When I find out about a talented, virtually unknown act, I feel like I’ve discovered something- like buried treasure, except I feel a need to share it with everyone I know. frequentscenes is an act I need to share with everyone reading this (hopefully this is at least everyone I know). Andrew DeWitt and Jaime Neely were roommates in college when they formed, in their words, the “ongoing project” that isfrequentscenes. With raw, natural talentfrequentscenes should, at the very least, see success behind the scenes of the music world. Musically, the experiemental duo’s strength lies in their creativity and writing, which spans all sorts of genres. They’re able to take an idea and arrange it into a well structured song. Some songs suggest the pair would be masters of cinematic scores while others showcase the scenes’ potential for writing mainstream, radio friendly singles. The songs are fascinating experiments in abstract rock, electronic music, pop, funk, blues, the list goes on… they are capable of original and creative material in any genre. You get a sense of their ability and their gift for this originality when you compare their incredibly unique and inventive “Dirty Dog” remix of the new Mos Def single “Quiet Down” to the original. It’s brilliant. I wish I was british so it would sound more convincing when I say it but that’s really the best way to describe it. Check out the remix and some tracks here:
frequentscenes – Renegade Marshland (Epic Sauce) / The Grass Grows Again / Tomasingle / Red Devil
Mos Def - Quiet Down (frequentscenes Dirty Dog Remix)
We all went to USC together along with my roommate, Andrew Chizever. Chizever and I asked Dewitt and Neely some questions about frequentscenes, the music, and some other topics of interest:
Where did the name come from?
frequentscenes is our aural interpretation of the various scenes we live and experience every day.
Like most of our stuff, the name was reached in compromise. It’s hard to really remember who came up with what any more. One of us was playing with the idea of “frequency” and the other came up with the analogy to life’s “scenes”. We’ve always felt our songs have an eclectic nature and that this name speaks to our sound and the idea behind the name nicely. Plus, The Andrew and Jaime Show just wasn’t cutting it…
What is the wrtitng process behind your material? Who plays what?
JN: The recording and writing process is always different. A lot of songs come together with ideas we both bring to the table, and we always use each other as a sounding board. Some songs we write independently.
AD: We’ve got an Mbox2 with Pro Tools and a few dumpy instruments to play…just enough to get our ideas across but not quite enough to capture the grandiose sounds flying around between our ears.
JN: DeWitt is the maestro keyboardist and guitarist on most recordings and I handle the majority of the vocals and complaining until we agree on the sound of the track.
How did you guys start frequentscenes?
It all started in a downtown Los Angeles dorm room circa 2002, with a bottle of Jack Daniels and some acoustic guitars. Drinking and playing covers. Playing covers and listening to records. Listening to records and drinking. A start not unlike many.
Covers gave way to experimental, blues, and funk jams. For the majority of 2005 we could be seen perched high atop the roof of an old Victorian mansion, wailing until the wee hours of the morn with a sound that in retrospect most cats might find offensive. We were really trying to get sorority girls naked on their way to Del Taco. Del Scorchoooo!!!!
More recently we’ve settled down somewhere in between. We started actively writing and recording demos in the last 2 or 3 years, and that’s when we began developing the idea of frequentscenes. Our goal now is to write with whomever, for whatever, wherever and whenever is interesting. Cause why not, right? Sampling, sharing, covering, collaborating, composing, scoring and songwriting…we like it all.
Favorite show you’ve ever seen?
JN: Favorite show is a tough one. Snoop Dogg in Berlin was surreal, Radiohead at the Bowl was emotional, Paul McCartney at Amoeba needs no tag line, Muse at the Forum and Black Keys at Avalon melted my face, and there was one Phish show in Vegas where I felt all of the above every 30 seconds and ripped up an inflatable alien because it was cramping my style is this a long sentence?
AD: How can I follow that answer? I was at that Phish show and he’s not lying… Avishai Cohen at the Jazz Bakery, 2005 I think, with Sam Barsh on piano and Mark Guiliana on drums. I’ve never seen a group of musicians play with such control over their instruments, perform so cohesively and virtuosically at the same time, and channel such a mix of style and influence all in one setting. I was blown away.
Growing up, who were your musical inspirations, and who would you say is your current inspiration?
JN: I spent a lot of time bugging my mom to spin her classics like The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel records. I made bootlegs of them with our cassette player. Michael Jackson’s Thriller was also in regular rotation on vinyl. My father listened to a lot of Frank Sinatra and older jazz standards. Beyond my parents, I was an MTV kid and I am convinced those images were burned into my retinas at an early age. Guns N Roses, Nirvana, Green Day, Alanis Morrisette, Sublime, and Pure Moods were all some of my first CDs. Infomercials remain a weakness. Albums of influence recently: Radiohead IN RAINBOWS, TV on the Radio DEAR SCIENCE, KOL ONLY BY THE NIGHT, Andrew Bird NOBLE BEAST.
AD: The “Ghostbusters” and “Davy Crockett” theme songs on VHS (the early years). The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Tears For Fears, REM, and the 76 Gas Station classic hits mixtape on cassette (elementary years). Aerosmith, AFI, Sublime, Phish, Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley, Neil Young and Incubus on CD (high school). Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Ambulance LTD, Miles Davis, bad 80’s pop/rock hits and early 2000’s hip hop on my college PC. Recent influences also include In Rainbows, Dear Science, and Noble Beast. I’ll also throw in KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic as a constant influence, and Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky as a not as recent, but still incredibly strong influence. I’ll stop here.
If you could open for any musical group that is currently alive and playing, who would it be?
JN: I like the idea of opening for Spencer Sherman at Key Club circa ‘00, but if he’s not available Wilco?
AD: Wilco’s not a bad call. It’s a toss-up between a Paul Simon/David Byrne/Brian Eno super-set overlooking the Grand Canyon and Styx at the San Mateo County fair. Neil Young and Phish would also be good.
What do you guys prefer, ketchup or mustard?
AD: That’s a tough one, but I’m going to have to side with Ketchup. It’s been there for me from the beginning, and goes well with at least one dish associated with every meal throughout the day.
JN: Mustard has come on strong in the last couple of years, and I think it’s here to stay. Steve Jones has also helped me understand the importance of the condiment.
If you could pick any person in the world, alive or dead, to have breakfast with, another for lunch, and another for dinner, who would it be?
AD: Jerry Seinfeld for breakfast at Monk’s over a bowl of Cornflakes. Plain and simple. At that point I probably couldn’t avoid George Costanza sliding in next to me to complain about something, so there’s lunch. Tuna on toast. From there I’d have no choice but to complete the trifecta and catch a cab down to the corner of 1st and 1st for a slice of pepperoni with Kramer at Ray’s Pizza.
JN: I have a great grandfather named Moses Chamberlain whose leg got blown off in the Revolution. He got a purple heart and went on to have 14 children, and I’d like to pick his brain on healthcare reform over a bagel. Napoleon would be hilarious. I’d have some Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles with him and try to have Tracy Morgan join us as Brian Fellows. I guess I used up my dinner guest on Tracy, but man was it worth it.
If there was a frequentscenes mascot, what would it be and what would his/her name be?
JN: We had one….once… His name was Raffi and he terrorized our youth. He was the brains behind our operation until he went rogue and started an S&M circus in the trunk of the ‘91 frequentscenes US tour Crown Victoria. He had a thing for midgets…brings new meaning to baby beluga doesn’t it? He hasn’t been replaced.
AD: Someday I’d like to adopt a Chatanooga Riverboat named “Yankee Pie” and have it open for us on the road with a tamborine and a washboard. We could also open a Casino on board during its set to further entertain the patrons while we all drink whiskey and share Mark Twain mustache stories. Our mascot would still be formerly Raffi.
—
—
—
