EVENT ALERT: Three Egg, Cantora Records, FACTORY Brooklyn Co-Host Gravity Sleeps Salon Tonight, Saturday 4/30

Gravity Sleeps and co-hosts Three Egg Studios, FACTORY Brooklyn, and Cantora Records are presenting the Gravity Sleeps Salon at FACTORY Brooklyn in Williamsburg.

The event takes place tonight, Saturday, April 30, 6 PM-2AM at 79 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY.

According to Gravity Sleeps, the salon will be an evening “of performance, dance, paint, pictures, pregnancy tests, music, (bands and DJ’s) and RAGE in three magnificent spaces at FACTORY, Brooklyn.”

Open bar FROM 7:30-9:30, courtesy of Brooklyn Brewery and Bulldog Gin.

Visit FACTORY Brooklyn for full details and schedule of performances.

Rifle Men “Tree Wolf Is Dead” EP Out on Cantora Records

Brooklyn-based Cantora Records (MGMT, Bear Hands, Francis and the Lights) has a new release out by the Long Island-based duo known as Rifle Men.

Their debut six-song EP, Treewolf is Dead, is now available on iTunes. Stream a few of the tunes at their Bandcamp page.

Rifle Men is Anthony Gerbino and Daniel Gdula, and Treewolf is Dead was produced by Gerbino and recorded at home.

Treewolf is Dead is replete with ingratiating, 80s-inspired synth-pop melodies (and lovesick lyrics), folktronica sounds and Gerbino and Gdula’s alternating vocals. These guys met at Hofstra University, and bonded over their love of The Smiths, an influence that comes through both lyrically and sonically.

For more on Rifle Men, visit www.myspace.com/riflemen and http://cantorarecords.com/artists/rifle-men.

Five Years Of Cantora Records: From MGMT To Bear Hands

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN: At Cantora Records HQ, aka The Rumpus Room, there are at least five guys jammed into a small office overlooking the BQE and the New York Harbor.

This is mission control for a tight roster of bands that includes the Brooklyn-based Savoir Adore, Francis and the Lights and Bear Hands, and amid the obvious hyperactivity of the day, we’re getting a tour.

Led by a triumvirate of Will Griggs, Jesse Israel and Nick Panama, Cantora Records is an innovative indie-pop label and fully functioning creative collective with in-house recording studio, photo/video stage and roster of producer/engineer, designers and filmmakers.

These guys formed Cantora in the Spring of ’05 to put out MGMT’s Time To Pretend EP and help build the band to indie superstardom. Five years later, they’ve earned a solid reputation in the indie music scene by following the righteous road somehow still less traveled — they only sign bands they absolutely love.

We sat down with Griggs, Israel and Panama and got the whole story — read on…

From what I read, it seems Cantora started at NYU. That right?

Will: Jesse and I were at NYU — I was studying music business and Jesse was studying film — and when we all met up and started this company, Nick was still in high school in LA. But the company did actually form at NYU. We had our first powwow in Washington Square Park.

Tell me a bit about what led up to that meeting?

Will: My cousin was a year above me at Wesleyan and my freshmen year he took me to see this band, The Management, which became MGMT. At that point they didn’t have any official releases — they were just giving out burned CDs. I brought it back and played it for everyone I knew because I just thought it was the most addictive music I’d ever heard.

Jesse and I were roommates and at that point we weren’t sure what we wanted to do — manage bands or put out records or what — but we knew we wanted to work with this band in some way. Around that time, Nick also caught wind of them out in LA and connected with us through a mutual friend.

How did it go from this idea of wanting to work with them to reality?

Will: We started helping them out here and there with shows on a casual/fan basis, but then a couple of opportunities came up that were a catalyst to making the band and our relationship more official — they were invited by Kevin Barnes and Of Montreal to open for them on a pretty substantial tour. It was at that moment when there was a real opportunity to support them — print up some CDs and some tee shirts, etc.

And that’s when you guys actually came together, organized as an actual company?

Will: Well that’s when it became clear to us that this was what the relationship with the band was going to look like. We knew they had these great songs so we got them into a studio and printed up some real CDs so they’d have something to sell on the road. It all came together really naturally. We had a buddy who was working in a studio who could help out with recording/production — our friend David Perlick Molinari, who’s now in French Horn Rebellion.

Jesse: Having an actual product made it all real and with that in place, we decided to start the record label and figure it all out as we went along.

So there wasn’t necessarily a grand plan, a real vision for how you wanted to run the label? Like contrary to what you saw going on out there?

Nick: No, we had not the faintest idea. Even when we signed MGMT, we were unsure whether Cantora was going to be a record label or a production company, we really didn’t know. There was no long-term future grand vision that we had. There was no business plan; we didn’t fund raise. We each pulled out $600 to get tee shirts and CDs made. And we didn’t really know where it was going to lead — we were just thrilled to be working with this band and doing something that was a little outside our comfort zones.

And so you did that first release with MGMT, Time To Pretend. What was that like, watching that just totally take off?

Will: It was an unbelievable learning experience on a number of levels. It was amazing seeing it spread from friend to friend, just by word of mouth. We didn’t hire a publicist, we just put the thing out so they could sell it on the road.

Nick: And we barely put it out. There was no digital distribution or physical distribution. It was just Paypal through the website and the band on tour selling it.

Will: But it was unbelievable to see how powerful word of mouth can be when you have content that’s really compelling. I’m from Virginia and had a lot of friends at UVA and I could see they had a pocket of fans down there. And people were really enthusiastic about the music. There was an a capella group at UVA that was singing “Kids.” And there were all these little pockets of fans popping up on their own all over without much of a promotional push behind it.

Jesse: The moment when I really knew we were onto something was when they played Princeton. They’d been invited up to play one of those fratty weekend extravaganzas. So we went out there with the band and this is still at a point when they were pretty unknown. But at Princeton, this was a big deal. And when they played the song “Kids,” it was insane witnessing what happened — all these preppy Princeton kids in their seersucker shorts and pastels just LOSING their minds, going crazy over it. And we were there, with our beards and grimy clothes — totally out of place — just taking it all in. It was amazing.

Awesome. And then you got to have the experience of a major label coming into the picture…Was that intimidating at all? Did you feel you had a lot to learn, quickly?

Will: You know what, it wasn’t intimidating because we just had no context for it. It was just another opportunity presenting itself. And also the band still wasn’t thinking of themselves as career musicians. They were never in that mindset of needing to make it as rock stars or anything. They just saw it as a cool opportunity.

Jesse: They were writing songs to fit a genre and having fun with it. It was like dorm room fun to make these songs they thought were the catchiest, cheesy pop songs they could write. They’d never really taken it all that seriously.

What about Cantora? At that point, as MGMT’s popularity was growing, were you starting to look at other bands?

Will: No, we didn’t start looking for other bands until everything with MGMT and Columbia was settled. At that point, we started looking at what had happened and saw that we actually had a real record label here!

So who was the next band you signed? And at that point, what were you looking for?

Will: The next band we signed was Savoir Adore. For me it’s about what do I get addicted to? What can I not help but share with everyone I know? I feel like if there’s one thread that ties together all the artists on our label it’s great songs, and an adventurous and forward-thinking approach.

Most of what we have on our label could definitely be called pop music in some way, but they’re all artists who are doing something new with it — a new twist, their own sound. But we spend a lot of time working on each band, so it’s really about whether or not we love it enough to spend the next many months or years working on it without any guarantee of success.

You just have to be passionate about the music, or else you’re wasting your time. If we looked at it from the perspective of ‘will this make us a lot of money?’ this would be a very different company. Not to say that the stuff we put out doesn’t have a wide appeal…

Are there other labels out there that inspire you guys and how you build your business?

Jesse: XL is a label that’s done a really good job of branding themselves and that’s something that we’ve always focused on. Obviously the music that we put out is #1, but we’ve also always felt that it’s really important for Cantora to have a presence in the music space as well. Not to just be a silent partner in an artist’s release process — but to build our brand so that as more artists come to our label, we have a built-in fan-base and a built-in brand that already means something.

Nick: I’d say French Kiss is another label that’s just killing it. They’ve been around for awhile and they’ve been able to transform themselves from this proto-pop, post-punk label to today, where they’re putting out Passion Pit, Local Natives, Antlers, Dodos, Freelance Whales, Suckers, etc.

Will: To me, a label like Merge that can be fully independent yet able to scale with a band like the Arcade Fire, and still be that label where you’re interested to check out whatever they’re putting out there. That’s the kind of label we want to be — a label whose releases audiences will check out because it’s a part of what we’re doing and they like what we’re doing.

Jesse: We’ve all experienced that on some level as fans. I was really into hip-hop when I was younger and when I was in high school, Definitive Jux, is what did it for me. If something came out on that label, I was excited about it. And part of what I think about with Cantora is how to connect with that younger me, and that excitement I would feel around Definitive Jux and everything they did.

So what do you guys actually do to build your brand, outside of just working each release?

Jesse: A big part of it has been to build our brand outside of just the artists we’re working with, to cultivate the music community here in NYC and in LA, through Cantora Live and Cantora Creative.

With Cantora Live, we’ll put on a show every month or six weeks where we pick a cool venue and invite bands we really like who aren’t signed to Cantora as well as a couple who are and put on a showcase. Sometimes there’s not a single Cantora band on the bill and that’s a way to reach out to even more fans, a way for Cantora to be a part of something else that’s meaningful and cool.

And we also do a similar thing with our production company, Cantora Creative, where we’ll create video content for artists — some on our label, some not. Or this new web series we’re working on called “Show Me,” where we’re doing these :90 shorts with 10 of our favorite bands showing a band leading up to a performance.

You also have some facilities here — a recording studio and in-house producer/engineer, rehearsal space, video stage — do your artists come in and record here? How do you and your bands benefit from you having these things?

Will: Having the resources here adds to our ability to be as nimble as possible and be able to act quickly when there’s an opportunity or an idea that we think is cool.

For example, we invited Francis and the Lights to play our CMJ show a couple years ago, and they mentioned they had a couple new songs and wondered if we wanted to team up and do a single to release at the show. Because we have a studio in-house, we were able to bring the band in here and they recorded with the head engineer Albert DiFiore and we were able to turn it around in time for the show. And that was the beginning of a relationship that lasts to this day — we just put out his full-length debut this summer.

Also, with Bear Hands, we did a live video shoot here, called it the “Rumpus Session.” And we invited a bunch of friends and some press down, had tacos and beers and the band played a few new songs. We shot it and put it online. We weren’t thinking ‘how can we make money off of this?’ it was more about this being a cool way to debut some new songs.

Awesome. So, now that you’ve been at this a few years…what do you think about what’s going on in the music industry right now and what opportunities are out there for a label like Cantora?

Will: On the one hand, the collapse of the music industry and the lower point of entry in terms of the cost of recording and online distribution means we can have the same distribution reach as any label on earth via the Internet but the flip side to that coin is that so can everyone else!

So it means we have to be spot on about the bands we want to work with and able to continuously develop our fan-base and artists so that we can stay competitive at a time when anyone can put out a record and the market’s completely flooded. We’re playing with different approaches and different ways to create and put out content.

It’s clear that the excitement surrounding music has never been more intense than it is now — it’s just a question of how to package music and get it to people in a way that can keep a business like our growing at a time when music fans can pretty much get whatever music they want for free.

If there’s clear growth in one area of music it’s music discovery. People are thirsting for reliable sources of new music. Hopefully we can continue to establish ourselves as one of those reliable sources.

What’s coming up next for Cantora?

Nick: We just debuted the full-length from Rumspringa, Sway, and we’re excited about that. We have the new Bear Hands record, Burning Bush Supper Club, coming out on November 2. The Francis and the Lights record It’ll Be Better came out over the summer so we’re still working that. And we have a new artist, Emil & Friends — it’s fantastic, lush, dance-poppy music. Check it out!

For more on Cantora Records and their entire roster of artists, visit www.cantorarecords.com. And check out their latest release, Bear Hands’ Burning Bush Supper Club on iTunes.

French Horn Rebellion: Brothers, Lifelong Collaborators

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN: When brothers David and Robert Perlick Molinari were kids in Milwaukee, piano and French horn lessons opened the doors on a world of undiscovered sound. “I realized when I was 6 years old that I didn’t have to play what was on the sheet, I could write my own music,” says David. “Everything I’ve learned since then and all the technology, has aided in that exploration of what I could do to make things sound the way I want to hear them.”

As kids, the brothers began experimenting with MIDI programming on their Apple 2GS and Notator Logic. Computers and production became a permanent part of their songwriting process. Now living in Williamsburg, the Perlick Molinari’s front French Horn Rebellion (FHR), a dance-party-starting synth-pop duo who’ve been producing music, touring and remixing relentlessly in ’09.

We caught up with FHR on the eve of their UK tour. They’d just released the Beaches and Friends EP in collaboration with Brazilian cohorts Database, remixed a track for Kitsune Records, and were beginning a remix of a new Tigercity track “Ancient Lover.”

How do you guys tend to work on music? You both play and produce, so where does it start?

David: Robert will usually start the track, or the remix. I think because he’s younger and has less production experience, he gets less hung up on different elements of the creative process. He’s just able to dive into this visceral, almost subconscious thing.To me, that’s what the creative process is all about — getting in touch with your subconscious self, try to ride those waves and be able to blend it with the knowledge and experience you’ve gained in your life.

Robert’s able to just put material down and it’s really good, but it’s often pretty raw and needs to be developed. So I’ll work on it from there and we’ll go back and forth. When we’re remixing, he’ll also start it and then when he’s exhausted his idea, he’ll pass it off, and I’ll arrange and re-arrange, produce the idea from there.

What about your dynamic makes you such good creative partners?

David: We’re both producers and work in Logic, and we both play and sing, so that’s all key, but I think even more so, the difference in age and experience is what really helps us balance each other out. I think balance is the most important part of the creative process because that’s how you’re able to make something that hits on all these different levels. Robert will see something big, have a great big concept, but maybe not necessarily have it in him to fully get there. Like, we did a remix of Magic Magic’s song “Sleepy Lion” and Robert came up with this concept that got us started.

Robert: I thought of that part in Lion King when Simba’s roaring at the top of that rock, and I thought it’d be cool to do a Roaring Lion remix of “Sleepy Lion.” I wanted to tell the story of his journey to the top of the rock. Most of our remixes start out with a concept or an idea. And usually, if there isn’t one, the remix isn’t as good. We’ve found we need to have a story.

How do you get your remix projects?

Robert: We have a remixing agent. But, we just did a remix for Kitsune and that came through our publishers in the UK (Once Upon a Time Publishing). They’d approached Kitsune about our track “Up All Night,” and the label wanted to release it on their next compilation. Then they asked us to remix a song, called “I Can’t Talk,” by one of their new artists.  Most of our remixes simply come to us through our friends.

So, how do you actually collaborate on these projects? You both use Logic? Is there one that does beats, where the other does lyrics, vocals, etc…?

David: We both do everything. We have the same basic skill-set with different strengths and weaknesses. The best way for us to throw sessions back and forth is by using the same program, same plug-ins, etc. So we have mirror systems of Logic. Basically once we have all the audio files on each other’s systems, we don’t have to throw audio files back and forth unless we record something new. We can just attach the session file in an email with notes on what’s been updated.

And, how did the collaboration with Database come about?

David: Robert’s DJ friend, Chris Molina, turned us onto this whole electro-disco niche, which was really in-line with what we were already doing and inspired us to keep doing it, keep experimenting. One of the tracks he played for us was by Database.

Robert: It was Database’s remix of The BPA ToeJam, featuring Dizzee Rascal. We loved how clever it was, all the fake-outs, it’s not like other music; this track takes you on a journey. It plays with your expectations about where you’re going and what you’re doing. The rhythms, harmonies, melody…the way he messes with the different elements.

David: We decided to put out a single. We’d had a record out that was more rock-oriented, but we’d moved away from that, and wanted to introduce ourselves fresh, without complicating things by producing a whole record. So, we released our song “Up All Night,” and sent it out to people we liked through Myspace, including Database, to see if anyone would remix it. Database was into it, and did a remix.

And now you’ve collaborated with Database on your latest EP as well?

Robert: Database had this track called “Beaches & Friends,” and they thought we should work on it together. They’d remixed our track, and now we were going to work on their track. But then it turned into a bigger collaboration.

David: They sent us splits of this track they were working on, and we messed with them. Not so much in a remix style, more like we were producing and adding to it. We came up with the verse and chorus, we sang lyrics, and put that over their beat. They liked it. So we went even further with it and started to warp what they were doing even more. The track just became something else entirely through this process. After we were done, we sent them the splits of our track and they took those splits and did something completely new from that.

So your remixes and their remixes became the Beaches & Friends EP?

Robert: Well, it’s kind of mysterious because the actual song, “Beaches and Friends” isn’t on the EP. The EP is four remixes of a song that doesn’t exist. I think of it like the concept behind Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, which instead of being variations on a theme, is variations on an enigma; there is no theme.We encourage people to buy the whole EP because it really does all belong together. Plus, there’s a bonus track that’s like the coda.

David: The bonus track is an idea from our new record we’re working on. The whole EP is supposed to provide a segue from the old “Up All Night” and “Broken Heart” sound into the newer material.

So, outside of French Horn Rebellion, David, you also do scoring and sound design? And you produced MGMT’s Time to Pretend EP? How did you get started in producing and scoring?

David: I’ve been making music for TV, film, commercials and a variety of other creative outlets as well as producing records for years through my company, YouTooCanWoo whose website right now is in sad state of neglect because of all the recent French Horn Rebellion work. This is the company where I do all my independent production. When I decided I really wanted to pursue my childhood passion and do creative jobs as my career, I was very curious as to how to make it something that would be able to support me.  I did loads and loads of work and attempted to solve this question.

During this grand adventure my friend Will Griggs was inspired by a band called “the management” and thought I would be good to collaborate with for their debut EP. Will really wanted to help them out so he formed this new indie label, Cantora Records, to release what we were working on. After the success of that EP they were able to release other music — including this other band I’m involved with called Savoir Adore. They have a brand-new record In the Wooded Forest that is Cantora’s first album they’ve ever put out.

Through all these projects I’ve been able to get closer at cracking the code on how to make doing creative projects work as a career. And now, Deidre and Paul, of Savoir Adore, Jorge of Violens (another Cantora band), Robert, and a childhood friend of mine Zach Meyer form the core of the creative team for Youtoocanwoo projects.

Sounds like between French Horn Rebellion, your remix projects, production, you guys are finding a variety of ways to get out there?

David: We’re constantly looking for new, inspiring opportunities. And we’re always working on things that may not seem to have any logical connection to one another. But we’ve found that someone will hear or see something we do, and then the next opportunity comes. You have to be a little reckless about it. You have to have that fever. If everything’s too calculated, you’ll waste too much time and set yourself up for disaster.

It’s the same thing with the creative process: you have to first be right brain, just get those ideas out there, not try to filter it. And then the filters come in later. You just go and go, and try as hard as you can, do work you believe in…and then good things happen. And it’s only because you’re constantly saying keep going, not enough, not enough, etc.