Fine Prince’s upcoming EP Lookout, set to release January 22 (produced by Jared Borkowski and Fine Prince), blends sunshiny pop with atmospheric synth effects.
Jamie Henwood (guitar, vocals), defines Seattle’s Fine Prince as a six-piece band of “big group vocal harmonies” giving us “a slightly dancier take on our foggy grey environment.” Henwood is also a member of Seattle’s Colt Kraft Band, whose new album was released last October. See the No Depression article on Colt Kraft here.
“Nostalgia” the third song of six on the EP, clocks in just over three minutes–short and sweet. It starts out in double-time with what appears to be, at first, a fuzzy rock guitar intro, reminiscent of The Knack’s “My Sharona”. Henwood explains the unique sound: “We created the grinding octave beat at the beginning by sampling a Ferrari burnout noise. We stretched it and pitched it to one single note, then built a digital synth with that sound, pitching it up and down the keys so it is a full “keyboard” of Ferrari noises. This was definitely new territory for us, but we got really into programming sounds. All of a sudden, a whole band practice would turn into eating pizza and programming a synth for hours!”
The song morphs into a joyful praise as the lyrics kick in with luscious harmonies, complete with a gospel chorus.
Henwood interprets the song as “…loosely written about how much love, support and talent there is in the local Seattle music community. It’s basically written about our talented friends via a post-apocalyptic flight through space.”
I’ve never seen as many stars as I can see right now
The Planets left us nothing but the memories we have
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
Tonight we ride into the light, collide into the sun
Double up the dosage levels of the oxygen
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah
Although the production of the song veers from the traditional, it still retains its gospel roots.”We used the same concept for the gospel choir – taking a found sound of someone singing “OH YEAH” then pitching it and layering it into oblivion,” Henwood says. The effect is beautiful and uplifting.
The backing percussion and keys also received some tweaking: “We got some nice trap drum sounds using some manipulated 808 and 909 samples on a Roland SPD-SX drum pad. The keys/rhodes sound ended up being a french horn sound on a cheesy yamaha keyboard, then run through a small tube amp. Whatever sounds the best, right?? We play these sounds live using MIDI! All that pizza made it really worth it! :)”
Get happy with the band at their EP release party at Sunset Tavern on Saturday, January 23. Also playing are Sister Girlfriend and The Environment (formerly The Torn ACLs). Music starts at 9pm. Tickets for the show can be purchased through TicketWeb.
They are also playing Timbrrr! Winter Music Fest in Leavenworth, Washington January 29. Buy tickets here.
Pre-orders are available on Fine Prince’s Bandcamp site.
Photo Credit: Grant Robinson
