Throw Vision

They push boundaries in the most unusual of circumstances and seem to do their best work under the pressures of time

Too often, artists become cogs of their own machine, churning out the same hit on stage performance after performance. Throw Vision, a quirky quartet hailing from Crown Heights, recently caught our attention for being anything but more of the same. Their obvious penchant for experimentation, fickle curiosity and openness to collaboration of all kinds make them today’s rising artists and pioneering synesthetes (derived from synesthesia, literally: “A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.”).

Photo © Icarus Blake
Photo © Icarus Blake

So who is Throw Vision?
A collective of four multi-instrumentalists, but the sound of more—Taja (keys-bass-synth guitar), Tiff (lead vocals-guitar), Alex (drums-percussion) and Dan (guitar-bass) hail from diverse musical backgrounds. Tiff and Taja married their love for Animal Collective with the band’s missing puzzle pieces, mashing together a true melting pot of sound—everything from the jazzy experimentation of Sun Ra to the sultry soulful vocals of Nina Simone, over to the more technical minimalism of Phillip Glass.

Photo © Icarus Blake
Photo © Icarus Blake

Early January, they invited us into their practice studio and played us a blend of two songs: “3,4,5 I Lost” which then morphed into a number, “AC Intro,” reserved only for live shows. “We can’t tell you what AC stands for, it’s secret,” whispers Taja playfully. A year after releasing their debut album “In I”, the artists have entered a new phase of exploration, taking their sounds and plunging deep into a rabbit hole of textures, transitions, and new associations with old material—the perfect modern day sonic collage within a structure that’s very much their own. “We’re experimenting with taking the album and cutting it up, and mixing it around and doing weird things with it live, so it’s not what you’d expect,” adds the bassist.

Photo © Icarus Blake
Photo © Icarus Blake

The song they played told a story rich in colorful sound and auditory imagery. The recurring lyrics “I-I-I-will ne-eh-eh-eh-ver be-e-e-eee a ge-e-e-e-eeeenius” stutters over punchy hi-hat clicks and a funky baseline. You groove and surrender to a transition that sees scales slither and golden cymbals scatter with accented vocal buildups. As you fall deeper into the cool hypnotic swirl of something that lacks immediate structure, you find solace in having transcended your own listening limits in favor of something better. This momentum of ascent finally shatters uncontrollably at the four-minute mark. You jump into gravity’s shoes as you plunge head first into chromatic free fall. Punchy toms swirl around spacey riffs and an explosion of ethereal beauty shuffles from one eardrum to the next. The gravity and turbulence of the song, like the yin and yang, come together harmoniously. You finally land back on solid ground, realizing you’ve traversed multiple dimensions and passages of time.

Photo © Icarus Blake
Photo © Icarus Blake

Listening to this song calls forth your inner synesthete—where free associations are made in a safe, but wildly exploratory collaborative process, engaging both performer and audience simultaneously. Look no further than past projects with filmmaker David Sherwin (Vox Media) on “Water Basket” and musical accompaniment with playwright Diane Xavier at the Bowery Poetry Club to see how their music beautifies just about anything it touches. They push boundaries in the most unusual of circumstances and seem to do their best work under pressures of time that would otherwise send type A off the deep end. If liner notes were still around, theirs would go something like: “In other words, we don’t know [re: what’s next], but we’re going to figure it out as we go. That’s the best way.” …We can’t wait. - Citizen Brooklyn

Some weeks back, I found myself at & Lovers in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The show’s line-up consisted of two openers (Lips and James Tillman) followed by the band Throw Vision. I made my way down there to chat with Throw Vision – a band that hails from Brooklyn and consists of four players: Tiff O who is lead vox and guitar; Taja Cheek on keys, vox, bass, synth, and guitar; Dan Kleederman on lead guitar, bass, and vox,; and Alex Goldberg on drums/percussion.

Throw Vision’s name was derived in part from slang used in gay communities of color. Their sound can best be described as an eclectic mix of rock, jazz, R&B, soul, and soft classical. It’s very hard to pinpoint what this band’s (or any band’s) particular “sound” is, but, after the intimate show, I sat down with them, hoping to learn more about their identities, and how those identities help them create a unique sound that transcends all Pitchforkian terms or references to other musicians. They immersed me in a conversation which really points out the racial and gender dynamics of genres, as well as how these identities look to listeners and what they convey. Read the conversation below and comment what you think!



Tiff: There aren’t that many women in “rock”. Not to say that we are just rock, we are a lot of different things. Part of the challenge is describing our sound to other people. The other challenge is being women of color. I’m Dominican and Puerto Rican, [Taja] is black. But we’re playing rock music, we are in a band, we are playing soul – all for mixed audiences. On one side, there are some people that are super intrigued by it, and listen to the music in a different way. But, there are some people that just don’t know how to box it.

Taja:. We try really hard not to be tokenized. But I think that we feel the pressures of [our identity] a lot. For example, so many times when I go into an instrument shop to buy things, people will automatically say things like, “Oh, the beginner basses are over here.” Like YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW ME! I could be Victor Wooten. I’m not, but - I could be!

Dan: I can definitely speak to it being a very typical experience for me as a white dude – almost like an opposite baggage. Like, I am the rock musician… I grew up feeling very weary of being that because it was a stereotypical position for me to be in.

Taja: It’s the opposite for us. I feel weird playing soul or R&B because that’s what I grew up around. People expect me to be an R&B singer and I’m like, “No. That’s Tiffany.”

Tiff: It’s funny because a friend of Dan’s at our first album release show said to me, “You sing like a black woman, and not like a Latina.” I’ve actually had that reaction before. I’ve even gotten, “You sound like a black man singing.” It just kind of put me in this weird position because I’m just singing what I feel and I don’t know – it’s hard to describe how you are gravitated to sing a certain way.

Taja: And then these guys…

Dan: Yeah a bunch of white dudes come in….

Tiff: No ‘cause Taja and I were trying to find new people to play with. And, to be honest, part of our thinking was: It would be nice to play with guys. There is just something about trying to be on an equal playing field. [Dan] and Alex have been playing together, and in our eyes you guys are good musicians that had a background in jazz and soul and rock and all these different things. We just didn’t happen to stumble across girls doing that.

Alex: [Jazz] is just a really male dominated place. There’s a lot of testosterone in the room when you’re at jazz camp. I ended up doing drum battles while I was there – so that’s like – what’s going on? It was kind of weird. So, if you wanted a jazz player, someone who could do this – you’re going to find a guy. I’m just talking numbers.



The band continues to talk about the the press's gendered way of looking at bands:

Tiff: We’ve seen girl bands that we like but media tends to see girl bands and solely focus on the fact that they’re girls rather than the fact that they are good musicians. Or have great musicianship. And that was a fear of mine.

Taja: Like Marnie Stern, who we all really like. How many articles have I read about how, “She’s so cute! She’s blonde!” and it’s like no: she shreds! That’s why I like her.

Tiff: We didn’t want to be thrown into that. We want people to focus on our music. Obviously there are going to be people that are just fascinated by the fact that we are from different walks of life and it confuses people and we struggle with that a lot. But, going into it – we thought that it would help people focus on the music.

Alex: I think what’s interesting is the dynamic between bands that are fronted by one women where the rest of the band is male. In this band, there are two women. Just like in any band where there is a front person versus a more democratic group, we don’t make decisions with a front person. It’s a democratic thing, it’s a band.

Dan: That is part of the confusing thing, too, in terms of how people see us in terms of the front person thing. Because as much as Tiff is the singer and the front person in that sense, it’s also clear that the other members have this attention grabbing-ness and it’s clear that we are interacting in a lead way.

Alex: We’re all lead singers!

Taja: Dan is a lead singer for one song! For a lil bit…

Dan: You can see it with a lot of these bands too in how they handle their press. They display it in a single – like they are the lead singer.

Taja: It’s also the thing about the singer. So often, there is a singer, who is a female, who is sort of just there. Unclear if she writes the material or what her real role is; just a hollow voice.

Tiff: You don’t want to be type-casted as just the singer. There is this weird intrinsic fear that that’s not good enough to demonstrate yourself as a good musician. As a woman, you have to showcase more – you have to show that you have more than this or that. There are plenty of women who play other instruments who don’t sing.

Tiff: Yeah, and we both don’t want to be the face of the band. *points to everyone* This is the face of the band; everyone. I would never want to be represented as a sole figure to represent the whole group; it just doesn’t feel right in our eyes. But, it happens all the time.

(Just so we are clear – BUST is aware that everyone in Throw Vision is the face of Throw Vision.)

The conversation then deviated to the mixing of genres that creates TV’s particular sound.

Dan: One thing that strikes me about our decision making in terms of musical choices when we write new material especially, we really ride fine lines in terms of bringing in certain influences. There is a lot of thoughtfulness in terms of not going not too far in the R&B direction, not too far in the rock direction, not too far in any of the directions – it’s really balanced-oriented actually. The decisions are affected by where everyone is coming from, which can be directly related to how our sound can be hard to put a finger on.

Taja: Debussy is my biggest influence. He’s probably my most favorite composer, and my contributions [to the band] probably came from playing his music wrong. He’s interesting to me as a figure because of how he relates to jazz music as a French man. And all of my knowledge of jazz comes from this distorted white male appropriation of the form that I then interpret as a historically black form.

Tiff: At home, my parents don’t listen to that much music. If my dad ever listened to music it was mainly some Motown, And my mom was listening to really – you know the station 93.1 Amor? Spanish romantic song. But then my older sister in the 90s was listening to a lot of alternative rock.

Where we come from influences these moments we all have of, “Let’s try to add something like this.” We have all of these stories in our head that we want to build upon. One of the songs we played tonight, “Water Basket,” was technically about my mom’s experience in the Dominican Republic. It’s not merengue or anything like that, but there are certain personal stories that come from our respective cultures.

Dan: TV is made up of different racial and gender identities and how they meet in the middle in such an interesting way. It exposes how so many genres of music are so racialized and there are so many assumptions about masculine and feminine expression.

Throw Vision’s first album, In I, came out in February of 2013. It was independently released and recorded at Soundmachine. The video for their latest single off the album, Hippocampus, is below. The video was directed by Noah Hutton.



Before parting ways from the amazing group of talented musicians, I asked them a very busty question. If you were a bra, what would you look like?

Tiff: Actually, I had a dream the other day – I don’t really remember it, but I happened to be a bra…It was a like a flower but the petals were kind of like the bra.

Taja: Wait, you WERE a bra?

Tiff: I think I was?

Taja: Are you kidding?! Well, I would be grey with like, lots of words written on it. A, demi-cup …

Tiff: Why demi-cup? What are you trying to hide, what are you trying to reveal?

Taja: That’s the point! And strapless! Or maybe just a bra with Kathleen Hanna on it....

Alex: I think I’d be a sweatshirt bra, a little worn out. It would have a hole in it --- I’m just thinking of my underwear; it’s kind of just worn out underwear. I should really get some new ones…

Dan: I’ve been thinking a lot about this… I think Earth-toned, like a nut-shell… that’s what I would do.

Taja: Like a coconut shell!

Dan: I don’t think I would be a coconut shell, more like a walnut…

Tiff: That’s a really small bra...

Dan: No, it would be an enlarged one. That’s my bra.

Alex: Walnuts, are like, my favorite nuts.

You can read more about Throw Vision on their site. Their debut album, In I, is available for free on Bandcamp or you can stream it on Spotify. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook. They have a show on Aug. 27th at Grasslands in Williamsburg. - Bust

"a band you should get to know and see live before the crowd catches on, not only because they are more talented and probably younger than you are- they’re an approachable bunch who enjoy making music together.”
- WQHS

“Brooklyn trio…thrives on the soulful croon of one Tiff O, as well as an abundance of twitchy yet subtly funky guitar-pop grooves.” - Time Out New York

“… a peculiar brand of mostly downcast pop, where female vocals switch from sultry to pristine at the flip of a switch.” - The L Magazine

If you layered some jazz basslines, wandering funk harmonies, and modern keys in an indie rock setting, you’d end up with something like the wonderful band Throw Vision. They stunned the crowd at their LP release party at The Paperbox. The LP, called In I, is a beautiful debut album, fueled by gorgeous vocals, powerful lyrics, vocals and melodies, admirable group dynamics and clever songwriting. In I, which you can download for free or stream after the jump, is carefully crafted to waver between experimental, jazz, rock and soul music in an ear-opening way that challenges even an audiophile to classify.

The band is made up of multi-talented members Taja Cheek, Tiff O, Alex Goldberg and Dan Kleederman, who together will entice your musical sensibilities. Their sound is hard to define, even when their songs are slowly being unwound before an audience. Their music is characterized by layers of breathy, jazzy vocals that quiver in heartfelt harmonies and cascading rounds. These heavenly coos ring atop succinct psychedelic guitar reverb and spacey synthesizer riffs, lead by captivating and powerful drums, arrive at the point of awesome.

The point, in this case, is pleasantly confusing. Sometimes it’s an eruptingly loud climax, other times it’s the softest whimper of a guitar, calm vocals and scattered muted beats. While you drift back and forth, you’ll be overcome with the variety of influences that stretch each song – jazz, pop, experimental, funk, rock. Switching your body’s rhythm to adapt to a nostalgic atmospheric intro that will soon transform into jazzy and hypnotizing interlude (“Hold Your Tongue”), you’ll realize there’s a lot more to this band than the Brooklyn Indie title they’ve started to earn. No wonder they list Nina Simone, Philip Glass, and Animal Collective as influences on their Facebook page.

There’s definitely something satisfying about not knowing where a band’s sound will take you. Too often, debut albums wind in a circle that seems enticing at first but never takes off beyond a few jangy chords. The opposite applies for this album, which I’ve been streaming from Bandcamp since it debuted. I’m always pleasantly surprised by the twists of each song flowing together and transitioning. The unexpected roaring guitar solos towards the end of “3,4,5 (I lost)”, rapid-fire cymbals and almost drone tendencies drift into the hymn-like chanting of vocals coated in thick soul on “Nonah,” which brings to mind both the vocal power of both Hundred Waters and Alabama Shakes. Then the next song, “Ere,” mingles repetitive tribal beats with shrieky, emotive vocals that resemble the screeches of Montreal’s Braids. This album, pulling on each of its influences and encompassing all of its many moods, it’s a wonderful ride. - Bushwick Daily