Jessie Ware
MS MR
Fri, April 5, 2013
Doors: 6:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm
Webster Hall
New York, NY
$20.00
Sold Out
This event is 18 and over
http://www.bowerypresents.com/event/220707/
Share This Event
Jessie Ware
Jessie Ware is a proper pop star. With her soulful, melancholy vocal, effortlessly elegant songwriting skills and, of course, that striking slicked-back hair, she marks a new era for pop. Her outstanding debut album "Devotion" combines the ultra-modern feel of downtempo R&B and British electronic music.
South London born Jessie started singing at school, inspired by the romance of her mother's Frank Sinatra and "Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter" tapes, appearing in musicals and picking up some classical training along the way. Jessie cut her teeth as a vocalist when she wrote the track "Nervous" with SBTRKT. She then hooked up with Sampha, who had also sung on "Nervous," to write "Valentine," one of last year's sweetest tracks, all breathy vocals and beautiful simplicity. Armed with those two songs and riding a growing wave of hype, she was snapped up by brand new British label PMR. With her name on everyone's lips, the time seemed right for an album. But, despite another big guest spot on Joker's "The Vision" and standout vocals on a number of tracks on SBTRKT's debut album, Jessie wanted to make sure she was truly ready to go it alone,
"I wanted to combine electronic with a more classic songwriting," she explains. "I didn't want it to feel too 'of now', so that's why I went back to beats and grooves of things I loved before, like Prince and Chaka Khan and Grace Jones. I wanted to make downer R&B, and songs that are beautiful and bittersweet, like Sade. It was just about mixing it up in the right way."
Her debut album "Devotion" contains that effortless poise within 11 laid-back, soulful pop songs that run the spectrum of sweet and dark. "I feel like I've been allowed to push it with the melodrama," she smiles. "Like [early single] 'Running' was me thinking of Whitney Houston's 'Queen Of The Night' and romantic film scenes from the 80s, where the guy sees the girl at the prom..." The title track, she says, is the first song she wrote with Dave Okumu from the Invisible, who would become a key part of the making of the album. "That's why I wanted the album to be called that, because it's where it started. That's when I felt like a singer, and could express myself in the way that I wanted, with the music I wanted."
The upbeat nu-soul swing of "Sweet Talk" ("one of my favourite songs") is about someone trying to pull you in even though you're trying to stay away, sung with flirtatiousness, but also a hint of danger. "Night Light" may seem dark, with its remarkable and dense shimmering layers and lines about shadows and ghosts, but actually, Jessie says, "the essence of it is very sweet. It's about my boyfriend, and being scared of the dark, and him just... being there."
"Devotion" takes a look at other relationships, too, not just romantic ones. Next single, the tentatively desperate "Wildest Moments," is of particular significance to her. "It's about a tempestuous relationship with my best friend. We love and hate each other. I never fight with anybody more than her. It's about those extremes of being amazing and awful together."
"Taking In Water," meanwhile, all powerful choral melancholy, is a message of support for her younger brother. "I'm proud of that one because it's really emotional. My brother was going through a hard time, and I love him dearly, and we've never been very good at speaking to each other, so I put it in a song. I don't even think he's heard it!"
Pulling it all together with a uniquely Jessie Ware sound were her producers Dave Okumu, Julio Bashmore and Kid Harpoon. "They've been my three people for this album. I like that they all bring something different out in me."
With one of the year's finest albums under her belt, the only way is up for Jessie Ware. "I want to be a pop star, in the classic sense, like Annie Lennox, or Sade, or Whitney," she says. "There's something classy about them. I'm going for the big ones!"
South London born Jessie started singing at school, inspired by the romance of her mother's Frank Sinatra and "Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter" tapes, appearing in musicals and picking up some classical training along the way. Jessie cut her teeth as a vocalist when she wrote the track "Nervous" with SBTRKT. She then hooked up with Sampha, who had also sung on "Nervous," to write "Valentine," one of last year's sweetest tracks, all breathy vocals and beautiful simplicity. Armed with those two songs and riding a growing wave of hype, she was snapped up by brand new British label PMR. With her name on everyone's lips, the time seemed right for an album. But, despite another big guest spot on Joker's "The Vision" and standout vocals on a number of tracks on SBTRKT's debut album, Jessie wanted to make sure she was truly ready to go it alone,
"I wanted to combine electronic with a more classic songwriting," she explains. "I didn't want it to feel too 'of now', so that's why I went back to beats and grooves of things I loved before, like Prince and Chaka Khan and Grace Jones. I wanted to make downer R&B, and songs that are beautiful and bittersweet, like Sade. It was just about mixing it up in the right way."
Her debut album "Devotion" contains that effortless poise within 11 laid-back, soulful pop songs that run the spectrum of sweet and dark. "I feel like I've been allowed to push it with the melodrama," she smiles. "Like [early single] 'Running' was me thinking of Whitney Houston's 'Queen Of The Night' and romantic film scenes from the 80s, where the guy sees the girl at the prom..." The title track, she says, is the first song she wrote with Dave Okumu from the Invisible, who would become a key part of the making of the album. "That's why I wanted the album to be called that, because it's where it started. That's when I felt like a singer, and could express myself in the way that I wanted, with the music I wanted."
The upbeat nu-soul swing of "Sweet Talk" ("one of my favourite songs") is about someone trying to pull you in even though you're trying to stay away, sung with flirtatiousness, but also a hint of danger. "Night Light" may seem dark, with its remarkable and dense shimmering layers and lines about shadows and ghosts, but actually, Jessie says, "the essence of it is very sweet. It's about my boyfriend, and being scared of the dark, and him just... being there."
"Devotion" takes a look at other relationships, too, not just romantic ones. Next single, the tentatively desperate "Wildest Moments," is of particular significance to her. "It's about a tempestuous relationship with my best friend. We love and hate each other. I never fight with anybody more than her. It's about those extremes of being amazing and awful together."
"Taking In Water," meanwhile, all powerful choral melancholy, is a message of support for her younger brother. "I'm proud of that one because it's really emotional. My brother was going through a hard time, and I love him dearly, and we've never been very good at speaking to each other, so I put it in a song. I don't even think he's heard it!"
Pulling it all together with a uniquely Jessie Ware sound were her producers Dave Okumu, Julio Bashmore and Kid Harpoon. "They've been my three people for this album. I like that they all bring something different out in me."
With one of the year's finest albums under her belt, the only way is up for Jessie Ware. "I want to be a pop star, in the classic sense, like Annie Lennox, or Sade, or Whitney," she says. "There's something classy about them. I'm going for the big ones!"
MS MR
Edward Scissorhands. The board game Operation. Sonic Youth. Claudia Schiffer? Plastic monkeys! These are among the pop-culture artifacts that appear in the epilepsy-inducing slideshow video for “Hurricane,” the first single from MS MR. Until recently shrouded in anonymity, the atmospheric indie-pop duo from New York City has proven universally intriguing, earning breathless attention from Pitchfork, Forbes, and Perez Hilton alike.
In the trip-hoppy “Hurricane,” smoky-voiced Lizzy Plapinger sings, “Welcome to the inner workings of my mind/So dark and foul I can’t disguise,” while a push-and-pull of echoey strings and staccato percussion (courtesy of the producer stylings of Ms Mr other half Max Hershenow) envelop her voice. Technically, the song, which hit No. 1 on Hype Machine, is about Hurricane Irene, which careened towards Gotham last year. The video? Not so much.
“I see something different every time I watch it,” concedes Max. “The video is sort of a cross section of the images we've collected on Tumblr, which we essentially use as an ongoing mood board.” If there’s one philosophy driving MS MR (pronounced “miss mister”) —dabblers in chaos theory who’re as goofy as they are thoughtful—it’s media-theorist Marshall McLuhan’s famous observation that the medium is the message. MS MR are so committed to that sentiment they handpicked each “Hurricane” image themselves.
“We’re interested in exploring the nature of mixed media and collage,” says Lizzy, “and how music transcends all these various platforms.” Chief among them: MS MR’s lively—if thoroughly mystifying—Tumblr page, which they unprecedentedly used to debut their second EP, the critically acclaimed Candy Bar Creep Show, song-by-song. (Their first release, Ghost City USA, was a self-released collection of demos.)
The EP, which sets the foundation for MS MR’s still-untitled album (out early next spring), references everything from ’80s to’90s pop, doo-wop to country. That kitchen-sink aesthetic won the attention of vintage-sound wiz Tom Elmhirst (Adele, Amy Winehouse), who mixed and did some additional production on it at the legendary Electric Lady Studios. “Tom helped us more fully realize the album as we imagined it” says Max. “He responds to music more emotionally and viscerally than anyone I’ve ever met. It was the perfect match.”
The aural Jenga that is MS MR was born of Lizzy and Max’s vast inspirations. “We both listen to a lot of different music from all different genres and time periods,” says Max. “So we like to approach each song as its own project and experiment with combining unexpected elements.”
It’s a stroke of serendipity that Lizzy and Max are even making music together. They may giggle uncontrollably and complete each other’s thoughts, but these Vassar alums never really knew each other during college. Lizzy was a media-studies major, releasing records under her burgeoning imprint Neon Gold. (She’s gone on to release records by artists such as Passion Pit and Ellie Goulding.) Max was an urban-studies major with a concentration in modern dance, and started composing music for his choreographies. They met fleetingly through friends. But really connected after they graduated, when Lizzy needed an unbiased sounding board for her secret project, and Max was looking for new artists to collaborate with.
“There was sort of an element of Internet dating to it,” Max says, laughing. “Throw caution to the wind! Send someone an email, hope for the best.” He liked what he heard, which only terrified Lizzy more. “I was nervous because I had never sung in front of anyone before, so when he told me he was interested I actually put it off for a few months.”
They finally connected three months later in December 2010. To find their footing as collaborators, they recorded a sweeping cover of Patrick Wolf’s “Time of My Life” in Max’s closet-turned-studio. Curious to see where else the music could take them, they decided to give it another go and try their hand at some original material. This led to the swelling, mercurial tune we know now as “Bones." "It's quite a personal song and definitely set a tone for the band," says Lizzy. “In person, we're quite upbeat and bubbly, but the music is a much more honest space and outlet for us."
Only now, it’s become public. MS MR finally unveiled their live personae in March with a rocked-out gig at Brooklyn’s respected Glasslands Gallery. "I think people maybe expected two people on stage with a laptop, but we were adamant from the beginning that we would never do that!" says Lizzy. "We wanted the live show to do the recoded tracks justice," continues Max, "so we perform as a band to give it the lushness and energy we aim for while recording." Since their Glasslands show, they’ve moved on to bigger venues while touring with Marina and the Diamonds, an outing they affectionately refer to as their "training-wheels tour.”
“Really,” continues Max, “this whole experience has been about discovering undiscovered parts of ourselves."
In the trip-hoppy “Hurricane,” smoky-voiced Lizzy Plapinger sings, “Welcome to the inner workings of my mind/So dark and foul I can’t disguise,” while a push-and-pull of echoey strings and staccato percussion (courtesy of the producer stylings of Ms Mr other half Max Hershenow) envelop her voice. Technically, the song, which hit No. 1 on Hype Machine, is about Hurricane Irene, which careened towards Gotham last year. The video? Not so much.
“I see something different every time I watch it,” concedes Max. “The video is sort of a cross section of the images we've collected on Tumblr, which we essentially use as an ongoing mood board.” If there’s one philosophy driving MS MR (pronounced “miss mister”) —dabblers in chaos theory who’re as goofy as they are thoughtful—it’s media-theorist Marshall McLuhan’s famous observation that the medium is the message. MS MR are so committed to that sentiment they handpicked each “Hurricane” image themselves.
“We’re interested in exploring the nature of mixed media and collage,” says Lizzy, “and how music transcends all these various platforms.” Chief among them: MS MR’s lively—if thoroughly mystifying—Tumblr page, which they unprecedentedly used to debut their second EP, the critically acclaimed Candy Bar Creep Show, song-by-song. (Their first release, Ghost City USA, was a self-released collection of demos.)
The EP, which sets the foundation for MS MR’s still-untitled album (out early next spring), references everything from ’80s to’90s pop, doo-wop to country. That kitchen-sink aesthetic won the attention of vintage-sound wiz Tom Elmhirst (Adele, Amy Winehouse), who mixed and did some additional production on it at the legendary Electric Lady Studios. “Tom helped us more fully realize the album as we imagined it” says Max. “He responds to music more emotionally and viscerally than anyone I’ve ever met. It was the perfect match.”
The aural Jenga that is MS MR was born of Lizzy and Max’s vast inspirations. “We both listen to a lot of different music from all different genres and time periods,” says Max. “So we like to approach each song as its own project and experiment with combining unexpected elements.”
It’s a stroke of serendipity that Lizzy and Max are even making music together. They may giggle uncontrollably and complete each other’s thoughts, but these Vassar alums never really knew each other during college. Lizzy was a media-studies major, releasing records under her burgeoning imprint Neon Gold. (She’s gone on to release records by artists such as Passion Pit and Ellie Goulding.) Max was an urban-studies major with a concentration in modern dance, and started composing music for his choreographies. They met fleetingly through friends. But really connected after they graduated, when Lizzy needed an unbiased sounding board for her secret project, and Max was looking for new artists to collaborate with.
“There was sort of an element of Internet dating to it,” Max says, laughing. “Throw caution to the wind! Send someone an email, hope for the best.” He liked what he heard, which only terrified Lizzy more. “I was nervous because I had never sung in front of anyone before, so when he told me he was interested I actually put it off for a few months.”
They finally connected three months later in December 2010. To find their footing as collaborators, they recorded a sweeping cover of Patrick Wolf’s “Time of My Life” in Max’s closet-turned-studio. Curious to see where else the music could take them, they decided to give it another go and try their hand at some original material. This led to the swelling, mercurial tune we know now as “Bones." "It's quite a personal song and definitely set a tone for the band," says Lizzy. “In person, we're quite upbeat and bubbly, but the music is a much more honest space and outlet for us."
Only now, it’s become public. MS MR finally unveiled their live personae in March with a rocked-out gig at Brooklyn’s respected Glasslands Gallery. "I think people maybe expected two people on stage with a laptop, but we were adamant from the beginning that we would never do that!" says Lizzy. "We wanted the live show to do the recoded tracks justice," continues Max, "so we perform as a band to give it the lushness and energy we aim for while recording." Since their Glasslands show, they’ve moved on to bigger venues while touring with Marina and the Diamonds, an outing they affectionately refer to as their "training-wheels tour.”
“Really,” continues Max, “this whole experience has been about discovering undiscovered parts of ourselves."
