I recently caught up with Seth David-Christian of "Our Burgundy" based in Pomfret CT. He and Alex Herr have been busy lately playing some serious sounds in CT and RI.
What I found listening to their music is they do a great job of putting you in the room with them while they are recording. I noticed they like to capture their live sound, and keep the real sound that is in the room at the time.
Personally I record the same way and find it really interesting. Live performance recording is a whole different thing than recording in the studio. You have to be really good to record live. And when people hear you playing out, that is what they are going to get, and it is the same sound as the CD. That is the cool part.
Many bands rely on effects and mixing that can take away from the raw and natural feeling of the actual recording. Read up on Neil Young, Keith Richards, some of the Led Zeppelin III recordings and Physical Graffiti by Zeppelin. They left the live sounds in the recordings. As a fan you get to like those parts a real lot. Like an old friend.
"Our Burgundy" let's that happen on their recordings and I admire it. Some of the room sounds and dialog with the audience is recorded. Good Stuff.....
Here is the Question and Answer part with Seth...oh, and you can tell Seth is a bright guy...
CMN - What are the plans\goals for the band, immediate and longer term?
Seth:
It's
an obvious and expected answer, but we want to keep playing live more
than we do now. We feel that the songs that we recorded and wrote for
"Itinerant Statesmen" sound their best when performed live. They're all
live songs. I also never really stop writing songs, either, so the more
we are
able to play live the more we can play
both old songs and brand new
ones that may have been written the day before. Every one of our shows
is different, we don't like our set lists to get stale and repetitive.
We're booking a lot of shows in June, so our plan is to play as much as
we can this spring and summer.
 |
Seth and Alex of "Our Burgundy" |
left
Seth David-Christian (guitar/vocals)
Age:18
right
Alex Herr
(percussion)
Age: 16
CMN: Where are the spots you guys play repeatedly,
can you something on them?
Seth:
The
News Cafe in Pawtucket RI is one of our favorite venues. We've played
their with one of our favorite bands, Melt Into Place a couple times.
That, and the Stomping Ground in Putnam CT, which is this new music bar
that opened up last summer and has been getting a ton of attention,
which is great, because north eastern Connecticut
definitely needs more live venues for local bands. We've played there
three times and we love
it every time. They also feed us, which is fantastic. http://the-stomping-ground.com/
-- That's the link to the stomping ground, they're always looking for
bands to play at their bar. Tell them Our Burgundy sent you!
CMN: Which songs off the new album are written by you guys, and which ones are covers?
Seth:
All
of the
songs on the album
are written by us. I (Seth) write all the lyrics, and Alex and I
collaborate to make the final versions of the songs that we record.
Whether I bring in a guitar/melody idea and we go from there, or if we
just start jamming, the songwriting process with us is very organic and
true.
CMN: What inspires you the most, what started you on music, who are your influences, etc?
Seth:
Musical
inspiration
comes from
anywhere. I can be at
home with my guitar sitting in my kitchen and a song will come out of
no where, or I can be walking by someone in public and make eye contact
with them-- and suddenly I hear a song or a chord progression or a
melody in my head. I can't force myself to write a song, it's never
worked for me. Some people can sit down and think hard about a song and
what they're feeling, but with me it's always been luck... or just the
right time for a song to show itself.
I
grew up with a mother who is an artist and a father who is a music
teacher, so art has always been around me. I found my own artistic
medium that has become my life's passion when I started playing the
guitar when I was fifteen. Alex has been drumming since he was in middle
school, and he's got his own sound to him that really is hard for
others
to
replicate. Our influences as a band would definitely be Neil Young,
Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Del Shannon, Johnny Cash, Garnet Rogers and
pretty much anyone with a do-it-yourself kind of attitude.
CMN: You mention on one of your recordings that the CD sales go to feeding your cats..LOL What are the cats names?
Seth:
We've
got one cat named Mem. He's called Mem because he doesn't really
"meow".... it's more of a buzzing kind of "mmmm" sound. He's a tuxedo
cat and he's a boss. He's our excuse to
get people to
buy our CD. They won't
turn down buying some good music if the money's going to go towards
feeding a cat... right? So far, it's worked out pretty well...
CMN: Do you have any videos online?
Seth:
This is a cool live video of us at The News Cafe this summer.
It's of one of our songs called "Bad Things"
CMN: Do you want to say anything else to your fans and new fans?
Seth:
We
support and
praise the imperfections that come from rock and roll, because that is
what has defined the genre. Truth and
imperfection. There's beauty in that, and we hope people find their own
ways of expressing whatever they're feeling with the help of our music.
We don't want to convey any specific messages with our music. Our songs
are about whatever people are feeling when they hear it. It's a
different story for everyone. Our Burgundy, is all yours.
Oh, and buy records. They sound good.
Here is our Facebook Page:
Thank you!
Our Burgundy phone contact: 401-419-0569
CMN: Give these guys a listen, and catch them live, they sound like they have been at this a long time... (Scott)
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