RVANews

Near Earth Objects – Manual For Self-Hypnosis

Dean Christesen — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:00:42 +0000

Since shortly after the release of their EP in 2008, the funky trio Near Earth Objects has been somewhat off the scene. Life took over and they played few -- if any -- shows around town. Until recently. Now with their first record out, they seem more serious than ever as their live dates begin to pop up on calendars once again.

Stretching the divide between jam and jazz, Near Earth Objects specialize in big grooves with a small ensemble mentality. The organ trio's concept and appeal is not far removed from those of Medeski Martin & Wood's, with Esbjörn Svensson Trio-like jazz sensibilities that do anything but stick to strict form and an eccentric sound that you can't hear anywhere else.

On Manual For Self-Hypnosis, the trio builds off the sound that they established on their EP, but they will be the first to tell you that their sound is changing. Theirs is not a dead end street; by listening, you start to imagine where it is that they will take the music in the next minute, the next tune, the next album. Possibilities unfold, and that's good news in the hands of able musicians.

RVAJazz: Tell me about this album, your first full release, and what it means to you in terms of where the band has been and is going.

Joey Ciucci (keyboards): This album is definitely way different than the EP for the most part. It represents a real change in our musical scene since the first one was recorded. Fight the Big Bull and Ombak (from my days as door guy at CousCous -- that Wednesday scene really was a golden era for Richmond music) really opened my eyes to a whole new thematic, cinematic way of writing. I feel like I now write more with my own voice and my feelings than ever.

Scott Milstead (drums): I think this record represents the strong commitment we've made to ourselves and to the project. When I think about all that went into getting it done, I'm just glad that we were all committed to finishing it. I'm really proud of the final result, and I'm super stoked to be playing music with Nate and Joey.

Nathan Goodwyn (bass): The band continues to grow and challenge itself to improve. Our writing seems to have a bit more range than it did when we first got together in Jan 2008. To me this is the result of the open lines of communication within the band and a willingness to take constructive criticism from each other.

Listen to "Manual For Self-Hypnosis":
[audio:http://media.rvanews.com/04%20Manual%20For%20Self-Hypnosis.mp3|titles=Manual For Self-Hypnosis|artists=Near Earth Objects with Mark Ingraham]

RVAJazz: You can really tell by listening that there's open communication among you three in the songwriting process. But break that process down for me.

JC: I bring most of the changes and melodies to the table but rarely much form, structure, et cetera. Nate and Scott are really masters at that stuff. I tend to write in four; both those guys change that frequently. Scott composes these awesome, musical drumbeats (the title track, for example) that are like melodies within themselves. Nate has always had an ear for arranging and is a great writer.

NG: Joey has been the starting point for most of the tunes, but the process is democratic, especially thoughts about rhythm, tempo, and phrasing. Each of us plays a role but the roles change during the writing of a given tune. We don't tell each other what to do too much. Beyond that it is pretty hard to describe because things happen pretty fast and the process feels fluid.

SM: I definitely think the arrangements reflect the collective writing and arranging. Joey provides the majority of the melodies and changes, though like he mentioned, we've also written tunes around Nate's bass lines or my drum beats. We do all the arranging as a group, and that's a great process for us because we're all very open to trying things out. And we're not above debating whether or not a section should be a 4 count or 6 count, or other seemingly trivial aspects! Personally, I love that stuff, the little stuff that makes a big difference in how the tune ends up.

NG: Even though there is always a tendency to write a tune with a verse, chorus, and bridge, we don't really seem to think much about structure until we feel good about the notes and rhythms. The first idea is almost always a few notes or a groove from Joey and maybe a melody or second line of some sort from me. Then, Scott might take the meter or feel in a particular direction. As a result of the process, the finished tune resembles the original idea but to varying degrees.

SM: As far as what we're trying to achieve as a group, we're always saying "tunes first." We don't want the tunes to just be a vehicle for us to play lots of notes. We want the means to justify the end. Strong melodies over great arrangements, and the freedom to explore within that framework.

RVAJazz: To me, Manual for Self Hypnosis is trippier than your EP. There are more samples used, more ambient background noises, and complex grooves that give it all meaning.

JC: I agree and am excited that the album is "trippy." That's partly just a product of a really great studio and engineer, Palmer Wilkins at Millwright Sound, and that kind of vibe being present, but also the way the songs are written and structured.

NG: I think the tunes here feel a little slower and maybe moodier than on the EP, and the samples bring a little added edge. Scott worked very hard to bring out the feeling of the recording session while also adding new parts.

SM: The music definitely has some ethereal or trippy moments, but we didn't want those elements to be the focal point or to override the songs themselves. The goal was to use those elements more as textures, in a supporting role. I was listening to a lot of Weather Report, David Axelrod, and DJ Shadow at the time I was doing a lot of the mixing, so I think that explains some of the additions. I didn't want anything to feel forced or overbearing, or to detract from the tunes and the playing.

RVAJazz: Guitarist Alan Parker and trumpeter Mark Ingraham appear on the record, expanding it to a quintet at times.

SM: Alan’s playing on "Rory Glass" is ridiculous. And Mark sounds incredible. His solo on the title track is one of my favorite moments on the record.

Listen to "Rory Glass":
[audio:http://media.rvanews.com/03%20Rory%20Glass.mp3|titles=Rory Glass|artists=Near Earth Objects with Alan Parker]

NG: Mark has such a sweet sound on the record and just plays beautifully. It was so great to have those guys in the studio with us as well as everybody else who was there.

RVAJazz: What are your goals as a band, and how does this record help you get there?

NG: Our goals are pretty simple. We have always stayed pretty focused on the moment and kept a sense of some balance. My wife Elisabet and I had our second child last February and the guys were very supportive during all of that. It's been exciting to see Joey playing more often, with DJ Williams on Tuesdays at Cafe Diem and now with Todd Herrington and the New Belgians on Wednesdays. He and his wife Colleen live in western Powhatan, not far from where I grew up, actually. Scott has gigs, drum line at Monacan HS, and lessons going on too. We feel very comfortable being up front about what we can and can't do, for us and for the good of the music.

SM: The tracks on the album were recorded during the summer of 2009. I started mixing last November or December, and we're now just getting it out. So it was basically an 18-month process. That wasn't by design as much as it was circumstantial (scheduling, money, the birth of Nate's daughter, etc). But I think it's interesting to note how long the process took because the band has grown and evolved a lot in that year and a half. So while MFSH is just now being released, in a way it's a snap shot of how the band was a year and a half or two years ago, when we were actually composing and arranging these tunes. We've grown a lot over that time, both individually as players and as a group. The tunes we've written since MFSH was recorded have a very different vibe to them, but are still very much us.

JC: We are trying to sell this album and generate some interest in Richmond in our band, which hasn't always been easy. It's kind of off the wall music.

Purchase Manual For Self-Hypnosis on iTunes or visit Near Earth Objects online

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Near Earth Objects: Hungry for a Sound

Dean Christesen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:11:00 +0000

by Dean Christesen
photos by Lindsey Prather

Upon arriving in Richmond in Summer 2001, bassist Nathan Goodwyn quickly made his move into the city's live music scene. Seeing groups like Devil's Workshop every Monday at Bogart's and Modern Groove Syndicate every Wednesday at Alley Katz acquainted him with some of Richmond's finest musicians and got the ball rolling for musical experiments of his own.

Goodwyn (formerly of Heavy Rotations), Good Dog keyboardist Joey Ciucci and ex-Carbon Leaf drummer Scott Milstead form Near Earth Objects, a new trio that seems to draw influence from the excitement of Medeski Martin & Wood, the subtlety of the Keith Jarrett Trio, and the raw characteristics of each man's previous projects.

RVAjazz: Tell me about how Near Earth Objects formed.

Nathan Goodwyn: Joey Ciucci is the brother of a very close friend of mine from college. Joey plays keyboards and we’d always talked about getting together. He moved to town after he graduated from [Virginia] Tech, so basically in January we got together and put an ad on Craig’s List for a drummer.

RVAjazz: Of all the people on Craig’s List, Scott Milstead from Carbon Leaf emails you?

NG: Exactly. A bunch of drummers wrote back and all the responses were really interesting. Scott was the only one who showed up to audition. The other guys responded to the ad but never really showed up, and it just so happened that Scott really came in and killed it. It took us about an hour of deliberation and then we offered him the gig.

RVAjazz: So you didn’t have any previous association with Scott before that?

NG: No, I didn’t. I saw a bunch of his stuff on YouTube and elsewhere with Carbon Leaf, and really found his playing tasteful but also really confident. He comes from a school of playing that’s pretty different from ours, maybe in a sense that playing with Carbon Leaf was kind of a pop thing and a rock thing and he brings that sense of groove and interest in the song and all that to the playing. Joey plays with a lot of rock bands that tend more towards the jam scene. You know, the Grateful Dead kind of feel and that kind of thing, which is great in its own way.

RVAjazz: And what about yourself? What kind of music do you lean towards?

NG: Well, when I first moved to town, I started playing with Jack Shannon and what became the Heavy Rotations, originally it was the Switch. It was just a four piece instrumental group featuring Mark Ingraham on trumpet. It was basically one of Mark’s first gigs in town before he became a monster. He’s such an animal on the instrument and he’s such a great player. I actually found him when Devil’s Workshop was playing on Monday nights down at Bogart’s and just really liked Mark’s playing. So [the Switch] was my first gig in town. We’re still kind of doing it although we've scaled back. Everyone else has gotten so busy. I've always been really interested in this trio idea and loved the idea of the trio from listening to people like Keith Jarrett. The whole concept of that has always really appealed to me. So it’s been perfect timing with this trio as far as what we’re all interested in.

RVAjazz: In your opinion, what's the difference between jam band and jazz or modern jazz, and where do you think improvisation fits in your music and other kind of music like this?

NG: I think modern jazz is in a really interesting place right now because you hear more musicians focusing on the song. People like Kurt Rosenwinkel and Bill Frisell, John Scofield. If you listen to these guys and their playing, they’re building these unbelievable pieces of music that are about more than somebody just soloing or somebody’s chops. If you think about modern jazz ten years ago, it felt like it was mostly about chops. And that’s important in its own right, but I really love where that modern jazz movement is right now. I would like to think that our music is in that vein in the sense that the emphasis is on the song, and trying to create a space musically and not focus on kind of a means to an end where you’re just trying to get to a solo. I mean solos are important, in terms of building momentum and creating character in a song and a piece of music and all that, but I think that’s kind of the distinction between what we’re doing and what, to use your word, modern jazz is about. I don’t want to dog jam bands. I think it’s cool in its own way. I like a lot of music that would be labeled that, but I don’t think I would call us that, although we do want to maybe appeal to that scene and a lot of the people who would listen to that kind of music. But I don’t think I would describe us as that way.

RVAjazz: I think that’s a very accessible crowd, at least in my experience in Richmond. There seems to be a cross over between some fans of each genre.

NG: Yeah, there is. I think that’s right, maybe more and more so lately, too.

RVAjazz: Now I was reading about Heavy Rotations earlier and there’s something interesting on the Myspace, it was kind of like an equation. It said “early 70s fusion feel + hip-hop and pop grooves + down-tempo techno jazz.”

NG: Yeah [laughs]. I wrote that.

RVAjazz: If you had to create an equation like that for Near Earth Objects, what would it be like?

NG: It would be much simpler than that. I would say...“funky” and I would say “accessible,” much more accessible than the stuff I’ve done with the Heavy Rotations. And I would also say “interesting” mainly because of Scott, especially because of Scott’s interest in making it a song and making it something that’s going to be cohesive. And he’s really smart about not wanting to make it like, just completely far out, avant-garde stuff; he wants to make it stuff that there’s a groove to and everybody can really feel. I guess in that way it is fairly accessible. And you know, it’s energetic too. There are three personalities in the group, but hopefully the feeling that people get is that they’re going to take part in it, you know, the people who are listening. I found that playing with the Heavy Rotations was great, and I often wondered as we got much more avant-garde maybe in the way that we did things--and this is in addition to not playing as many gigs--you know, you start seeing fewer and fewer people come out. You want that feeling of connection to what’s happening but you don’t want to compromise anything. So it’s just trying to walk that tight rope between getting people involved and also not compromising anything. I’d like to think we’re walking that tight rope pretty well.

RVAjazz: Obviously in a trio, all three members are important and each person’s voic

e is very distinctive, but Joey’s Hammond organ definitely sticks out here as the primary voice.

NG: Yeah, for sure. He’s also got a great Clav that he’ll play sometimes which is really cool to hear. Joey’s an excellent player, and Joey is the primary voice in the band. That’s not accidental. He comes to the rehearsals with an idea and Scott and I are kind of his editors. That’s just kind of the way it ends up working out, which is obviously in part just because of the nature of the instrument he plays, but also because he’s at a point where he’s constantly generating ideas. So I think it’s important for Scott and I to recognize that and allow that to happen and also participate in ways that are meaningful. We just finished an arrangement of the Beatles’ tune “Come Together.” Joey brought in this really great groove for that piece, and at that point it wasn’t really an arrangement. So Scott and I worked with him on it and kind of arrived at something that really is an interpretation of the original that we really like. So it is collaborative but Joey brings about 70% of it I would think. And that’s good. He is a hungry player. He wants to get better, he’s like a sponge: he wants to know what’s out there. So it’s a great thing for all of us to be around that energy. You know, Scott, having been with Carbon Leaf for so long, is really hungry to get beyond the restraints of that medium...I’m kind of coming from a different angle because with the stuff I’ve been doing, there really wasn’t much in the way of boundaries, so it’s a nice intersection for the three of us, I think.

RVAjazz: What gigs does the trio have lined up?

NG: We’re going to open for Modern Groove Syndicate on the nineteenth of December at Cary Street [Café]. We’re hopefully going to get a couple more between now and then but right now the focus is on writing and arranging. We just finished the demo at Palmer Wilkins’ studio. Palmer’s an old friend of mine. He works with Stewart Myers down at the studio those guys have down in Louisa. Palmer’s another really hungry guy and he brings a really relaxed feel to the studio so we were real lucky to be working with him. He did a great job on the demos.

RVAjazz: Well one last question: What albums are you listening to right now?

NG: Brian Wilson’s SMiLE.

RVAjazz: Did you hear his newest one, That Lucky Old Sun, yet?

NG: Yeah man, the whole thing sounds incredible. The singing is unbelievable, harmonically. I love everything that’s going on there. Let’s see, Rolling Stones Goat’s Head Soup. Billy Preston’s on that record. Preston’s the great keyboard player. I always go back to Miles’ In A Silent Way record. It’s kind of one of the great ones that I’ll always go back to. I just love that record for all that it is. It’s got a wonderful feel and sound. Let’s see…I’m going to see Bob Weir at The National in November [laughs]. I mean my guilty pleasure is probably the Grateful Dead, especially anything from the late 70s to the early 80s. I think musically, the song catalog and all that they have will stand up to anybody’s in American history, regardless of the sloppy playing which is certainly there from time to time. The songs that they wrote are classics. So I will always go back to that. You know, I’m standing here in my backyard with a tie-dye on right now.

Near Earth Objects are performing this Thursday at VCU's Singleton Center for the Performing Arts at 7pm as part of the Pollack Awards Ceremony. The group will also be appearing at Commercial Taphouse on December 14 and at the Cary Street Cafe opening for Modern Groove Syndicate on Dec. 19.

View Near Earth Objects on the web.