Sonic High

What do you do when you are raised on classical music, majored in music in college and played the flute in high school? Start an electronic dream pop band, of course.

That’s exactly what Jeremiah Tsering did when he and four friends—Mark Johnston on guitar, Phillip Moskalets on bass, Dave Moskalets on keyboards and Mark Tuzman on drums—launched The Good Fortune last summer.

“I’ve always had an urge to write, since high school, which was not that long ago. I started playing guitar first then my goal switched over to writing because I kept having all of these sounds playing in my head (I sound like a crazy person), but eventually I was around some people who inspired me to just start recording,” Tsering says.

This urge eventually metamorphosed into a full-on musical effort when Tsering and Johnston were approached by a friend to fill a last-minute slot at a show at Lounge of Life. The fortuitous event would prove to be the catalyst from which The Good Fortune would emerge.

“It was kind of an accident, we had a friend who asked us to play just this one-off [show], and we did a bunch of cover songs and a couple of originals, and it went really well,” Johnston says. “The band meshed really well, and [we] just decided to roll with it because we got a really good reaction and then we accidentally became a band, and it’s been fun.”

While each individual member of the band wasn’t new to the music scene (all five have played in other musical projects and bands), they admit that throwing together a quick set list and forming a band on the fly was a challenge, but one which they fully embraced.

“It was the most bizarre, euphoric thing, Johnson continues. “We walked on stage having no idea what was going to happen and thinking ‘Let’s hope they like the cover songs.’ And people were dancing, people really got into it and we walked off stage and into the green room and we just looked at each other like, ‘That really just happened. OK let’s do another one of these.’ We thought it was going to be a one-off but it was the best. There’s an intangible to getting off stage and going ‘People who I’ve never met in my entire life just liked what I did.’”

The accidental band then forged on, playing shows at small venues and cultivating and honing their lush, dreamy sound. Soon the fivesome were being invited to play at larger gigs, culminating with a performance at this summer’s THIS Midtown block party, a stint at Sam Sascha Keshavarz’s Le Twist Tuesdays dance party and a slot on the bill at the Submerge Presents Lipstick! New Year’s Eve party at Old Ironsides. But all of the attention hasn’t distracted the band from their mission to bring a soulful and thoughtful voice to the local music scene.

“I always had this dream of playing in a band and bringing a team with me and not doing something super selfish—there’s a lot of people out there who write and say ‘It’s all about me,’ so I think it’s really cool when you can do something and involve other people and they can find their role and everyone kind of grows with you, and that’s what it’s been like so far,” Tsering says.

The longtime friends cite their diverse musical backgrounds and interests as the spark that ignites their collective passion for bringing their distinct vision of music to life—a vision that strives to balance professionalism with a collaborative spirit where all of the players are empowered to have fun and enjoy themselves.

“We all respect each other as musicians,” Johnston says. “Our bass player Phil has surreal amounts of talent. He’s incredible. One of the other guys in the band, Dave, he was in Nashville like two years ago writing country music. Jeremiah grew up listening to a bunch of progressive, indie rock bands, and I grew up listening to metal and hardcore. But all of those influences … and all of us really respecting each other’s musical backgrounds, and really liking the central vision for what we do, makes it such a fun experience.”

The band’s first EP, Social Crowns, was recorded in Tsering’s home studio and was comprised of a collection of songs that the singer-songwriter had been amassing since his senior year in high school. The experience of writing and recording was a therapeutic experience for the singer, who admits that the process helped him get through a bout of depression and that the music is more than just catchy verses and tunes.

“A lot of those songs I started writing even before we got that first show—probably like a year in advance, in total,” Tsering says. “I’ve been writing pretty consistently since senior year of high school. When music really affects me it bypasses all of the senses and goes straight to the soul and emotions, and it’s almost like a high, it’s crazy. My goal is to have real-life messages that we talk about, that make people think about the lyrics, not like, ‘Oh, this is a catchy tune or this is a catchy verse.’ I want people to think about it a little deeper and maybe understand the meaning of the song or question what it’s about.”

And that is what is at the core of TGF’s musical philosophy—a longing to encourage an honest and thoughtful dialogue about everyday life that isn’t pretentious or isolating that celebrates Sacramento.

“I actually ranted about this the other day on Instagram,” Tsering says. “I see Sacramento as we’re laying a foundation for something, and I feel like a lot of other cities and the world has kind of looked at Sacramento as a second-class city, and I like that. I’ve always felt like the underdog, I’ve always felt like I didn’t really have everything but if I was diligent enough I can go ahead and get to the place I need to be, so that’s where I see Sacramento. Especially with festivals like TBD and how that’s growing, and I see the growth of these things and I just want to be part of it and contribute as much as we can to show people that Sacramento isn’t some random city that you just pass through; we have culture, we have a lot of great things.”

The bandmates’ love for music and the magic that a live performance can conjure is also at the center of what they want to bring to the vital Sacramento music scene. As the band looks to the new year, they’re encouraging themselves to continue to push forward. They’re currently working on news songs and hope to release their first full-length effort next year while also embracing the DIY ethos that is at the heart of the new music business by looking to create a series of music videos on YouTube. Oh, and if we’re lucky we might even see Tsering bust out the flute during a future performance.

See The Good Fortune live at Old Ironsides as part of the Lipstick New Year’s Eve party, presented by Submerge. DJs Shaun Slaughter, Adam Jay and Roger Carpio will also be on hand. Admission is just $10 and the party starts at 9 p.m. Go to Theoldironsides.com for more information.

The Dream Pop Quintet’s Journey, One Firm Step at a Time

We’re in an era when focus is hard to come by. Distractions and obstacles create these invisible piles in front of us, phantom mounds we can’t always figure out how to tackle. It’s challenging for anyone, especially when you’re an artist trying to pull your creation from that thin, blocked air. It doesn’t come easy, but if you’re determined, it’s there. Wild Ones seems to know this.

The Portland-based dream pop band has been making a name for themselves in the last couple years with their strong debut, Keep It Safe, but it wasn’t something that just came easily. Wild Ones didn’t even come together overnight. Members Danielle Sullivan and Thomas Himes have been making music together for the last nine years in various projects, but Wild Ones took shape in 2010, with their EP, You’re a Winner, creating a bit of a Northwest stir. However, in 2012, as the group was getting ready to release their first full-length album, there were financial grapples, health issues and band member fluctuation. The phantom mounds. These huge, and unfortunately common issues for a young band are often enough to dissolve a project. Despite all this, Wild Ones knew what they wanted and kept focus.

“We all have been playing in different types of scenes since we were teenagers, and I think we all just want it so bad, and before Keep It Safe had never released anything that was truly our own work,” said Danielle Sullivan, vocalist of Wild Ones. “There was very little that could’ve come between us putting out our first project that we could truly own.

“Seve our drummer was in the hospital with a collapsed lung,” she continued. “And I think honestly part of his getting better was getting excited about what was coming next, and learning songs, and listening to songs and demos.”

So the group pushed, and health-wise and financially, things fell into place. Their debut, Keep It Safe, was released in 2013 by Party Damage Records and re-released in 2014 by Top Shelf Records. The record embodies dream pop at its sweetest—lush and light synth, simplistic drum beats and Sullivan’s harmonized vocals cutting through like beams of light.

“It’s super layered, and I think we did that because we enjoy that style, but also because I don’t think we felt 100 percent confident in all the parts that we made, that they could really stand alone, so we would just layer five different parts on top of each other,” Sullivan said.

Wild Ones have begun work on their forthcoming, yet-to-be-named record. Though only their second record, Wild Ones have their rhythm down in all capacities, specifically with how songwriting is delegated. In their group, everyone gets a chance to have their say with new songs, regardless of who originates the idea. As a result, the band passes demos from hand to hand, going through a couple rounds until everyone’s given their input.

“Thomas and I have been playing in bands since we were about 18 or 19 years old,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been in other bands where there’s one primary songwriter and it’s more that person coming up with 95 percent of the parts. I think that model works really well for some bands, but I think in order for everyone to feel equally invested and excited every time we come up with something new, everybody has to have their part in it. We’re each gonna write our parts, even if it takes 30 times longer to make a record.”

This demoing process has been going on for several months, with intermittent tour excursions. While some bands prefer to hunker down and finish a record in nearly one sitting, Wild Ones seem to thrive off the live-performance test drive of each new song.

“We went on six tours and played I think 95 shows last year, and it informed so much of what works and what doesn’t work in a song.” Sullivan said. “It’s the best sounding board when you’re playing the new song [live] that you think is the best thing you’ve ever done and you look at people’s faces and there’s a certain part of the song where they’re just not engaged and you lose them for a second, or parts where people fully feel in the moment because of some turn in the song. It’s a very good way of weeding out songs that are just not gonna be engaging.”

The level of strength that transpires through their live set is palpable. Aspects of the first record that feel more angelic and airy become more grounded in their live performances, and new songs show definite growth. The synths feel less forward and more textural, while the bass elements and drums seem to darken and drive the songs. Sullivan’s vocals feel less like a falsetto tiptoe and more projected and focused, a conscious choice in her lyrical approach to new songs as well.

“Of course putting out your first record, those were some of the first songs I’d ever written, so I kind of shrouded my meaning in more general themes that I felt like could be understood in many different ways, and on one hand was like, ‘I like that because it’s dream pop and it should apply to many different ideas,’ then realizing I was nervous to say something so clear and direct there was no way to misconstrue what I was trying to say,” Sullivan said. “Writing this record has been going in the opposite direction, thinking, ‘I’m going to do my best to be a good storyteller, and write stories that people can truly understand.’”

“This record has really been trying to make the simplest pop song, that doesn’t need a million different parts and strange key changes or weird 5/4 timing, that it can be direct and confident, and more simple,” Sullivan said.

The release date of the new record is yet to be determined, though you can hear a few live versions of songs floating around online, and catch them at LowBrau on March 10, 2015. Whatever form you hear them in, it’ll be a breath of fresh, focused air.

Check out Wild Ones live (for FREE) at LowBrau on March 10, 2015, as part of Le Twist Tuesdays. LowBrau is located in the MARRS Building at 1050 20th Street in Sacramento. To see what LowBrau has on tap and on their menu, go to Lowbrausacramento.com, and for more about Wild Ones, check out Wildonestheband.com.

With their always impressive eclectic lineup of touring bands and DJs, Le Twist Tuesdays continues to be a driving force in Sacramento’s creative music scene. On any given Tuesday you can head to the corner of K and 20th Streets to LowBrau and, for free, see top-notch national (and sometimes international) electronic/indie live acts alongside local bands and DJs. Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014 will be particularly great as Le Twist hosts the minimal electronic girl/boy duo Xeno and Oaklander, on tour all the way from Brooklyn, N.Y. Their newest album, Par Avion, was released this summer on the wildly popular Ghostly International label. If synthesizer-driven music is something you gravitate toward, you won’t want to miss this show. It gets underway at 9 p.m. and will be hosted by Le Twist residents and local DJs Sam I Jam, Adam J and Roger Carpio. Visit Facebook.com/letwisttuesdays to see the upcoming schedule of performers.

There are a couple of cool things kicking off at Dive Bar (1016 K Street) this month. First up, Le Twist Tuesdays, a new weekly funk/disco/electronic/soul party with DJs Sam I Jam, Adam J and Taylor Cho that starts tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012) at 9 p.m. Then on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 Dive Bar’s free live music series called “Live Free or Dive Sundays” begins with a performance from Adrian Bourgeois at 9 p.m. The following week, Jan. 22, 2012 Mondo Deco will play and the week after that, Jan. 29, Jesi Naomi and the Trippers are up. For more information about Le Twist Tuesdays, Live Free or Dive Sundays or any of Dive Bar’s other events, visit Divebarsacramento.com