The Grateful Web's Josh Baker recently had an opportunity to speak to Portland, Oregon based Twisted Whistle about how they became a band, what musical inspirations affected them, their current tour and much more.

GW: So how long have you guys been together for?

Jeff: Almost eight months.

Matt: Thanksgiving is right around a year.

GW: Did you guys all know each other before? Did you play in other bands together?

Kina: Matt and I are married. We’ve known each other for thirteen years… almost. And we knew Dave, his other band Sneakin’ Out hired me to come play cello for their “Sgt. Pepper Project”, they had a chamber ensemble, so that’s how I met him…

At this point a young woman passes us in the street, and tells the band great job. They say thank you, wholeheartedly.

GW: See I’m not the only one.

Laughs.

Kina: So yeah, that’s how I met Dave and then Matt got involved in that the second time those shows came around. And then, when Dave put together a “Dark Side of the Moon” [chamber ensemble], he hired Jeff to sing the lead. We had been rehearsing and we all showed up to rehearsal one day but it was only the four of us that came. None of the other people showed. So we were like, “We don’t need to rehearse ‘Dark Side’”. So we started playing some of our tunes, and before that Dave had already started pickin’ some mandolin with us…

Dave: About exactly a year ago.

Kina: Yeah, yeah, just for fun. And then when Jeff came in we really started pushing it. We flew into tons and tons of gigs immediately.

Matt: It pretty much sounded like that [tonight’s gig] right off the bat.

Laughs.

Matt: It was pretty much just like, “Oh, God. You guys are in my band, so make arrangements. I’m not giving you a whole lot of choice in this”.

Laughs

GW: So how long have you guys, individually, been playing music for?

Dave: I’ve been playing mandolin for about fifteen years, but total I have about thirty-one years in.

Matt: I realized I got over twenty and then stopped counting.

Kina: I’m at a little over twenty. I started piano when I was three, so about twenty three years.

Jeff: About seventeen years.

GW: The first thing that drew me to the band was the harmonies. So out of the “Dark Side” rehearsal, when it was just the four of you, did you realize the blend of your voices was unique?

Kina: Yeah, um, what was the first song we did?

Jeff: It was “Dark Hollow”.

Kina: Yeah it was “Dark Hollow”. That was the first one. And Matt and I had already started doing that song just the two of us when we were playing as a duo.

Matt: And then, actually, Jeff brought it up.

Kina: Jeff was like, “Do you guys know ‘Dark Hollow’”? And we said yeah we had been playing it for a while, so then we just launched into it and his harmony was there immediately. So we knew about the voices almost immediately.

Jeff: And pretty much any song that we all collectively know the harmony is already there. We don’t even have to discuss it. Actually, a good three to five songs we know now were played through gigs, without rehearsal.

Matt: ‘Spoonful” [one of their more groovy covers usually sandwiched between two chunks of ‘New Speedway Boogie’] was actually something I just threw at them during a gig. And by the second chorus they had those harmonies there.

Jeff: And I had never heard it before.

GW: That’s pretty impressive.

Jeff: Well it’s only one word.

Laughs.

Kina: That’s actually a really fun video, I think it’s on youtube somewhere. You can actually see Jeff and I look to each other, and then Matt looks to us and nods and then I look to Jeff and he’s already there.

Laughs.

GW: So you guys obviously play acoustic. What is it about that sound and feeling that you prefer?

Matt (obviously sarcastic): It’s cheap. We can afford the instruments.

Kina: You can do it anywhere. I love playing in the woods. And I think the Twisted Whistle energy really works best in a warm atmosphere, like around a fire, and that’s my favorite place to play. So that’s why I like acoustic instruments best. You can put them anywhere and play anywhere.

Jeff: Best crowds ever.

GW: That’s interesting because one thing I was noticing in there was that you guys can command a crowd. You had people singing the words to songs that weren’t covers, like “Lost Coast Highway”. I saw people walking up and down singing it. So that’s obviously a good thing.

Laughs.

GW: And going off “Lost Coast Highway”, those lyrics are amazing. That’s an original, right?

Kina: Well, that song was actually written by my brother’s best friend when they were in high school. And my brother is eight years older than me and they were in a band and they played that song. And I always remembered it. So when my brother was teaching me how to play the guitar I started playing it. And when I decided that I wanted to bring it to the band, I actually contacted Josh Hanson, who wrote the song, and asked if it was okay to play it. And it never had that bluegrass feel, it was more of a pop kind of thing. But when I brought it to the band it was so obvious [that it needed the change].

GW: So how does your songwriting process work? A lot of it just seems to be there.

Kina: Yeah, well, the music comes very naturally. Everybody is just there, and everybody writes their own parts.

Matt: Somebody brings in a song and we all get giddy and excited like we’re six.

Laughs.

Matt: (Doing an impression) “Oh we can do this, and we can put harmonies here and we can do jazz hands.

David: Most of the originals that we do now, we kind of had built in. (To Kina and Matt) You had those from years before, right?

Kina: Right. Some of them are my brother’s songs. That “Willy Get Your Gun” song [which they performed with gusto and Kina wailed on] is one of the newer ones that I wrote. But, yeah, the songwriting process it’s-

David: (Quietly in the background) There isn’t one yet.

Laughs

Matt: There really isn’t.

Kina: But really what happens, for the songs I’ve brought to the band, I’ll bring it in and then someone will give an idea and then we’ll just fill it in and change it in whatever way. Sometimes I want to do it and change a song one way or the other and everyone says, “No, we don’t have a song that sounds like this. We need to have that feel.” And actually there’s another brand new song that I’m excited to bring. Matt and I played it as a duo at a show the other night, but we haven’t played it as a band yet. But, yeah, the song writing process is very simple. It’s just like, “Here guys!” And everybody says, “Okay!”

David: Write a song, play the song.

Laughs

GW: Sounds difficult.

Laughs.

GW: One thing I really enjoy is that you guys make each song sound so different from the next. There are so many bands that play songs that all sound the same. There’s no real change. So, for you guys, are there certain emotions behind one song that you won’t put behind another?

Matt: Those truths behind a song don’t usually come out until you’ve played it a bunch of times. And it’s happened to me a hundred times where you’ll play a song for years and then you go, oh [light bulb], I get it. Even with originals sometimes you go, “Oh, that’s what I meant. Now I get what I’m saying.”

Laughs.

Kina: I get really caught up and emotional during songs (self-perpetuated laughter). I can’t keep my eyes open and I kind of get lost in it and… I don’t know.  I think we really jive well, the four of us, and we can really move together without ever speaking.

GW: I was noticing that. You had a lot of looks going on stage and you all knew where to be. It’s very cool.

Kina: Yeah, yeah, so I don’t think it’s intentional [the varying emotions]. I think that it’s just… we’re a really diverse band. We can really play any kind of music. I mean we’ve done Pink Floyd, um…

Matt: Snoop.

GW: Yeah if you can make Snoop a little blue-grass then you are on your way.

Kina: Yeah. And then we do “Use Me”, so we got blue-grass, rock and roll, we got some folk. We got all these different things and it just happens that way, you know? We all have just totally different musical tastes, backgrounds, inspirations-

David: We play what we like.

Kina: Yeah, exactly. And I think we become the continuity, not necessarily the genre or the style.

GW: One thing I’ve noticed is that you guys like to play a lot of Dead tunes. What is it about their music that you like playing?

Kina, Jeff, David: (All at once) Matt!

Laughs.

Matt: I’m a life-long Deadhead, so that’s it.

Laughs

Kina: There are also a lot of great harmonies, you know. And it gets people dancing and we, Matt and I, love the Dead so we’ve just been playing that stuff for years.

Matt: And you know, sometimes they fall a little short of kicking it in the ass.

Laughs

Matt: A lot of the Dead songs are songs I’ve always wanted to kick in the ass real hard.

Kina: And it’s fun to do your own thing with them.

GW: Yeah, you guys do a great “New Speedway Boogie”. I like how you sneak “The Other One” in there a little bit, and sometimes you’ll throw some other tunes in there as well. And going off that, you really know how to build your songs, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. Every time I see the band live I think of a rubber band. You build and build but then you bring it back and then you bend it a completely different way without ever letting it break. It’s unbelievable. What do you like about that kind of playing?

Matt: It’s exciting every time. We never get bored.

Kina: (To Jeff and David) Will you guys please talk!

Matt: Yeah, what the fuck?

Laughs.

David: You guys are doing great.

Laughs.

David: Seriously! You guys know the back story, you’re being calm and collective.

Kina: Well I just think that would be a good one for you guys to respond to.

David: What was the question?

Laughs

David: Sorry, I was talking.

GW: I was just saying your songs are different every time. They are constantly changing and you really know how to build them, quite powerfully in fact. What is it that you like about that style?

David: What is it that we like about it?

GW: Yeah.

David: That it’s different every time. It keeps you on your toes.

Matt: That’s exactly what I just said.

Laughs

David: What he said.

Laughs

David: But listen, I would like to say that being from an instrumental band, Sneakin’ Out is all instrumental and I’m kinda up front doing the singing on the mandolin all the time, to be a side guy in a band that’s so rich in vocals… it’s exciting, it’s new, no one else is doing it, you guys got the market as far as the vocals. I mean… (He pauses to give his band mates a round of applause)

Laughs.

GW: And speaking of the vocals, the three of you (Matt, Kina and Jeff) all have unbelievable voices. But Jeff man, what was the third song you sang tonight?

Jeff: “Use Me”.

GW: Yeah, “Use Me”. I’ve seen you guys do it a couple times before and every time you sing it you get me right in the heart. Every time! So do you have a singing background or did you just wake up one morning signing like a bluesman?

David: He’s actually a plumber.

Laughs.

Jeff: I do web development by trade, but I don’t normally do that, but I did go to college for vocal performance and I just got out pretty recently, within the last two years or so.

GW: Where did you go?

Jeff: Linfield College.

GW: Where is that?

Jeff: McMinnville, Oregon.

GW: Very cool

Jeff: But before that I had a woodwind background. From the fifth grade up I played all the woodwinds and that kind of stuff, so it was fun to go into vocals finally. I plan on singing more.

GW: I hope so. The three of you together is earth shattering. It’s ridiculous.

Laughs

But one of the first things I noticed was that Kina, you have a cello instead of a stand up bass or an acoustic bass. What is it you prefer about the cello?

Kina: Um, I play the cello.

Laughs

GW: I guess I kinda deserved that.

Laughs

Kina: But I also think it’s kinda gimmicky, it’s cool. I like that I play an instrument that still has room to be developed. Everything hasn’t been done on the cello. And you know sometimes I’ll even lay down hip-hop beats on the cello just to explore new territory and innovate my instrument. It’s cool to be on an instrument where there is still room to do that.

GW: And you do a great job of making it sound different on each song. Sometimes it is just a bass line plugging away or sometimes… I feel like an idiot because I can’t remember the name of the song you guys do that starts with the cello.

Jeff: “Almost Drowned”

GW: There you go.

Kina: That’s Michael Bigley, my brother, who wrote that song.

David: It’s cool because sometimes you’ll switch to bow and play a higher register part and you [Matt] cover bass with just the bouncin’ finger, you know… so to speak.

Laughs

Jeff: The frolicking finger.

Laughs

GW: So what direction do you see the band going in?

David: East.

Laughs.

Jeff: You’re dealing with a bunch of smartasses.

Matt: We can’t go west so most likely south.

David: Yeah we’re going south.

Laughs

Jeff: I think we haven’t thought about it because we haven’t really cared, because it seems to be doing it for us. It’s like a roller coaster.

Matt: Yeah, we’re just on for the ride.

Jeff: It’s like a fucked up Chia-Pet that you don’t even have to water.

Laughs.

David: One of the keys, and I’m sure of this, is that, with the exception of you [Jeff] just because you’re new period to this social circle, we’re all really good friends. We hang out and party unrelated to music, and then we bring it all to the stage and it’s like built in success.

Kina: You know what I always used to say about Dave, and the other guys as well, is that you’ve got friends who are musicians that you play with and you’ve got friends that you hang out with. But Dave was one of those people that I would just as much like to hang out and jam as I would hang out. So it was always really fun.

Dave: Thanks Kiner.

Laughs.

GW: So I guess my last question is what do you guys enjoy most about the Portland music scene?

Jeff: It’s everywhere. It’s not a being separate from the social scene: it’s a part of it. It’s like the good version on incest, you know what I mean?

Laughs

Kina: I get ya’.

Matt: Portland is one band; it’s called Portland.

GW: That’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s a real community. I just moved out here from L.A. a few months ago, so it’s awesome to see other bands listening to your set and then they go on and you jump in.

David: It’s really great because you can find live music here seven nights a week.

Kina: It’s everywhere.

David: None of it pays but it’s everywhere.

Kina: I always joke around with my friends on facebook and stuff, because there are so many people posting about all these shows and it’s just like, “Hey, I need to not have so many talented fucking friends. There are too many shows! I can’t go to all your shows guys.”

David: And do your own.

Kina: And play my own. What are you supposed to do?

Matt: Every band gets one show every three months.

Jeff: Joint visitation.

Laughs

GW: Well that’s all I have for you guys. Thank you very much.

Portland, Oregon- The Mount Tabor Theater is located in the heart of the Hawthorne district. A place where musicians and fans alike come to celebrate music, culture, or even just the sanctity of being a part of the atypical community that has begun to flower in this calm and receptive state.

Of the Portland music scene, Jeff Hayes, percussionist and vocal extraordinaire for the band Twisted Whistle, says, “ It’s everywhere. It’s not a being separate from the social scene: it’s a part of it.” And that’s exactly what you get when you walk into the Mount Tabor Theater.

Everyone knows everybody else. People talk, friends catch up and everyone else is left buzzing. Those who walk in late are greeted with hugs and unbridled enthusiasm. There is a stack of hula-hoops in the corner, which become very popular the later it gets, and the dance floor is surprisingly spacious. But if dancing and hooping isn’t your thing, there are plenty of stools and benches just waiting to be occupied. So grab a drink and sit, for you are surely about to embark in an enlivening conversation with anyone of these strange and beautiful people.

It’s about 9:30 when Twisted Whistle comes on. They are the first of three bands up tonight, all of who are playing charitably for a local elementary school. The band opens with a much welcome “Viola Lee Blues”. But the heavy chugging of this raucous tune, made famous by the Dead, gets an acoustical and harmony laden facelift courtesy of Twisted Whistle.

I have seen the band play this song at least four times and not only does it improve every time, but it also manages to churn souls in ways I never thought imaginable. The jamming between the endlessly inspiring harmonies also becomes more and more precise and uplifting with every performance, a sure sign that the band is only improving with every trip into the unknown realms of the beat. But judging solely by their performance, not to mention their musicianship, it’s hard to imagine that this band is relatively new.

“We’ve been together about eight months,” says Hayes.

“Thanksgiving is right around a year,” adds Matt Franzen, the group’s second singer and sole guitarist.

The quartet comprised of Hayes, Franzen, cellist/third singer Kina Lyn Muir and mandolin player David Gerow got together when Gerow’s other band, Sneakin’ Out, put together a chamber ensemble for their own version of “Dark Side of the Moon”.

“When Dave put together ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, he hired Jeff to sing the lead,” says Muir. “… And we all showed up to rehearsal one day but it was only the four of us that came. None of the other people showed. So we were like, ‘We don’t need to rehearse ‘Dark Side’’. So we started playing some of our tunes, and before that Dave had already started pickin’ some mandolin with us… And then when Jeff came in we really started pushing it. We flew into tons and tons of gigs immediately.”

But while this eagerness to play may have turned less adventurous musicians away, it only served to solidify what the group already knew. “It pretty much sounded like that [tonight’s gig] right off the bat,” says Franzen on the band’s crisp, unified sound. “It was pretty much just like, ‘Oh, God. You guys are in my band, so make arrangements. I’m not giving you a whole lot of choice in this’”.

The synchronicity of the band’s origins extend further, when during their first jam, Hayes asked Muir and Franzen if they knew the song “Dark Hollow”, a tune they had been working on as a duo for some time.

Muir says, “…so then we just launched into it and his [Jeff’s] harmony was there immediately.”

These facts may seem circumstantial on their own, but when put against the backdrop of this city it is all too understandable. There is a unique bond amongst the people of Portland, all of who are deep in their quest for something different, something that can’t be measured by the digits on a pay stub or the depth of your 401k.

It’s the unspoken thing: the thing that makes it all come together in ways that seem on the verge of serendipity. And it’s comforting because you cannot find this feeling everywhere, so when you do you know you’re in the right place.

“Portland is one band,” says Franzen, “and it’s called Portland.”

“It’s really great because you can find live music here seven nights a week,” says Gerow.

“It’s everywhere,” adds Muir.

“None of it pays,” continues Gerow, “but it’s everywhere.”

And with so much music readily accessible to whoever wants it, it’s no wonder Twisted Whistle always tries to keep things fresh with rotating set lists, unique jams specific to each performance and an unbeatable amount of down to earth soul.

“I get really caught up and emotional during songs,” says Muir, whose cello adds an even deeper touch of ingenuity to the band. “I like to play an instrument that still has room to be developed. Everything hasn’t been done on the cello.”

And it’s this kind of thinking that keeps the Whistle blowing.

“I think we really jive well, the four of us, and we can really move together without ever speaking,” Muir says.

And a band that recognizes the existence of the unspoken has only one direction to go, “East,” says Gerow.

“We can’t go west so most likely [we’re going] south,” chimes in Franzen.

“You’re dealing with a bunch of smartasses,” adds Hayes.

But all kidding aside, Twisted Whistle seems to be the epitome of the musical spirit that glides through this town. A band rich in vocals, lined with a fierce mandolin, a crisp and astute guitar, some plugging cello and the steady beat of a drum. And while their personalities are a reflection of their music, it is their readiness to play and explore the overflowing fields of sound that drives them towards a harmonious future.

“I think we haven’t thought about it [the future],” says Hayes, “… we haven’t really cared because it seems to be doing it for us. It’s like a roller coaster.”

“Yeah,” says Franzen, “we’re just on for the ride.”

“It’s like a fucked up chia-pet that you don’t even have to water,” finishes Hayes.

Truer words were never spoken.

Purposefully unclassifiable and borrowing from predecessors such as Pink Floyd, The Flaming Lips and, as odd as it may appear, Neil Young, Younger Brother’s latest, entitled Vaccine, is a sure fire testament to the heights the band will achieve in the coming months and hopefully years.

Younger Brother, a collective brainchild of artists Simon Posford, Benji Vaughn and recently singer Ru Campbell, loads the album with nine emotionally and rhythmically admirable tracks, clocking in at a concise and quite seamless fifty-two minutes of tasteful and enjoyable talent.

They start the album off with the track “Crystalline”, which begins with what seems to be heavy, electronic footsteps set to the beat of the heart and slowly builds into an unstoppable, psyche probing wavelength that transitions and flows through the entire album.

This first track, possibly the least emotionally powerful of the bunch, hits notes of success but eventually falls into the trap of a heavy but well intentioned play off of The Flaming Lips and Coldplay, especially Campbell’s annunciation and obvious homage to Lip’s lead singer Wayne Coyne. And while this problem seems pervasive throughout the album, not solely in Campbell’s singing but rather the already treaded path taken by the aforementioned predecessors, Vaccine truly takes off when the group focuses on their own originality and leaves what other bands have done in the past behind.

They achieve this with great success in three subsequent tracks; “Pound a Rhythm”, “Safety in Numbers” and “Night Lead Me Astray”, with all three showing the prowess and exemplary skill this group possesses without having to rely on the musicians and beats that have come before them.

Campbell’s voice shines in each of these tracks, his range remarkable and unwavering, and his style his own and very welcoming.

“Pound a Rhythm” features some eclectic and groovy, needless to say, rhythms and breakdowns and is lyrically inspiring and driven. “Lost in myself trying to sing my song…” is just an example of the heady and imagination, curdling prose the band throws at the listener all the while entwined in a trance-inducing beat.

Where Vaccine really takes its stride is in the pacing. Each song seems a part of the next, not in a round a bout way, but more to the affect of each song being a relative to the next, the same bloodline flowing throughout.

“Safety in Numbers”, in all its glorious weirdness, is perhaps the most accessible and “entertaining” of the group. Lined with a simple yet effective riff that carries through the track and leads succinctly to the inspiring chant the song is based off of, “Safety” is a perfect example of the growth the band will achieve and is also the track that will inspire listeners to seek Brother’s tour dates, as live, they will surely blow more than a few minds.

The final song, “Tetris”, is a sort of march or ode to the previous fifty-odd minutes of musical extravaganza. Beautifully uplifting and perfectly supplied with heart and emotional connectivity, “Tetris” is the only way they could end such an odyssey: with gusto and soul.

Click here to learn more to purchase the album.

The band formerly known as 50 Cent Haircut who, after some confusion with a particular rapper sharing two-thirds of the same name, decided a change would be beneficial, now enter the world and hopefully its consciousness as Patrolled By Radar, and bring with them a fantastically sublime new album Be Happy.

Steeped in a multitude of genres, all of which sound unique and unmatched, and layered with unwavering grace, Be Happy is a rare album that not only makes the listener feel good about what is transpiring in their ears but also tells an important and hopeful tale about life, love and happiness in these unrelentingly confusing times.

Comprised of five first-rate musicians Jay Souza, Bryan Coulter, Bryan Stone, Bosco Sheff and Ben Johnsen, Patrolled By Radar is a band surely making a name for them self by being honest in their rhythms and passionate in their words.

Be Happy begins with “Widow Next Door”, a fun and jaunty piece of work detailing the protagonist’s burgeoning attraction to, yes, the widow next door. It is fun, loose material with a great beat that is impossible not to bounce your head or tap your foot to, and backed by dazzling backup vocalists as inspired as the musicians.

The whole album pays tribute to each member’s respective skills and also the quintet’s almost inherent ability to play as a cohesive unit. But it is Jay Souza’s raspy and worn in voice that carries throughout the whole journey. His is a soul ridden display of harmonic honesty not just spouting empty words, but laying out passages of a well lived life.

Each track is well versed in instrumentation, bringing in various tools such as harmonicas, pedal steel guitars, heavy almost cowboy picking acoustic guitars and even a full-swinging brass band. From this, and more, it is apparent these are old souls supplied with grit and brimming with wisdom.

“Coat of Disappointment”, the fifth track on this unrelentingly quality album, is extremely well put together and powerful in its mask of simplicity.

What is most striking about Be Happy, as a whole, is its truth. There is no other way to put these songs together and no other way to play them, so it leaves the listener without the recent phenomenon of questioning the music and seeking alternatives in a similar vein. It simply is. And that is as rare as it is beautiful.

The title track, “Be Happy”, contains lyrics and themes that flow through the whole album, a self contained ode to it all.

If there was ever a song whose title provides the listener the same feeling after which the track in named, it is “Walking”. The thumping bass line of footsteps provides the ground floor and the light and easy, but nevertheless prevalent electric guitars are the swinging legs landing succinctly and solidly on the aforementioned grounding the bass provides.

“New Fight Song”, a balls out rock-n-roll song is a perfect upbeat and grooving ending to this already stellar fare. It transitions half way through to a bluesy breakdown, like wandering through the Old West then suddenly transporting you back to the bustling, rocking streets of now, and it is here we make our stay and come to the realization that an album like this is rare and should be relished in all its glory.