About the Band
WE BELONG
In Sound we cannot help but belong. Lines blur as we enter together. They may come back, but these open moments show us a truth.
It’s all made up.
Everything.
So South By North East make it up, with you. They grab the lines gently by the hand and give them a new shape. A new Direction. Then release them to be whatever they want to be.
TO THE MOUNTAINS
Bam Bam, Rodrigo, Elsa
Venezuela, Gothenburg, Santiago, Seattle, Belgium, Trinity Alps, Aruba, Amsterdam.
All have been and continue to be home. New York is home now. New York is where we start. Where we go will change.
The mountains remind us. Remind us of something we thought we forgot. Stone doesn’t forget.
AND THE SEA
In the end we dissolve.
A breath, a bow, a sizzle.
We are left a feeling, a hint of salt in the air.
How can oceans have different names when they all connect?
Take that with you. Maybe it’s cinnamon.
The time we borrow together is from the ocean. We hold it gently, like we hold sand. Knowing it is a dissolved stone, filled with memories, about to blow away to rejoin what it belongs.
for human beings
We live in a loud, fast and stressful city, where we need to make music that cuts through all of that, that has a sonic and energy level that surpasses that of the city in order to be heard and not perceived as "too slow" or "west coast". Now everyone's lives have just changed. Everything became quiet outside (except for the sirens every 5 minutes), everyone is scared and retreated.
We used to live in a world where just being is boring, and arrived to one where "just" being became overwhelming. That idea, we want to represent with this music.
Each track on this 5 track journey goes many places. Just like we are going many places in our isolation. Every day contains so much space. When we recorded this there is no way we could have known where it would go. These tracks lay waiting for weeks untouched after recording because we were busy. Life was moving fast. And then suddenly it slammed to a stop, everything became small and moved inside. Suddenly things that were commonplace a short time ago are not possible. The loss is overwhelming. Both the loss of our heroes, friends and loved ones, and the loss of the lives we knew.
This music returned to Rodrigo, Elsa and Bam in the midst of all of this. In it they heard all the things they were experiencing. The fear and anger, the deafening silence of the empty streets of New York. But also the space to move within. To take the time to have those long conversations with oneself that used to be hard to find time for. To sit in stillness and confront their thoughts, their fears, their dreams, the realities of what they actually want out of life.
Listening to this music brought out so many thoughts. Opened creative doors. Elsa, Bam and Rodrigo wanted to share that space. A space to be whatever you need to be. To sit in stillness, or in turmoil. Right now, when time stands still like this, all things co-exist. South by North East invites you to join them in making something together. Bam is making stop motion animations and playing daily live sets of music to be bored. Elsa is creating mandalas for you to color that when combined will build the words of a poem. Rodrigo is transcribing and building music around rhythms of important speeches and making life beautiful for his wife and son.
While you listen to this album, choose a letter and color it. When you are done, email it back to us and we will replace the black and white one with your colored one.
Art Reflects Life
We recorded this album on January 24th 2020. In the morning, at Mike Tierney's studio "Shiny Things" in Brooklyn. It was the day before Rodrigo went on tour to Germany and also his mother's birthday, so we didn't do a full day. Rodrigo's family had bought him a pack of masks to take on tour. He seemed amused. Elsa had given Bam the wrong address, so he went to Manhattan. She felt terrible, but he had a good time riding the subway and arrived happy.
Reflects Music
We played. We had no plan, we never do. This band is about presence and listening. Letting things come up and following them, or not. Three tracks, just came and went. The room felt like we were filling it with a large morphing shape that we were all holding. Balancing in that way where it is no effort, but if you lose focus it drops and breaks. After three tracks Rodrigo had to go. Bam and Elsa played two more, following some unseen spirit. It led Bam to de-tune his bass to where all the strings were a D. When they were done they went to drink tea and make plans for Bam's school at a book store/coffee shop.
Reflects Life
February 17th we met at Bam's house to listen. We sat on the floor and ate vegan/gluten free birthday cake because it was the day after Elsa’s birthday. We decided to individually choose the parts we all loved most and turn those into the tracks we would release. Then Covid-19 hit. When we recorded this we couldn’t have known where it was going.
Reflects Humanity
We listened in our quarantine apartments across Brooklyn, and the parts we loved the most had shifted. Now it wasn't the moments with the most clarity, but the ones with the least. The music had become a clear reflection of what we are going through, together and alone. Navigating the uncertain, holding on to those we love, grieving whom and what we’ve lost. Reevaluating reality and our expectations with every breath.
Reflects Culture
Bam and Elsa played the first time in 2016 on a gig at the Argentinian Embassy with Jacinta Clusellas. They played again with Eleanor Dubinsky many times. After a gig at Bar Lunatico they waited for a subway together, for a long time. It was a late night A train. Waiting and talking they found many things in common in what they love about music. They talked about Gnawa and how it felt to loose oneself in music. What internal space music resonated most with.
Reflects Music
Since then music has found them together in pivotal moments, changing and shaping courses. Bam and Elsa talked about starting a band. Many times. Played lots of sessions with different people. Every time was amazing, but somehow the time wasn't right.
Reflects Time
Rodrigo plays in the trio of Jeff McLaughlin, the guitarist in Elsa's quartet. She loves the way everyone in that trio plays and went to see that band as often as she could. Around the time Elsa's dad passed away in 2018 she was playing lots of sessions with Rodrigo and some other wonderful musicians. Rodrigo's presence in his playing was very helpful in helping her remember who she was in the midst of that grief.
Reflects Life
April 7th, 2019, Lauren Lee put together a night of music at the Shapeshifter Lab, and asked Elsa to join. She asked Bam. Bam could! Elsa remembered that playing with Rodrigo felt like playing with Bam. So, she called Rodrigo. Rodrigo could! They had no rehearsal, no plan. Just showed up and went in. What happened was songs. Songs that felt like meditation mixed with dance mixed with experimental paint splatter mixed with orange juice. Words were said after. No one remembers the words but everyone remembers the feeling. We were a band. Now we are here.