Category Archives: interviews

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Poetic Memory: Kissing Cousins (List)

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Kissing Cousins

L.A.-based Kissing Cousins, an “all female sepulchral counter-pop” band led by Heather Bray Heywood, began with a few modest EPs. Since then, they’ve had a song featured on Nip/Tuck and recorded a full-length album, Pillar of Salt. Kissing Cousins recorded Pillar live to tape—a rarity in today’s mostly digital landscape—with the help of Richard Swift. The band used Wilco’s old TASCAM 8-track to record the album, bestowing a second life upon the piece of equipment that has produced some of Wilco’s greatest songs. Kissing Cousins definitely do the machine justice.

Music videos for Pillar are in the works, and the vinyl will be released in July (see tour dates below). For samples, check out “In Too Deep” from Pillar, as well as “Deathhouse“, Heywood’s personal favorite song from the album.

After the jump: 10 bands that influenced Heywood’s songwriting “in some shape or form.” Continue reading →

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Poetic Memory: Wheat (List)

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For this edition of Poetic Memory, Wheat drummer Brendan Harney summed up his intentions better than we could’ve:

The visual aspect of music and images associated with sound, melody, etc. have always played a major role in what we do as a band. So, as I mined that a bit, I started to think about all the images related to music that have greatly affected me throughout the years. Through all of them, none have left such a deep and lasting impression as the images that I looked at as a young boy while I played the records that my mom brought home. I was fortunate to have someone in my life who collected a wide variety of music, and it’s these early images that burned themselves, along with the music of course, into my soul, and continue to influence the way I feel about what great art is really about. Some are the covers of records, and others are from the inner sleeve or gatefold—whichever struck me the most then.

Wheat released White Ink, Black Ink, their first album of new material since 2007, on July 21. Check out their single, Changes Is (MP3). You can also watch the video (above).

Here’s Brendan Harney’s Poetic Memory: Continue reading →

interviews, listen

Poetic Memory: Matthew Specktor (List)

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Matthew Specktor

The 19-year-old narrator of Matthew Specktor’s novel That Summertime Sound has two options: return home to L.A. and a family that hardly notices him; or travel to the Heart of the Heart of the Country—Columbus, Ohio—and come of age.

The novel is set against the Columbus music scene of the 1980s, and Specktor is looking to connect with his favorite band. That Summertime Sound reads like an ’80s music encyclopedia, with references to The Feelies, Hüsker Du, Pere Ubu, and others.

To accompany the novel’s release, Specktor’s website features readings by Morgan Freeman (MP3), Jeremy Irons, Gwyneth Paltrow, and other Hollywood icons. Matthew Specktor’s Poetic Memory is below.

Poetic Memory is a regular Owl and Bear feature in which musicians disclose their influences—whether it’s albums, songs, artists, or something random. If you’re interested in being featured here, send us an email. Continue reading →

interviews, listen

Poetic Memory: Sam and Ruby (List)

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Sam and Ruby

Sam Brooker is from Wisconsin. Ruby Amanfu is from Ghana. When Ruby first heard Sam perform, she says, “I saw Sam before Sam saw me…It took me about 2.2 seconds before I thought, I want some of that.” When Sam finally got to see Ruby perform, he says she “blew [him] away.” Despite the immediate attraction, Sam and Ruby was a long time coming.

Although Ruby moved to Nashville from Ghana at age three, she remembers the change as something that awakened “this thing I had in me all along”—her musical sensibility—even though her devoutly Christian parents sheltered her from secular music. Her parents wouldn’t even let her listen to jazz, but did eventually branch out, “At age ten, my best friend gave me Madonna’s Like a Prayer, and it really opened up my world.”

Meanwhile, Sam was finding new music in a wholly American way—by raiding his brother’s record collection. Soon, he had taken a liking to James Taylor, Parliament, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and Prince. He formed a band in high school, played shows in college, and never looked back. Eventually, he made a contact in Nashville: “The guy from the company called me and said, ‘Your CD sucks but we like your voice. Would you like to come down and record in our studio and get a little better demo?'”

It would still be several years before Sam and Ruby officially became a duo, but their partnership has now come to fruition. On August 11, they’ll release their debut album, The Here and The Now, which adheres to their mantra: “We want people to feel it like we feel it,” says Ruby.

For a taste of The Here and The Now, check out this MP3 of “Sarah“. Below are Sam and Ruby’s Poetic Memories.

Poetic Memory is a regular Owl and Bear feature in which musicians disclose their influences—whether it’s albums, songs, artists, or something random. If you’re interested in being featured here, send us an email. Continue reading →

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Poetic Memory: Erika Davies (List)

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If you’ve never heard Erika Davies, then you’ve never heard Shakespeare the way it’s meant to be sung. Her jazzy melodies scoop and flutter above delicately strummed ukulele in irresistible and intoxicating fashion. Serving up a cocktail of jazz standards and charming originals, Davies delivers an enchanting performance, anchored by gorgeous vocals and Amelie-esque charm.

Says Davies:

Before I sat to write this, I tried to recall my first memory of music. I couldn’t. It was as if I had to try and remember what it was like, exiting my mother’s slippery womb. I can, however, remember how tiny I was when singing to my first audience. How natural it felt just opening my soul to them. And how quiet everyone was, listening.

And from then on, music, it seems, has been drawn to me.

Miss Davies is currently hard at work penning her sophomore album, tentatively titled Nothing But A Note Thing, which she plans to record in January. You can catch her in two places this Saturday: she’ll be playing an early evening set at Golden Hill DIY venue The Habitat before scooting over to Air Conditioned for this year’s North Park Music Thing (formerly known as North By North Park). We’ve got Davies’ Poetic Memory list, as well as some additional tour dates, after the jump.

Poetic Memory is a regular Owl and Bear feature in which musicians disclose their influences—whether it’s albums, songs, artists, or something random. If you’re interested in being featured here, send us an email. Continue reading →