The Baker's Basement
Cleveland, Ohio, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2014
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Cleveland indie duo celebrate debut album "Island" over bowling, cookies and freshly baked music
By Kelly Maile | Staff Writer Published: March 26, 2014 9:12PM
After two years of creating and forming local indie band, The Baker's Basement, songwriters Kate Dedinsky and Adam Grindler finally have completed their debut album, "Island."
The Baker's Basement will showcase the new album on Saturday at Mahall's, 13200 Madison Ave. in Lakewood. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and the show starts at 10. Admission is free.
"Island" is a quirky culmination of material spanning the first year and half of The Baker's Basement's life as a band.
"It shows the journey of where we started from and where we developed from there," said vocalist and drummer Kate Dedinsky.
The album reflects the duo's search for a unified voice and desire to experiment with various musical styles.
"The styles are all over the place," Grindler said. "It's definitely our first album. Kate played in bands before this band, but I didn't, so I know there was a lot of patience involved on her end with me getting used to a band."
The duo has grown a lot since they first met at a recording workshop in Chillicothe two years ago.
"I think when we first started, we were so hesitant to tell each other what we liked and didn't like," Dedinsky said. "We've really gotten comfortable writing with each other. Every song we've put on this album is a 50-50 split. When someone's coming up with an idea and the other person doesn't react, we're not using it. We have to be co-writers or it's not going to work for us."
The duo made strides with the opening track, "Step Away From It."
"The first one stands out to me a lot just because it sums up our whole songwriting process," Dedinsky said. "For a while, we would keep ideas and hold on to them and we wouldn't do anything with them. 'Step Away From It' is this instrumental we ended up writing in a half hour. Instead of going over it and ironing out the details and trying to remember what we did, we just recorded it. That same night we looked back at it and said, 'wow, this is awesome.' We played it exactly how it was on that recording and we never made any changes to it. I think that was a big step for us to not over complicate things and to just go with it if it works."
The album wraps up with the last track, "Island." There is also an unofficial bonus track included on the disc.
"'Island' hits and then you're going to hear waves and the sound of this deep wind and then there's this really soft song that comes after," Grindler said. "It's an unofficial track. A little something extra."
Anyone in attendance will receive a copy of the new record free of charge.
The evening will also feature a display of works from local artists, video collages created by Dedinsky and baked goods made from the hand of the Baker herself.
Johhny Habu and the Rebel Salmon will kick off the night at 9 p.m.
For more information on the event, call 216) 521-3280 or visit mahalls20lanes.com or visit thebakersbasement.com. - Record Courier
Regional Beat: The Baker's Basement
by Jeff Niesel
Island (Self-released)
The latest release from the experimental duo the Baker's Basement begins with "Step Away from It," an instrumental song that commences with a dull drone that slowly escalates into a shimmering guitar riff. The song isn't indicative of the album as a whole. The rest of the music here from the multi-instrumentalist duo — Kate Dedinsky and Adam Grindler — doesn't sound much like the post-rock opening number. Dedinsky or Grindler are at their best when they share lead vocal duties on songs such as "Strangers" and "Tired Writers," songs that suggest the two have great chemistry.
The Baker's Basement with Johnny Habu and the Rebel Salmon, 9 p.m., Saturday, March 29, Mahall's. - Cleveland Scene
Cleveland-based duo Kate Dedinsky and Adam Grindler of Baker's Basement will try out a fresh batch of music on Saturday at the Stone Tavern, 110 E. Main St., Kent.
"We've been working on our first album," vocalist and guitarist Grindler said. "We've been doing a lot of experimentation. There are a bunch of songs that have come and gone. We're always writing music. These are the ones that have proven over time."
The debut studio album due out in late February features a hodge-podge of folk, rock, soul and hip-hop.
"The songs are kind of all over the place," drummer, vocalist and guitarist Dedinsky said. "We come from completely different backgrounds. We're trying to mesh folk and rock and different styles and we've been using keyboards, banjos, anything that we can get our hands on that sounds good to us at the time."
The songwriters met about a year and a half ago at an audio engineering recording workshop in Chillicothe, Ohio, which led them to The Baker's Basement.
"We ended up going back to the production school where we first met and recorded the album for free, which was awesome," Dedinsky said. "Now we're in the process of mixing it. It's a process of elimination and deciding what goes together best to make the album."
Grindler's loud experimental side in contrast to Dedinsky's light-hearted folk songwriting is what makes the two an exceptional pair.
"The songs we feel most right about, the ones that are the best usually just start from a conversation, jokes, laughter," Grindler said. "We don't really say, 'We're going to sit down and write a song now.' It's the casual moments where we find the things that stick with us. It could be a fraction of a conversation or a loose end or it could be a little random melody line that comes up."
Dedinsky said she hopes people will find a connection with her lyrics.
"In a crowd, I feel like I'm waiting for when I can actually connect," Dedinsky said. "When you see them getting used to it and bobbing their heads, that's what makes me so much more confident. I think that's what we try to do. If we can at least engage one person, it was a successful show."
With the album complete, the duo plans to leave its Cleveland roots and branch out to new venues in Kent and surrounding areas.
"We're still getting used to playing out of Cleveland," Grindler said. "This will be our first time playing at the Stone Tavern. Our goal for this year is to play out as much as we possibly can. We're just looking to play for people and make a connection. Regardless of the venue, we're just trying to get out there and hope people will find something in our music that they can connect to and feel what we were feeling."
Baker's Basement will take the stage at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Stone Tavern.
For more information, call 330-677-7320 or visit stonetavernkent.com. - Record-Courier
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
The Baker’s Basement is a two piece, multi-instrumental band from Cleveland, Ohio that specializes in “Freshly Baked Music." While flavors of indie rock, folk, hip hop, soundscape, and experimental elements can be tasted during the listening experience, the band finds the seemly tagline to be the best descriptor. Members Kate Dedinsky and Adam Grindler are songwriters first and foremost, and write more with a specific emotion, story, or image in mind rather than a particular genre. Having created music that utilizes banjo, electric guitar, drums, paint buckets, shot glasses, vocals, train whistle, synth, keyboard, guilele, acoustic guitar, harmonica, looping, drum pad, and sound effects, instrumentation and style are simply vessels used to portray the appropriate mood and texture called for by the tune at hand. And given their obsession with writing and the creative process, new songs are constantly being composed and often delivered hot and gooey straight from the oven.
The duo first met in January of 2011 among the smells of evergreen and paper factory in Chillicothe, Ohio where they attended the Recording Workshop and learned about in-studio engineering. Their shared passion for songwriting and other artistic pursuits led Adam to relocate from his home in Northern Virginia to Cleveland where the two began writing songs under the name ‘the Baker’s Basement’ in July of 2012. Since then the duo have explored heavily the challenges and possibilities of writing and performing as a two-piece band. After two years of developing their chemistry through writing, recording, and performing at Cleveland venues including Mahall’s, Beachland Tavern, the Grog Shop, Peabody’s, Negative Space, and the Root as well as less traditional venues, the duo released their debut album entitled “Island” in March of 2014. The collection of 15 tunes reflects the Baker’s Basement’s everyday encounters with songs cultivated from fragmented conversation, spontaneous laughter, awkwardness, hopeful discouragement, Metropark imagery, eavesdropping, baked goods, daydreaming, and an overall desire to extract the most human part of themselves and put it into their music. For the Baker’s Basement, songwriting is an obsession and a perpetual process, hence the term “Freshly Baked Music.” To share the efforts of this process, the duo recently launched a monthly series entitled “Monthly Morsels” which presents a video and oven-fresh song, often performed live, on the 1st of each month; while still young, the series presents the many personalities of the band, be it goofy and ridiculous or serious and sombre.
As with their songwriting, the duo’s performances come in a variety of flavors that compliment the atmosphere of where they play: music venue, wine bar, art gallery, coffee shop, house party, DIY venue, outdoor festival, street corner, wedding. Every atmosphere lends itself to a unique approach, with Kate working percussion on lap cajon, 5 gallon paint bucket, or full drums while Adam experiments with a variety of stringed instruments. Some tunes are instrumental, but most involve vocal elements from both members. As the Baker’s Basement continues to chisel their performance skills and develop their project DIY style, they look forward to sharing their art with more folks from Cleveland and beyond.
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