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| He's My Brother She's My Sister |
Here's a feature on He's My Brother She's My Sister done for the Providence Journal
Sunday Music
Colorful, eclectic sound
HE’S MY BROTHER SHE’S MY SISTER
“I’m the impulsive, intuitive one,” says Rachel Kolar, the band’s “sister.” She says her brother Rob is into the details and the fine-tuning.
To illustrate, Kolar explains how she insisted that her longtime friend and partner in theater Lauren Brown be part of this musical troupe as it was just starting to jell a couple of years ago.
“I told him, ‘Lauren is going to tap dance in the band.’ Rob has been a musician his whole life, and says, ‘Tap dancer? You’re kidding me,’ ” Kolar recalls.
But rather than dismiss the idea, Brother Rob worked with Brown on playing drums. So now Brown is a unique rhythm machine, both visually and sonically as she taps and bangs the beat.
Besides a tap-dancing drummer and yin-yang siblings (she shakes the tambourine, he plays guitar and kick drum, they both sing), He’s My Brother She’s My Sister includes lap-slide guitar player Aaron Robinson and upright bass player Oliver Newell. The unwieldy name is something Kolar came up with when she posted the first few song collaborations with her brother online. Some who heard those songs wanted to book the music’s creators for performances, so the moniker stuck.
He’s My Brother She’s My Sister’s live shows and recent late-night TV appearance on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” are captivating for their visual flair. The musicians dress like Technicolor renegades and deliver the tunes with fiery enthusiasm; Kolar maintains that Newell can fly 10-feet in the air, bass in hand.
That you can check out for yourself when He’s My Brother She’s My Sister makes its Rhode Island debut Thursday at Fête in Providence. Doors open at 8 p.m. Jeffrey Lewis and the Rain and Beach Day are also on the bill.
When reached in Salt Lake City earlier on the band’s eastward trek, Kolar explains how it was important for the band to capture some of its live energy on its full-length debut, “Nobody Dances in This Town,” which came out in October. She says He’s My Brother She’s My Sister is trying to follow the Beatles’ example of being raw on its early records and more intricate later.
“We recorded in a living room over three days,” she says. “Rob and I worked with a producer over six months doing some vocals and putting on finishing touches. It was an interesting process, but next time we want to be all together in the studio and take advantage of that environment. This time was like adding limbs to the body.”
The record is as kaleidoscopic as the band itself, blending country and folk traditions with paisley pop and a little punk. Some songs sound cribbed from a zippy vaudeville routine, while the current single “Same Old Ground” has a bluesy drawl. There are nice, quick pivots on the record, like the way the ballad “Wake Your Heart” shifts into the whir and buzz of “Electric Love.”
The folk underpinnings and male/female vocal dynamic make it tempting to lump He’s My Brother She’s My Sister into the mellow wave that swept Mumford & Sons into stardom and lifted the likes of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and the Lumineers. But He’s My Brother She’s My Sister isn’t really taking the same approach. Actually, there isn’t much an “approach” at all.
“It’s a sound we’re creating ourselves that represents who we are as people. You can’t place it in a category, and we kind of intended to do that. It gives us limitless possibilities,” Kolar says. “Astrologically, I’m a triple water sign. I just want things to flow.”
Scott McLennan can be reached at smclennan1010@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottMcLennan1
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