Interview with Sean Tobin

By Deaglan Howlett | Posted Sunday, May 22, 2022

Sean Tobin has been writing invigorating Irish folk rock for the past few years and is back with a new full-length June 10th titled Ghost of The Arcade. Following up 2020’s East Coast Artifacts, Tobin’s latest singles showcase his shore town storytelling with his solid backing band. Sean’s music fits in Asbury Park bars just as well as pubs in Galway. Combining traditional Irish instruments with punk ferocity, his music remains exciting and at times nostalgic. I reached out to Sean to talk about his band and their upcoming album just a few weeks away. Thanks again, Sean!

When did you first start releasing your own music?

I released my first single in the winter of 2018, “Winter (In an Ocean Town).” That was one of the first songs I thought might be worthy of putting out into the universe. The other was “This Midnight”, which was the title track to my first album that came out later that same year. Safe to say, production quality and base-knowledge of songwriting has grown since then, but I still put many of those songs into my setlists.

Who is in your current lineup? How do these players influence your sound compared to when you first started?

Drums - David Patiño

Bass - Jack Breslin/Backing Vox

Lead Guitar/Mandolin/Accordion - Jake Garbe

Fiddle (When We Can Lock him Down!) - Sean-David Cunningham

These guys were a hodge-podge of connections that I'd made over the years.

Dave grounds us in the punk-rock beat that I always gravitate toward, but has no problem holding back when the song calls for it. He's also the gear guy. Thank god for that.

Jack is arguably the most "professional" musician we have in the group. He's classically trained and incredibly talented as a jazz bassist. He has his own jazz trio and plays in a bunch of other ensembles around NJ and beyond. He and I do a few duo/trio sets here and there, so we have great chemistry when it comes to banter on the mic and performing live.

Jake is the most recent addition to the group. I tapped him when we were putting out “St. Patrick's Day Forever”, as I'd heard he could play a ton of different instruments. I heard correctly. His diversity instrumentally helps flesh out each song in whatever way it needs, from mandolin to accordion to ripping leads on electric. Jake even learned each guitar solo from before he was in the band note for note overnight. Kid's an animal. He also helps add that Celtic, Americana twang to tracks in a way that I've been searching for for a while.

Sean-David Cunningham is one of the most (if not the most) sought after violinist in New Jersey. Classically trained like Jack, he started playing in rock and folk bands a while back and hasn't stopped since. He's one of those guys that only needs to hear the key of the song to play along.

Basically, I surrounded myself with musicians far more talented than me. I think it's working.

Your latest two singles “Memorial Drive” and “On the Corner of Sunset” are real rockers. How did these songs come together? What is your songwriting process like?

These two were serendipitous. I wrote “Memorial Drive” sitting on my VOX in my old Asbury apartment, trying not to wake the neighbors after a night out. Lucky for them, I wrote the song in under an hour. The best ones always happen that way. I'd already written “Sunset” months prior, but I never really put the two together till much later.

When I was tracking out the album, I wanted to make it flow in a way that all my favorite records do. I love the way one song blends into the next in records like American Idiot, Abbey Road, Kick by Spanish Love Songs... When I was going through the track listing, I paired tracks up by the chord they ended on, and when “Memorial Drive” and “Sunset” matched up, it made too much sense.

I love the Irish influence in your music. Who are some of your favorite Irish artists? What is unique about Irish music to you?

First off, thank you! I grew up on The Wolfe Tones. My mom's family is from Northern Ireland, so rebel music was always on repeat at parties. I joke that my dad had three CDs in his car growing up: Let the People Sing, Born to Run, and Beach House on the Moon. 

RIght now, though, I've gotten into a bunch of up-and-coming Irish rock acts. The Scratch is my favorite at the moment. Palpable high-energy acoustic punk, check them out when you can. I also steer toward Dubliners, Pogues, Clancy Brothers and the rest depending on my mood. But right now, The Scratch, Junior Brother, New Pagans, the list goes on...

The lyricism of Irish music has always resonated with me, as even the most serious of songs often have a few quips inside. I love the Irish sense of humor. Dry as hell. I try to add that to my songs whenever I can.

Your full-length Ghost of The Arcade comes out 6/10. Who did you work with for this album? What can fans and first-time listeners expect?

We worked with Rob Freeman up at Audio Pilot Studio for this one. Rob is a veteran producer, as well as a well-known pop-punk musician of Hidden in Plain View. His studio is decked out with tons of state-of-the-art equipment, instruments, and even analog gear. Most importantly for me, though, it has an apartment upstairs, a fire pit outside the listening room, and tons of acreage to explore. We stayed up there for a week and fully engulfed ourselves in the process. It was a dream.

Do you have a favorite track off the new record? What makes this one special?

The album is so diverse, it's too hard to pick just one. I'd also be lying if I said I had a favorite, but there are a few that have yet to be released that I'm very excited about. "I'll Be Alright," for one, is an absolute foot tapper, and the piano on the track drives the album home. "Unfinished Business" is a love song, one that I sang to my wife on our wedding day, so it'll always have a special spot in my heart. "Eugene" is a song for my grandfather.. that importance goes without saying. So do I have a favorite song? No, but I can absolutely say that this is the best, most enjoyable record I've worked on to date. 

We've got shows coming up to support this album at the end of June.

6/24 in New Hope, PA at John & Peter's

6/25 in Asbury Park, NJ at The Saint

6/26 in Jersey City, NJ at JC American Festival

and a late-summer tour to be announced!

~

You can keep up with all things Sean here and make sure you see him and the band this summer!

Interview with Katie Miller (Kate Dressed Up)

By Sonia Schnee | Posted Thursday, March 3, 2022

If you find yourself part of Katie Miller’s inner circle, consider yourself lucky. Over the years, this South Jersey singer-songwriter has managed to surround herself with a diverse group of creative and talented people, sending the right energy out into the universe and attracting it back. When I first spoke with Katie (almost exactly a year ago) her band Kate Dressed Up had just released a single and an accompanying music video for the song “Ride Home.” Now, a year later, Katie has released a second song, entitled “The Fountain”, this time accompanied by a beautifully produced animated short. As it goes, a lot has happened in Katie’s life over the course of a year, but what has remained constant is her dedication to her craft, her practice of gratitude, and her ability to continue welcoming people in with open arms.

To learn more about Katie Miller and Kate Dressed Up, watch our interview above or read the transcript below. Be sure to follow Kate Dressed Up on social media and/or sign up for their newsletter so you can be the first to know about upcoming performances and the release date of Kate Dressed Up’s upcoming album.

(Video and transcript have been edited for time and clarity.)

Interview Part 1 (February 2021)

What's your name? Where are you from? What do you do?

KATIE MILLER: My name is Katie Miller. I currently live in Moorestown, NJ, and I have a band called Kate Dressed Up. I'm also in school right now for electrical engineering, and I do a few other things here and there.

Wow. Electrical engineering. I wasn't expecting that! That's pretty cool.

I just started a little less than a year ago because with the pandemic and the whole music industry being really wonky right now, it just seemed like a good time to kind of diversify, I guess.

For first-time listeners, how would you describe your sound? What musical influences do you draw from?

I was thinking about this earlier, actually, because it's a fairly common question and I always have a hard time answering it, but I would say lately, and for this record, there is some Sheryl Crow in there. There's some Bright Eyes, some Fleet Foxes, anything kind of in that indie-folk world.

I always have my acoustic guitar as kind of the centerpiece, at least in the writing process, and so that determines a lot of the rest of the sound palette that I use.

Congratulations on your new single, "Ride Home", off of your upcoming album. You also had a music video that you released. What was that whole process like? How long were you working on the song? What inspired it? Can you give us any behind-the-scenes tidbits?

I began writing most of it, I would say, 2017 into 2018. Right around the time that I was going to start self-producing it, which I had done with previous works, I met my current producer. His name is Ravi Bhavsar. He goes by SPHMRE [pronounced SOPH-O-MORE]. He was working at a place called Flux Studios in New York City. Basically, through a very weird kind of butterfly effect chain of events, we linked up and hit it off instantly. After going back and forth with just a one-off song that we did together, he actually offered to do the entire album for me/with me, and so what we basically did was we just worked in Flux any time that it wasn't booked. It's a super busy studio, so we ended up doing sessions from midnight to 4:00 in the morning. We worked from noon to midnight on the 4th of July one year. We worked on New Year's Day 2020. So basically, this has been a year's long process now because of the way that we went about making this, and we really took our time with it, which is something that I'm learning not all artists get to do in the studio.

Regarding the video, I'd been familiar with Bob Sweeney's work for a while, and so when it came time for me to reach out for someone to do the video, he was an obvious choice for me. I was lucky enough that he was down to do it. The other actress in the video, her name is Leah Scully. I've known her since my freshman year of college, so I reached out and asked if she would want to do it and she was down. My brother, who produced my first two EPs, was on set with us and was helping during the day, too. We shot that out behind the house I grew up. It backs up onto a lot of state land up in North Jersey. It kind of just fit the mood. Bob is super talented. He brought this great vision to life that just totally brings a new dimension to the song. So I'm very excited about both the song and the video.

It's beautifully shot. I was like, "Is that shot on film, or was it shot digitally and then had cinematic effects added to it?" The sun, the time of the day that you shot, it came together really beautifully.

Thank you. The very next day was the first day that it snowed that year, so we got it right at the perfect time when it was like that dead kind of end-of-fall vibe going on. The very next day, it looked totally different. So that was pretty cool.

It looked like it was cold. Was it cold?

It definitely was cold, yeah. My friend Leah is a trooper. She was just wearing a dress of mine that I wore to a wedding a few years ago. She did really great that day, too.

What is your process like in terms of writing songs? Does the music comes first and then the lyrics? Do you see a movie playing in your head and you write a story? Or is it based on personal experiences?

It's part fiction and part nonfiction is kind of what ends up happening. There's not really a set process for me, necessarily. A lot of times it'll just be little dribbles of lines or notes here and there, and sometimes those will grow into songs, and then other times I'll hear the whole thing all at once and it's done.

I'll be inspired by something that I observe or experience in my day-to-day, and then that transforms itself through the writing process into something that's "me" but it's also separate from me. I don't know how else to really explain it. Then other times, a song just comes out of nowhere, and then a year or two later, I'll be like, "Oh, that's what that was about" and it makes sense in retrospect.

You started out as a solo project and now you're a five-piece band. What inspired that? Who are your bandmates?

A big part of the reason that I started as a solo project is because a previous bandmate of mine, who's actually with one of my current bandmates and my best friend, logistically our lives kind of physically separated us, and so our project took a backseat because of the way that life happens.

From the beginning, I always wanted my best friends Vin [Karaitis] and Elyse [Kiedaisch] to be a part of Kate Dressed Up. The two of them were pretty much always non-negotiable from the start. We've been singing together for pretty much a decade now, and the three of us have just been very much a unit through our late teens into adult lives. Vin is one of the best musicians and the best songwriter that I know, period. He's just next level. Elyse is one of the best singers I know.

There have been a lot of other iterations of Kate Dressed Up over the past two and a half or so years. My cousin Christopher, who's a drummer, and my friend Elaine Rasnake, who owns Daughterboard Audio — she's a Mastering Engineer — they were in the band at times.

Going into 2020, I had plans to take the band on a real full band national tour. I planned that with my business partner, Mickey [Skabla]. I set up the band to be me and Vin. Ryan Hilsinger, who is a producer and owns AGL Sounds which is a studio in New Jersey, he's a drummer. I asked him to come on tour and he was down, so I added him. My friend Nick [Iacobelli], who I actually met through Christopher in a previous iteration of the band, is an incredible bassist and an incredible musician, like next level. Same thing as Vin. They're like freaks. So are Ryan and Elyse, honestly. They're all kind of like musical freaks in my eyes, in the best possible way. Nick, I'm lucky enough that he likes my band and my music and he was down to come on tour. 

Then when the tour fell through, I just asked them if they wanted to stay in the band and keep making music even though there's not really any prospects right now, and they all said yes, and so we've been making more music. This current lineup that I have is like… Something is making sense in a way that it hasn't yet, that I've been looking for. So I'm feeling good. I'm feeling excited about releasing all this new stuff and having them back me up.

What are you most looking forward to in 2021, assuming the world opens up more than it has and things return a little more to "normal"?

I'm getting married in May. I was supposed to get married last May, and you know, everything happened.

We have more songs in the pipeline. We have a ten-song full LP in the pipeline. Ravi engineered all the production at Flux, and he's also mixing and mastering it. At this point, years we've been working together, our visions have not diverged at all, like musically and in the sound palette and what the finished product should sound like. He understands my imagination of the songs and not only understands it, but he also supplements it and agrees with a lot of my tastes and ideas and supports me to bring them all to fruition and manifest this vision together, so it's cool.

When Ravi and I'm very first met, there was definitely just an understanding. We musically clicked right off the bat, which was cool because Ravi mostly produces hip hop, and so him working on my stuff is really different for him, and it was a new thing for me to be working not with my brother as a producer. It's been just amazing. This album, the whole thing has live drums, which is fun. I had a drummer from New Brunswick, Evan Tsioni, and he's just extremely talented. I'm lucky that he played on these songs. That was fun for me, too.

So take us back to the beginning. Do you come from a musical family?

Both sides of my family — moms and dads — there are musicians on both sides. In my house growing up, my dad played the guitar. He was the musician. So that was just always around. I started with piano lessons when I was young. As I got a little older and got slightly into my teen years, you have these new feelings and you want to start expressing them. You know what I mean? So it just was totally natural for me to pick up the guitar. I started on drums because hitting stuff to music is really fun. And then I wanted to sing, and singing to the drums is kind of hard. So there are guitars around. That's what my dad played. I picked up the guitar. That was that. I've been playing ever since.

That's nice that you have a little bit of a drumming background. You don't hear that a lot. You usually hear piano or clarinet.  

I played piano before that. I took piano lessons from 7-13, but when I started wanting to get into more contemporary music and stuff, the first thing that I wanted was drums. So I played that for six months, a year, and then onto the guitar.

What words of advice or encouragement would you give to other fellow creative people who are maybe trying to stay mentally healthy during this very unusual time? Do you have any words of advice for people who are maybe just trying to get through day to day, some things to look forward to?

I would say, take care of the basics. Try to sleep and eat well. Try to walk a little bit, as much as you can. If you want to talk on the creative side, remember to be nice to yourself and have fun with it and let it be a therapeutic thing and not something that causes you to feel like you're under some kind of pressure because you're not.

That is important, just remembering the simple things like sleeping, turning off your phone, and making sure that you actually get to sleep through the night.  

I actually started leaving my cell phone in a different room when I go to bed. Going to sleep and waking up without a cell phone, I mean, it's a very small thing, but I found it to make a pretty good difference in the way that I start and end my days.

That's a good idea, putting it in a different room. I feel like I need to put it in another zip code.

Looking back, what would you say are some of the highlights that you've experienced musically, either performing, writing, or anything about the creative process?

Oh, man. I have been so lucky and just really blessed with a lot of really great experiences. So, to take it back first, to my best friend Vin. I was like 22 and living with my mom after I graduated college, and he was in his freshman year and was going for music. At the time we had our band together, which was called The Fox and the Rose, and for a whole year of my life, every day he would finish school and come to my mom's house and we would just make music for, I would say, anywhere from 3-5 hours, and he would teach me everything that he learned that day in school. So I basically got the first year of a music education through him just telling me what he learned that day. That year made me a way, way, way better musician, guitar player, singer-songwriter, the whole deal. That was super formative to my whole musical existence. So that's a big highlight.

Then, for Kate Dressed Up, we've played at World Cafe Live. We've headlined there. That was really, really fun, one of my favorite shows. Last December, we got to play Asbury Lanes for the "What a Wonderful Year" show. That stage is just so much fun to be on. It sounds so good up there.

I've been lucky enough to do three Gurlzilla shows, which is a feminist benefit show that I've been doing since 2016. I did one in Flemington in 2016, one in Asbury in 2018, and then last November [2020] we did a virtual one where it was Philly artists and artists from Minneapolis, so we had a two-city virtual thing going on.

Making the album with Ravi at Flux Studios is obviously top of the list. I'm just so lucky to have had a series of really great events, whether they've led to a person's conventional idea of "success" or not, I am having a great time and everything is working out in a way that I'm very happy with.

It just comes down to gratitude because happiness, that's like a little too lofty of a goal, I think. If you're like, "Oh, I want to be happy." Happy? That's a transient feeling. You're happy for a moment and then it... It's not like a state of constant being. But you could be grateful constantly. You could choose to just look around you and say, "You know, I am fortunate in my own way to have these things" and I very much feel that.

Very wise words. That was deep. I feel like I gotta put that somewhere, like on an arch over a castle or something.

That sounds good to me. Just put my initials "KM" in the corner. Or "KDU" for Kate Dressed Up. I don't know. 

Put your URL up there.

It's like a little QR code just chiseled into it.

Oh, for sure!

Interview Part 2 (February 2022) 

I've been scouring social media to check up on everything that's been going on. You've been busy!

I've been as busy as possible, yeah.

In March 2021, you had some vinyls printed?

Yes, the Leesta Vall stuff. We marketed it in March, took preorders, and then we actually recorded it in Cherry Hill at AGL Studios in June, and then we sent those files off to Leesta Vall and they got printed and sent out over the summer. So that was really exciting to have some physical music of ours out in the world. They turned out beautifully. 

That was a cool idea. How did you think of that?

Actually, the label, Leesta Vall, their whole business model is to have bands sign up to run preorders on these singles, and then bands most often will actually go to the Leesta Vall studio, and they'll print the performance directly to vinyl there in the studio, but because my drummer actually owns a studio, we chose to use their studio, AGL. That turned out great, and we sent off the digital files for them to print. It was a lot of fun. We ended up — in one day — recording for 33 vinyl prints.  

That's amazing!

It was pretty intense. We played "Ride Home" like 20 times and a bunch of other songs. I think there were only five songs to choose from, so there were a lot of repeats. We just had a marathon of recording for four or five hours, where we just banged them all out and sent them off. We were all very tired at the end, but also very satisfied. It was physically taxing but spiritually fulfilling to be able to do that.

That's a really cool concept. I think I read something about there'd be a customizable greeting in the beginning?

Yeah, so they sent us the names for each order and what song they wanted, and so each performance was for a specific person. So to start the recording, Ryan would hit "1, 2, 3, go" and then I would say, like, "Hey, Evan, thanks for supporting" and do a little personalized message in the beginning. So everyone that got one of those has a completely unique, doesn't exist anywhere else performance from us.

That's brilliant.

Yeah, it is a pretty cool model. I'm really glad that Leesta Vall asked us to be a part of it. I actually had done a run with Elaine Rasnake a couple of years ago. We actually did go to their studio and recorded some songs with her. So I've been aware of it for a while and I knew that they ran a tight ship. So when they reached out, I was very excited.

Nice. It sounds like it must have been very organized for all that to run so smoothly.

Yeah, they definitely have a good operation going over there. I'm just very glad that a few vinyls exist out in the world with my music on it.  

In April 2021, you released a music video for "How Could I Have Known." That looked like it was fun to film. You got a lot of friends together, friends and family? What was that whole process like?

I rallied the troops for that one. The video was directed by Andrea Morgan, whose work I had admired for a while because I'd seen her do work with an Asbury Park band called The Foes of Fern. They had put out some great stuff. So I reached out asking if she would be down to do a video for this song, and she got back me saying, "Yeah, let's rock." Very much, as the same as with "Ride Home", I chose her because I wanted her vision applied to the music. I didn't really have too much of a solid concept, so that video, I would say 98% of the credit, was Andrea's idea. She told me the kind of space we needed, which luckily my living space fit what she needed, and told me the storyboard that she had in her head.

I got everyone involved — bandmates, significant others, friends, bandmates from other bands that aren't Kate Dressed Up. Everyone was really cool. We got everyone pizza and beer, and Andrea brought some decorations. The second she showed up, it was all business. It went super smoothly. She had all her shots in mind and told us what to do. The three supporting players, Elyse Kiedaisch, Elaine Rasnake, and Tal Demirjian, they were just super willing to be a part of the whole thing and just go with the flow and what Andrea was telling us to do. We had a lot of fun doing that. I had fun with all the outfit changes. It ended up being pretty much an actual party because while I was shooting scenes, everyone else was just hanging out. It just cultivated a really good energy that I think comes across.

Yeah, definitely. It looks like it was a lot of fun doing that.

It definitely was. Making art with people you care about, who care about you, who also care about your art —which is a completely separate thing from just caring about me as a person — there is literally no higher honor to me than that having a friend who also for some reason will also care about this thing that I've been doing for years now. It's so special to me. I really can't overstate that.

You can't replace that depth and dedication.

No way. Yeah.

Is there anything you want to say about the song or the inspiration behind it?

It's obviously super queer. It's the first thing that I've put out that's very overtly queer. The way it was received has just been incredible, the way that people took it. I had a friend message me saying "This is the bi anthem that I've always needed" or something along those lines. So I'm just glad that the thing that I was going for in that song, which is kind of like a whimsical facepalm of looking back and just seeing all of these opportunities kind of float by, and not experiencing regret, but just... It became kind of an inside joke with myself to look back and notice those moments in my life, and then now to be in a place where I experience a lesser degree of self-consciousness in those situations, and now being able to share that, that's really what's special to me now, and seeing the growth from where I was writing the song to now having released it and having this part of myself be so much more prominently publicly displayed. And that's been cool.

I love it. "Facepalm" is a good term.

Like, "How could I have known?" but then the whole joke is like, bro, come on.

I think we've all been there, in one way or another. We've definitely had those baseball moments where it's like, well, yeah, looking back, obviously.

Yeah, and that's not a distinctly queer experience. Obviously, that happens to straight people, too, I think. But I think all of the kind of weird stigma and baggage that comes with queer relationships kind of amplifies those experiences a little bit in a way. So that's where I was coming from really, with sharing that whole story and an idea.

I like that. What was it? "The bi anthem?" What did your friend say?

Yeah, like "This is the bi anthem I've always needed." Something along those lines. She was basically saying, like, “Yes, I also am a queer woman terrified to talk to other queer women.” Really almost more than anything else, when that particular friend reached out to me, that's when I was like, OK, I'm glad that I made this. You know what I mean? To share that and have it actually resonate and someone else feel what I was feeling when I wrote it. That's the most important thing, that connection. That's what makes it all worth it.

Definitely. It's something that people can relate to. It gives a voice to a situation or an experience or a series of experiences so you feel like you're not alone. Like, "OK, I had a facepalm moment, but someone else did, too!"

In May 2021 you had a wedding ceremony?

I did, yeah. I married my husband, Roger [Kunkel], so that's pretty funny going from the queer song to marrying my husband. It was such a trip in the best possible way. I don't know if I really fully expected ahead of time for it to be the best day of my life, but to date, I would say that it was, by a long shot. Our great, great friend and business partner Mickey married us, so that was really special. My best friends, my bandmates, Elyse and Vin, who sing with me all the time and you see them everywhere, they sang me up and down the aisle.

We had a small ceremony, but we didn't want to sacrifice any of those things that made it really special. The food and music were just top-notch. Having my family around was so special. From the time that we kind of all came together to the end of the night was just so much love. And it's been cool since. Being married, I would give it an A+. It's great. So yeah, that was a huge life event that happened for me.

Congratulations! Bigger is not necessarily better. Really those important, really personal parts are the things that you're going to remember.  

Yeah, it really is just about the people who were there and being able to share and celebrate our love with them. We'd been together nine years already, and it was like our third wedding plan, too, because we were supposed to be married in 2020. I could not have changed a single thing to make it better than it was, really.

Well, it sounds like you attract the right kind of people to you, too, that it's not just by accident.

I hope so.

You're sending out the right vibes — attracting the right energy and repelling drama.  

It seems that way, just based on the people in my life and how literally amazing they are. I mean, my brother's great friend was our videographer. It was his first time doing a wedding, and he nailed it. Nailed it! The video is amazing. My drummer Ryan, who owns AGL, came through at the last second to be the second videographer to capture a second angle. Even people who weren't right in the wedding were pulling through for us in really big ways. There was a snafu. We were going to be in a venue and then we moved it to my mom's house, and one of my brother's other really great friends ended up driving for us. We rented a 15-passenger van and he drove for us. So, really across the board, everyone came through whether they were there or not. It was just such a special thing, almost to the point of being overwhelmed in a good way of just how much love and care we really have in our lives. I feel very happy and blessed and grateful for all the people in my life because it's really been a year of just people, for real.

Did you sing your vows?

No. Haha. I did make everyone there do a sing-along after we got married to "With Arms Outstretched" by Rilo Kiley. Elyse and Vin sang it, crushed it, and everyone else was singing and clapping. That's all we wanted. So that's cool.

It sounds like you've got some amazing bandmates pulling through from every angle, every aspect.

Vin and Elyse are my best friends. We go back, at this point, going on 12 years. Vin, I know from my hometown. Elyse, I know from college. When I introduced them, they instantly created a super connection. So the three of us have been like... They're my family. They're amazing. Even Ryan, too. Ryan is a late addition. They've been so supportive of Kate Dressed Up and of me as a person since we started working together for a couple of years now. So, yeah, I love my band. And Nick, my silent bassist, is somebody that has just been down for the ride since he got in on the band. I feel strong when I'm around them. I feel like they lend to my existence in a way that I feel very lucky to have.

So you had your five-year anniversary of Kate Dressed Up?

Yes. The self-titled came out September 2016. Seeing that day come and go was... It was interesting because the project is so much more and so much better than I imagined five years ago. The flip side of that coin is there are so many things that I thought I would have done by now that I haven't gotten to yet. So it's been this weird meandering thing that I've been doing, and I'm enjoying that journey in itself.  

Speaking of journeys, I love the story that's told through "The Fountain."

Oh, thank you.

I love this lyric: "It was as if I’d been sleeping, and only then was I awake." That's one of my favorite lyrics of 2021. The whole song is beautiful, and then the animation, too. It's all really beautifully done, on all aspects. What was that like? How long was that in the works? Had that been kind of brewing for several years?

So, that song is a little different because it's the oldest song in terms of writing, but it was also the final addition to the album. Vin and I had a band before Kate Dressed Up called The Fox and the Rose. I wrote the skeleton of "The Fountain", so I had verse, verse, chorus, verse, chorus. I had that kind of outlined, and I had the lyrics. I brought them to Vin in our previous iteration. Vin helped me with the arrangement, the harmonies, and some of the melodies in certain spots. Basically, Vin co-wrote the song with me. Then it kind of just sat, and The Fox and the Rose took a turn where it was not really a thing anymore, in a business way. It kind of went on the backburner when I moved to South Jersey and Vin was still living in our hometown in North Jersey. 

Flash forward all these years later, and I have nine of the songs on the album done, ready to go. I have some songs that I wrote more recently, and I was kind of looking through them. They all didn't feel right. And then this song kind of popped into my brain because the person who inspired the song in the first place made an appearance in my life toward the end of the album coming together, and it sparked my brain to remember that song and make that connection, like, "Oh! This song is the one that's supposed to finish the album."

The album is The Little Prince-themed. It started out as somewhat of a concept album and it kind of diverged, but it kind of still is a concept album. In The Little Prince, there is a plot point where the pilot and The Little Prince are looking for a well in the Sahara Desert, and the pilot is like, this is stupid, we're going to die, and the Prince is like, no, don't worry. Obviously, they find the well. In that way, it fit. It fit the narrative of the other songs. It fit the feeling of what I wanted. So I asked Vin if they would mind me putting it on the album and they were down, and so this song is actually the only one on the album that we live tracked at Flux Studios. So we brought in Vin and I, and then Nick, my bassist, and Evan Tsioni, who is the drummer on the rest of the album, and we rehearsed, and then we went into the city all together. Ravi set us all up so that you could just go "1, 2, 3, go" and we played the song, and that was magical. Playing music with people is such a different feeling than just tracking something or doing it alone. I feel like that is really captured in the arrangement. Then, Vin and I went back and we recorded the vocals at Ravi's house after the fact, we added organ, and then the song was done.

For this song, I just had it in my head that I wanted an animated video. Through a recommendation, I was introduced to KXB Studio, which is owned and operated by a woman named Tina who does all kinds of really amazing animation work. I told her I wanted something that was almost childlike in its simplicity, and I sent her illustrations from The Little Prince. Working with Tina was so cool. She sent me a storyboard. I asked for one little adjustment, she sent me another storyboard, I said, "Cool, great. Go do your thing", and then I didn't see it for like 8-10 weeks, and when I did eventually see it, I was blown away. No edits, no changes. It's perfect. She just really understood the feeling that we were trying to capture. I really think that the way she put the video together is just like... I think it's moving, and I think that it touches the same thing that the song itself does. Actually, I don't know if they'd want me to share this, but the first time that Vin saw it, they definitely cried. Actually, the day that we finished the vocals for it, we watched it all together for the first time and Vin definitely cried in a good way. And that's how I knew. I was like, "OK, this is good. This is a good thing."

It's like, you can't pick a favorite child, but I love it a little extra just because of Vin's partnership in it, because of the video that goes with it, because of this particular time in my life that is not in itself connected to the time and place where the rest of the songs were written, but did kind of still complete that picture. It was really nice. I was really, really glad that it ended up on the album. I think it's turned out amazing.

It's really beautiful. I really enjoyed listening to it, I really enjoyed watching it. It came together perfectly. The animation was just the right style for it.

It's crazy, too, because with animation, because of the work involved, it's just expensive because a lot of a lot more hours go into animating than into live-action stuff. Tina and I worked out something that would work for the budget that I had. Her other animations are nothing like what she made for "The Fountain." Like, they're beautiful and really cool and interesting, but they're just really different than what she did for me. When she sent the video back, I was like, "Wait a second. That's what this got me? Like, this budget that you said was simple. You did THIS with it?" It just completely blew my mind. It blew me out of the water. It exceeded every expectation that I had, which was already pretty high I'd seen Tina's other work. She still blew us all the way. Just amazing.

It's one thing to work with people you've known for 10 years, you know what I mean? But to hire somebody on a recommendation and to have them really get the vision, and not only that but amplify it and add their own touch in a way that it just fit. I was just so, so stoked on it. I'm so glad that you like it and that it hit for you also.

Yeah. She got it! 

Again, same thing with the other videos. I cannot take any credit there. That is all KXB Studio just absolutely nailing it. I love working with other creatives. It's amazing.

It shows the power of your music and your artistry as well, that you're able to do something that moves somebody or that paints a really strong image in their head and then they can take what it was and translate it into another medium, like live-action video or animation. So that's really a testament to your talent as an artist that you're able to create that whole world and someone else can be like, "OK, I totally get it," you know, some perspective of it.

That's always the hope. So far, the feedback that I've been receiving has been indicative that I'm on the right track. So I'm rolling with it, for sure.

I'm waiting to see "The Fountain" in a trailer for an indie film or something.

From your lips to God's ears. Yeah, absolutely, I would love that.

I saw that you launched also an online store?

Oh yeah, I'm so excited about that. Earlier this year, right before I released "Ride Home", I kind of did a rebrand, which was really the first time that I was branding Kate Dressed Up at all because I'm not a brand designer. The store and everything in it is designed by Purva Sawant, who is a graphic designer based in New York City. When we started working together, she was designing visuals for the UN, like the United Nations, and I think she has since gone into private firm stuff for businesses. I met her through Ravi. She does not work with any other artists or musicians. That's not what she does. She works with businesses. So again, I feel so lucky to have her talents in my corner because girl is a freak at what she does. Same with everyone that I've managed to work with. I don't understand how this happens. She's incredible. 

When we started working together, she sent me questionnaires and quizzes to get a feel for my stuff, and every step of the way I would be like, "OK, well, I imagine this" and then a week later, she would be like, "I imagine this thing that you didn't mention at all, that's completely different that you never would have thought of" and every single time she did that, I was just like, "Your idea is better. Let's go with that." So we very slowly kind of brought this together with the logo and the fonts and the color palette and everything. I mean, she's really leveled up the aesthetic of Kate Dressed Up.  

Along with the branding, she designed everything in the merch store. I'm stoked. The shirts are super soft. The bandanas are really cool. I've been getting a good response from it. People have been ordering stuff, and that's been really special. It's also kind of a relief for me as an artist to have a revenue stream at all right now, so I am glad that that's up and that has brought some income in a world where I haven't really taken any shows this year, and I don't have any lined up because every time I try to play on a show, I have to cancel it. So I'm very much in a place where I'm still exploring ways to be an artist in this circumstance. All this to say, yeah, go buy stuff from my online store, please! 

I'm going to grab myself one of those green t-shirts!

The company is called Top Banana. They're based in Philadelphia. It's one of Roger's oldest friends. So again, just so blessed, so lucky to have this spider web of love and support. When I said to Antonio, "Hey, what do I do?" he was like, "OK, well, this is the softest and best fitting t-shirt. You can stop looking." I was like, "Perfect, let's do that." So that's been great. They are super soft, and he does such a high-quality job with them. They were all printed digitally. Not screen-printed. So yeah, that's been really cool to see my stuff out in the world. I have plans to get more designs for the store, so I hope to keep that interesting and have that be a way for people to support us directly in a world where music has literally been devalued to zero. I mean, we could do a whole podcast interview just talking about that.

Definitely! Is there anything you have coming down the pike that you want people to know about?

So, the album is still in its final stages. It was supposed to get done and then Ravi got COVID and life happened, as with all things. I am very excited to prioritize art going forward. So, my album will be out when it's ready. I have a cool thing with the band that I have planned to go along with it. We're not playing any shows for the foreseeable future because I don't feel like it's the responsible thing to do. That being the case, any support, any attention, any purchase on my online store, any purchase of music off the Bandcamp page, any time you tell a friend that Kate Dressed Up exists or you play them our music, that goes such a long way and helps us keep making this art. That is the message that I want to send to people. I want to be an artist that's not just trying to win a popularity contest. I want to be an artist that is making something that I believe in, that I feel is truly worth sharing on a human level. So that's what I'm turning toward going forward, and we'll see where that leads.  

One thing I will say is, I've been working on this thing for literally 3-4 years now, and I still love these songs. I'm not sick of them. I don't feel like, "Oh, it's too late to put them out now." Like, no. They're good. I'm psyched. It's going to be fun.  

It's going to be awesome. If any of your past work is evidence, it's going to be awesome.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you again.  

Interview with Christian Sparacio. New Music "About Time" and "I Melt With You"

By Deaglan Howlett | Posted Friday, April 23, 2021

Christian Sparacio is a singer-songwriter hailing from Marlboro, New Jersey. Since first releasing music on SoundCloud back in 2017, Sparacio has released ten new singles, playing shows to support the tunes. The two latest singles include an original, “About Time”, and a cover of the Modern English hit “I Melt With You”. I got to speak with Christian about his songwriting, producing a music video, and the talented musicians who worked on these tracks with him!

Who did you work with on your newest song “About Time”?

For About Time I worked with Rob Chiarappa at The Barbershop Studios in Hopatcong, NJ! Rob is a mad scientist producer with a crazy ear for pulling the potential out of a stripped down song like “About Time” and making it a production masterpiece. 

When did you write this song? 

I wrote “About Time” about 2 years ago between sessions of watching the movie About Time. About halfway through I got super inspired and wrote it, then about a month before recording I wrote the bridge section which was a cool testament to letting songs grow on the back burner. 

Did you approach this song differently from past releases?

I approached this song a bit differently because it was the first that I went all out on a music video for, and also had a way more experimental experience producing it. I sort of let my eclectic production taste speak in. this one and I am super happy with it. 

Who did you work with for the video? How did you find them?

I worked with Chantel Erin and Peter Dolshun on the video. I found Chantel via an Instagram ad for her production company, and met Peter through Chantel. We all quickly became friends and our creative processes meshed super well. Then we enlisted Clotilda Demauro as an actor through backstage.com and she, too, quickly became a friend. 

Who did you work with for the Modern English cover?

For the “Melt with You” cover, I stayed in the family and worked with Rob's brother Mike Chiarappa at DIMM Studios in Freehold, NJ! We wanted a more live sounding track, and I knew the simpler set up at DIMM and Mike's ear for feel would be perfect.  

What made you choose that song in particular to cover?

Well, I actually grappled and experimented with covers for a few months before settling on this one after my friend Jimmy suggested it. He put it perfectly when saying that the original song has heartfelt lyrics disguised by an upbeat 80's rock arrangement. This was my opportunity to match the music to the lyrics and deliver an authentic reimagination to pack a punch to the feels. I am super proud of this one. 

You can keep up with Christian Sparacio on his website.

No Great Pretender Releases Debut Album, "The Piano Project"

By Sonia Schnee | Posted Friday, February 19, 2021

If you’re craving tunes with an indie/folk, singer/songwriter vibe, look no further than No Great Pretender’s debut album "The Piano Project,” which was released today on Spotify and other streaming platforms (via Mint 400 Records). No Great Pretender is the solo project of Eric Sosler (Union City, NJ), who also is a member of the band The Racer. The first music video for the album ("Comfort") also premiered earlier this week on Blood Makes Noise. Check out our interview with Eric, below, to learn more about the inspiration behind his album, what it’s like to solo-crew a music video, and more.

Congratulations on the release of your debut album "The Piano Project" and your music video, "Comfort"! What can you tell us about the inspiration behind this album? How long has it been in the works?

Thank you! I started writing for this album in the beginning of the pandemic. I lost my job as a bartender and had all this extra time and decided this was a great opportunity to start doing something I had been wanting to do for a while. Write and sing my own songs. My own ideas. Being in the band The Racer, it's always been great to be able to write songs in a group setting and all the ideas get molded together, but this was a chance to do something completely on my own. So as bad as the pandemic and quarantining was and is, I am grateful for the opportunity it allowed for me as a songwriter.

Where did you record? Who did you record with?

I am fortunate enough to have a best friend in The Racer, Michael Esserman, who was able to carve out some time to record these songs for me. It was interesting as I was able to send him all the piano tracks in email that were recorded on GarageBand (I have very limited knowledge on all these programs), and he was able to transfer to his ProTools sessions. I was then able to record vocals in his studio, which we did in only a few takes. I am new to singing as a lead vocalist, and I also did not want to strive for perfection on these vocals. I wanted them to flow naturally and for Mike to capture what came out without singing a hundred takes. Of course, I rehearsed and had a game plan for it, but I was curious to see what would come out in real time.

I think Mike did a really good job of enhancing the intimacy of the project. In his words, his vision when presented with the songs was to make it sound like I walked into an empty room and played on an old dusty piano. I am grateful for his work on this!

What was the music-video-making process like?

So, I love making music videos! We have a bunch of videos for The Racer that I love being involved in. The biggest challenge is always what can be done on basically zero budget. The “Comfort” video is a perfect example of this. The goal was to just try and capture all the emotions, uneasiness, discomfort, comfort, pressure of being in front of a camera when trying to perform or interview, or just attempting to stay sane in your own mind.

I was by myself doing this video, so that was unusual and a little weird but still fun (like looking around for someone to laugh with after I just did one of the angry emotion takes). But I just cleared out a section in my home of all the furniture and set a tripod up with my iPhone11 and let loose with all the ideas and went with the flow.

I'm also very proud of this video since I was able to do everything myself, especially the editing. Technology has really advanced in the sense of being user-friendly for people that aren’t the most tech savvy, and something I've been able to do over the course of the pandemic is learn just enough to edit a simple video such as “Comfort” using the iMovie App and VideoLeap App on my phone.

Tell us about yourself. Where are you from? What has your journey been like?

I’m originally from Monroe, NY and always grew up with that New Yorker sense of pride and New Jersey is gross mentality! I moved to Jersey City almost 7 years ago and boy was I wrong. I now consider myself so lucky to be part of this Jersey music community, and I like to think I have made it to the point where I can say I represent New Jersey now! It feels like home to me.

There’s so much going on here with all the arts and music, which has really influenced me in growing as an artist. It’s allowed for me to develop my own ideas and venture off into this solo adventure. Up until now The Racer, the band that I am in and have been in since 2001, has been my only real creative outlet.

The idea of No Great Pretender and me finally writing my own songs came to fruition in the beginning of the pandemic. The name is from the song off of The Roots’ 1996 album, Illadeph Halflife. I love what that name conjures up for me. The imagination. The possibilities of it all. So I don’t want this to be just about music. I want it to represent a creative practicing lifestyle, and I want to continuously grow with it.

How would you describe your musical style? Who are your influences?

I don’t want to be beholden to any one style. I just want it to be me. For “The Piano Project” there’s a ton of influences in the songs. Most notably Gregory Alan Isakov, Justin Vernon, The National, Frightened Rabbit to name a few. I love the sad, melancholy type vibes and it definitely showed up in the songs. I think “indie folk singer songwriter” is what I put down for this album, but the idea of No Great Pretender is ever evolving. I want to collaborate with artists. Do all different types of music. I have really been getting into Jazz and Blues and trying to learn that as much as I can, but I'm open to anything.

Do you have a favorite song on "The Piano Project" and if so, what is it about?

“Hardly Anymore” was the first song I wrote for this solo idea. So in the beginning, I was just so proud of it and kept playing it all the time so I wouldn’t forget it and of course loved it for that purpose alone.

Over time, “Comfort” has stepped into a nice role for me. I think the video enhanced it for me. I really let that vulnerability feeling out on that one so it’s developed into something special personally for me. I'm not used to being the focal point.

What are your goals, personally or professionally, for 2021? What are you most looking forward to?

I just want to keep growing as an artist. Keep improving and learning from others. I’ve learned a lot during this pandemic time period and mostly that I don’t know a lot! So I just want to keep improving and keep creating as much as possible. I’m looking forward to playing live music in whatever capacity. Although, I am worried about my nerves getting the best of me, so I will have to rehearse a lot for it!

Finally, how can people find you?

You can find me at:
www.instagram.com/no_great_pretender
www.nogreatpretender.com

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

“Cause I'm the soul avenger, remember I'm no great pretender” - Lyrics from “No Great Pretender” by The Roots’ Illadelph Halflife. I love that line in the song.

Sean Kiely to Perform at Cathedral Arts Live (Nov 22)

By Sonia Schnee | Posted November 13, 2019

Jersey City’s music scene is continually blossoming, due in part to Cathedral Arts Live, a monthly live music series launched by Grace Church Van Vorst five years ago to celebrate diversity in music-making while also strengthening community. On Friday, November 22, Cathedral Arts Live will welcome singer-songwriter Sean Kiely and singer-songwriter Abbie Gardner to its stage. Check out our interview with Sean, below, to learn about his musical influences, what to expect at the upcoming Cathedral Arts Live show, and how New Jersey’s awesome community of artists are supporting one another. To purchase tickets to the show, please visit cathedralartslive.org.

What's your name, where are you from, where are you based now?

Sean Kiely, born in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, raised in Bergen County, residing in Jersey City for nearly 12 years.

How would you describe your sound? Who are your musical influences?

I’m drawn to music that sustains a feeling or emotion for the length of a song, and that's what I try to do in my writing. I typically play in acoustic configurations where a rotating group of musicians can express themselves and improvise in that context. My music is influenced by folk, jazz, and experimental music. Some of my musical heroes are the Grateful Dead, Leonard Cohen, Gillian Welch, Bonnie Prince Billy, Joanna Newsom, The Bad Plus, Yo La Tengo, Bill Callahan, Cass McCombs, The Beatles, and many more!

From “It Sure Was Good” [2018]
Animation: Hannah Subotnick

You have an upcoming performance with Cathedral Arts Live. What are you most looking forward to? What can people expect?

I’m really looking forward to sharing the bill with Abbie Gardner – we’ve played together quite a lot in a traditional bluegrass setting (she sits in with my bluegrass band The Go Bailers often at our 3-years-running Wednesday night residency at The Archer in Jersey City), but this will be a treat to play our original music on the same night. The acoustics are special at Grace Church Van Vorst, it’ll be a thrill to sing and play in that room. At least from me, I’d say people can expect some sad songs that are cut through with humor and hope.

How did you hear about Cathedral Arts Live? What are your thoughts about New Jersey's music scene?

I’ve attended a few shows in the series, including Walter Parks and the Hudson West Folk Festival. It’s really well-curated and I’m honored to be included this year. As far as the NJ music scene goes, I love living and playing in Jersey City – there are a bunch of fantastic venues around town now that weren’t here even five years ago, like Fox & Crow, The Archer, Pet Shop, and FM.

Photography by Anthony Mulcahy

What has your personal journey been like so far? How’d you get to this point?

I play and listen to a wide range of styles of music, so my journey has been full of a lot of detours and crooked lines. The thing I’m most proud of is the company of musicians that I keep, who all play in a way that’s present, joyful, playful, and beautiful. I have a difficult time staying present and in the moment in my life, so I cherish that creative space we’ve made together (myself, Bobby McCullough, Dave Heilman, Rob Hecht, Jonny Lam, Jeff Taylor, Jesske Hume, Zac Colwell, Maddie Witler, and more).

Do you have any words of advice for people who share a similar passion or have maybe faced similar obstacles/challenges?

Find gigs and play a lot. Try and be prepared, but the best way to find yourself is by being open to the moment and playing all the time. Play with a lot of different kinds of people and kinds of musicians.

Finally, what are some ways that fans can connect with you online? (Website? Facebook? Spotify? Etc.?)

seankielymusic.com
instagram.com/sean0sean
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2KdSg93

DOWNLOAD: http://bit.ly/MONUMENTS

All proceeds to benefit RAICES (https://www.raicestexas.org) All musicians and engineers generously donated their time and energy to this recording so that all funds raised from it be donated to RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to under-served immigrant children, families, and refugees.