Port O'Brien
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Port O'Brien

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Band Alternative Folk

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"I Woke Up Today Track Review"

****- four stars - Pitchfork


"Spotlight: Port O'Brien"

Isolation is an option often exercised by an artist to help spur the creative process, but Van Pierszalowski, principle songwriter and frontman of Oakland folk rock outfit Port O'Brien, has employed new heights of asceticism in the pursuit of his muse.


Every summer since he was born, Pierszalowski, whose father, John, is a commercial fisherman, has traveled to Alaska with his family. Starting at age nine, Pierszalowski joined his father on two-week sojourns aboard his 48-foot fishing vessel, the Shawnee. But at age fifteen, upon making full crewmember, Van's summers changed dramatically.


Where once his stints on the Shawnee lasted a mere two weeks, Pierszalowski's tenure now extended to the full three-month season: twenty hours a day, every day, fishing for salmon, with no outside contact except for the crews of other, larger boats that came to pick up the Shawnee's catch and deliver it to far-off canneries. Most of the time, it was just four men, a boat and, fortunately, a guitar.


"The work is insane...No toilets, no showers, no anything except for work," Pierszalowski says. "But the rewards are great."


Under these austere conditions, Pierszalowski experienced a blossoming of creativity. Rare downtime and lack of other amusement, coupled with the relentless majesty of the sea, compelled him to begin writing the songs that would become the basis for Port O'Brien.


"[Writing at sea] is the most inspirational thing behind the songs. It allows an environment that has completely no distractions while simultaneously providing an amazing backdrop for creativity," Pierszalowski says.


Port O'Brien takes its name from an abandoned cannery on Kodiak Island where Pierszalowski's parents met in the late '60s.


"Whenever we pass by on the Shawnee, we see nothing but an abandoned building that looks to [be] melting back into the earth, as if to say, 'Well that dream is kind of over, now find something else,'" Pierszalowski writes on the band's MySpace blog. "My father always points it out as we sail by and tells stories about it that he's told many times before. And I listen."


In January of 2005, Pierszalowski and his girlfriend, Cambria Goodwin, began recording material as a bedroom folk project that became known as Port O'Brien. Working as a duo, with some help from a rotating line-up of musicians, Pierszalowski and Goodwin self-recorded and self-released two EPs, When the Rain Comes and Nowhere to Run, before adding drummer Josh Barnhart and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Nichols in September 2006. Establishing a home base in Oakland, Port O'Brien recorded its first studio efforts as a full band across the bay in San Francisco at Tiny Telephone and Jason Quever's Pan-American Recordings in November 2006.


If Port O'Brien's rousing live show is any indication of its studio efforts, this debut should be worth the wait. Live, the band blends a percolating, rootsy charm (featuring ample audience participation) with a cathartic energy reminiscent of Arcade Fire. Port O'Brien's February 2007 performance at San Francisco's Make-Out Room caught the ear of M. Ward. Through Ward, the band quickly landed a spot opening for Bright Eyes at the Great American Music Hall.


This summer, while Pierszalowski returns to the Shawnee, bandmates Goodwin and Nichols will work in the bakery and mess hall, respectively, at the nearby Larsen Bay cannery on Kodiak Island. The band hopes to play a show at the cannery over the summer. In the fall, Port O'Brien will play festival dates in Europe before embarking on a tour in support of its studio debut, which the band hopes to release in February 2008.
"After [Europe] the plan is to move out of our places [in Oakland], and as ambitious as it may seem, the goal is to tour endlessly," Pierszalowski says.


Before its studio debut hits stores, Port O'Brien will release The Wind & The Swell, a compilation featuring Pierszalowski's favorite cuts dating from the band's earlier, pre-studio sessions. Acoustic arrangements and choral vocals espouse a rustic, folksy vibe that amplifies the collection's themes of isolation and transience.


"The concept of traveling to and from the home is very inspired from living nine months of my life in California...having relationships, and then having three months of my life completely devoid of that," says Pierszalowski.


Yet at the heart of The Wind & The Swell, one feels persistent warmth: a child of travelers, virtually born wandering, Pierszalowski uses his music to create a home wherever he lays his head. - Performer Magazine


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Still working on that hot first release.

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