The Alpine Camp Q&A

Your names: 

Chris Bell & Charles Etienne.

Where are you from?

We’re from Los Angeles, but we like to hang out in the woods!  And yes, LA does have woods; The Angeles National Forest, and Los Padres National Forest are our main spots.

Name of band: 

The Alpine Camp.

Who else is in your band?

We have Jeff Stella on bass, Shad Wilhelm on drums, Matt Piper on Banjo and David Adam Hall on pedal steel. 

How would you describe yourselves and your music?

We bill ourselves as “roots rock for the outdoors”. We like to hang out in the forest and we think the music reflects that. Lately another good genre we kind of consider ourselves to be is Jamericana (Jam + Americana) get it? We LOVE our songs, but we also love to jam them out!

Who are your main influences musically?

Hopefully I’m not speaking out of turn for Charles, but I know that he loves Irakere and also pretty much anything that Steve Gadd is involved in (Charles was a drummer in our previous band for 10 years). I love improvisational music and have been to 40+ Phish shows, but I go to at least two shows a month and my taste is always changing. I’ve been digging this bluegrass band from Pennsylvania lately called Cabinet…

What do you hope to achieve in music?

Our main goal right now is to build an organic following outside of our own market of Los Angeles. We’re a pretty new band, so we’ve begun that process with our first tour this summer from San Diego, CA as far north as San Luis Obispo, CA. 

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?

Even though the band is fairly new, we’ve been fortunately enough to play some really amazing venues. One of which is The Mint here in LA and The Hotel Café in Hollywood.  We’re looking forward to getting our own headline shows in town and continuing with that momentum. 

And what’s the moment you want to forget?

As we’ve said we’re a new band, and being as such we don’t have much leverage with booking. It was pretty humbling being rejected by numerous festivals last year, but I guess if it was easy, everyone would do it right?

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be?

Regrets of a Cosmic Mountaineer.

Where can we listen to it?

https://soundcloud.com/the-alpine-camp/sets

Where can we find out more about your music?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alpine-Camp/150769521773954

Twitter: @thealpinecamp

Official site: thealpinecamp.com

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/adventure-single/id997080239

Spotify: https://play.spotify.com/album/142zrCSmA0Z0KaPdMNBec7?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

Youtube: https://youtu.be/8WUWFATe7Is

Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?

We TRULY appreciate y’all supporting independent music and if you’re in California we hope you’ll party with us on one of our tour stops this summer (check thealpinecamp.com for dates) and if you’re out of state we’ll be there soon. Please enjoy our music on Spotify and thanks for reading!

Have a laugh with Dan Latner

LIKE your folk/bluegrass music with a twist of humour? Then check out the new LP from Dan Latner.

No Fun Intended is the latest offering from the travel-happy Canadian and includes the tracks Northern Canada and Bored.

He told RealSoundsOK: "The album really snowballed accidentally into existence. In 2012 I received a writing grant for a comedy album and headed out to woodshed in Prince George, British Columbia, where a long-term girlfriend was living.

"We broke up two days into the visit (that's funny, right?) and then I moved to Sri Lanka where I wrote most of the songs. I've been bouncing around Asia and Africa ever since."

You can watch the video for Bored below and to find out more head to danlatner.ca

Crooked House Road Q&A

Your name: 

Shaina Silver-Baird.

Where are you from? 

Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Name of band: 

Crooked House Road.

Who else is in your band? 

Mirian Kay (vocals/acoustic guitar), Derek Gray (drums/percussion), Gram Whitty (bass) and Joshua Skye Engel (electric guitar/mandolin).

How would you describe yourselves?

Known for soaring harmony and raw emotion, Crooked House Road pulls on folk, blues, soul, bluegrass and pop inspiration to create a sound all their own. Having just released their debut album with producer Ken Whiteley, CHR’s strength is in their live performances which are both intimate and powerful.

Who are your main influences musically?

Modern Americana bands with lots of harmony like The Lone Bellow and The Civil Wars. Classic folk like Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash. And the blues and jazz greats old and new like Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Adele.

What do you hope to achieve in music?

My aim has always been to tell stories through my music. I think the more honest a song is the more an audience can connect with it. And that’s really what this is all is about for me: connecting with an audience and putting on a performance. If we’re having a blast up there, then our audience is bound to have fun as well.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?

The highlight of my musical career has to have been the process of recording this album. There’s so much work that goes into a project like this, over so many months. But the couple weeks in the studio, recording with the band, Ken and our guest musicians, was bliss. It was an exciting time, having all these amazing musicians dedicated to working on my music. It was surreal.

And what’s the moment you want to forget?

About a year ago we played a gig closing off the night for a friend’s band, and I lost my voice mid set. And I mean seriously lost my voice – I could barely make a sound by the third song. I had to end our set halfway through and it was the worst feeling.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?

Goodbye My Friend. It’s one of the first ones I wrote and has this exhilarating, uplifting quality despite the fact that I wrote it after a crushing break up. I love that it makes people in a crowded bar shut up, listen and clap along, despite being so bittersweet.

Where can we listen to it? 

You can find it on exclaim.ca in their premiere of the album: 

http://exclaim.ca/Music/article/crooked_house_road-crooked_house_road_album_stream

Where can we find out more about your music?

www.facebook.com/CrookedHouseRoad

www.twitter.com/CrookedHouseRd

www.crookedhouseroad.com

Anything else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?

If you like what we’re doing or want to have us come to your local venue we’d love to hear from you! Write us at crookedhouseroad@gmail.com; find us on Facebook or tweet us at @CrookedHouseRd!

Pawns or Kings Q&A

Your name: 

Edward Stengel.

Where are you from? 

The State of Missouri in the USA.

Name of band: 

Pawns or Kings.

Who else is in your band? 

Ben Bigelow (Backup vocals and guitar/banjotar), Justin Arndt (Percussion), Devin Langer (Backup Vocals and Electric Bass) and Caleb McDaniel (Backup Vocals and fiddle).

How would you describe yourselves? 

A group of strange (some bearded and some not) men who play music that sounds sort of like the way cedar wood smells. We often get compared to the Fleet Foxes, the Avett Brothers, and Mumford and Sons... but we sure don't mind because we have a lot of respect for those bands. If you ever see some lads wandering around your city dressed like coal miners from the 1920s, say hello for it is surely us.

Who are your main influences musically? 

Bands like Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Matthew and the Atlas, the Avett Brothers, and Jon Foreman had quite an impact. Also all the local bluegrass musicians that have always surrounded us in the Ozarks.

What do you hope to achieve in music? 

Our goal is to simply give music to anyone who would have it. When we play shows, the connection with the audience is what drives us. We want to make people's lives just a little bit better if we can. That might mean talking to a fan two hours after the venue is already closed but it is what we live for.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why? 

We have gotten to play with some pretty great bands and have played some awesome places. We once played a CIA agent's wedding. We also once got chased down an icy highway for nearly an hour by a very intoxicated fan who was adamant about finding out where we were staying that night. 

And what’s the moment you want to forget? 

We once had a good connection to Ben Lovett's (of Mumford and Sons) label "Communion", but just as things were looking good and we were gearing up to meet with them in Nashville, we had a major mechanical failure on our studio computer and we lost our entire EP we were planning to bring to them. Once that EP went, so did our momentum and a good chunk of our buzz we were riding. We ran out of money for touring and have had to take long breaks to make enough money to live on. We have been trying to rebuild ever since and that road has not been easy at all. 

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?

Shadow of a Man from the new "Pomme de Terre" album. This song kind of brings together the two sounds we are known for. We have our song moments where the bluegrass is in plain sight and the driving sound could easily take you down a sunny back road in the Ozark Mountains... then there is the dark and brooding sound that the hard times have hammered firmly into us. This song brings you along for both rides and sometimes it can be a bit unnerving while also being liberating.

Where can we listen to it? 

http://pawnsorkings.bandcamp.com/

Where can we find out more about your music? 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/AdenBartel

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PawnsorKings

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PawnsorKings

Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/pomme-de-terre/id775966538

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pomme-Terre-Pawns-Kings/dp/B00H5AZCLU

We are also on Spotify and all the similar sites

Anything else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?

We almost always are up for a chat on Twitter if you fancy one. We love talking music with you but will talk about pretty much anything. It is very important to us that we treat fans like family and that means talking, facebooking, emailing... whatever you choose. We refuse to be that band who ignores their fans. 

Oh and also, if things go well, we will most likely be coming for a short tour in the UK summer of 2015.