Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"...[i]magine [a]sians make indie-minded pop that ranges from gentle, paintive songs of yearning to exuberant, nearly uncontainable bursts of melody. Rich with a sweeping palette of instrumentation, they're sweet and fun and lovely all at once." - The Nashville Scene
For a fairly new band, Imagine Asians have seen an unusual amount of local succes, due in part to their connections with art-rockers De Novo dahl. But the Asians' early recordings suggest an ability to become a major power in their own right. Expect to hear their lush, well-layered pop arrangements in the vein of the Beatles and Beach Boys around more often.
Speaking: Jeff Carney
When peple ask you what imagine asians sounds like, what do you tell them?
It's a difficult question. We have similar broad tastes, but eveybody brings their own niche. There's a lot of freedom in the band; everybody kind of brings [seperate] parts and eventually [many of these things] get incorporated to the point where it's difficult for us to describe the sound. But to answer the question, I just say it sounds like the Beach Boys.
How did the band get together?
Rod and I had a studio project called The Teddy Bear Club with Joey and Derek from De Novo Dahl and as they got busier and busier, we had less time to work on it. Rod and I were very antsy to play, so we started this.
How did you come up with the name?
It's actually kind of a secret. I'm the only person who knows where it came from.
Fair enough. The band began recording before you played out very much; why was that?
We played with De Novo Dahl first at a place called The Long Hollow Jamboree. It was this square-dancing place you could rent out for a hundred bucks. There were kids we didn't know who were coming up, asking if we had a CD for sale, so we said, 'We should probably get something recorded.' What was supposed to be a two-week recording project became a six-and-a-half month recording project.
What are your plans for the next few months?
We want to... do more extensive outside touring. We're gonna release our [self-titled] CD in June. We actually have discussed a couple of things. We're going to quickly record a single that we may try to release pretty soon -- maybe a 45 with just 3 songs. Then we're going to go into the studio with Derek Sandidge [of De Novo Dahl] and get a full-length album done. We want to get that out pretty quick. We write a lot, and we don't want to sit on the music for too long.
~by Will Ayers
- The Nashville City Paper
"[i]magine [a]sians are quite skilled at layering unusual instruments and found sounds on top of welcoming backdrops; as a result their music is at once dreamy and eye-opening." - The Nashville City Paper
Discography
imagine asians-s/t 2005: This six track EP is imagine asians' first release. Recorded by Jeffery Neutron, Rodger Kelly and Philip Hood, songs from the disc may be heard and downloaded on the band's myspace page (www.myspace.com/imagineasians). The EP is available at many major online retailers (target.com, amazon.com, cdbaby.com) and soon-to-be available in select independent record stores across the United States.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
imagine asians is a labour of love for Nashville, TN native Jeffery Neutron, who began writing songs with his friend Rodger Kelly in 2001 as a hobby. By the year 2003, however, Jeffery and Rodger had produced quite a catalogue of songs, and had developed an itch to play their songs in front of an audience, thus imagine asians was formed.
In late 2005, after a difficult few months, Rodger and several of the original members chose to pursue other outlets, leaving Jeffery with a choice to make: abandon the project or pour his heart more thoroughly into it? It didn't take long to make the right decision. Jeffery maintained the project he began, immediately entering the studio with Joel J. Dahl (of Roadrunner Records' pop-stunners De Novo Dahl) to record the first imagine asians full-length album 'We Are the Future', commissioning some of the finest players in the exciting Nashville rock/ pop movement as the studio band. The album is tentatively scheduled for a late spring 2007 release.
and now a more poetic description:
imagine asians’ blissful and lush arrangements bring feelings of childlike innocence. Steel guitars, horns, children’s toys, old upright pianos, banjos, analogue and digital synthesizers and many other instruments colour the primarily pop sound of imagine asians. Courting influences ranging from Beachwood Sparks' 20th Century tribute to the Byrds to Brian Wilson and his Beach Boys, imagine asians sound nothing short of dreamy and nostalgic; exciting and original. Their self-titled EP will leave its listeners thirsty for more of the sound that is certain to captivate many people in the years to come. The upcoming record 'We Are the Future' was recorded in the hopes of further developing this feeling.
imagine asians organise sounds that promote certain memories, emotions and bring new ideas to mind. The members share a hope that their music may bring colour to strange and dull days and some ease to the restless mind.
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imagine asians facts:
imagine asians has seen success in building an excited and devoted fanbase in their hometown of Nashville, TN as well as some national and worldwide success through various Internet outlets.
It has been said that imagine asians is the next band to watch by many Nashvillians in-the-know (including nearly every major Nashville newspaper). The band has played numerous sold-out shows at many of Nashville’s major venues, as well as having seen some early success outside of Nashville as the band begins to tour the Southeast.
imagine asians were added on regular rotation to Nashville’s two CMJ reporting stations: 91.1 WRVU and 88.3 WTMS. They have also been added to several jukeboxes in many high traffic college student hangouts.
imagine asians has shared bills with many high-profile indie acts including Roadrunner Records' recording artists, De Novo Dahl; Geffen Recording artists The Pink Spiders, and FatCat artists Nina Nastasia and Tom Brosseau, among many others.
Links
