Via Audio
management: Caleb Palma & Bob Andrews
booking: Matt Mentele / Hello! Booking
record label: Undertow Music Collective
links: website | myspace | facebook | twitter | wikipedia
The adage of too many cooks spoiling the broth can be universally applied on a number of levels, particularly in artistic relationships, where, for example, too many musicians’ egos clash during the writing and recording of an album. But in the case of New York-based indie rock outfit Via Audio, having three-fourths of the band penning material for its SideCho debut album, Say Something, has only made a great collection of tracks even greater.
Drummer Danny Molad, vocalist/guitarist Jessica Martins, guitarist Tom Deis and bassist David Lizmi discovered each other as musical kindred spirits while at college in Boston back in 2003. Within a year, the band had begun performing locally, and its self-titled EP became their calling card. In mid 2005 the band began work on a new album, but the album fell victim to hard drive failures and sporadic recording schedules. It was during this time though that Via Audio began generating attention from some highly established indie rock peers. Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla fell in love with the group after stumbling across their MySpace profile. Being dubbed Walla’s “favorite new band” in Under The Radar was a giant boost to the band’s confidence, but it was admiration from another high-profile peer that would eventually lead to the completion of Say Something.
“Jessica went to a Spoon show, and she went up to Jim (Eno) and was like, ‘Hey, we’re in a band and here’s our CD,’” says Lizmi. Before too long, Eno had taken a specific interest in the group, plenty enough to make a considerable effort to produce the outfit. “We were on tour in the West Coast and he flew out to San Francisco just to see us.” After the concert Eno proposed a deal that the band could not turn down. He invited the group to his Austin studio to help the band record a new album agreeing to only get paid if/when the band got signed.
Via Audio spent two weeks in Austin with Eno, recording the remainder of the album as efficiently as possible to ensure that it would be completed on schedule. In fact, because of the band members’ engineering skills, Eno and the band would often be simultaneously working on the same album. “In one room, Jim would be mixing and in the other room, we would be recording,” says Lizmi.
Say Something was released in September of 2007 on Sidecho Records (US) and Kurofone Records (Japan). Via Audio has spent the time since touring with White Rabbits, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Tally Hall, Modern Skirts, Ha Ha Tonka and others, including a short string of shows in Japan supporting Spoon.
