One of the most uniquely electrifying bands you’ll ever listen to, Providence artsy alternative jazz rock act A Troop Of Echoes will be playing AS220 on May 14 with fellow noise makers Gertrude Atherton, Gondoliers and Snowplows in celebration of the national release of their latest album, The Longest Year On Record. I got to have a chat with Pete Gilli, Dan Moriarty, Nick Cooper and Harrison Hartley about fronting a rock band with a saxophone, working with local sound guy guru Graham Mellor on the album, what has changed in Providence the most over the past decade and all sorts of stuff.
Rob Duguay: What made you guys come up with the idea of having a rock band fronted with a saxophone?
Pete Gilli: This is a fairly obvious question that we get all the time, but to be honest, there was never really a single conversation or “a-ha!” moment where we decided to make sax-fronted rock a “thing.” Sadly, that means we missed the window to write an epic sax-rock manifesto upon the founding of the band. Opportunity lost! But one of the cool things about being from Providence is that you can try weird stuff and people will hear you out.
RD: While making The Longest Year On Record you had the assistance of Graham Mellor with the recording process. Many people in Providence know Graham from his time as the production manager at Fete and currently as Gov’t Mule’s monitor engineer. How was the experience of working with Graham?
Dan Moriarty: Graham is awesome. Actually, we’ve all been in bands with him at different points over the years dating back to the days of being 13 years old and jamming on shitty classic rock covers in my parents’ basement. Since we all grew up together, recording the album with Graham felt really comfortable and familiar. Plus, he’s turned out to be a monster engineer. He captured some incredible sounds, and we’re so psyched to see the success he’s having.
PG: In the studio we were all on the same page. Recording live as a band, doing a small number of takes, keeping edits to a minimum. It was fun watching him play around with different approaches, too. At one point we had this huge array of mics hung around the room at different heights to capture the string section. Pretty sweet.
RD: With Pete up in Toronto teaching saxophone and clarinet at the Elite Music Academy and the rest of the band in Rhode Island, how difficult does it get to have everyone in the same room to rehearse?
PG: For the most part we don’t get to rehearse on a regular schedule like we used to, but we still Skype up every week to keep pushing band things forward. Dan, Nick and Harry have been practicing together in Providence and we get to have some marathon sessions with saxophone before we go out on tour. We’re pretty psyched that things have been actually sounding tighter recently than when we recorded the album.
RD: In your opinion, what has changed the most with the Providence music scene since A Troop Of Echoes started out in 2004?
Nick Cooper: More beards, fewer baggy shorts.
RD: What can we expect in the future from A Troop Of Echoes?
Harrison Hartley: After this tour, we’re gonna start working on new material for the first time in over two years. We’re really looking forward to getting back in the lab. Everyone’s been off doing their own thing for a little while, which always helps the writing process. Stay tuned!
Stream The Longest Year On Record here and head to the show on Thurs, May 14: atroopofechoes.bandcamp.com