The Dotted Eyes
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The Dotted Eyes

Boston, Massachusetts, United States | SELF

Boston, Massachusetts, United States | SELF
Band Alternative Pop

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"Women Who Rock (Cover Story)"

New York City has rappers. Philadelphia birthed neo-soul. The “Motor City” gave the world Motown and Nashville has country. In comparison to those musical meccas, Boston still struggles with its musical identity.

But that doesn’t mean that the city is short on talent. From Donna Summer to New Edition to Aerosmith — and a lot of others in between — Beantown has had its share of international phenoms.

“Boston’s music scene is underrated,” says Raquel Barrientos, a member of The Dotted Eyes. She’s one of the many performers working to carve a niche in a city still trying to get respect. Singer Shea Rose agrees. “Boston is a great place to hone your craft.”

Shea performed at last year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) film, music and interactive festival. She galvanized her Twitter followers to vote for her in the Red Bull Soundstage contest for the chance to perform at the festival.

In a city teeming with talent, Exhale takes a closer look at five musically diverse women, from a sultry jazz vocalist who can scat with the best of them to a guitar-strumming folk singer whose path to stardom was thwarted by tragedy. - Exhale Magazine


"Record Review: The Dotted Eyes"

The Dotted Eyes
Wondering & Worrying
Boston, MA

(Self-released)

“Boston indie pop with spunk and addiction”

Boston’s The Dotted Eyes have just released their new LP, Wondering & Worrying – and it’s a gem. The quintet fuses together creative wordplay and well-polished compositions into something dripping with hazy summer spunk and soft, crooning vocals.



Ambient noises open the album on “You and Me” and from them spew forth clapping backbeats and self-realizations. Tracks like “The Salt & The Sea” and “Catastrophe” are emotionally charged and “Forget You” and Cold Air” bring the album to a melancholy but uplifting end. The surprising moments of banjo chords and piano notes are paired perfectly with wafting keyboards and gently flowing melodies.

Wondering & Worrying is just that, an album filled with wonder and moments of worry: worry about life, love, relationships and all that the future holds. It is stitched together by artful talent and clear thought. The Dotted Eyes are yet another act that Boston can be truly proud of.

Produced, Mixed & Engineered by Josh Breckman

Mastered by Turtletone Studios

www.thedottedeyes.com - Performer Magazine


"The Dotted Eyes - You and Me"

Spring has sprung in all its spingy glory, and we’re feeling the break of the weather (even if the winter was a joke upon the name of winters). So hows about a song for the season. Something that captures all the renewed hope and vigor that the season always brings but also falls upon your ears like a pleasant breeze. It just so happens that Dotted Eyes’ You & Me covers all those bases and then some. Boy/Girl duet? Check. Hand claps? Check. Bright and airy guitar line floating in the background? Oh, that’s a hell of a check. Now where’s the Bellini? - Zeromusic Radio


"Noisy Neighbors - The Dotted Eyes, ‘Wondering & Worrying’"

This little bag of jilted pop nuggets is the debut full-length from the barely two-years-old Boston quintet Dotted Eyes, who hinted at this candy shop’s worth of shiny hooks and sugary twists on last year’s “Threads’’ EP. The Eyes stretch gently strummed guitars and spry drums over 10 stay-home-tonight anthems that could be cribbed from some of Death Cabbie Ben Gibbard’s songwriting 101 blue books. “One Night’’ takes a tiny Casiotone beat and synth bleat and weaves a wistful melody sung by Josh Breckman. “One Shot’’ follows that up with a sultry piano torch song sung in a smoky groan by Raquel Barrientos that lurches ahead and back like the former’s more cynical, boozy side. It’s the star-crossed interplay of a relationship at odds that they use more subtly throughout the rest of the album - Barrientos can put on a happy face for dinners out at nice places, but often works as a doubtful foil to Breckman’s gentle cooing. “Wondering & Worrying’’ gives us a solid collection of digestible love songs - and dips them in salt right before serving. - Boston Globe


"Get Lyrical - The Dotted Eyes "Holes""

Do you guys collaborate on songwriting or do you write alone? What's your writing process like?



About 2 years ago, Neil was starting up a synth-rock band and
recruited Josh to play keyboards. One of the first songs that that
group worked on was "Holes". Because of the direction of that band,
early versions of "Holes" featured dueling heavily distorted guitars,
electronic drums, acoustic drums, moog synths, and strings. There was
a LOT going on, and the song didn't have any focus; it was just 6
people playing cool stuff.

A few months after that group fizzled, Neil emailed Josh proposing
that they form a "The Postal Service" kind of arrangement: they'd meet
up from time to time, but for the most part Neil would write the songs
and lay down a scratch acoustic/vocal track and then Josh would do his
best to record the rest of the song's arrangement and instrumentation.
We'd email back and forth all the time with ideas about arrangements
and song structure and problems with the songs.

Why so many versions of "Holes?"




This new approach allowed us to spend more time actually listening to
the songs, and we soon realized that the big "synth"-ey sound didn't
actually complement the songs and that the scratch acoustic tracks
often sounded better than the produced ones.

In the end we laid down 6 different major versions of "Holes": a synth
rock anthem, a more mellow synth-y version, a song that sounded

remarkably like death cab, a straight acoustic demo, an acoustic/banjo
ho-down version, and our final

mostly-acoustic version. (on top of that - each one had 2 or 3

different versions of the chorus!).

We have mp3's of most of these available (upon request)




What are the holes you refer to in the song?



The song is about the coming to end of something, reflecting, and having the experience to know that the future is going to suck for awhile but it will get better. Whenever you quit something that you have an affinity towards it hurts, and a lot of times you feel like parts of you are missing or left behind – like you are filled with holes.


I really like the line "I'll fake the next days by taking on loose change," even though I'm not 100 percent sure what that means. Can you try and explain it?



There is always a time when you go from feeling awful to the point where you feel normal (maybe not good but normal). Really the only thing that works is time or small distractions. They are just saying they will get through the low by focusing on random things that don’t really matter - until it’s been long enough or they've hurt enough for it to be time to go back to normal. It is like paying your dues to the relationship – emotionally.





Was the song written with a specific person/experience in mind?



I was just interested in the time between feeling down to okay again and the fact that the speakers know the road ahead of them. I think a lot of people stay in relationships because they are afraid of the unknown. This song explicitly comes off as the end of a boy/girl relationship. But the same can be said about staying in a job that you hate or another type of relationship that isn't working out. A bunch of my friends took jobs for the wrong reasons and ended up hating them - some complained and stuck it out, others quit and went back to school and started again.


..And has anyone ever told you you sound exactly like Ben Gibbard? It's uncanny!



Yeah a bunch of times – I don’t know if that is a good thing – Hopefully as song writing progresses I’ll find my own way - but I think people like his voice - I know I do so ill take that as a compliment.



It has taken me awhile to figure out how to sing. I think I just tried to sing what I listened to at that time. When I was in Middle School - I wanted to be Liam Gallagher, in High school Rivers Cuomo, and I guess in College Ben Gibbard. I figured out how to not sound bad in College so I guess that stuck.



I’ve heard people say that Raquel has a Zooey Deschanel sound - so maybe our band is the love child of the two. - ourstage.com


"The Dotted Eyes New England Band of The Month Q&A"


Q&A with The Dotted Eyes

by Chrissy Prisco



deli: How did the band start?

The Dotted Eyes: A few years ago, Neil Mittal started writing a lot of quiet male/female duets. Duets are very difficult to sing by yourself, so he decided to get a band together - which included our guitar/keyboardist Josh Breckman. The songs quickly turned into pop/synth/rock anthems that didn't quite work. As a result, the band fizzled and Neil and Josh learned some valuable lessons.

After a few months off, Neil and Josh took a step back and tried a new approach to working on these songs: demo early and often. Josh has a studio in his basement, and they'd record rough versions of their songs, and constantly tweak them until the arrangement really complemented each song. The results were quieter, more acoustic songs that really highlighted the melody and the duet nature of the songs.

Tried as they might, Neil and Josh had quite a bit of trouble playing male/female duets by themselves. So they started looking for girls on Craigslist. Not deterred by the invitation to go meet up in a stranger's basement, Raquel Barrientos got in touch with them, tried out, and was almost immediately an essential member of the band.

Craigslist then graced them with J.C. Zwisler on drums. At the same time Mike Johnson, Josh's ex-bandmate from Making It Right, was on a mini-tour with his band Elle Driver. The band imploded mid-tour and Josh quickly recruited Mike to fill out the line-up.

With their line-up in place, the new band recorded and released an EP - and played their first show in December of 2010 to a crowd of flannel-wearing-think-rimmed-glasses-types at the Middle East.



deli: Where did the band name come from?
DE: Band names are the worst! If you stare at a band name long enough, they all sound stupid. "The Wishing Fit" was tossed around for a while, but was nixed by a lot of people we talked to. Anyway, we were almost done with our EP and still didn't have a band name. Josh was up late one night, and looked up a list of common phrases/sayings that we could try to have fun with. "Cross your t's and dot your i's" came up and "The Dotted Eyes" stemmed from that. It felt familiar, but different - and we're sort of perfectionists, so it felt like a good fit.



deli: What are your biggest musical influences?

Josh: The Beatles, Belle and Sebastian, Sufjan Stevens, of Montreal

Neil: Ben Gibbard, Jesse Lacey, Rivers Cuomo

Mike: Neil Diamond, Dustin Diamond, Oh Sleeper, Lady Antebellum, Vanna, Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam

JC: Alkaline Trio, Death Cab for Cutie, The Mountain Goats

Raquel: The National, Neko Case, Rilo Kiley


deli: What artists (local, national and/or international) are you currently listening to?

Raquel: I pretty much have The National on repeat; I usually fall asleep listening to High Violet and it makes for some pretty incredible dreams. I'm a big fan of Emiliana Torini and just discovered The Rescues. Fantastic harmonies are paired really nicely with very clever lyrics that get stuck in my head and I find myself singing them out loud as I'm going about my day.

Neil: I have been listening to a lot of local stuff - I am really into The First Annual - they are like Tom Petty and Bright Eyes combined.

Mike: Locally: the Tower and the Fool, Save Ends, & Vanna Nationally: the Decemberists, Lady Antebellum, A Day to Remember, We Came As Romans

Josh: Sufjan Stevens’ new album was pretty fantastic. I tend to listen to "of Montreal" more than I should.

JC: A lot of Death Cab, getting ready for Codes & Keys. The Weakerthans, Against Me!, The Hold Steady, The Frames.


deli: What's the first concert that you ever attended and first album that you ever bought?

Josh: Green Day's Dookie and... Green Day live. sigh.

Neil: Boyz II Men 2 and Philly Y100 Feztival (someone stole the radio).

Mike: Horde Fest w/the Black Crows and Ziggy Marley and I think the first cassettes I had were New Kids on the Block or a Wilson Phillips single (which I still have).

JC: Bought Running With Scissors by Weird Al and then saw him a few months later at the Warner Theatre.

Raquel: The first show I saw was The Plus Ones at The Catalyst in my hometown, Santa Cruz. It was a really small pop-punk show. The first CD I bought was Coldplay, Rush of Blood to the Head. I actually never bought a CD until I was seventeen. I listened to a lot of records and made tapes from the radio.


deli: What do you love about Boston's music scene?

DE: We like that the city is literally full of music. On any given day there is music playing somewhere and it's all so varied.

As a band, we're still pretty new to the Boston scene, but we've legitimately liked all the bands we've played with - both musically and personally.


deli: What would you like to see change in the local music scene?

DE: This is a pretty minor gripe, but shows tend to run past the time the T stops running. No one wants to be in a band, or see a band start to play at 11:30pm on a Wednesday night. People need to take the T home and work the next day, so a lot of shows without big headliners tend to just fizzle out as the night goes on.


deli: What are your plans for the upcoming year?

DE: This past Sunday we started recording a 10 song CD! We hope to be done by the end of the Summer. We'll be sure to keep you posted!


deli: What was your most memorable live show?

DE: Our first show felt pretty great. It wasn't perfect, but we had just released our EP that week and it felt like it really legitimized us as a band.


deli: Is there someone who has helped your band grow through support?

DE: Our wives/girlfriends/neighbors/friends who put up with us playing the same songs over and over and over and over again... and have only put one brick though our windows (same brick, multiple windows).


deli: Is there a piece of equipment you couldn't live without and why?

DE: We use Josh's recording setup in almost all of our songwriting/demoing. If that vanished, we'd have to completely change how we orchestrate and lay out our new songs.


deli: Why do you read The Deli?

DE: It's 'deli'cious!

Seriously though, as a small band, it's really good for us to keep track of what else is going on around Boston and New England, and The Deli helps with that. So thanks! - The Deli Magazine - New England


Discography

Wondering & Worrying LP - March 2012
-Played on CMJ Radio across Northeast
-" The Eyes stretch gently strummed guitars and spry drums over 10 stay-home-tonight anthems that could be cribbed from some of Death Cabbie Ben Gibbard’s songwriting 101 blue books." - Matt Parish, Boston Globe
-"You and Me" Featured in Film "Hot Mess"

Threads EP - January 2011
- "Holes" played on WFNX Boston Accents
- Streaming on Pandora
- Ourstage.com - Top 10 Indie Rock ("Embers"); Top 40 Folk ("Waiting"); Top 40 Indie Pop ("Glimpse")
- "...candy shop's worth of shiny hooks & sugary twists" - Boston Globe

Photos

Bio

The Dotted Eyes, based out of Boston, MA, formed in 2010 from the ashes of bands ranging from dance pop to metalcore. What emerged was an acoustic based rock band with a focus on catchy harmony and dynamic cadence. That energy was sewn together in their first self recorded and produced EP “Threads.” “Threads” has appeared on Pandora and Ourstage.com with 3 songs receiving Top 40 placement in Indie Rock, Folk, and Indie Pop. In their first year, The Dotted Eyes impressed local press winning New England Band of The Month from the Deli Magazine as well as being featured on NECN’s Morning Show. Their new LP, "Wondering & Worrying," picks up where the EP left off with 10 unique and fun songs. Short time after a late March release it has been lauded by the Boston Globe, been featured in a Film, and started to receive airplay over college radio across the Northeast.