The band Of the Painted Choir has a new single out and will be releasing a new record this summer.
Three members of the Valley-based band, Fred Huang, Phil Hanna and Wayne Jones, stopped by the KJZZ studios to talk about their music and to play some of it.
Conversation highlights
MARK BRODIE: So I've read a bunch of descriptions of your music, and I'm curious how you guys describe your own music?
FRED HUANG: I guess, like ‘60s influence, psychedelic pop.
BRODIE: OK, if people don't know what that means, what would they think of?
HUANG: Definitely, like Beatles-ee, Beach Boys-ee, some Motown stuff thrown in there, but also at the same time, like a little country and a little Southwestern-ee.
BRODIE: So Fred, you guys have a new single and a new music video coming out?
HUANG: Yes, yes we do. The single is called “Cactus Wren.” It's kind of a love song, kind of dedicated to a bird.
BRODIE: The state bird of Arizona.
HUANG: The state bird of Arizona, I googled that. But like, it's kind of a song to a woman, but at the same time, the woman is Arizona. It doesn't make a whole lot of linear sense, but that's the way I wrote it.
BRODIE: Well, let’s hear it.
(Music)
BRODIE: So I can actually kind of imagine that being played on the radio in like 1965, which I guess is, is partially what you're going for?
HUANG: Yeah, yeah. I'm an old soul.
BRODIE: So you guys are kind of a DIY kind of band, right? Like you basically do everything yourselves?
HUANG: Yeah. That's definitely a mentality that I brought, I wanted to bring into this project just to record ourselves, book ourselves, print our own medium for music, CDs or whatever, and all the guys in the band kind of feel like that's a good plan for us.
BRODIE: Do you all have different skills? Like, is one of you good at graphic design? One of you is really good at, like, cold calling places to try to get yourselves booked, anything like that?
HUANG: Well, we have our guitar player who's not here with us, Darren. He's an awesome graphic designer, so he does a lot of the design work for us. But we also utilize friends to, like, do art for us, and we'll compensate them however we can, which is usually with, like, a very gracious thank you.
BRODIE: But heartfelt, I'm sure.
HUANG: Heartfelt for sure, for most of them.
BRODIE: What's the advantage of doing all this stuff yourself?
HUANG: It allows us to experiment as much as we want, like, as far as the recording process goes, there's no time constraints and no budget constraints. We just go in and try stuff, and if things work out really well, which sometimes they do. That's great, and if not, then we wasted a few hours, but ultimately, we'll be happier with the final product. In a sense, there's another sense that, like with a professional producer and engineer, the stuff will sound better. But that's part of the challenge for me, personally, that I really embrace.
BRODIE: So you guys are gonna play one more song for us?
HUANG: Yeah, I don't have a name for this one yet. This is a brand new song, and we're gonna be releasing a record in the summer, and the song will be on it. We actually have never played this for anybody, on ourselves before.
BRODIE: So this is history.
HUANG: Yeah, a very small part of history is about to happen right now.
(Music)
If you’re in a band or know of one you’d like to hear on air, send us a note at [email protected].
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