you have to release control
I had a dream last night that we were recording with a producer friend and some legendary soul producer, who told me to smoke pot. The two of them fought so much the recording stopped and I was fuckin’ furious. I yelled at everyone, “YOU HAVE TO RELEASE CONTROL!” I think that’s good advice for all of us.
the holy triumverate
Our new record is well underway!
In the beginning of 2018, Max, Dave Hower, and I sat down at a brewery near us and said Alright: We’ve been at this a long time. No one is breathing down our necks to do anything, really. So what do we want to do?
I soon realized that the basement of my relatively new house made a pretty soundproof practice space. For the next few months, we tried long nights of improvising, bringing keyboards and drum machines into the mix. I started trying to write in new ways and with new sounds, and brought small batches of songs to practice along the way.
Cut to the beginning of 2019; the band felt fresher than ever. Guitarist Dave Chalfant had officially returned; we had more than enough songs for a new record. This was a fresh new era. We began recording in June.
Now in January 2020, with more recording done and still more ahead of us, I couldn’t be more excited about what’s to come. We can’t wait to share this new music with you, live and on record.
Live at the Bay State, I mean Sierra
Here’s a video of part of a 2018 show at the Sierra Grille in Northampton. The first song, ending in this video, is “Reservoir Town.” It’ll be on our new record. The second is “Horsefly,” from our first record, The Starling.
Frank Black sings with SFH, 1/20/12
In 2012, we had the great pleasure of recording and performing a bit with Black Francis. Here’s a cell phone video of one night at the Basement in Northampton, MA.
Van Halen
Back in 2008, we portrayed Van Halen at a yearly outdoor benefit concert in Northampton, MA. PANAMA! In other years, we’ve done R.E.M., Echo and the Bunnymen, Radiohead, Neil Young, and others I can’t think of right now.
As you can see, it’s really, really fun. For us, anyway.