SHEARWATER
In 2015, because of a tweet into the ether about my dream of playing in my favorite band, Jonathan Meiburg contacted me and gave me a shot. Since then, I have been on several Shearwater world tours and albums, organized fundraisers, and continue to help keep team Shearwater moving forward.
As social media manager, I generate and curate content for our socials and YouTube channel, organizing live-streams and online listening parties, and interacting with fans on Discord. I coordinate with Sub Pop, Secretly Distribution, and other folks to draft and publish announcements.
We recently completed a project in conjunction with New Sounds at WNYC in which we covered David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy albums in their entirety live over three nights. I was the musical director and, along with JM, I analyzed all of the music, and arranged it for our incredible all-star band of musicians. We showcased Bowie’s albums as works of musical canon.
Our latest album, The Great Awakening, was released in 2022.
Gear
Nord Electro 3, Nord Electro 4, Nord Electro 5S, Electric Violin, Koto, Korg Minilogue
LOMA
Loma formed while I was on tour with Shearwater in 2016. Jonathan Meiburg asked Dan Duszynski and Emily Cross from our opening band, Cross Record, if they would like to start a musical side project, and an album was born. I was brought in to play violin on the debut album, and they asked me if I would play keyboards for the world tour in 2018. It has been a pleasure to be part of the album-making process and the touring band. I also manage the twitter account, co-manage the Instagram and Facebook accounts, and administer a lot of the back-end band admin.
In 2020, we released the follow-up album, Don’t Shy Away, on which I played keyboards, harp, and violin. I also co-wrote the title track.
Loma is currently working on a third record set to come out in 2024 on Sub Pop Records.
Gear
Nord Electro 3 and 4, Harp, Violin
THE FIERY FURNACES
When the Fiery Furnaces decided to reunite after 10 years to play the Pitchfork Music Festival in 2021, I had no inkling that I’d be asked to be the second keyboard player next to Matt Friedberger. When I got the email from Eleanor, I was stunned. (And I said “yes” immediately.)
They wanted a lineup that would be unusual, unexpected, and huge in order to come out of the doors swinging. The arrangement of the band was 2 drummers, bass, 2 keyboardists, and Eleanor on vocals. Matt and I traded off lead and backing parts. As always with the Furnaces, they reinvented their songs completely for the show, and being a part of that reinvention was a very exciting learning and performing experience.
After the Festival, they booked a short tour, and we hit the road (with Fred Armisen along as our opening act). We recorded our set in a Brooklyn recording studio, and that recording has yet to be released.
Gear
Nord Electro 4, Nord Electro 5S
TWO MINUTES TO LATE NIGHT
I first met Stephen Brodsky when he was playing solo shows before the formation of Mutoid Man. He had asked me to accompany him on keyboards. So, when Mutoid Man started to become a metal juggernaut, I got swept along for the ride. When Mutoid Man became the house band for the heavy metal YouTube talk show, Two Minutes To Late Night, they asked me to join them in the house band. And that’s how I became an honorary mutant.
2M2LN started as a scripted talk show performed live and taped for YouTube, but during the pandemic, Jordan Olds and Drew Kaufman (the creators of the project), started a weekly metal covers project, bringing together all-star musicians from across the country (and world) to collaborate on metal cover versions of songs from many different genres.
Our cover of Boston’s “Foreplay / Long Time” is probably the most technically difficult piece of music I’ve ever had to learn in 2 weeks.
Gear
Nord Electro 4, Nord Electro 5, Korg Minilogue, mini-Theremin
SNAKE OIL
I have been playing with the core members of Snake Oil since I joined my very first band, Weigh Down, in 2003. After a few near-death accidents, Jason Labbe had a vision in the hospital telling him to put together a collective of musicians that he enjoyed making sounds with. I am lucky to call myself one of them. I play keyboards and synths, and I sing lead vocals.
Our latest album, Dying of Sunsets, came out on Safety Meeting Records.
Gear
Nord Electro 4, Fender Rhodes, Yamaha CP 70, MicroKorg
DRONEFLOWER
In 2019, Stephen Brodsky and Marissa Nadler released a collaboration album under the project name, Droneflower. Originally, it was designed to be soundtrack music – not a live project. However, once it came out, they decided it should have a live component. They asked me to be a part of it to fill out the live sound with keys, synth beds, and sub bass.
After our tour, we had been especially proud of our live cover of Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight,” so we recorded it and it was released as a single by Sacred Bones Records.
Gear
Nord Electro 4, Korg Minilogue