Author: ML1

We had the pleasure to catch up with Jersey Shore singer-songwriter Kathleen Elle to talk about her latest album and experience with streaming shows during covid lockdown.

• Okay let’s start with the Brainwaves album. We heare a real real rock vibe as well as the singer-songwriter sound that you weave together. Where did this album come from? Also who are some of your musical influences? Brainwaves is a collection of all the songs I had finished by the time I started recording! Somewhere ones that didn’t make the cut for my EP Helium that came out in 2015, and others were finished days before I was in the studio. I guess that’s why each song sounds so different. My early songs are heavily influenced by Sparks Fly/ Red era Taylor Swift, but as I grew my playlists to other artists, my songwriting varied. For instance, Ella Eyre inspired the song Love Bandit, Andy Grammer And Jason Mraz influenced Nowhere Without You, and I Always Knew was a mild look back on my punk rock Boys Like Girls, Panic, and Fall Out Boy loving days. I would say that overarching influences on the album would be Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Adele, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, and Colbie Caillat. I also just released a single in May of 2020 called Superheroes in Disguise. It’s a song that highlights and honors the selflessness and bravery of our essential workers during this pandemic. I have 5 healthcare workers in my family, so the stress for their safety was very real. My aunt, a Covid-19 ICU nurse, lives down the street from me and for the first time in her 30+ year career, I heard her need to vent and express how exhausting and scary it was in the hospital. The thing that struck me most was a comment she made in late April about how she felt so under appreciated by the public, like a veteran coming home from the Vietnam War, in that no one could ever understand what they’ve been through. If my aunt was feeling that, someone who is always so positive and never complains, I knew the feeling must be universal for essential workers and I wanted to let them know that they should be and are real life superheroes. So I wrote the song in about a day, recorded and produced it myself in my basement, and compiled pictures for the music video on YouTube from family members, local essential workers, and healthcare workers from all over the world who I got permission to use their image on social media. I played the final recorded song for my aunt on her birthday, which happened to be international nurses day!
  
• You have a strong voice is that how you got started in music? My family will tell you I was singing before I could talk, and my brother will tell you I never shut up! I started guitar at 10 years old, and then started voice lessons at 13. Music wasn’t something I took seriously though until high school. I took a songwriting course after school where I learned how to structure a song, what chords usually go together for pop songs, and how to design an effective catchy melody. My teachers in high school are really the reason that I started to believe in myself and my musical ability. They steered me to try out for the honors choir, take all music electives including theory and music technology, and gave me performance opportunities to showcase my original music. Even then, I struggled with choosing what I wanted to major in, especially coming from a family of engineers, computer scientists, lawyers, and doctors. I was planning on majoring in Chemistry until the very end of my junior year of high school. I applied to both music and chemistry programs at the colleges I applied to, and thankfully, was accepted into the music schools for a double major of Music Education and Music Composition.
  
• You have been playing a lot of live streams this year, what has that experience been like for you? At the start at the “14 Day Lockdown,” I decided to go live every night on my Facebook and Instagram, basically just to have something to do each day and check in on friends and family. 14 days turned into 100 days! We had themed nights like Disney Songs, Broadway, originals only, 40s for my 40th show, 50s for the 50th and so on. I was surprised how many people would tune in and hang out with me from all over the country and the world. It was such a unique experience that the entire world was looking to connect with others due to the same circumstances, and I’m glad that I thought to pick up my guitar to help people escape for an hour each night… I’m so happy I had their help and put in the time because Twitch has been awesome! In just a few months, I’ve really grown my regular audience and am now starting to see that translate to people streaming my music on Spotify! For anyone that wants to join in on the fun www.twitch.tv/kathleen_e11e
  
• Was your album “Brainwaves” recorded at home or a commercial studio and what’s next for you as an artist? Brainwaves was entirely recorded, mixed and mastered at Jankland Studios in Wall, NJ with the help of Steve Jankowski. I had worked with Steve at his studio for a song on my Helium EP and loved how chill, nice, and helpful he was, so I knew for this album, I’d be going back to work with Steve! Besides being an awesome person and sound engineer, Steve plays trumpet professionally with Nile Rodgers & CHIC. I’ve also gotta give a shout out to my friends who played on the album; Skyler Fortgang on drums, Tracey Miller on bass, Patrick Phillips on piano, Steve Jankowski on horns, and Tommy Aboussleman on electric guitar. Without their musicianship, Brainwaves would not be as good as it is!

• Before we go, what do you want to say to fans of the music? One thing I’d like to express to the fans of music is the hope that their playlists that they listen to are not just the Apple Music A List Pop etc. Some of my favorite artists and bands are not nominated for Grammy or on the radio bands, but that doesn’t mean that their art isn’t worthy of those accolades. Try to discover a new artist or song every week. One of my favorite things to do with friends is just trade playlists, back in high school we’d burn each other CDs. There is so much music out there, so many voices, so many viewpoints that are worth listening too. It’ll help open your mind and free your heart.

We wanted to learn a little bit more about this unique band and were lucky enough to catch up with band leader “Fern” from Foes of Fern.

• Let’s start with the band name, Foes of Fern. Where did that come from? 

So I had spent a lot of time In bands where a lot of great music was made but the band would end and then the music would die with it. I wanted to create a project that could live on as long as I wanted to keep pushing the project. I decided to go with my nickname Fern and then just brainstormed ideas around that. Fern and Friends just felt too flat so I flipped the idea and got “Foes of Fern”

• Can you tell us a little about the band members, like how did you meet or did the group evolve over time? 

This is such a loaded question for this band and I love it haha. Okay so everyone calls this my “solo project” and that is just so far from the truth. This band has had so many members in it throughout the years. My original Foe would be Joe Pomarico who I have been creating music with since 6th grade. At first the band was filled with other hometown friends that I had played music with throughout the years. Eventually Victoria Laurence joined with her Tuba, Jessie McCormick with their uke, and I joined forces with a ton of fantastic horn players, drummers, bassist, background singers, etc. Now it is at the  point where we have about 13 solid members of the band. We played a show yesterday in Asbury Park and had 3 of our drummers on stage, 4 horn players, and 3 background singers. All are fantastic musicians that I have met through the Asbury Park music scene. Check out our website for a full list of foes. 

• The new single “Time Management” is great and sonically it also has a very big sound. Can you talk about the production and also the arrangement of the tune?  

Yes! Our songs are definitely known for having a big sound / arrangements. We released our first album in August and we tracked an orchestra for some of the songs and had over 50 foes track on the record. We went to record Time Management with the hopes of packing as many foes on the track in as quickly a time as possible. We recorded the drums, bass, rhythm, guitar and vocals at once and then overdubbed the background harmonies and horn parts. Shout out to my horn players Steve Heimbuch (sax), Andrew Ludwig (Trombone) Kyle Thompson (Trumpet) Matt Honold (Trumpet) for rolling through and coming up with the horn parts on the fly. We tracked one instrument at a time and then would just keep building parts from the previous takes. This was one of the first times we did not score the parts out and just went into the studio to hit it. We also dug back into our hard drives and found takes of our old Tuba player Victoria playing Time Management on our old demo. We dropped her takes from last year into the session, adjusted the notes to fit the new tempo, and that’s how the full horn section came about. 

There’s a ton of little gems like that in the track. One that I love is the snore in the second verse. Our trombone player fell asleep in the session and I brought a mic out and recorded him snoring in real life. That along with all the chatter from the background singers, all the percussion from my three drummers (Andrew Oliva, Joshua Van Ness, and Owen Flanagan) and the production magic of Joe Pomarico and Zach Kornhauser, brings the party vibe of Time Management into existence.

• The Foes are known as an “Asbury Park Band” but where did this all start for you?  

It all started in Holmdel NJ on Telegraph Hill Road where me and Pom started our first band in 6th grade. Since then we have recorded and worked with so many fantastic Asbury Park musicians through our indie record label Telegraph Hill Records.

• Can you tell us a bit about “Telegraph Hill Records”? 

Telegraph is a label that myself and Joe Pomarico created back when we both graduated college. He got an MBA at William Patterson and I had just graduated from The Berklee College of Music. We wanted to use the knowledge and connections we both collected to help out the local musicians of Asbury Park that we both love. That was back in 2016. Since then the label has grown by adding great bands and fantastic team members that truly care about music. 

• What’s next artistically for the band? Will “Time Management” be on an upcoming album?

To quote our bassist Matt Raspanti, “How can we be a band without doing music” Matt has been building us a new patreon-ish website that we are calling “Only Foes” where you can subscribe for different Foes content. We are talking about podcasts, web series, short skits, and other fun non music content to broaden our fan base. 

As Matt and the team are working on that I will continue to write and also pick which songs will be coming out on the next album. Time Management for sure will be on it along with a few fan favorite songs like our tune “The Ocean”. We have a big collection of music to choose from for our second album. The current plan is to pick 7-10 songs that fit well together and help tell a cohesive story. 

• What do you do when you’re NOT working on music? 

Personally, I like to spend my time playing chess, enjoying nature, or just lounging on the couch and enjoying the little things from life. A nice cup of tea in the morning, afternoon or night time really goes a long way.

As for the other members of the band – Apparently most of them love Star Wars more than life itself. The last couple of band practices has me in the corner with a guitar as they very passionately debate the history of Mandalore or some other nerd shit. 

• What sort of non-musical influences do you have? 

My friends and the people in my life are huge influences on me. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by some really talented people that continue to inspire me to create,

• Before we go, what do you want to say to fans of the music? 

THANK YOU for sticking with us! We as a band are really just having a great time working on our music videos (currently we have 6 out on youtube) recordings, live shows, and other fun ideas. We love it when people get to know us and join in on that fun. I also hope that you can hear that joyful environment on “Time Management”.