Nectarphonic

Spotlight by Severine, We7 PR Guru

We7 invites you to take a trip with Nectarphonic, an LA based 4 piece. Strongly reminiscent of the wave of shoe gazers of the early 1990s, the band's spaced out, psychedelic melodies will take you into another dimension... think Lush, My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins and you'll get close to discovering just what this band are all about. But the best thing to do is sit back, listen and let the grooves overtake you. We7 caught up with Lorenzo, founder and leader of Nectarphonic to talk music...

The interview

Hi Guys, how are you doing today?

We're doing well. We've been gigging all over Los Angeles. Audience response is great.

So first of all, who are Nectarphonic?

Nectarphonic is Lorenzo Scott (Drums and Percussion), Ustad Khan Ali (Guitar and Keyboards), Kerry Bennett (Vocals) and Christopher Echols (Bass and Keyboards).

What was the idea behind Nectarphonic?

I formed Nectarphonic during the Fall of 1998. I wanted to create a situation that was a forum for a creative collective. I'm into creating music organically. I picked a few people that I knew would have the right musical sensibilities to improvise and create together. Luckily, it all worked out.

How would you describe your music and its message?

I don't see Nectarphonic as having one message. Kerry writes the lyrics. She writes about many topics. Topics range from relationships to not being a victim in this world. Musically, we are all about creating a feel and a vibe. It's all about groove and melody. While at the same time, making music that captures the imagination of the listener.

We call ourselves "Atmospheric groove rock with a sultry female voice."

How do go about writing a song?

All of our songs are created organically. What I mean by this is that we all go into our rehearsal studio and jam together. Many times I'll start playing a groove. Then the bass player will then start to jam with me and come up with a bass line. The guitar player will start to play with the rhythm that's being created.

As a musical skeleton starts to form, Kerry will start to sing melodies that come to her. If a musical idea starts to sound good, we keep working on the musical skeleton that we’ve created until a fully fledged song is born.

The songs are all created together as a collective. Everyone expresses ideas. We keep the good ideas and discard the bad ideas.

We definitely have a "less is more" approach to song writing.

What are your influences?

As a band, we have many influences. Our influences are not only musical. However, our musical influences are: Portishead, Brian Eno, Zero 7, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Sia, Cocteau Twins, Talking Heads and Daniel Lanois.

Who would you love to play with?

Speaking for myself, I'd love to play with soooooo many people. It's hard to just name a few. Having said this, I'll name a few: Brian Eno, David Byrne, David Bowie, Sia, Seal, Radiohead, Zero 7, Daniel Lanois etc. etc.

What has been your best moment since the Nectarphonic adventure started?

I have two best moments that I can share.

The first best moment for me was our very first jam together. We all didn't really know each other as a collective. I started playing a groove and the bass player started playing a cool bass line. Before we knew it, we had our first song. It was called "Will I" and it's the first song on our first CD. Most of the entire song came together in about 20 minutes. It was at this moment that I thought to myself, "I think we have something here".

The other best moment for me was a gig we played about 6 years ago at The Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. Unbeknownst to us, the night we played was also the night that 300 Japanese tourists were to have a "rock" night at The Whisky.
So, the club was packed with hundreds of Japanese tourists ready to see a Los Angeles rock band. We were a big hit! The crowd went crazy! It felt like we were playing at Buddakan in Japan. It was the best crowd we've ever had and we still talk about that gig to this day.

What do you prefer: recording or gigging?

This is a hard one. It's really apples and oranges. I really do love both dynamics.

How is the recording of your next tracks going? Another album coming soon?

We are currently taking a hiatus from gigging and we are recording new songs. We've been creating new music for a while now, so we have songs ready for recording. We are about to finish up the first three songs of the new CD.

Besides recording three new tunes, we are currently creating new songs to add to the three. We will be creating and recording as the new songs become ready. We hope to have a new CD of about 10 or 11 new tunes by early 2009.

What is next for Nectarphonic?

Besides creating and recording, we might sneak in a couple of shows just for fun. We've also been lucky with the licensing of our music to T.V. shows. Nectarphonic's music has been used in many MTV shows such as Real World, Road Rules and Road Rules Extreme Challenge.

We're hopeful that our new tunes will also be licensed for future shows and maybe films.

This interview was fun. Thank you for supporting indie bands and thanks for making Nectarphonic a part of We7.com.

Peace.