Shoreline "Paradox Man"
Sella "Well I Mean"
Sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to find a way forward. Well I Mean hearkens back to the messy feelings Brian managed to get down when he was starting out, as part of the Front Bottoms. But now Sella is a grown up. He’s still battling some devils and demons but with more tools and expertise at his disposal.
Well I Mean was recorded in home studios, a DIY jazz venue in Berlin, and on computers in various apartments. It started after conversations Sella had with Emmy Black the current owner/operator of Bar None Records. She suggested he try working on some songs with Chad Matheny aka Emperor X who just happened to be in the area doing some shows away from his current home in Germany.
Emperor X had known Sella since they toured together along with Mat in the TFB’s original ramshackle Econoline van in 2013. Chad is a one man DIY band, a post-anti folk Woody Guthrie punk. He is a fearless performer unafraid to hack into new musical technologies and bend them to his will. He also often tours and records in Ukraine supporting artists there that can’t cross borders so easily. Ukrainian musicians often appear on Emperor X albums.
The recording process started with Sella thinking about ways to make a solo performance more interesting. He thought about loop pedals and drone effects to run alongside his acoustic guitar. Emperor X had a suggestion that Sella took to heart:
Open yourself up to the possibilities and then get out of the way and let the process take it’s course.
So Sella stays out there searching for new currents and inlets in that river of sound, the shark out on the prowl with a devil clutching his fin. Prepare to be enveloped.
Endearments "An Always Open Door"
The music of Endearments has always turned a mirror on the inner self, reflecting life’s deeply personal, often painful moments in the light of clarity and new resolve. Principal songwriter Kevin Marksson and his bandmates, guitarist Anjali Nair and drummer Will Haywood Smith, craft emotionally dense and instrumentally lush pop songs, viewed through the lens of contemporary, dreamy indie rock and embedded with a John Hughes-ian romanticism.
Drawing on the emotive qualities of ‘80s synthpop and late-‘90s emo in equal measure, An Always Open Door, Endearments’ first full-length record, fine-tunes this heartfelt songcraft, widening the band’s influences and turning up the volume while maintaining the raw lyrical storytelling that’s made them a mainstay in Brooklyn’s highly competitive scene. Marksson’s blitzing, blistering inner monologue on “Marianne” and the melancholic explosiveness of “Real Deal” conjure comparisons to the likes of Camera Obscura and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart; at the same time, Nair’s stirring, wall-of-sound guitars on “Summersun” and Haywood Smith’s maximalist drums on “Saline” evoke the textures of shoegaze and the driving rhythm of big beat.
