New Music / Freshly Written & Recently Released (October 5, 2014)
Last week I went to Spike Hill and was blown away by Brooklyn's "The Big Parade", the second band up in the lineup that night. I love complex instrumentals, and this four-piece has got them. The sound encompassed a wide road with the three guitars not losing their own identifiable sounds and their players' separate styles as they played together. Not an easy thing to pull off, but it was magic. I loved it. I asked Stephen Selman, the lead guitar and vocalist how they made these arrangements. How are the songs written.
Stephen responds ::: The songs from the current tape I wrote with the help of my friend Derek Hawkins (who plays in a band called Sunset Guns). We split a practice space together, and these songs were born out of about a month's worth of jams with him on drums and myself on guitar. He's the drummer on the record, with the exception of "Connect," which I played (along with the other instruments).
So I'd say these songs, at their core, came from improvised moments. Every long jam got recorded and i picked through those recordings to figure out what I wanted to pursue. I'd never written like that before and I think it works really well. You get a lot of good ideas that way, but you're always moving forward at the same time. The trick is relentlessly finishing those "seeds" of ideas, because you get back logged quickly.
The next record is going to be a collaboration with the band. My best guess is we'll try the same process, but with way more input from everyone being in on it. I'm looking forward to that.
I didn't know anything about the band before I heard them. As I listened at their show I imagined that they would have been together for years. Ensemble work like this takes time to develop. The rich textures take time to build ... or so I thought. ... But I was in for another surprise when, during the show, they announced that this was only their third show! Wow! That was truly amazing. I asked them how they found each other. How did they get together.
Stephen has the answers ::: As for how long we've been playing individually, we're all lifers at this point. Josh Inman has a great band called Paper Fleet that's been playing in NYC for about a decade now. I'm a big fan of his style and asked him to jump on board to get The Big Parade started. Dane Zarra was recommended to me by my coworker Chris Ibrahim at Brooklyn Music Factory where I teach bands and music lessons. His instinct was spot on with that one. Dane thankfully brought on Garrett Hess to fill us out on bass. Dane and Garrett grew up together in New Jersey and have a very long musical history here.
With such an impressive repertoire in such a short time, I asked Stephen what's next. What are the bands plans for the future.
Stephen responds ::: Our biggest plans for the next year revolve around touring. We all really care about playing out of town, so step two for TBP is to get in the van. We've got deep roots in Boston, the DC area and many points in between. Those will be the first excursions, definitely by the new year.
We're also going to write and record together as a group. We're just starting to really figure out how our sounds work together, and it's working well. The next album will be a collaborative effort for sure. Recording for myself and other bands is a big part of what I do, so we'll be turning out a new record on the double.
We'll be looking forward to that!
The band does have a web presence where you can find a lot of their music, all of which is quite good. However, as great as it sounds, none of the recorded versions come anywhere close to what I heard them play live at Spike Hill. So you've got to hear them in person! Here is their Facebook page where you can follow them and find out about their next show! The Big Parade (CLICK HERE)
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