AP’s Hannah Lowry got a chance to chat with Ariel of Ariel + the Undertow as well as Chris North after their show at the Middle East on March 19th. Check out her review here.

—

Interview with Ariel and the Undertow

Hannah Lowry: You guys have a really interesting sound. I thought I figured everything out, then the song changed and I got thrown off. So where’d your inspiration come from?

Ariel: Okay so it’s a bit of a three way intersection between old folk from the ‘60s and ‘70s, 1930s jazz and 70s rock.

So you said you’re from around here, do you tour around here? Have you done bigger tours?

Ariel: Yeah we did a national tour last year, but lately it’s just been a lot of local shows, kind of around here. We just put out a record in January, so right now we’ve just been sort of building. We started playing just a few venues and are slowly circling out. Particularly we’ve been opening for Mac Demarco and Calvin Love.

You also have a great singing voice, when did you start singing and writing?

Ariel: Thank you! I grew up in a really musical family. When I was in a baby, my mom would just put me in the middle and they’d just all sing, and I think I absorbed a lot of it. But I seriously started singing when I was 15. I was in this intensive jazz program in high school. After 4 years, I stopped and didn’t play any music for about 8 years, and then I got back into it. And that’s when I really started writing.

So when did the band form?

Ariel: Well the band has just been evolving. I put this record out in January, and up until that point, I’d been going under my own name, Ariel Reuben, and I sort of re-routed the project with the band and these guys started playing with me. It’s been growing, then I played with these guys. They’re great fun.

Last question, with your sound, if you could open for one band, who would it be?

Ariel: Ah okay that’s so hard- can I do top three? I’d have to say Fiest, Wilco and Bright Eyes.

///

Interview with Chris North

Hannah Lowry: So I noticed you played a lot of covers tonight. I really enjoyed that, but what do you think your audience thinks?

Chris: Well, I don’t know, I think that I should get to play what I want. I mean, DJs do it, so why can’t I? I think people love DJs so much because they have access to all this great music, and I figured, why can’t I do that?

What’s your favorite group or songwriter?

Chris: Will Oldem is probably my favorite of all time. But I think I should mention Jason Melina, who just passed away. He’s one of the best songwriters of all time. Yeah, I saw him here, I saw him at TTs, I think he just deserves a lot of attention.

When did you start and where did your inspiration come from?

Chris: Well I guess it sorta came from college. I mean I was in college up until 2007, and it was just in college that I started to get exposed to things, like I said, Will Oldem, Jason Melina. Some older stuff, like the songwriters our parents grew up with. I mean I just raided my friend’s parents’ record collections; we’d just get them for free. Then, you know, I got out and lived outside of Boston and just, you know, Boston is a great music city.

Here you are now! Do you like touring?

Chris: Yeah, yeah. I kind of just came up here to do a few shows. I did touring with another band for about 6 weeks. I’m not on the road all the time, I’m just getting back into it. Dealing with drunk people sucks.

You mentioned dolphins during the show, so what’s your favorite animal?

Chris: Oh, my favorite animal? Oh wow, I have been thinking about that. I don’t know, I’m not so much into marine life, wild mammals, of all sorts though. Otters, river otters.

Awesome, great choice. Okay, so last question. You sang “Stone Walls” and you talked about crying in your introduction to the song, does that song have a serious meaning for you, or was it just nostalgic? Was it hard for you to play it here tonight?

Chris: I haven’t played that song in a long time because it’s from an old record. It’s from a song I played with Point North, so I just hadn’t played it for a long time. So to play it, I just didn’t expect it, I couldn’t even do it. It was hard to do it tonight, the initial burst was tough but once I got over it, it was good. It was good to play it again.