I hit the play button on an embedded music player on their Myspace page and I hear some pickup notes that seem to me a promise that the following music will be an adventure. The crash cymbal rings out and instantly I am overcome with a sense of nostalgia and wonder as I am eagerly listening to the busy drums and the waves of rhythmic synth. This leads me into a straight and simple, yet beautiful female vocalist singing a somber melody while the beats carry on in an intricate language. The drums pull back, as a harmony joins in and there are bells foreshadowing behind it. The song plunges back into the chorus when lead singer Austin Tofte’s vocal part take the lead.
This song, called Silhouettes, never gets old for me. I could listen to it for days.
Nick and I first stumbled onto Swimming With Dolphins back in our early days as a band. We instantly became captivated by the technical rhythms, synth lines and the compelling vocal style. We looked through some of pictures and saw vintage beach themed photos and shots of the band members playing synthesizers. More importantly, what we saw was another two-man band making electronic music just like us. We saw that it was possible and it motivated us to press forward.
When we lived in Chicago, we went to see Swimming With Dolphins when they came through with The Ready Set. We stood in the crowd amongst younger folks and listened as Austin played on his own. He told us that his former band mate Adam Young couldn’t make it that night. We were astonished to hear that his live set was incredibly close to his recordings. We couldn’t believe that he pulled it off by himself. Again we were encouraged and inspired. We approached him after the show and talked to him for a bit about his music. He was modest and incredibly nice. We walked away from that show with a sense of deep respect and appreciation for Austin and his music.
The other day Nick pulled up a new YouTube video of a live Swimming With Dolphins set and a short written interview. Below is the video.
It’s great to see how Austin has progressed with his act. His new songs are killer. I can’t wait to hear his next album. I can already tell I like the direction. He also has a live drummer. Nick and I have noticed that this makes a huge difference with electronic music played live. Sometimes recorded drum tracks lose some beef when they are played in a large room. We’ve seen other electronic bands like Playradioplay! and Ming and Ping use a live kit and the result is a bump that you can feel in your chest.
Swimming With Dolphins is coming to Portland on March 23rd at Backspace. If you are in the area and you like what you’ve heard, be sure to make it out. We will be there for sure. If you are not in Portland, check out their Myspace for tour info.
Austin, we love what you are doing and support you! If you ever want to play a show, give us a shout!
-trey
Also check out Swimming with Dolphin’s website HERE.
So we’ve been really getting into this new music site we recently discovered. TheSixtyOne.com. From what we’ve found out, this is an online RPG but instead of fighting monsters or fighting creatures (like Pokemon!) and all that stuff, you listen to some really good music. Most of the music on the site seems to be emerging/indie bands but there is some more popular stuff on there also. We posted a few of our songs up there and over the course of the past week we have gotten a lot of positive feedback!
The way it works is simple. Once you’ve created a profile, you have access to a bunch of genres each with hundreds of songs from original artists (some covers too!) You are alerted to some quests which consist of listening to a certain number of new songs, marking songs as your favorites, listening to a favorite over and over again etc. The more quests you complete the more experience you gain and the higher your level gets and the more credibility you earn as a music enthusiast! Basically its like if Pandora mated with World of Warcraft.
We’ve found that it’s really good for bands because it’s like the social aspect of Myspace but for people interested in discovering new music (as opposed to posting obnoxious pictures of themselves and spamming their friends with aps) We’ve found new favorites such as Philip Ferrari, King Tut, Go Periscope, FM BELFAST which gets our blood pumpin to dance all night!
Check out this site ASAP if you want to shake your booty while hearing some great new music at the same time! Don’t forget to give us a heart or two!
We played a show last night at the Elbo Room in Chicago and we were completely unprepared for such an awesome show! Ok, granted, it was a MONDAY night… and its colder than freakin’ ice block here in the windy city…
The venue itself was absolutely disorientating… but carried our music with a beefy sound system and a sweeeeet vibe. It was fun. The bands playing “with” us were the following: Julia Lucafo, an acoustic artist who had some major pipes, Flatlander, a psuedo-European style rock group with a sweet sound, and Sanguine Means, a three-piece post-hardcore band with harmonies that could make a baby smile… then cry, happily, to sleep.
Now, I know, you might ask… what the heck is an ELECTRONIC-INDIE band playing with a POST-HARDCORE band for? And there is no answer for you… only that it was totally fun… and somehow fit together quite nicely. Odd, I know…
Overall, the show was totally sweet and if you WERE one of the people who came out to support local music and dance with some glow sticks and drink some drinks… God bless you, child, because it was a flippin’ blast. If you WEREN’T there, and you did NONE of the previously listed, then make sure you come to our NEXT show… cause it will be twice as cool and three times as much fun… I’m sure of it.
If you haven’t seen us play, this will be a fun opportunity to hear some fun music and dance around! Check out our myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/askyouingray for more information on the show!!!
If you’ve never heard of Ask You In Gray, go to http://www.myspace.com/askyouingray to check out our music! We’re an electronic-indie band that loooooooooves music. We are in the process of recording new music and it will be online pretty soon.
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