
Zig at the gig is a long-form interview-style show. The host Dave Deitke is a full-time Musician from Cleveland, OH. Who plays in an original band called C-level and teaches an adapted music class. Zig at the gig started as a podcast for Negative Space, a non-profit art gallery, promoting events and artists from the galley. The show has grown to include all facets of entertainment, including artist authors and musicians.
Zig at the gig is a long-form interview-style show. The host Dave Deitke is a full-time Musician from Cleveland, OH. Who plays in an original band called C-level and teaches an adapted music class. Zig at the gig started as a podcast for Negative Space, a non-profit art gallery, promoting events and artists from the galley. The show has grown to include all facets of entertainment, including artist authors and musicians.
Episodes

Wednesday Oct 26, 2022
Darwin Meiners Of The Night Crickets
Wednesday Oct 26, 2022
Wednesday Oct 26, 2022
Interview with Singer-songwriter Multi-instrumentalist Darwin Meiners!
Night Crickets, a long-distance groove affair conducted during the drawn-out days of lockdown and beyond. Featuring David J, Victor DeLorenzo, and Darwin Meiners. Iconic and foundational bands in the history of alternative music certainly include Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, and Violent Femmes. San Francisco-born artist Darwin Meiners was a fan of all three. A chance meeting 13 years ago with David J (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets) grew into a friendship, and Darwin not only became a bandmate but David J’s manager. After reaching out to Victor DeLorenzo through e-mail, Darwin met the Violent Femmes drummer after the Femmes’ Coachella set in 2013. Soon after the three collaborated on Darwin’s 2014 release Souvenir. As the pandemic took hold, Darwin was looking for a new project to occupy the lock-down time and approached Victor, who was keen to proceed and suggested that David join as well. The musical trust established between these three was immediate and Night Crickets were born. Within weeks a global process was initiated between them, the recordings eventually forming the album, A Free Society. To say this is something of a dream come true for music fans would be entirely accurate. (The band’s name came from one of many Zoom meetings between the three members. After addressing various pressing musical issues the conversation rambled somewhat and turned to the subject of David Lynch, with David J telling an anecdote which was told to him by Lynch’s sound designer, John Neff. Lynch had asked Neff to obtain a field recording of crickets chirping at night for inclusion in Mulholland Drive. When Neff played him the tape, the director immediately recognized the sound that the insects make when it is light which is apparently a little different to their nocturnal chirp. “No! No! No! These are day crickets, John! I want my night crickets!” Victor, Darwin, and David then shared a look of mutual realization and instantly agreed that the project now had a name!) In Night Crickets’ own words: Night Crickets, a long distance groove affair conducted during the drawn out days of lockdown and beyond. Audio files shared from Los Angeles to Milwaukee, from London to the San Francisco Bay, and the ghosts of Candlestick Park shimmer through the fog, the Devil comes a-knocking on Peter Laughner’s door and Amanda Gorman conjures forth words of inspiration for the dawn of the new millennium. David J, Victor DeLorenzo, and Darwin spearhead a loose collective of like-minded creative souls left stranded in their respective locales due to the great pandemic, yet through sheer tenacity and a burning desire to collaborate and create they transcend the restrictions of the times and pull together a glorious ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ that draws from the past, the present and the imagined future. Hark! Night Crickets are chirping as the world is set on fire and the sun is going down.
Night Crickets Info http://omnivorerecordings.com/shop/a-free-society/?fbclid=IwAR20Jsa93KV7Npoxfan53Mjd67ihiceYXEkESshe5I0SGiKhGAveeZJgM
Darwin's Info
https://darwinmeiners.bandcamp.com

Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Victor DeLorenzo Of Violent Femmes & The Night Crickets
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Wednesday Oct 19, 2022
Interview with Victor DeLorenzo Of Violent Femmes & The Night Crickets
DeLorenzo was born in 1954, the son of Victor and Charlotte DeLorenzo,\ grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, and has lived in Milwaukee since. He has been a drummer since the age of 16 while attending St. Catherine's High School (Racine, Wisconsin), and has been an actor since the age of five. While attending the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, he auditioned for and was accepted into Theatre X in 1976, and worked with them in various roles for more than 20 years.[ As a drummer, DeLorenzo paired up with bassist Brian Ritchie in 1980, as a rhythm section they called "Violent Femmes". When singer, guitarist, and songwriter Gordon Gano joined them in 1981, the band kept the name.[2] DeLorenzo's father loaned the band $10,000 to record their eponymous debut album in 1982. However, the band was forced to delay its release until 1983 after they signed to Slash Records. DeLorenzo's signature sound is a result of his minimalist drum kit. He often uses nothing more than a snare drum, a tranceaphone and steel brushes. The tranceaphone consists of a metal bushel basket inverted over a tom. He favors this style of kit because in their early days, the band often played on the streets. DeLorenzo continued to act with Theatre X, and record and tour with the Femmes until 1993, when he left to devote more time to acting and to recording his own music.He toured as part of Moe Tucker's band in that year. In 1996 he opened a recording studio called "Joe's Real Recording" He has released three solo records since 1990. In addition to recording his own music, he has played with several side projects, including Ash Can School. In 2000, he teamed up with Ritchie to put together a Femmes compilation, and subsequently rejoined the band until it disbanded again in 2009.In March 2013, Gano, Ritchie and DeLorenzo reformed Violent Femmes once more and played a homecoming show at the Summerfest music festival in their native Milwaukee. Three months later, in July, the band announced a new line-up with Dresden Dolls member Brian Viglione as the band's drummer. DeLorenzo confirmed in a statement that he had left the Femmes permanently because of a failure of the band members to resolve their long-standing business disputes. DeLorenzo performs percussion in the chamber rock duo Nineteen Thirteen with cellist Janet Schiff. Nineteen Thirteen's recording of "Hurricane Noel" was featured in the 2011 TED Global Conference.
Night Crickets, a long-distance groove affair conducted during the drawn-out days of lockdown and beyond. Featuring David J, Victor DeLorenzo, and Darwin Meiners.
Iconic and foundational bands in the history of alternative music certainly include Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, and Violent Femmes. San Francisco born artist Darwin Meiners was a fan of all three. A chance meeting 13 years ago with David J (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets) grew into a friendship, and Darwin not only became a bandmate, but David J’s manager. After reaching out to Victor DeLorenzo through e-mail, Darwin met the Violent Femmes drummer after the Femmes’ Coachella set in 2013. Soon after the three collaborated on Darwin’s 2014 release Souvenir.
As the pandemic took hold, Darwin was looking for a new project to occupy the lock-down time and approached Victor, who was keen to proceed and suggested that David join as well. The musical trust established between these three was immediate and Night Crickets were born. Within weeks a global process was initiated between them, the recordings eventually forming the album, A Free Society. To say this is something of a dream come true for music fans would be entirely accurate.
(The band’s name came from one of many Zoom meetings between the three members. After addressing various pressing musical issues the conversation rambled somewhat and turned to the subject of David Lynch, with David J telling an anecdote which was told to him by Lynch’s sound designer, John Neff. Lynch had asked Neff to obtain a field recording of crickets chirping at night for inclusion in Mulholland Drive. When Neff played him the tape, the director immediately recognized the sound that the insects make when it is light which is apparently a little different to their nocturnal chirp. “No! No! No! These are day crickets, John! I want my night crickets!” Victor, Darwin, and David then shared a look of mutual realization and instantly agreed that the project now had a name!)
Night Crickets Info
Victor's Info
https://victordelorenzo.weebly.com/vf-press-release.html

Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
David J of Bauhaus, The Night Crickets
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
Wednesday Oct 12, 2022
Interview with David J of Bauhaus, The Night Crickets
On David J
Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction once described David J as the Avant of the Avant-garde. Never was a truer word spoken . . .
A founder member of one of the most influential bands since The Velvet Underground; namely BAUHAUS. Bauhaus spearheaded the post-punk Alternative music scene of the early ‘80’s with a string of innovative albums and singles, including, for many, perhaps their defining moment, a song that is ranked as a classic and feasibly the pinnacle of the entire Gothic scene and beyond, the nine minute plus epic slab of industrial dub that is 'Bela Lugosi’s Dead', featuring the lyrics of David J.
Night Crickets, a long-distance groove affair conducted during the drawn-out days of lockdown and beyond. Featuring David J, Victor DeLorenzo, and Darwin Meiners.
Iconic and foundational bands in the history of alternative music certainly include Bauhaus, Love And Rockets, and Violent Femmes. San Francisco born artist Darwin Meiners was a fan of all three. A chance meeting 13 years ago with David J (Bauhaus, Love & Rockets) grew into a friendship, and Darwin not only became a bandmate, but David J’s manager. After reaching out to Victor DeLorenzo through e-mail, Darwin met the Violent Femmes drummer after the Femmes’ Coachella set in 2013. Soon after the three collaborated on Darwin’s 2014 release Souvenir.
As the pandemic took hold, Darwin was looking for a new project to occupy the lock-down time and approached Victor, who was keen to proceed and suggested that David join as well. The musical trust established between these three was immediate and Night Crickets were born. Within weeks a global process was initiated between them, the recordings eventually forming the album, A Free Society. To say this is something of a dream come true for music fans would be entirely accurate.
(The band’s name came from one of many Zoom meetings between the three members. After addressing various pressing musical issues the conversation rambled somewhat and turned to the subject of David Lynch, with David J telling an anecdote which was told to him by Lynch’s sound designer, John Neff. Lynch had asked Neff to obtain a field recording of crickets chirping at night for inclusion in Mulholland Drive. When Neff played him the tape, the director immediately recognized the sound that the insects make when it is light which is apparently a little different to their nocturnal chirp. “No! No! No! These are day crickets, John! I want my night crickets!” Victor, Darwin, and David then shared a look of mutual realization and instantly agreed that the project now had a name!)
In Night Crickets’ own words:
Night Crickets, a long distance groove affair conducted during the drawn out days of lockdown and beyond. Audio files shared from Los Angeles to Milwaukee, from London to the San Francisco Bay, and the ghosts of Candlestick Park shimmer through the fog, the Devil comes a-knocking on Peter Laughner’s door and Amanda Gorman conjures forth words of inspiration for the dawn of the new millennium.
David J, Victor DeLorenzo, and Darwin spearhead a loose collective of like-minded creative souls left stranded in their respective locales due to the great pandemic, yet through sheer tenacity and a burning desire to collaborate and create they transcend the restrictions of the times and pull together a glorious ‘gesamtkunstwerk’ that draws from the past, the present and the imagined future.
Hark! Night Crickets are chirping as the world is set on fire and the sun is going down.
Night Crickets Info
David's Info
http://www.davidjonline.com/?fbclid=IwAR0TUtdYQRM0UJ1iGUkoEka4LVYK-NviByJM1anDVEAWKuazHzCHB2EIEMg

Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Nora O’Connor
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Sunday Oct 02, 2022
Nora O’Connor is a Chicago-based musician whose vocal talents are the secret weapon behind some of the city’s best performances and recordings. For much of 2013, O'Connor toured internationally as a singer in Iron and Wine, and she continues to record and perform with longtime collaborator Andrew Bird. Nora also plays bass and sings back-up for Kelly Hogan K(she recorded and toured with Hogan for her release I Like To Keep Myself In Pain on ANTI- Records) and in 2010, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy enlisted her and Hogan as primary vocalists on gospel legend Mavis Staples’ Grammy Award-winning album You Are Not Alone. She has been most recently been touring with The Decemberists, singing harmonies and playing a bunch of their really nice guitars.
In the studio and on the stage, Nora has backed (among others) Neko Case , Jakob Dylan, The New Pornographers, Archer Prewitt, Chris Mills, The Aluminum Group, Otis Clay, Justin Roberts and Robbie Fulks Though she may be primarily known for her signature honey-sweet vocals, Nora is also revered among her musician peers for her chops and versatility. She's a solid sender on guitar and bass, an enthusiastic and inspired collaborator, and always ninja-nimble and professional to a T -- just a few of the reasons why this lady's phone never stops ringing.
Nora's new album My Heart and Info here:
https://www.noraoconnormusic.com/
https://www.instagram.com/noraoconnorkean/?hl=en

Wednesday Sep 28, 2022
doubleVee
Wednesday Sep 28, 2022
Wednesday Sep 28, 2022
doubleVee was put into motion in 2012 when it became clear how Allan Vest and Barb [Hendrickson] Vest’s musical backgrounds complemented each other and how well the two worked together in the studio. The pair married in October of 2015 and went on to release their debut album in 2017.
Allan was the primary songwriter, lead vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist for indie/orchestral pop band Starlight Mints, having produced and released four albums between 2000 and 2009, with legendary producer Dave Sardy co-producing the critically acclaimed debut album, The Dream that Stuff was Made Of. Major motion pictures and television series have utilized his music, with TV shows including Malcolm in the Middle, Californication, One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl and movies including Barnyard and The Art of Getting By. The BBC mini-series Demons effectively used "Eyes of the Night" off the 2006 album Drowaton as the series' theme song. Allan's instrumental scores have been featured in Disney animated shorts, writer/director Mickey Reece's movies Seducers Club and Punch Cowboy, in projects by Canada-based writer/director Erahm Christopher, and features helmed by director Bradley Beesley, among other productions. He has produced and arranged music for clients including Francine, Skating Polly, Student Film and Bishop Allen. He also composed the theme music for the podcast In Sickness and In Health.
Barb’s diverse background includes sixteen years in public radio where her achievements included writing, hosting, and producing Filmscapes, a nationally syndicated film music program. Filmscapes gave her the opportunity to interview some of her favorite renowned artists including Danny Elfman and Philip Glass. While Barb’s vocal music history includes appearing in themed cover shows and providing backing vocals on recordings for local bands, her love of music began with her family, with her grandmother regularly putting a tape recorder on her piano bench and singing along to her original compositions, before she passed away in 1986 after a sudden heart attack at the age of 57. Allan and Barb later orchestrated and added backing vocals to one of her grandmother's songs as a gift for her mother, who ensured music was a big part of her daughters' lives from a very young age.
doubleVee’s debut album The Moonlit Fables of Jack the Rider was released on February 10, 2017. The concept album follows the story of the title character, with his tales being told in a theatrical style with Jack at the handlebars. He’s a traveler who descends into a world reminiscent of The Twilight Zone where nothing is exactly as it seems, with pieces of his history unfolding over the course of the album. Their follow-up EP Songs for Birds and Bats was released April 12, 2019. The five-song release concluded with Last Castaways, selected the next year to be featured on the soundtrack for the immersive video game Beyond Blue.
On July 15th, doubleVee released their new album Treat Her Strangely, nine new songs whose conception began during the height of the pandemic, with their new material written and recorded while staying holed up in their home studio as much as possible, attempting to keep themselves, their loved ones and others safe from the virus.
doubleVee's info
https://www.facebook.com/doubleVeeSongs

Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
Sleepyhead Rachael McNally, & Chris O’Rourke
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
Sleepyhead recorded their forthcoming sixth album, New Alchemy, at the legendary Boston area recording studio Q Division with esteemed producer and Q Division co-founder Jon Lupfer at the helm. They are releasing the album August 19 as a digital download and via streaming platforms to be followed by a release on 12” vinyl LP. They plan to play as many shows as they can manage after that!
New Alchemy features Sleepyhead founders, drummer/vocalist Rachael McNally and guitarist/vocalist Chris O’Rourke as well as bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Derek van Beever, who joined the trio in 2004, a few years after the other two had moved to Boston. Many of the songs conjure the subtly infectious laissez-faire sounds of pre-Grunge Indie Rock the embrace early on in their career with a handful evoking classic Laurel Canyon Country-Rock and other 70’s FM staples. The title track to New Alchemy was inspired by the exploits of the New Alchemy Institute, a utopian endeavor founded by idealistic scientists in the 1970’s in Falmouth, Massachusetts, the hometown of Sleepyhead guitarist/vocalist Chris O’Rourke.
Sleepyhead was formed in a basement room at NYU's Brittany dorm in the fall of 1989 by drummer/vocalist Rachael McNally, bassist Mike Galinsky and guitarist/vocalist Chris O’Rourke. They released their first 7" single, the Kramer-produced "Play," in 1991 on Picture Book Artifact. Four full-length albums followed, on three different independent record labels. Punk Rock City USA was released by Slumberland Records in 1993, followed by Starduster (Homestead 1994), Communist Love Songs (Homestead 1996), and The Brighter Shore (Sealed Fate 1999). They toured the United States and Europe throughout the nineties, sharing the stage with such legendary bands as Polvo, Half Japanese, Yo La Tengo, The Grifters, The Dambuilders, Nation of Ulysses, Helium, Royal Trux, Antietam, Luna, Versus, The Magnetic Fields, and Dungbeetle.
Around the time their fourth album was released in 1999, Rachael and Chris got married, and Mike Galinsky moved on to a successful career in filmmaking. Dan Cuddy (The Special Pillow, ex-Hypnolovewheel) joined Chris and Rachael on bass. With Dan on bass, Sleepyhead did some touring for The Brighter Shore and began writing new songs. Rachael and Chris moved from New York to Boston in 2002 after having their first child. They had another kid in 2005. By this time, they had begun recording a new album, with Dan on bass, with producer Mike Deming (Pernice Brothers, Apples in Stereo, Beachwood Sparks, Lilys), at Deming’s famed Studio 45 in Hartford, and subsequently Enfield, CT. In 2004, bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Derek van Beever joined the band, and they started playing shows in Boston, Providence, and New York whenever they got the chance. In April 2013, this new lineup of Sleepyhead went into Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA to record the last three songs for their long-time-coming fifth album, Wild Sometimes, which was released on renowned Chicago indie Carrot Top Records on April 8, 2014. They played a bunch of shows in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast to celebrate the release of Wild Sometimes in 2014, and then started writing a whole bunch of new songs with Derek. In the Spring of 2018, Drawing Room Records released a well-received deluxe double vinyl LP/digital reissue of Starduster and Communist Love Songs called Future Exhibit Goes Here.
Sleepyhead's info
http://www.sleepyheadrockband.com/Sle

Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Mike Leonard of Bleeding Hearts
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
The Bar None label, in conjunction with Fiasco Records, is excited to announce the
upcoming release of Riches to Rags, a long-lost album by Minneapolis’ Bleeding Hearts
featuring Bob Stinson, a founding member of The Replacements, on lead guitar. Riches to
Rags will be a Record Store Day 2022 exclusive, pressed on 12” blood-red vinyl with liner
notes by journalist Bob Mehr who won a Grammy Award for his album notes to the Dead
Man’s Pop box set, an expanded re-issue he co-produced of the Replacements Don’t Tell a
Soul album; Mehr wrote Trouble Boys the definitive Replacements biography Trouble Boys;
he describes Riches to Rags as “the final piece to the puzzle of Bob Stinson’s musical
career.” The album release will be preceded by the digital single, “Happy Yet,” on March 17.
Bleeding Hearts was the brainchild of Stones-fixated singer / songwriter / guitarist Mike
Leonard who started the group with drummer Bob Herbers and bassist Rob Robello. In
search of a second guitarist and having no luck, Leonard approached Stinson at the Uptown
Bar where both were regulars. They became roommates and, as Mehr’s notes relate, “the
two played together daily, roughhoused like little kids, rehearsed with the band five times a
week, and listened to music the rest of the time.”
Riches To Rags was the result of pure serendipity. Fiasco Records’ Sunshine Dunham
found a complimentary copy of Spin Magazine in a CMJ Music Marathon festival gift bag
featuring a piece on Stinson’s post-Replacements exploits, that mentioned his move from
Static Taxi to Bleeding Hearts.
She tracked the group down, offered to record them and they made Riches to Rags in
Minneapolis in 1993, a tight well-crafted set of high energy rock tunes that owed a debt to
the Replacements and showed once again what a stellar guitar player Bob Stinson was.
The album’s filled with upbeat, catchy Minneapolis rock, with hooks galore and Bob's ever
present bright chords shining through.
Unfortunately, the overabundance of creative energy and artistic visions led to heated
clashes and then Bob was out of the band right as recording completed. Bleeding Hearts
carried on for a while without Bob, but their momentum was gone. Mike disbanded the outfit
and joined the popular Minneapolis outfit the Magnolias. Stinson would pass away two
years later, and the Bleeding Hearts recordings were left unreleased.
Finally, 30 years later, Bleeding Hearts will get their due, thanks to Fiasco Records
preserving the session tapes for some three decades and Bar None taking the final steps to
deliver this very special Record Store Day exclusive, April 23, 2022.

Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
DYMBUR
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Wednesday Sep 07, 2022
Interview with DYMBUR
DYMBUR an Indian Folk Metal | Khasi Thraat Folk Metal band, based in Shillong, Meghalaya, India.
They were formed in 2012 and started by playing djent/progressive metal.
In 2020, the band decided to fuse Djent/Metal with Khasi traditional instruments to create a sound of their own. Hence, they termed their genre as ‘Khasi Thraat Folk Metal
DYMBUR 'S Info
https://www.facebook.com/Dymbur
https://www.youtube.com/user/dymbur1
https://www.instagram.com/dymbur/
The Info for SPARK and DYMBUR'S Mission statement for the song Child Abuse
The Official Music Video for the song CHILD ABUSE by DYMBUR. This song talks about the current situation in India with regards to Child Abuse. A good amount of research has been done before the lyrics were laid down and the stats and figures mentioned in the song paints a clear picture of what is happening in the country. Of course, certain lines in the song talk about Child Abuse that is prevalent in other cultures as well.
Our intention here is not to point fingers at anyone but to raise awareness about Child Abuse and hopefully be able to create a behavioural change in the society. We not only aim to raise awareness on the topic but also to raise funds for the non-profit organization which is based in Shillong, Meghalaya, India called ‘SPARK – Bringing Light to Lives’ which is a self-funded organization that is in dire need of financial aid.
NATIONAL DONATIONS: Bank Name: Bank of Baroda Account Name: SPARK Bringing Light to Lives Ac No: 43580100002128 IFSC Code:
BARB0LAITUM (0 IS ZERO) Branch : Laitumkhrah, Shillong, Meghalaya, India. Email: spark.ssg10@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spark.lightt...
INTERNATIONAL DONATIONS: PayPal account: dymbur@yahoo.com ____________________________________
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4EfZzB...
Listen on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/chil...

Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
Felix Bechtolsheimer of Curse of Lono
Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
Wednesday Aug 31, 2022
Curse of Lono is an English alternative rock band based in London and signed to Submarine Cat Records. They have released one EP and two studio albums. Their most recent album, As I Fell, peaked at number 10 on the Official Americana Albums Chart and at number 15 on the Official Independent Album Breakers Chart in the U.K. The band has also been the subject of two short films, Saturday Night: A Film Of Four Songs and Somewhere In Their Heads, both of which have won awards and appeared at numerous film festivals.
Felix's Info

Wednesday Aug 24, 2022
Brad Elvis & Chloe F. Orwell of The Handcuffs
Wednesday Aug 24, 2022
Wednesday Aug 24, 2022
Zig At The Gig interview with Brad Elvis & Chloe F. Orwell of The Handcuffs
Led by drummer Brad Elvis (Screams, The Elvis Brothers, Big Hello, The Romantics) and vocalist/guitarist/saxophonist Chloe F. Orwell (Big Hello), Chicago’s The Handcuffs will be releasing their fourth studio album Burn The Rails. The 13-song album was tracked at Kingsize Sound Labs, Chicago with producer/engineer Mike Hagler (Wilco, Neko Case, Billy Bragg, Mavis Staples, My Morning Jacket, The Mekons). Burn The Rails is being released by Pravda Records in June on CD, download and via streaming platforms and later on 12″ vinyl. For the the new album, The Handcuffs found inspiration from the heady, analog days of early 1970s rock & roll, weaving together elements of glam, indie, garage, art and blues rock. Inhabiting some of the same musical turf as T-Rex, Mott The Hoople, Roxy Music, The Raconteurs, P.J. Harvey, Led Zeppelin, and Patti Smith – all filtered through a modern lens – they deliver bold, sexy songs with memorable melodies and unexpected twists. Guest keyboardist Morgan Fisher (Mott The Hoople) demonstrates his synthesizer and piano prowess on a couple of tracks on the new LP. The relationship with Fisher, a musical hero of the band, began after singer Orwell’s rave review of Mott The Hoople’s 2018 reunion tour went viral on social media, attracting the attention of Fisher, who got in contact. From there a creative collaboration was sparked, in-spite of an ocean separating the now real-life friends. Finishing the record during the peak of the pandemic and lockdown, gave several of the songs an inadvertent anthem-for-the-times feel – with themes of love and loss, heartache and hope, and even the great ideological divide that was as omnipresent as the virus. Elvis and Orwell formed The Handcuffs from the ashes of Big Hello, their first band together, which released three indie label records and toured from coast to coast. Elvis’ career also includes a few major label go-arounds, arena tours, and a backstory that will be documented in a new autobiography in the near future. The duo’s eagerness to explore new sonic territory and evolve into an entity that aligned more with their ever-expanding influences and broad range of musical tastes prompted a change. The Handcuffs began as primarily a studio project, in which Elvis and Orwell wrote and recorded an abundance of material. During the process, they realized they missed the live band experience, so The Handcuffs as recording artists and a dynamic live band was born. Completing the line-up are bassist Emily Togni, lead guitarist Jeffrey Kmieciak, and keyboardist Alison Hinderliter, all of whom originate from different parts of the country, but have made Chicago their home.
Handcuff's info
