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Home  Archive music profiles Immerse Yourself In Sound
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Immerse Yourself In Sound |
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Written by Laura Hamlett
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Friday, 16 December 2005 |
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The early
incarnation of Miranda Sound played shows in their college town, where
they encountered singer/guitarist Dan Gerken; although part of another
band, Gerken would occasionally join Miranda on keyboards.
Four years ago, we were all being told to worry about the impending new
millennium. Companies were scrambling to get their Y2K systems in
place, consumers were stocking up on canned goods and bottled water,
and upstanding citizens worried about the gun-toting militia. A
pervasive feeling of doom and unknown spread across the land. And yet,
in a medium-sized town in north central Ohio, four musicians came
together with an eye—and ear—for the future.
Ah, but that’s
not exactly right. The band began earlier than that with
singer/guitarist Billy Peake and bassist Sean Sefcik, who met as
college DJs their senior year at Bowling Green State University.
Drummers came and went as the pair gigged and got their musical feet
wet. A name—Miranda Sound—was chosen, but it wasn’t particularly well
thought-out or strategized. Explains Peake, “There’s no logical reason
whatsoever. We had a gig, and we needed a name. It sounded like the
kind of music we eventually wanted to make.”
The early
incarnation of Miranda Sound played shows in their college town, where
they encountered singer/guitarist Dan Gerken; although part of another
band, Gerken would occasionally join Miranda on keyboards.
After graduation, Peake and Sefcik moved to Columbus. They’d heard from
a friend and fellow musician that the music scene there was vibrant,
the job market open. Also recently relocated to Columbus was drummer
Scott Haynes, who soon met and joined the other two. Their backbone in
place, Miranda Sound went on to average a show a week over the next
year. By the following summer, they were ready to record their debut
CD. Once in the studio, they found they needed more texture, and
invited Gerken—who had moved to Columbus to pursue a doctorate in
philosophy at Ohio State—to join.
And that was the critical
turning point. With Gerken on board, the two vocalists developed a
counterpoint singing style that has since become the band’s hallmark.
Each has a smooth, high voice; paired together or bouncing off one
another, the men’s voices form a rich, dreamy, introspective landscape
ripe for exploration. The guitars are alternately pointed and
meandering, the songs filled with an indie pop sensibility not unlike a
focused Sunny Day Real Estate. Bass and drums provide a sturdy
foundation, skilled without becoming overbearing.
After
self-releasing Baby Inertia, Miranda Sound was signed to Standard
Recording Company, a small label in Indiana. SRC rereleased the debut
(reworked and with extras), then sent the band back into the studio for
a quick follow-up. Engaged in Labor has been quietly building steam and
garnering attention since its release nearly a year ago.
The
band has learned a lot since the early days back in Bowling Green.
“Since then,” says Gerken, “we’ve all learned that writing a great rock
song is more than coming up with a guitar riff and a melody. It’s about
collaborating in the right ways and filling the right holes in the
band.”
Peake concurs. “The songs are more about the parts coming together than about the acoustic guitar part and the vocals part.”
Still, there’s no denying that Miranda Sound is a band led by two
singers—two voices, two ideas about lyrics and melody. “We share
everything,” Peake is quick to assure. “Both of us will come up with a
melody, and then we throw it around the group. Everyone has an open
mind about what we’re doing.”
Though Engaged in Labor is tight
and textured, the live show is what keeps audiences coming back. The
energy these four put into their art can be measured by the amount of
sweat on each player as he exits the stage. For his part, Peake is a
careening force; when not tied to the microphone, he plays guitar with
abandon. Says Gerken, “We are a live band, and people appreciate the
live show, but people are buying a record that they’re going to listen
to for two months to 20 years, and you want that to stay interesting.
You can see a band any night of the week, but the studio’s a chance to
show how interesting you can be.”
So here we are, at the
present: four years on, and the world has not imploded, the computer
systems haven’t gone down. And the band that began so unceremoniously
back then, in a small college town in Ohio, is still with us, stronger
and tighter and more textured than ever. Their immediate goal? To take
over the world, one step at a time. “We’re trying to get out beyond
Columbus, Indianapolis, and Cleveland,” says Peake. Next stop: St.
Louis.
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