/// LOCAL MUSIC
by Kevin VanAntwerpen
MARK SALA: BURNIN’ DOWN THE ROUTINE M
ARK SALA WAS FLYING SOLO when he first appeared on the Grand Rapids scene in 2009 with his EP Live, Love & the Inbetween. At that time, he was just a guy with a guitar, playing stripped-down, heartfelt songs about relationships. But when it came time to record his first full-length, Sala felt it was time to broaden his musical horizons.
“Playing by myself, I could do anything I wanted at any time and never had to answer
to anybody because it was just me and a guitar,” Sala said. Over time, Sala recruited four musicians (including some involved in other prosperous
musical endeavors, such as Christian VanAntwerpen from The Vincent Hayes Project) to complete his quintet. “Seeking out a band helped expand the reach to an audience,” Sala said. “Not every-
body can get into the acoustic thing. I feel like the songs had a big enough feel to where they could go full band and really have a good impact.” A CD release show proved this, when 225 people packed into the front lounge of
and CD Baby.
ALBUM: Mark Sala – Sweetest Sound
FOR FANS OF: Gavin DeGraw, Jason Mraz, John Mayer
UPCOMING
SHOWS: The Establishment, Grand Rapids March 7, 9:30 p.m.
theestablishmentgr.com, (616) 774-5969
the Intersection to see Sala (along with openers Kari Lynch and Romance for Ransom) release Sweetest Sound. The album, which runs more than 40 minutes despite only carrying six tracks, found Sala’s heartfelt lyrics
about love and loss reaching more people than before. “I’ve gotten tons and tons of positive feedback,” Sala said. “Especially in the form of personal messages from
people talking about a particular song and how much it meant to them. It usually means something different to them than it did to me when I wrote it, and that’s cool.” With 2012 starting a new era for Sala (including a nice blast-off performance during The Great Fox Brew Ha
Ha at the Deltaplex last January), his manager Jason Veeder says a tour to support Sweetest Sound is in the works. “We want to pair Sala up with someone recognizable,” Veeder said. “We haven’t quite pinned down who yet,
but it’ll be someone worthwhile when we do.” Sweetest Sound was produced by Roy Wallace at River City Studios, and is available on iTunes,
Amazon.com,
IN THE STUDIO RIBBONS OF SONG
variety is the spice of the music. That’s why, since he entered the studio in 2010 to record
I
the band’s second album, more than a dozen musi- cians have worked their way into the recordings. “The band shifts according to who is avail-
able,” Scott-Brandt said. “I’m always sort of the central element. I’m always the songwriter. But when there’s an instrument I want to create a certain sound, if I or the band don’t know how to play it, we’ll recruit someone who does. Maybe we want an accordion. Or maybe a steel pedal for country.” During the production of the 20-some songs
T’S EASY FOR A TALENTED artist to crumble under the weight of a giant ego and say, “it’s my way or the highway.” But for Ben Scott-Brandt, the man behind the budding Grand Rapids folk-pop group Ribbons of Song,
pleted pop-gem “The Clouds Look Close Enough to Touch,” features beautiful, wordy harmonies between Scott-Brandt and backup-vocalist Kaitlin Deimer overtop catchy power-chord riffs. The combination is reminiscent of early Jason Mraz. But then jump forward to another new track, “(Let Me Be
RIBBONS OF
Your) Neil Young,” and you’ll hear another side of Ribbons’ style, featuring twangy guitar in the verses and Beatles-esque harmonies in the verses. “I don’t think we have a signature genre,”
SONG Mulligan’s Pub, Grand Rapids March 24, 9 p.m.
mulligans-pub.com, (616) 451-0775
for the upcoming album (which will likely be di- vided into two albums after completion), Scott-Brant recruited members of some of West Michigan’s most respected artists – including Valentiger, Ghost Heart and A.B. & Coconut Brown. The result is a varied assortment of genres. One nearly com-
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REVUEWM.COM | MARCH 2012 FREE!
Scott-Brandt said. “To me, I think we have a sig- nature sound because of the texture of my voice. I think the wordiness and descriptiveness of my lyrics makes my songs stand apart in a way that’s really thoughtful, unlike most casual pop-songs.” With all the songs still in production, there’s
no release date yet set for the new Ribbons of Song album.
“Based on our financial situation, we may look into a
Kickstarter campaign,” Scott-Brandt said. “But we’re also going to shop it to a few labels. I’m sure a release date will be decided based on that.”
BEN SCOTT-BRANDT
PHOTO: RYAN PAVLOVICH
SCHEDULE | DINING | SIGHTS | SOUNDS | SCENE
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