Pablo
New York City, New York, United States | SELF
Music
Press
"New York band Pablo's release is one of the most honest and personal albums of 2006. Led by Paul Schalda, this album is an auto-biographical view of the world that could be just about anyone's experience dealing with every-day worries and routines. Schalda's distinct and heart aching voice bring out the kind of emotion you immediately identify with and can't ignore." - NPR
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A fallout with his brother, separating from his wife and trying to get back in the groove of writing music could have given St. George's Paul Schalda some particularly powerful muses or insurmountable peaks.
"There's Rope To Leave," the songwriter's new and varied effort, seems like the result of the former, regardless if its title is referring to a noose.
The self-released album's single, "Morning" -- with its relentless kick drum, percussive acoustic strumming and spare but effective bass lines from Budos Band's Daniel Foder -- showcases a bigger, more angsty venue for Schalda's personal songs. The chorus boasts what Schalda does best: Gorgeous, thickly layered harmonies over yawning progressions.
Schalda and his collaborators sing, "It's not like it's hard at all, to get a read on you." Is he trying to diffuse the fight, or start it? Sometimes it's hard to tell. (Recorded at the famed Levon Helm Studios upstate, Schalda's resonant, unique vocal don't always offer up intelligible lyrics.)
One thing seems to be clear: Where debut album "Half The Time" was subdued and beautiful, with the songwriter living in the sound of his own voice, the sometimes strangled vocal bursting forth on "There's Rope To Leave" is fighting to exorcise its demons. That Schalda has worked out his differences with his brother is good news, because Will Schalda's piano on this record often brings it to a better place, along with Justin Guip's strong choices behind the drum kit.
Early tunes like "Hey Luci" can feel forgettable, but "If By Up I Mean..." is hair-raisingly gorgeous in harmony and surprising in structure, and from the near-silent touch of piano and acoustic guitar to the slamming, stomping, screaming release, it is perhaps the album's best track.
Not everything on this new effort draws you in, but when he's on, Paul Schalda makes your jaw drop. - Staten Island Live
The second album from these scruffy New York indie rockers has a pleasingly loose, homespun quality—songs don’t start so much as lurch into life, jump-started by frontman Paul Schalda’s quirky, half-swallowed vocals and spindly acoustic guitar riffs. But beneath their unkempt surfaces, Schalda’s songs teem with all sorts of tasty power-pop nooks and crannies. “Holy Whore” builds to a chorus of crashing cymbals and falsetto harmonies; “Morning” rides a sparse, Spoon-like groove to an unexpectedly raucous outro. Much credit must go to the forceful yet melodic piano of Schalda’s brother William and a crack rhythm section made up of two ringers—bassist Dan Foder, on loan from the Budos Band, and Grammy-winning drummer/engineer Justin Guip. Hard to find at retail, but you can score a digital copy through iTunes or Amazon, or buy a CD through the band’s Web site.—AH - Metromix - New York
Discography
There's Rope to Leave - 2009 (Self Release)
Half the Time - 2006 (Curb Appeal Records)
Pablo E.P. 2005
Photos
Bio
Start with a family steeped in music rich with melody and harmony, say the Beach Boys or the Beatles, and perhaps some Doo-wop thrown in there for good measure, two boys and their father who love this music. These young men happen to grow up during another period of rich musical expression when bands like Nirvana and the Pixes rule the day. As luck has it, these two both adept at their chosen instruments (Paul on guitar and Will on keyboard) can also write SONGS and sing..... great songs rich with melody and harmony but with the guts of the movement that helped define so many of the musicians making worthwhile music these days. This is Pablo... two brothers and a group of extended family that want to make great songs for people to listen to. Songs made with beauty and grit and poetry.
After the critically acclaimed release in 2006 of the debut album 'Half the Time' on Curb Appeal Records and some well received touring with other notable artists like Kevin Devine, Jennifer O'conner, Koufax, and the Straylight Run the brothers needed to take a bit of a hiatus and Paul took the time to write the material for what would become the next full length release.
Talking 1 1/2 years to complete, "There's Rope to Leave" began as an 8 track bedroom recording in Paul home but ended at Levon Helm’s upstate New York recording studio. After the brief parting from the band Will was back on board with his brother and ready to lend his piano wizardry to the sketches that Paul had been working on in his apartment. Enter Justin Guip long time friend and collaborator. Still hot from his recent Grammy award for sound engineering on Levon Helm’s 2008 “Dirt Farmer”. Justin’s enormous drum sound and colossal fills were the third link to the opening sessions behind “There’s Rope To Leave”. The album leads the listener down a wooded path of cutthroat songwriting loaded with wonderful gems of piano, bass and drum fills, a myriad of astute lyricism and vocal melodies, as a dark current of mystery and optimism washes over the listener.
This October 2010 Pablo will again be in the studio working with Tom Brenneck (Dap Kings, Budos Band) of Dunham Studios the man behind the Menahan Street band (Cee-Lo Green's "Georgia") and the sound of the Budos Band to create what is sure to be the best Pablo record yet!
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