|
名称 |
Umbrellas * |
|
国家/地区 |
瑞士-Switzerland |
|
资讯类型 |
艺人 |
Bio of Umbrellas
November 2nd, 2001
Luzern, Switzerland. October 2001. A Conversation with S. Windsor of Umbrellas.
I had the opportunity to pick the brain of the reclusive S. Windsor. Like a wise professor, he shares his thoughts with quiet selectivity. We sat, with a pint of beer in our hands, in a low-lit 300 year-old pub. The mood of the room was inviting, yet distant, as if an empty breeze snuck through the large oak door. (Looking back, the environment somewhat paralleled the music of Umbrellas.) At first, we didn’t share much more than a common language. Although we eventually discussed many things, I started the conversation by asking where the name “Umbrellas” came from. Everything just branched out from there.
“Sometimes a name is just a name. If you want a grandiose story of what it all means, here you go. We recorded the album in an old creaking hotel that used to be a mortuary. It had its ups and downs. There was so much history you could feel. We recorded downstairs in the daytime and slept upstairs at night. The hotel had many empty rooms, a constant draft, a never-ending treacherous staircase that I constantly dared myself to travel, and spiders. I felt as if I was always being followed by spiders that looked like broken umbrellas. They seemed to map themselves across our minds in the process of creating the album. And there you have it, your little story. Tell everyone that’s where the name came from.”
So much of the creative process manifested itself in the Umbrellas’ debut album. Each song gives off a different spirit, partly because they were created in different cities. The song “Ghost” was the first collaborative effort for Umbrellas. It took shape in Oklahoma through kindred spirits sharing contrasting ideas. Another song “The Black Dress” came about in the exact opposite way. Windsor sat in a room alone and bright in St. Louis with a bottle of whiskey and constructed it in one night. Without a band the song seemed haunted with the absence of Umbrellas as a collective. With the addition of soulful handclaps and a 70’s guitar/bass conversation, the song became what it was meant to be. The music of Umbrellas is honest. The color and variance that each member adds to this group are both the reason the band exists, and what keeps the music moving. Where Windsor’s lyrics in a song may be a bit macabre, the music is easy on the ears with bright and hopeful instrumentation.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” says Windsor. Umbrellas was a free-form collaboration between paralleled souls, and was not intended to be a band that would some day tour and put out a full-length album. This fact tells the tale of the mystery, contrast, and echoing beauty that is Umbrellas.
-Gerard London
Umbrellas in the studio is: S. Windsor, C. Coplin, N. Price, E. Arndt, E. Rose
Umbrellas live is: S. Windsor, B. Peterson, and M. Jara-Ratajsczak |
|
|