scene&heard

Calhoun sophomore Kurt Schneider taught himself piano in eleventh grade, now he’s winning songwriting competitions. Read on to find out what he’s been doing in the meantime.

Scene&Heard: Can you talk about your music career?

Kurt: I had a late start compared with most people; I didn’t know how to read music or play until I was a junior in high school. I started teaching myself piano in eleventh grade and now I’m a pretty decent piano player. Completely self-taught, never taken a lesson.

S&H: When did you begin writing?

K: During senior year, I wrote a couple spoof songs with a friend. Over the summer, I began writing and recording music, and towards the end of the summer, I produced my first song called “Roses on the Floor.” It was a pop song and would be really cheesy if I listened to it now, but it had a fair melody.

S&H: So then was writing music just a logical next step after teaching yourself to read?

K: Sometimes if you have an urge to do something, you just have to do it. Sometimes you just have to create something.

S&H: And now you’re one of July’s winners of the Song of the Year online contest in the electronic category. What was the experience like for you?

K: I just searched on the internet for song contests, but I chose this one because the top songs chosen each month are sent out to record labels and producers and radio stations. So there are immediate results.

S&H: Have you gotten any airtime or positive feedback?

K: Well considering I just won a week ago — but if I did get anything, I’d be shocked. I have no expectations.

S&H: Have you always been into electronic?

K: Well, the reason why that song [“Taken”] isn’t on my CD is because it’s not like anything else I’ve written.

S&H: Then what is your style?

K: Pop rock, folk and a lot of musical theater nowadays.

S&H: Have you recorded at all at Yale?

K: I’ve tried to get into the Morse recording studio, but I got a letter back saying that only Morsels are allowed. But, I mean, what’s the point of having that if students aren’t allowed to use it? I sometimes go to a music lab on Orange and Elm — that’s where I recorded my entire demo.

S&H: Moving away from your music for a bit, do you think there is an interest amongst students in live music on campus?

K: Definitely. I know of some underground live music groups.

S&H: You sing for the a capella group Out of the Blue. Do you think that at Yale a capella takes the place of a known live music scene?

K: No. I mean people go to a capella because their friends are in a capella.

S&H: Have you performed live?

K: I’ve done nursing homes.

Download and listen to Kurt’s award-winning song, “Taken“

No one likes a backseat driver. Everyone, however, likes cover bands. Cover-to-Cover’s Jake Bruene and Ian Dull are doing their best to spread the gospel.

Scene&Heard: Tell me a little about Cover-to-Cover.

Jake: We had a sweet idea when we were freshman to put together a group that would make it so we could hear some of our favorite albums of all time in a new way. Our first idea was to put together Weezer’s Blue album, but instead of just guitars and drums and bass to incorporate violins and brass quartets, solo piano players. We wanted to branch out from these favorite albums and give each song a new flavor.

S&H: Can you describe the different artists during the Weezer show?

J: We had a violinist and an acoustic guitar player from the Yale Symphony Orchestra do “My Name is Jonas.” We had a beautiful female piano player — very Regina Spektor — do track two, “No One Else,” creating a little bit of irony because the song is about jealous love. A rapper on “The World Has Turned;” a sick band rocked out on “Buddy Holly;” another sweet band on “The Sweater Song;” an acoustic duet on “In the Garage;” one of the best piano players we’ve ever heard on “Say it Ain’t So” take us through a journey of circus music, reggae, sweet, slow Elton John harmony. We had The Battle Kites play “Only in Dreams,” which was awesome — I think they might have thrown together that band for the show, so we like to think we gave them a little bit of a boost. Up until the last day we had a brass quartet from the School of Music on “Only in Dreams,” but The Battle Kites picked it up at the very last second.

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Yale’s live music scene usually only consists of the lone courtyard serenader strumming his acoustic guitar. Pat Dewechter, James Pollack and Andy Wagner — the organizers of the Bridge, an “open mic” night previously held in the Saybrook 12 Pack — are trying to change that.

Scene&Heard: How would you describe the live music scene at Yale?

Pat: It’s really off the beaten path. It consists of guys who love to play in front of people but only can find that through roommates or in a courtyard, on cross campus — that sort of thing. It’s made up of people who just grab their acoustic instruments, sit out and play.

S&H: Do you think then that Yale students aren’t interested in live music?

James: I’m always surprised at how few shows Toad’s has that cater to Yale students. Maybe there will be one or two a months, and you know, someone may be really into the Bruce Springsteen cover band but I think to have a great venue like that in the middle of campus that’s not doing shows all the time is really detrimental to the live scene here.

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Check out other performances at the Winter Arts Festival show, hosted by the Bridge in February, 2007:

Andy Lavine

Jon Davenport

Liana Moskowitz and Eliza Schafler

Cain Soltoff

Eddie Quinones

Noah Lawrence

Lauren Russell

Dana D’Amelio

Projekt Revolution Tour 8/26/07 Hartford, CT 3:15 p.m.

Between sips of Red Bull and long drags on three (I counted) Marlboro Lights, Brian Molko, the lead singer of Placebo – the best of six main stage acts at Linkin Park’s 2007 Projekt Revolution tour — acted calm and cozy less than two hours before show time. I found Molko, once infamous for pushing the envelope with androgynous costumes and irreverent lyrics, surprisingly normal. He carried the conversation in much the same way he lead Placebo onstage: with an old soul’s mix of humor, maturity and impatience.

Scene&Heard: How did Placebo get to be one of six main stage acts at this year’s Projekt Revolution?

Brian Molko: We’re here because Linkin Park invited us. Chester [Bennington] and Mike [Shinoda] are fans of the band.

S&H: How would you describe the dynamic between all these different bands?

Molko: It’s a really good vibe backstage. Linkin Park are very approachable – not only are they approachable but they approach you. There are no big egos floating around – it’s great… I was kind of expecting there to be a lot of people running around backstage with bottles of Jack Daniels and ruby sluts hanging off their arms… But it’s been really cool. It hasn’t been that rock-and-roll cliché. Which I’m really happy about, because I’m not a particularly big fan – not a fan at all – of that rock-and-roll cliché.

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While the first thing that pops into mind when the words “Oklahoma” and “evangelicals” are uttered are television preachers from the buckle of the Bible belt, the trio of singer Josh Jones, bassist Kyle Davis and drummer Austin Stephens that makes up Evangelicals are anything but. Hailing from Norman, Oklahoma—origin of the Flaming Lips, Chainsaw Kittens and Starlight Mints—the band’s debut “So Gone” received universal critical acclaim and launched the band on a nationwide tour last fall, during which they made a stop between shows to spend a night at Yale. Davis spoke to scene&heard about Yale girls, the new ‘gelicals record, and their plans for visiting the Elm City again.

Scene&Heard: How did the tour go last year? Lessons learned?

Kyle Davis: Last year was awesome. We ended up circling the country about two and half times. Drink “Emergen-C.” Avoid Plano, Texas.

S&H: What was your favorite city to tour in?

KD: It’s hard to say best…but I love Montreal. Seattle, Portland…New York. All good. Anytime there are people there to see us we’re pretty fucking excited.

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Last year, the Yale hip-hop scene was defined by the over-the-top lyrics and antics of rap group 108 Tongues, whose song “Fuck Harvard” generated massive backlash across the Ivy League community, leading some to conclude that
hip-hop simply could not be done at Yale. As the new school year begins, however, two members of the class of 2010 are quietly pursuing careers in the hip-hop industry. Ben Ogilvy, of Boston, and Ben Flores, of Idaho, draw from similar artistic influences and have both dealt with the awkward problems that
come with being white middle-class males making music that is deeply rooted in African-American culture. scene&heard sat down with Ogilvy and Flores to discuss their creative processes, the lackluster Yale music scene, and the transition from being a hip-hop fan to being a hip-hop musician.

Sophomore Ben Flores, hailing from Moscow, Idaho, may have only been seriously interested in hip-hop for four years, but in that time he has turned from casual fan to serious listener to self-made MC/producer. His beats are made from far-ranging samples: he’s drawn inspiration from Modest Mouse, nursery rhymes (”Mary Had a Big Old Motherfuckin’ Beat”) and public service announcements. He collaborates with other Yale musicians and is looking to release an album sometime this year. He talked to scene&heard about the jump from listening to hip-hop to making it, the lackluster Yale music scene and the “Fuck Harvard” controversy.

S&H: When did you first get turned onto hip-hop?

Flores: I was first turned onto hip-hop when I heard DJ Dangermouse’s “Grey Album,”…so when I was in tenth grade. I listened to hip-hop before that but strictly what was played on the radio. It wasn’t one of my favorite genres. I really liked the Beastie Boys before that, but I didn’t really have any interest in creating [hip-hop]. I’ve been in a couple bands before, so I got into it as a joke…with a couple friends, and I made a beat entirely out of loops on Garage Band and we wrote a song, the three of us fancying ourselves after the Beastie Boys. It was ridiculous. We made a video for it, my friend was wearing my fur jacket, I had basketball clothing on, my other friend was wearing a clock around his neck. We called ourselves Thug Conspiracy — just a mockery you know? As we started to do more songs which I created the beats for and did all the writing for…we started to get more creative with our patterns and what not. I was genuinely interested in the form as opposed to seeing it as an easy way to channel comedy. I started to treat it seriously.

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Scene&Heard: What is Ghost Notes?

Ogilvy: We’re a production team. Basically, we make beats for rappers. We officially began in the summer of 2005, but before then my cousin and I had played music together for a long time. He’s about to finish his masters in piano performance at Wesleyan, and I’ve drummed for jazz and rock combos for most of my life. So far, we’ve made beats for local rappers and some people on the LA underground hip-hop scene. Of Mexican Descent used one of our beats for their song “All Turn Native.” It’s on our MySpace.

S&H: What kind of music do you make?

O: We make hip-hop. We aim for classic-sounding, jazzy, worn-in, gritty hip-hop, and we work only with samples. Only by sampling old records can you get the crackly, old funk sound that we want. Records have their own character and you cannot mimic it. You have to let the things age. Basically, we sit down at a computer and turntables. We go to a stack of records, pick one out, put the needle down until we find something we like, either texturally or melodically, and then we record it into a computer. That’s sampling. Slowly we layer and build-up these sounds into a beat. We make hip-hop from a jazz and soul grounding. We make driving beats. We sample because we want it to sound as if the dust has settled on the records.

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