Maida Vale paints musical portraits

Maida Vale.

You’ve probably heard the beginning of this story a time or two: High school buddies pick up instruments, play around in several bands and eventually drift off into their own careers or form the band that carries them into adulthood. Tallahassee, Fla., residents Josh Fruit, Justin Barfield, Nathan Lee and Stratton Glaze follow that model, having played together and in other bands for about 10 years.

But the storyline changed when Eric Case moved from Chicago to Tallahassee in 2006. He added a new dynamic to the group and they formed Maida Vale, an Americana band with ambient rock tendencies. The band will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday night at O Kafes in Pepper Place.

Birmingham Box Set: What brought you to Tallahassee?

Eric Case: Job move. I had been playing in Chicago, and I also had been working at churches. The music thing was kind of helping to pay the bills, but you know there’s no health insurance. But I’ve got family. We decided to just look around and see if we couldn’t find a more steady gig. I actually work at a church down here in Tallahassee, and that’s how I met all the rest of those guys. But essentially, it was just in the interest of making a good decision for the health of my sanity and my family.

BBS: What led to the formation of Maida Vale?

EC: Basically, not to be melodramatic, but it’s essentially my baby. I got down here and I just wanted to do something creative. I had come off of potentially playing guitar as a sideman for years. But when I moved to Tallahassee, it was the first time I was like, man, I just really want to do something that is just really creative and a really dynamic thing. It really started with Justin Barfield, because he was kind of the first guy I got to know. I was like, hey, let’s start a band.

I think also because it was the first time in my life that I had a lot of free time because I didn’t have all these gigs to go to. I wanted to try my hand at songwriting a little bit. Justin introduced me to all the guys slowly but surely. Everybody was kind of at the same time of their life where they weren’t really busy musically.

… They wanted to do something together musically, and I had the vision and the drive to get something off the ground.

BBS: Music writers always use genres to classify a band—partly because it helps people who haven’t heard you decide if they want to give the music a listen. But I’m also really interested in hearing how you would describe Maida Vale’s sound.

EC: Musicians always like to their inspiration mysterious, but Maida Vale was born heavily out of what Wilco was doing … combination of really earthy, folky songs with noisy and sometimes ambient sounds. It was really born out of that place. Also, just the interest of trying to write songs that were lyrically very personable and descriptive. That’s kind of where I breathe as a songwriter. Just trying to say—not deep things, but things that are really close to my heart and close to my soul, honest places.

I think we kind of combined intimate lyrics and telling these small stories about people with a certain amount of applying this cinematic approach to music … trying to paint the images of the songs. I think that still governs our approach to the music now.

BBS: How do you balance touring with work?

EC: Right now it’s not that much of an issue, but basically we try to be … as intentional and precise about when we travel. We don’t travel just to travel, and we don’t play shows just to play shows. We don’t play Tallahassee very much and that helps. We know that our time is limited and it’s also very valuable. If we’re going to go out of town, we try to make sure it works as successfully as possible and that it’s a place that makes sense. Not financially, necessarily—like we need to go here to get new fans, we don’t go just to go.

I guess what I’m saying is right now, everyone just takes off vacation and we go when we can, and we drive all night just to get back in time to go to work.

BBS: What’s ahead for y’all?

EC: Right now—this is going to sound horrible—we’re actually sort of in a goal-less time right now. This band was started with such intense pressure, we just hit the ground running as hard as we could. We recorded an EP that was recognized by iTunes, and then we recorded a more or less full length that was again recognized by iTunes. We’re barely two years old right now, and everything we’ve done has had such goals and intentions to it, that we’re in the midst of trying to take the pressure off right now.

We have our own studio space, so we’re using that to experiment with how we will approach recording. We’re trying to take the opportunity to meander just a little bit and say, how can we be more creative with the way we approach the studio. … And in that, just trying to give ourselves permission to take time for a little bit. The best music, most of the time, is made under relaxed circumstances. So we’re like, we’ve got to figure out a way to help ourselves relax a little bit and put off some goals right now to have fun writing and have fun playing together.

On a personal note, Maida Vale’s Josh Fruit was part of the soundtrack to my college experience. Fruit played in several groups I listened to while at Florida State University, and at one point was my next door neighbor.

Admission to Maida Vale’s Saturday night show is $10. Preview five songs on the band’s MySpace page, or follow them on Twitter.

This fan girl goes on tour

I think most fans of live music have a list of bands they must see perform live. I’m fortunate in that I’ve already seen most of my favorite artists perform a time or two, but of course I also keep a running list of those must-see bands that I haven’t yet dropped the money on. I’m hoping to catch U2 this fall. Next time Radiohead comes within driving distance, you better believe I’ll be there. The point of Dave Matthews is the live experience, and I’m hoping to eventually check that off (although the April 20 show in Birmingham has been sold out for quite some time). I’ve also heard Coldplay puts on quite the show.

But my favorite bands are those that I’ll spend the money on time and time again. I saw Nickel Creek something like 10 times before they began their “indefinite hiatus” in 2007, and I’ve seen Chris Thile alone, in duos and with the Punch Brothers several times. Earlier this week I counted up the number of Derek Webb shows I’ve seen (it was a lot!). And over the past three weeks, I caught Ryan Adams and the Cardinals three times.

My favorite bands have a knack for breaking up (or taking a hiatus, as the case may be): Nickel Creek. The Beatles (OK, maybe I can’t count that … they broke up long before I was born!). And now the Cardinals, too. Just before tickets went on sale, on his blog Ryan Adams wrote that the March 20 show in Atlanta would be his last with the band, and that he would be taking a break from music. That finalized my decision: I would attend the Birmingham (March 6), Nashville (March 14) and Atlanta (March 20) shows.

Many musicians play the same set, and even tell the same jokes, every night. And that’s understandable. But artists who change it up every night make the road trip to each show a lot of fun. I experienced three very different Cardinals shows on my fan girl mini-tour, each of them memorable in their own rights.

Now my attention turns to the musicians coming through Birmingham in the coming weeks (and there are a lot of great ones: Maria Taylor, Ray LaMontagne, the Felice Brothers, Wilco, and more … some of whom I’ll be seeing again!). But even though it might put more ideas in my head, I want to know: Who do you love enough to see time and time again?

Even with changing lineup, Vetiver creates an enchanting sound

Vetiver. Photo by Alissa Anderson.

The lineup of Vetiver has shifted through the years, but through the band’s four albums, Andy Cabic has remained a constant presence. In fact, two of the current members on tour joined up with Vetiver just before a run of European dates.

The group will make a stop in Birmingham at Bottletree on Sunday, March 15, en route to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. We took a few minutes to talk with Cabic about the band through the years.

Birmingham Box Set: How has your music evolved over the years?

Andy Cabic: It’s hard for me to have that perspective on it. In just in terms of live and arrangements, I started out playing primarily just myself on the acoustic guitar with a cello and violin. Now we have electric guitar, keyboard, drums … It’s, I think, more dynamic, more room for improvising in certain songs. We play a lot of the same songs but we’ve adapted them over time.

BBS: I know some bands play a pre-determined set every night, while others prefer to get a feel for the room before finalizing the evening’s set. Which way do you go?

AC: A little mixture of both. … I live in San Francisco, and everyone I play with lives on the east coast. So I don’t get to rehearse or practice with them except maybe the day before we start our tour. So the new members, there’s a certain amount of songs that I ask them to get a handle on, and we sort of pick them up as we go along. So my set lists are indicative of that, but I change them from night to night.

BBS: You just returned to the States after playing in Europe. How does the touring experience over there compare to here?

AC: This was just a short, kind of two week tour. I think the hospitality is a little bit better over there. I think the audiences vary depending on which country you’re in. I don’t want to stereotype them, but some can be much more composed and respectful, and others can be really loud and raucous depending on where you are.

What constitutes a long drive for someone in the UK is vastly different than someone here.

Vetiver takes the stage at Bottletree on March 15, along with Sian Alice Group and Andy’s Tea Party. Tickets are $10 and are available at thebottletree.com. Sample Vetiver’s latest album, Tight Knit, on the band’s website or its MySpace page.