So although the early material was missing some magic, we knew we had some good songs and we evolved. When we actually started performing these pieces, as opposed to the recordings, we knew we were onto something more formidable and impressionable. It ended up in the cold electronic feel – trip-hop like Portishead – removed from humanity, but with the human fragility of Courtney’s voice. The Bent Knee project came about when Courtney and I would share our writing adventures and ping-pong ideas in various ways. Hopefully we can have a more focused, fully developed approach – and ha! a lot more money – which will take us into more interesting directions.īen: Vince and I met even earlier in 2005, when we were enrolled in Berklee’s five-week program, so when we finally got there as students, we rekindled our friendship and became roommates. The core of our technique for the past two albums has been to go in and record an obscene amount of material for each song and slowly chip away at it until we have that final arrangement. I’m already looking forward to the next album because I hope that will be an even greater departure from what we’ve accomplished so far.
It’s hard to see yourself so objectively, though we’ve done our best.
I like the new album ( Say So) more than Shiny Eyed Babies, though it’s like going up to a mirror and pondering whether you’re a good person or not. The results have been successful and interesting so far. Vince: As you know, I’m not the first person to do this sort of arrangement, but I’m unique because my intimacy with the material from the ground up allows an objectivity that merges with the creativity involved, not apart from it. Noise: Since I’m only familiar with the band over the past year, how did you become the producer, someone who shapes & guides the project? But please forgive me, I have a bad sense of narrative cause it all merges together. We actually had an accordion player, Phil, for a brief time. When I started working with them in the second version, I was playing guitar – mostly as a MIDI control signal – but I soon switched to keyboard.
#WHAMMER JAMMER MIDI FULL#
By now, Chris and I had joined full time. Tyler quit before the first album, so we got Jeff Hale for a while, and then we landed Gavin in 2011.
#WHAMMER JAMMER MIDI PROFESSIONAL#
Eventually, as I was studying production and engineering at Berklee, they needed to make a professional sounding song as a class project and we recorded “Styrofoam Heart.” They put together a band in 2009 – Ben on guitar Courtney on keyboards and vocals Riley Hagan on bass, who’s on the first album Tyler Lavander on drums – and it was a slow evolution. Vince: Ben and I were roommates when he and Courtney starting making demos together. Since the group started with a friendship between Vince and Ben, let’s have them offer an early history… Needless to say, I was blown away from their opening number and bought their Shiny Eyed Babies album immediately. Since she was singularly imbued with so much talent, I figured to give the big package a listen in performance. When I interviewed her for The Noiselast year, she was adamant I check out her band. I heard a couple of Courtney’s tunes on a compilation album, which led me to the Monstre album, and it knocked me out (my #1 album of 2015). It’s serendipitous how I happened upon the group. Touring constantly and reaching new converts nightly, Bent Knee is high art for the masses. The band – Courtney Swain (vocals/keyboards), Ben Levin (guitar/vocals), Chris Baum (violin, vocals), Jessica Kion (bass/vocals), Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth (drums) and Vince Welch (synth/sound design) – combines immense depth and musicality with enthralling melody and arrangement.
Their sound is new and their scope is vast. They draw from an expansive sonic palette edged by the touchstones of progressive rock, heavy psych, baroque pop, and the avant-garde. Fiercely innovative, the band bridges the gap between the experimental and the familiar, merging texture and style into music that’s moving, addictive, confident, and original. Soon they form Bent Knee, a genre- defying art-rock collective. From different locales, six youngsters come to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, seeking to elevate their musical knowledge.
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