The Essex Green write finely crafted songs in the tradition of 60s and 70s pop and folk acts. Although iconic groups such as The Byrds, Simon & Garfunkel and the Mamas and the Papas are influences, The Essex Green’s sound is not solely revivalist. Nostalgia does color their bright, melodic neo-psychedelic songs, but The Essex Green also shares common ground with contemporaries such as Beulah, The Magnetic Fields, The Shins, or Apples in Stereo.
Their most recent full-length record, Cannibal Sea (Merge), is their most cohesive effort yet, drawing from the efforts of all three principal songwriters, Chris Ziter (vocals/guitar), Sasha Bell (vocals/keyboard), and Jeff Baron (guitar).
I recently spoke with fellow name-twin Sasha Bell about her songwriting process, her inspiration behind Finishing School, touring with Camera Obscura, the ephemeral nature of iPods, her love of the new Shins album and, of course, Kelly Clarkson. I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t love “Since U Been Gone.”
Sasha Bell: (Picks up the phone) Wow, the 607 area code. Is that Ithaca? Beacuse I’m from Cooperstown, which is also 607. So that’s pretty cool!
Popcorn Youth: Is your family coming out to the show?
Sasha Bell: Yes, my dad is driving from Cooperstown, he’ll be there. My dad is really excited because he hates New York City, and he’s never been to visit me because he hates it so much. He’s always wanted us to play Upstate, so finally we are.
Popcorn Youth: Were you ever in bands in the Upstate area when you lived here, growing up?
Sasha Bell: No, actually. I graduated from high school and then moved and went to college. I was in the high school marching concert band, but nothing cool. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: How has the touring been going? It’s looks like you’ve been pretty busy.
Sasha Bell: Yeah it’s been an incredible year. We’ve been to Europe I think three times just in 2006. In 2007, we did the Camera Obscura tour, which was really cool, because we were playing excellent venues every night.
Popcorn Youth: How do you feel about playing college shows?
Sasha Bell: College shows can be really great or really weird or some combination thereof. Sometimes they’re great because a lot of people come out and it’s really fun and an alternate venue and people are really enthusiastic and really psyched to host you. And sometimes nobody comes, and it’s just the handful of kids who put on the show and they get their private show, which is kind of cool too. I’m sure if I were in college and I brought a band and I saw them play, I’d be totally pscyhed too. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just it’s really unusual for us. We’re not used to playing in a tiny room full of people.
At the end of January/February tour, we played at this college outside of Philadelphia, a small Baptist college. It was really funny because they had this big student union room, with tables and chairs and a cafeteria, and we played in the room off the cafeteria. It was kind of neat, because it was a very small school, so when there’s an event like that, a lot of people come out even if they have no idea who we are. (Laughs) But of course the place could always clear out after the first few songs, because some kids won’t be into it. (Laughs) But it was really fun.
Popcorn Youth: How important is the audience in determining if you have a really good show?
Sasha Bell: To me, it makes a huge difference, it really does. One of the great things about the January/February dates is that I really felt that it was our audience, you know? Because sometimes you go in the opening slot on a tour, and you’re just not that sure about how you’ll be received, because the audience is there for the headliner. But on this tour, there were a lot of our people in the audience, or if people hadn’t heard of us, they were really into it. And you can just really feed off of that on the stage. It makes a huge difference for me.
Popcorn Youth: What would make a good Essex Green opening band?
Sasha Bell: Generally, I don’t like anything that would be too loud or too discordant, because it’s ot really the kind of music I like to listen to before I go on stage. Usually we get really great opening bands.
Popcorn Youth: What is your favorite part about performing live?
Sasha Bell: On tour, it’s great because you can perfect parts over the course of the tour, or you can try something new if it’s a song that you’ve been playing for a while. You can try playing a different part to a certain extent. But in the studio, you only have a few takes and a few tries to get it, and then it’s down, that’s it, that’s what goes down on the album, and that’s what people hear. So a lot of the time, when we record, we haven’t yet played those songs on a tour. We make up the parts in the studio, and then go out on tour and play all those songs. Sometimes it’s like, “Oh man, my part that I’m playing on tour is so much better than my part that I played when we recorded!” Sometimes you get kinda regretful. But you get a chance to be really good when you’re on tour to perfect a song.
Popcorn Youth: Someone once asked you what makes a really good pop song, and you said, “If it makes my mom dance.”
Sasha Bell: (Laughs) Did I say that? Yes.
Popcorn Youth: Specifically, what are the important elements of a good pop song that you think about when you’re writing for The Essex Green?
Sasha Bell: Well, melody and hooks are the big thing for me. When I’m writing a song, it’s usually the hook that comes out first for me. Or a good chorus will come out for me, and then I’ll build a verse around it. So that’s really important to me. And as I get older, I try to come up with new ways of writing songs. I think the rhythm is much more important to me as I age as a musician. It can be frustrating. When I’m writing a song, sometimes I can’t concoct the rhythms in my head. I put out a side project, Finishing School, a few years ago, and I recorded all the demo stuff, just the click tracks. And then I took it to my friend Sean, who put all the drum tracks down, and it radically altered the feelings of the songs. He just made it all up, I gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted. I should go out and learn how to use a drum machine. (Laughs) Our drummer is from North Carolina, and I can’t really go and practice with him too easily.
Anyway, the point that I’m trying to place a higher priority on rhythm, because I’m finding that rhythm can inspire interesting melodies that wouldn’t come to me otherwise. And sometimes I sit down at the piano, and I play the same chords without even thinking about it. And I’m trying to write and it’s really frustrating. It’s hard sometimes to break sometimes out of your comfort zone.
Popcorn Youth: Does it help to listen to bands that sound completely different from The Essex Green to help you break out of that comfort zone?
Sasha Bell: Yes, definitely. And again, that’s how it helps with the rhythmic ideas. I try to listen to music that doesn’t really sound like us.
Popcorn Youth: What would you say is the most common misconception about The Essex Green?
Sasha Bell: A lot of the time, people think we’re a side project, still, after all these years. That’s frustrating, because it’s most definitely not a side project. We all pour so much time and love and effort into The Essex Green. At one point, Jeff [Baron, the guitarist] and I were playing in another band, Ladybug Transistor, and that also took a lot of time. But I’ve never considered The Essex Green a side project. At other points, there have been other bands of his that I’ve played in that were more successful, and there are points where I’ve played with other projects, but my heart’s always been with The Essex Green. That’s one thing that I do think is a big misconception.
Popcorn Youth: What drives you to pursue other projects?
Sasha Bell: Originally, it’s just sort of the way it all happened. I was playing in two bands, it just happened to be like that. I was asked to be in two bands, so I just did. And then the Finishing School record was born of having a really prolific period of songwriting, and I thought it would be an interesting challenge to just put a bunch of songs out on my own, and do it myself. If I had the songs now, I would love to put out another Finishing School record, but I’ve never been able to equal that peak period of songwriting. Maybe someday. (Laughs)
Popcorn Youth: There are three of you that all write songs for The Essex Green. What is the difference between a style and an aesthetic? How does the final product come together when the three of you are all contributing songs?
Sasha Bell: I think we all share a similar aesthetic, which I think enables the three different songwriters to come together and make a cohesive body of songs, a cohesive record. I think we all have our subtle differences, definitely Chris can sometimes write very theatrically. Jeff lately has been writing folk and country-oriented songs. Me, I don’t know. I should be able to describe my style, but actually it’s hard. (Laughs) We all have our little differences.
Popcorn Youth: Do all three of you live in Brooklyn?
Sasha Bell: Actually, Chris lives in Ohio. He moved to Cincinnati last year to live with his fiance.
Popcorn Youth: What is it like being a musician and a music lover and living in NYC?
Sasha Bell: Well, New York is so great because every band passes through New York City. If you’re really into going out and seeing shows, you could go out every night of the week, not that I do. (Laughs) I don’t go out that much, because for me, when I tour a lot I have less desire to go out and spend the night at a club and wait up until midnight to see a band play. I have less interest to do that than I used to. But there’s a huge musical community here, and you can tap into that if you want, or you can do your own thing if you want. I’ve been through different phases. I’ve lived here 10 years, and for the first two-thirds of my time here in New York, I was more tapped into the scene and going out more and playing with different musicians. But now we mostly just have our own little Essex Green nucleus, so we’re sort of doing our own thing, mostly, I find. Jeff plays with a lot of different people, actually. He stays really busy, but I just more play music on my own and record at home.
Popcorn Youth: Do you tend to stay in Brooklyn to see a show, or would you go out into Manhattan for a show as well?
Sasha Bell: I would, but I’m so lazy right now. (Laughs) I live right on the border of Williamsburg, so of course going out to Williamsburg to see a show is the best situation for me. (Laughs) I prefer to stay in the scene of my own neighborhood. Also, no musicians live in Manhattan. Everyone lives in Brooklyn, and that’s just a practical thing.
Popcorn Youth: Since The Essex Green formed in the late 90s, how have you seen your reception and audience change?
Sasha Bell: Our following has grown, the longer we’ve been around. It’s pretty gratifying because I feel like you could have reverse trajectory, or you could just plateau for the last five years, but one of the things that keeps us going is that our audience gets bigger. And we can make better and better records, and we just keep getting prouder of each successive record that we put out. And I think we’re better technically, spiritually wiser in the studio, we’re just better and I think people like us more because we’re a better band.
Popcorn Youth: Do you think that there are movements like the Elephant 6 Collective that exist today, or groups of musicians that have a similar sense of community?
Sasha Bell: Well, we’re not a part of this scene per se, but the freak folk scene seems to have a lot of people moonlighting in each other’s bands and playing in each other’s records, that kind of thing. That is definitely something that is sort of similar.
Popcorn Youth: Why do you think these kind of communities are more likely to form within underground and indie scenes rather than mainstream music?
Sasha Bell: Well, it’s not a mainstream sound at all. If you listen to Top 40 radio, they have hardly anything in common with indie music. The way that the music industry and the radio industry has evolved, there’s no room for experimentation on Top 40 radio, and experimental DJs on the radio are a dying breed. But Top 40 radio listeners might actually love a lot of indie music, but they don’t know how to find it. There’s just so much music out there these days, and so much of it is accessible, more so than ever, what with going online and internet radio and all that, but it takes a lot of effort to find music you like.
Popcorn Youth: What are some of the best pop acts around today?
Sasha Bell: When you tour with a band, you get to know them pretty well, you get to analyze their records and their live music and then you get to know them as people. We toured with the Swedish band the Shout Out Louds about a half a year ago and they just personify a perfect pop band to me. They’re really fun to watch, they write great songs, they have a great record, and they’re just fun people to be around. They’re enthusiastic and artistic — they’re one band that I’ve really grown to love.
Popcorn Youth: A lot of critics like to apply the adjectives “springy” or “summery” to the Essex Spring. Why does that happen?
Sasha Bell: I think it’s really easy to do that with pop music in general. I mean, no one says, “This is great winter pop music!” No one says that. It’s always, “Oh, this sounds like summer.” So to me, it just sounds like a bit of cliché. I really don’t take it too seriously. Like, “Autumn doldrums pop music”? No one says that!
Popcorn Youth: So what else do you guys have planned for this year? Another record coming up?
Sasha Bell: Yeah, I think that’s the main idea for 2007. We’re going to play on the west coast for a week in April, too. I think all of us are trying to write songs, and we’d like to get a record started sometime this year, at least. (Laughs) That’ll be with Merge [Records] too. It’s hard though with Chris in Cincinnati, and we’ve cycled through a zillion different drummers with the band, and we have a drummer right now that we just adore, but he lives in North Carolina. So to get us all together is a bit of a project. We cant just be like, “Yeah, let’s get together Saturday night and go over this new song.” Jeff and I can do that though.
Popcorn Youth: Has The Essex Green always been spread out like this?
Sasha Bell: Well, since Chris moved, yes. It has kinda been like that. We had a drummer in New York for a while but he’s sort of taking time off from touring right now. He was the drummer for Lambchop, so I think he’s taking a break from playing. It’s hard to operate like that though.
Popcorn Youth: And finally, your favorite releases of 2006 and 2007?
Sasha Bell: Well, let’s see. I got The Shins record the other day. I really like it, I seem to be the only person who likes it. (Laughs) I guess I read a lot of negative reviews, but I’m into it. I don’t buy a lot of new releases per se, I did hear a great single the other day by this Swedish singer-songwriter called Lonely Dear.
I go on YouTube to listen to stuff, but I buy CDs. I don’t use iTunes. It’s so easy to download from the Apple store, but I like to have something physical. I just feel like it’s spiritually cheap to just pay 99 cents for a song, you know what I mean? I think it’s a good way to just check out somebody’s album before you go buy it and then spend fifteen bucks, but I don’t know. I just walk around and buy used CDs from stores.
Popcorn Youth: You can pay a buck or two more, and have a jewel case and liner notes in your hand.
Sasha Bell: I know! It’s so ephemeral to me. All of a sudden, you have a file on your computer! And anything could happen to your computer! (Laughs) I don’t know, to me, it just doesn’t seem real almost. You could drop your iPod and completely screwed. (Laughs) The only thing I’ve bought on iTunes, and this is really weird, but I was in my kickboxing class the other day, and that Kelly Clarkson song “Since U Been Gone” was playing. And I was totally into it, like, “This is the greatest song!” I guess my perceptions get all out of whack when I’m at the gym sweating and it’s playing at top volume. But I really got into it and I wanted to go home and, like, analyze it and figure out the songwriting. It’s a good song, and when you’re working out at the gym, it’s even better.
The Essex Green will play with RaRaRiot on Saturday, March 10 at the Appel Commons on the Cornell campus.