Music Aficionados
There's No "Me" In "Team"
IE Weekly
Aficionado takes its game up a notch at SXSW and makes a stop in the IE
By:
Arrissia Owen
Aficionado
is a team effort. When the Albany, New York, band’s lead singer Nick
Warchol’s former hardcore band broke up, he set out to wipe the slate
clean. He didn’t even know what sort of melodious mash up he was
shooting for.
Warchol
enlisted friends of friends who were musicians playing around the area
who he’d heard of through the grapevine—Laura Carrozza (vocals/flute),
James Kehoe (guitar), Chris Tenerowicz (guitar/trumpet), Chris Kehoe
(bass), Craig Dutra (keys) and Mark O’Brien (drums). He soon had no
shortage of input with seven collaborators rounding out the roster.
The
band started out real loose, patiently searching for its sound while
the members got to know one another, an admittedly tedious task in the
beginning, Warchol says. The result is what Warchol recently read about
his own band that he thinks sums it up perfectly.
“They
said, ‘It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard but like everything I’ve ever
heard,’” Warchol says proudly. Aficionado draws from a lot of different
influences to create its kaleidoscope catch-all that appeals to punk and
hardcore fans while throwing in its own unique take on the genres.
Eight
years later, the band draws comparisons to Cursive, The Hold Steady and
Piebald while having carved out its own niche. They’ve toured with
Cursive’s Tim Kasher and Piebald’s Travis Shettel, with the latter
adding some collaborative chops. Considering the music website Paste
Punk once called the band’s genre “hella Piebald,” that is a huge
score.
“They
have turned out to be pretty awesome,” Warchol says. “It’s cool to get
to know where they are coming from.” It’s like Kasher and Shettel are
the veteran quarterbacks to Aficionado’s rookie year, he says.
“You
can definitely take away a lot from them because you respect their
opinion,” Warchol says. “But it’s not like we get in these super deep
conversations and we’re learning all the time, but sometimes you look
back and think, yeah that thing he said was pretty cool.”
Aficionado
is in the big leagues now, heading to its third year at industry
tastemaker music festival South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The band
is touring relentlessly to promote the recently released first
full-length CD, the self-titled Aficionado on No Sleep Records. The time on the road has created a well-oiled, cohesive music machine, Warchol says.
“Everyone
knows what their role is in the songwriting and has figured out what
they do best in order to contribute in the most positive way,” Warchol
says.
Songs
like the uptempo “Stir Like Hell” show the band’s range with peaks and
valleys pulling the audience in for seductive sing-a-longs with various
instruments featuring prominently. The song slows down for Carrozza’s
quieter vocals before leading into a thumping crescendo handing the
reigns back to Warchol. The dueling vocals make for an interesting
dynamic.
With
everything from keys to the trumpet, you almost expect someone to bust
out a kitchen sink and start jamming. “We like pushing and seeing what
we can incorporate and you know experiment with, because there are not
really any rules,” Warchol says. Especially since there was never any
playbook to begin with.
Aficionado with Vimana, Man Maker at The Wire, 247 N. 2nd Ave., Upland, (909)-985-9466; thewire427.com. Thurs., March 22, 7PM. $8-$10.
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