CHELAN

Bio:

..   Chelan is the recording project of Jennifer Grady and Justin Hosford who have been making music together for over 10 years since meeting in their native Olympia, Wa. Their former project, The Waxfire, broke up in 2007 so both could move to California to pursue other avenues of creative output. Grady moved to San Francisco and currently plays with Adam Stephens of Two Gallants for his solo project and with Emily Jane White’s band while also working on her own recordings. Hosford moved to Los Angeles to work on film music. The two decided to commit some new songs and ideas to tape and after several short plane rides and some file sharing, they are pleased to release Summer Machines on Los Angeles’ Origami Records. Summer Machines expands on a lot of the ideals present in The Waxfire’s sound that Willamette Week described as a “heavy and alluring form of modern-day chamber music”. Combining Grady’s folk roots with Hosfords more rock leaning influences, the album translates both of those elements into acoustic based compositions that weave into vast electronic dreamscapes. The album was mixed and mastered by Hosford with the exception of opening track “No Better Than We” which was mixed by Lukas Burton (Dido, Paul McCartney). To record and write the album, Hosford met with Grady on about ten different occasions and would have her sing vocals to his songs that he would later re-work and tinker with in Los Angeles, “Some of the songs are completely different from what she originally sang to” he explains. His day job in film music composition found him trying to match the emotic tension and dreamlike quality of Grady’s vocals with instrumentation that would complement it. The track "Over the Course" was co-written and recorded with Ryan Anderle, another former member of The Waxfire. While the band has no plans to tour or do shows at any point they found a common friend in Neil Scheld at Origami Records who quickly fell in love the recordings Hosford had shown him and offered to release the album. Spanning 9 tracks, Summer Machines marries vocal stylings comparable to Portishead with a more indie oriented electronic backing close to The Album Leaf or Talkdemonic. Summer Machines will be available as an electronic download release only on February 3rd. !!! Start Code To Apply Top Banner !!!! ...... ...... Custom top banner code by Eileen ..

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Member Since:

May 18, 2007

Members:

Justin Hosford, Ryan Anderle, Jen Grady No Better Than We

Influences:

The Waxfire, Lani Puna, Dungen, Hawkwind, Os Mutantes, The Rachels, Cold War Kids, Roy Orbison, The Birds, Camera Obscura, The New Year, Andrew Bird, Mates of State, Lou Reed, Low, Helga, Do Make Say Think, Beirut, Piano, Xiu Xiu, Nico, Pulp, The Magnetc Fields....

Sounds Like:

"Music that features a mix of electronic sounds and warm vocals runs the risk that it’ll end up sounding a bit like karaoke, but that’s thankfully not the case here. Instead, the pieces add up to a striking whole, with folkier elements deftly balanced by an inventive compositional streak." -The Bay Bridged "2008 album of the year... by the second track I realized I could be listening to the 21st centuries new heroes of rock" . -nextmusic, on Chelan's introductory ep/full-length "when god was glass and plastic" . "Fourth on my list for best albums of 2008: Chelan - When God Was Glass and Plastic The underrated and under-listened album of the year in my eyes. Electro-acoustic sequencing combined with beautiful female vocals and flowing cello lines creates my number 4 spot" . -the catacombs

Record Label:

Origami