Sutree – Sutree Review
Suturee Album Cover
Suturee is a very interesting band that’s currently located in New York City. It currently consists of the founding members: Rebecca and Julian as the singers and composers, with Kristian on guitar, Fernando on bass, and Waldy on drums. Julian is an educated sound engineer who takes care of both the creative and the technical aspects of the album. Recently, they released a new album named Suturee.
The cover is fairly simple – perhaps overly simple. The picture on the front is of the ocean with the shadow of what appears to be a woman in a dress and a child holding her hand, running. On the back is a list of songs which appear to have been written on a piece of paper and then scanned. Included is their email, which is pretty cool. If you want to say ‘hi,’ my experience is that they’re very friendly and will likely indulge a fan.
Despite the fairly simple case and approach to the album, inside is an artists’ artist musical treat. In no way will this travel beyond the niche market. However, the niche will be grateful to have them entertain. Some have called it ambient. Certainly, when first listening to the album, I had a vision of musicians high on marijuana, opium, or LSD sitting half passed out on a couch. In fact, I was certain that was the state that the author of the lyrics was in. However, it proved to not be the case at all.
The music itself is really quite good. The vocals are for the most part legible, though at times I get lost in the hearing – thankfully they emailed them to me allowing me to escape the torture of trying over and over to figure out what words they’re singing. This is the exception rather than the rule though. The voices are soft and laid back. The instrumental section is mixed acoustic and electric. The melodies are somewhat simple, but with mild syncopation thrown into the mix to make it interesting. Often there is a blend of soft intros followed by more energetic electric divisions to shake things up. All the songs are somewhat formulaic and become predictable to an extent, if not repetitious. However, that’s not to say that they should be lumped in with the awful garbage that is being spewed by the mainstream. It’s their own unique repetition and something worth listening to.
The lyrics themselves are similar in nature to the music – albeit often with a disturbing twist. They exist in the stream of consciousness which is often considered to be the place where true creativity is born. Despite being written over the course of close to a year, the lines are somewhat repetitive because they simply go from image to image without really creating a sense of wholeness within a given song. The first few sentences most often have nothing or little to do with the following sentences. However, this is precisely what will appeal to the artistic crowd which gets tired of bands whose lyrics are depressingly predictable and repetitive across the board – that is to say, so often the lyrics are so tired and overused that having a tryst with something that makes little sense on the whole at all is something of a treat. This is the niche I see this music in: fashion shows, artists’ cafes, small concerts, and parties. They have the potential to build a strong and loyal fan base.
Showing one set of lyrics for one song is much the same as exposing them all because of their lack of cohesiveness. When I asked for the lyrics, I got a lump of words strung together without any respect for punctuation or line breaks. I sought to preserve it in the way it was issued to me. Arbitrarily I chose the following lyrics from “Afraid of Hands,” which is the first song off of the album:
Afraid of Hands:
Scared to fight but the worst hasn’t laid it’s ground Use your fist, use a knife, anything that bites The distance grows in flight It does not care if we’re back in time When all you admire is thrown into the fire You to me Shouldn’t be Afraid of hands You to me Shouldn’t be Afraid of hands You don’t know why, you don’t know how All your past has just hit the ground When all you admire is thrown into the fire You to me Shouldn’t be Afraid of hands
The album is good, and it’s worth a listen to. Artists’ haunts and parties are definitely the ideal location for this album. The music is good. It’s retro, modern, and unique all at the same time
Interview
You mentioned that Leondard Cohen is a major influence on your work. Which album of his do you think of when you say that?
Julian/Rebecca: Songs from A Room/Songs of Love and Hate.
Is there a particular song that inspired you to pursue the style of music that you do?
Julian: I don’t think so. Growing up listening to a lot of indie rock type stuff it just kind of came out naturally. I wasn’t trying to model it after anything in particular.
Rebecca: I guess we try to mix all our influences in our own way.
How long have you been together as a group?
Julian/Rebecca: May 2007? Something like that.
How did you meet?
Julian: We met through mutual friends. We were all at a bar. I was writing songs. I wanted to bring someone else in. You know a female vocalist. I was kind of looking for. She came along. That’s it. Just tried it out and it seemed to work out really well. It went from there.
Is there an intimate relationship between the two of you, or are you just cohorts in music?
Julian: We’re boyfriend and girlfriend.
What is the story of the band’s name, Suturee?
Rebecca: Well actually we wrote lyrics for the first album and we used the word ‘suture’ multiple times. We had no idea what the name of the band would be. We weren’t thinking of becoming a band.
So you’d say you took it from the word ‘suture.’
Julian: Yeah, we played around with the concept.
Where did you do the recordings?
Julian: I had a studio space in Puerto Rico. I’m an audio engineer also. So it was in my space we did everything.
How long did it take?
Julian: It took a little under a year – about 7-8 months. It was pretty scattered. We didn’t have any songs written – like a whole melody. It was just building over a period of time.
What was the most interesting part of the experience recording in Puerto Rico?
Julian: I think the whole thing – I was working 9-5, so it was my outlet. So I was happy the whole time doing it.
Do you see this project as reaching for a career in music, or is it more of a hobby?
Rebecca: We wish it as a career.
Julian: It would be nice. Given, right now, we both work and Rebecca’s in school. We’re trying to get out there as much as possible.
Your lyrics seem to come from a violent random haze – like some kind of dream. Where do they come from?
Julian: It’s kind of a – the way all the songs are written – the first month of working I’d have the first verse. Then, seven months later I’d have a second chorus. It’s not like a linear story. I guess it was a stream of consciousness.
Have you played in any concerts? What are your plans?
Julian: We played in Peurto Rico. We moved to New York. We have a practice space. We now have a drummer and a base player. It’s been a slow process of establishing a name here, getting the band together. We’re working on it. We’re gonna start playing around New York, hopefully in the summer. And we’re working on the next album.
Do you have a new album name, or are you waiting for the last moment to place the cherry on top?
Julian: Yeah, pretty much. We don’t have song titles yet.
Would you describe your personality to be like your music? Wild and wacky?
Rebecca: No, I’m kind of shy. We’re pretty mellow, pretty calm.
Even though the music and the melody are quite mellow, there are scenes of violence and blood in the lyrics. It’s like a not so pleasant dream.
Julian: It can be influenced by the books and movies. We’re into the downer.
Rebecca: I don’t think it needs to be taken literally.
Do you think recreational drugs can aid in creativity?
Julian: It wasn’t a part for us, or any of our music.
Do you get high when you write your lyrics?
Rebecca: No, not really.
Julian: Cigarettes and alcohol – but no, we’re totally clean the whole time.
Who would you like to thank most for your success?
Rebecca: We have a small crowd in Puerto Rico who pushed us to do live shows. The base player, Fernando, really pushed us a lot.
How are the sales going?
Julian: We sell CDs at the live shows. But we were just featured on NVR a few weeks ago. We actually did see a big increase in sales, especially with CDs.
The three songs chosen to represent the album as a whole are chosen arbitrarily. Again, this is because they are all-in-all repetitive yet enjoyable:
Afraid of Hands
Detain
Name the Remains
They can be reached and researched through their MySpace page.
Currently they’re involved in making their next album. While firm plans of live performances are not confirmed, they expressed their desire to do some shows in the summer. If you like their work and you’re in New York, it seems certain that you can get a taste of them in the near future.
Tags: album
