songs, such as the title track, bring you a sound that sounds crafted a couple decades ago, back when you had to flip the record to keep listening. But my favorite song is "Indigo Torch Serenade," an almost-ballad that carries twinges of Morrissey and Velvet Underground.
You can find the album in independent rock stores in the city, at the ISP Web site or at their CD release show Thursday night at the EARL in Atlanta. Read below for the interview with Justin Sias. And be sure to listen to the Georgia Music Show tomorrow night because not only does the famous Adam Bomb interview them on-air but Elevado will play a few songs as well. It'll come on between 6 and 8 p.m. tomorrow and you can find it at 88.5 on your FM dial.
And just as the space is a collective, so is the sound on Elevado's latest release, This World Is On Fire. Although the songs flow together quite nicely, they are all a bit different, utilizing the various strong points of the band's different members. I have my favorite songs, like "Our Turn Came Tonight," a track that could easily play the soundtrack to a Saturday night as you go from bar to bar looking for, well, whatever it is you need that night, with the search -- and the song -- getting more intense as it progresses. Other songs, such as the title track, bring you a sound that sounds crafted a couple decades ago, back when you had to flip the record to keep listening. But my favorite song is "Indigo Torch Serenade," an almost-ballad that carries twinges of Morrissey and Velvet Underground.
You can find the album in independent rock stores in the city, at the ISP Web site or at their CD release show Thursday night at the EARL in Atlanta. Read below for the interview with Justin Sias. And be sure to listen to the Georgia Music Show tomorrow night because not only does the famous Adam Bomb interview them on-air but Elevado will play a few songs as well. It'll come on between 6 and 8 p.m. tomorrow and you can find it at 88.5 on your FM dial.
Pine Magazine/Nicole Diver: To start, how many releases do you guys already have?
Justin Sias/Elevado: This will be our fourth CD. We also released a 7-inch last fall called "Our Turn Came Tonight" and it is one of the songs, albeit remixed, on This World is on Fire.
PM: What about this new release? Where was it recorded?
JS: The majority of This World is on Fire was originally tracked and written during a 2006 East Coast tour. We wanted to test the theory that we play our best while touring, and wanted to capture the spontaneity of those moments. Eric Holder, at the time, was our manager, and urged us to take his field unit Tascam 4 track with us. Cain Wong, our guitarist, diligently set it up every night and got a variety of live takes. During downtime, we overdubbed vocals and various instrumentation.
Once back from tour, we tracked a variety of sounds in different parts of Cain's house, stairwells, bathrooms, kitchen; basically anywhere we could capture unique sonic character and added Eric to the band around that time as Fun Station Leader, which to us meant giving our recordings and live shows a more carnival-esque quality (accordions, delay-drenched trumpets)... helping take us out of a traditional rock format. However, the result was an added layer of darkness and melancholy and for some reason it fit perfectly.
PM: Are you excited about it?
JS: Yes, of course! It was our first time using electronic drums since our debut release "Occidental Oriental" and our most cohesive effort to date. I'm personally very happy with the vocal sound on the title track (and others) as we intentionally blew out the levels on the 4-track to capture a very cool analog distortion, aiming to take the listener through the coarseness of history, yet with distorted drumbeats and sounds from an unknown ancient future.
PM: Is its sound similar to the ones before it?
JS: Actually, every Elevado album has a completely different sound. Because of the electronic drums and trumpet, accordion, etc - this is our most danceable and festive record. Percussion tends to be the most obvious difference, album to album. While Sterilized is our most stripped down, Mark Duca played drums on that one and he had a somewhat loose and dare I say "indie" style, Jonathan Vance from Divided Like a Saint's stepped up for Dedicated To The Memory, bringing an almost prog/angular/abrasive element to the music. Our first release, the electronically-enhanced Occidental Oriental was recorded over the Internet in multiple cities and was somewhat of a compilation of four songwriters with multiple singers. It is a pretty mellow record as it was mostly tracked in different apartments. We even got my wife, singer-songwriter Kitty Snyder, to sing a few tracks on that one.
PM: How long has the band been together? Maybe a little history?
JS: This all began in 2001 when we left Athens. We'd all been in separate bands and joked about starting a new band, but everyone moved to different cities so being a "virtual band" was a nice alternative. Cain, Mark, and another Athens friend Dave Sandridge began sending tracks over from the west coast and Don Dudenhoeffer, myself and Kitty added our parts. The recordings started generating buzz on the internet and we were encouraged to play as a live act. Cain and Mark moved to Atlanta, we released "Occidental Oriental" and practiced for the first time as a band.
Unfortunately, we hadn't sorted out who would play what and it took a lot of work to recreate those recordings. We bought our shuttle bus on eBay in 2005 before recording "Dedicated To The Memory" in an attempt to force ourselves to get on the road more regularly. In 2006, we teamed up with Eric and ISP, started the East Atlanta venue, and solidified our current state of affairs.
PM: I also know you went on tour recently. How was it? Did you get good reception in the towns you visited? Are you headed back out anytime again soon?
JS: Besides the February blizzard in Pittsburgh, it went very well! We're at an exciting time where each tour seems to go better than the last. February and April certainly had highlight cities... Montreal, New York, Portland, Chapel Hill, Nashville, and Austin especially were all very well attended and brought us dancing attentive audiences. These are all cities with reputations for being hip and cutting edge and we were lucky enough to experience this first-hand. As for future touring, we are concentrating regionally on Atlanta, Athens, Nashville and Chapel Hill this summer and lining up a larger outing this fall.
Justin Sias/Elevado: This will be our fourth CD. We also released a 7-inch last fall called "Our Turn Came Tonight" and it is one of the songs, albeit remixed, on This World is on Fire.
PM: What about this new release? Where was it recorded?
JS: The majority of This World is on Fire was originally tracked and written during a 2006 East Coast tour. We wanted to test the theory that we play our best while touring, and wanted to capture the spontaneity of those moments. Eric Holder, at the time, was our manager, and urged us to take his field unit Tascam 4 track with us. Cain Wong, our guitarist, diligently set it up every night and got a variety of live takes. During downtime, we overdubbed vocals and various instrumentation.
Once back from tour, we tracked a variety of sounds in different parts of Cain's house, stairwells, bathrooms, kitchen; basically anywhere we could capture unique sonic character and added Eric to the band around that time as Fun Station Leader, which to us meant giving our recordings and live shows a more carnival-esque quality (accordions, delay-drenched trumpets)... helping take us out of a traditional rock format. However, the result was an added layer of darkness and melancholy and for some reason it fit perfectly.
PM: Are you excited about it?
JS: Yes, of course! It was our first time using electronic drums since our debut release "Occidental Oriental" and our most cohesive effort to date. I'm personally very happy with the vocal sound on the title track (and others) as we intentionally blew out the levels on the 4-track to capture a very cool analog distortion, aiming to take the listener through the coarseness of history, yet with distorted drumbeats and sounds from an unknown ancient future.
PM: Is its sound similar to the ones before it?
JS: Actually, every Elevado album has a completely different sound. Because of the electronic drums and trumpet, accordion, etc - this is our most danceable and festive record. Percussion tends to be the most obvious difference, album to album. While Sterilized is our most stripped down, Mark Duca played drums on that one and he had a somewhat loose and dare I say "indie" style, Jonathan Vance from Divided Like a Saint's stepped up for Dedicated To The Memory, bringing an almost prog/angular/abrasive element to the music. Our first release, the electronically-enhanced Occidental Oriental was recorded over the Internet in multiple cities and was somewhat of a compilation of four songwriters with multiple singers. It is a pretty mellow record as it was mostly tracked in different apartments. We even got my wife, singer-songwriter Kitty Snyder, to sing a few tracks on that one.
PM: How long has the band been together? Maybe a little history?
JS: This all began in 2001 when we left Athens. We'd all been in separate bands and joked about starting a new band, but everyone moved to different cities so being a "virtual band" was a nice alternative. Cain, Mark, and another Athens friend Dave Sandridge began sending tracks over from the west coast and Don Dudenhoeffer, myself and Kitty added our parts. The recordings started generating buzz on the internet and we were encouraged to play as a live act. Cain and Mark moved to Atlanta, we released "Occidental Oriental" and practiced for the first time as a band.
Unfortunately, we hadn't sorted out who would play what and it took a lot of work to recreate those recordings. We bought our shuttle bus on eBay in 2005 before recording "Dedicated To The Memory" in an attempt to force ourselves to get on the road more regularly. In 2006, we teamed up with Eric and ISP, started the East Atlanta venue, and solidified our current state of affairs.
PM: I also know you went on tour recently. How was it? Did you get good reception in the towns you visited? Are you headed back out anytime again soon?
JS: Besides the February blizzard in Pittsburgh, it went very well! We're at an exciting time where each tour seems to go better than the last. February and April certainly had highlight cities... Montreal, New York, Portland, Chapel Hill, Nashville, and Austin especially were all very well attended and brought us dancing attentive audiences. These are all cities with reputations for being hip and cutting edge and we were lucky enough to experience this first-hand. As for future touring, we are concentrating regionally on Atlanta, Athens, Nashville and Chapel Hill this summer and lining up a larger outing this fall.
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