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Biography
Rising up from the bucolic lakeside hamlet of Plattsburgh, N.Y., the exciting young rock band Elephantbear is ready for an assault on the airwaves with its debut studio record "Hide and Go Seek," due out in early 2008. The band is fronted by singer/songwriter and guitarist Mike Pedersen and features longtime friends and collaborators Tim Collins on drums and George Facteau on bass.
Pedersen and Collins have been writing and playing music together since grammar school, starting with a memorable performance at Plattsburgh Middle School's 6th grade talent show that left a lasting impression on both of them. Pedersen, who didn't start playing guitar until around age 14, was playing keyboards at the time, but the feeling he got from that first live performance was the same.
"After our performance the crowd roared so load I swear the floor shook! I couldn’t contain my ear to ear smile for hours," he said. "It filled me up with so much energy…I believe I’m still looking for that high. I remember thinking, 'I want to do this every day of my life!'"
Pedersen and Collins went on to play together in a band throughout high school, and even at such a young age had a weekly gig at the landmark Monopole club in Plattsburgh. Their paths in life continued to head in the same direction when both enrolled in Ithaca College, where the pair began to focus more and more on songwriting. As Collins recalls it, the nucleus of many of the songs that appear on "Hide and Go Seek" had their roots back at Ithaca. It was only several years after that Pedersen and Collins actually headed into the studio.
"Eventually, we came to the realization that man, its about time to make a record! And so we made it happen," Collins explains.
While Collins and Pedersen had been songwriting partners for the better part of a lifetime, Facteau came into the fold around five years ago after picking up the bass and quickly realizing he had a natural facility for the instrument. Pedersen and Facteau, along with another friend, rhythm guitarist Jamie Durivage jammed constantly in the basement of a bar owned by the Facteau family in Plattsburgh called Chi-Boom's. After several years of serious woodshedding and the addition of Collins on drums (who had since moved to New York City to pursue a career as a jazz musician and spent time back and forth between Plattsburgh and the city), the group coalesced and began playing out live as Elephantbear. As Facteau recalls it, that first gig was something of a dream realized for him.
"Mike and I had been playing together for a while, Tim came home for Christmas and we played a show at my family's bar. I was so nervous... I mean these guys are pretty well respected and had been playing and studying music their whole lives just about, I didn't want to let them down. When I first played with both Mike and Tim I felt like I was on a natural high, they made me sound good. I felt there were a lot of points where we just clicked, I thought it was awesome," Facteau said.
Facteau's remark that Pedersen and Collins have been playing and studying music their whole lives is actually pretty accurate. Pedersen started playing piano at age 10, but he quickly realized that the guitar was his instrument of choice and after several years of toiling in piano lessons that gave him a "good ear but bad practice habits," he made the switch to guitar.
Similarly, Collins started playing music at an extremely early age. He was taking piano lessons at age 6, but also began playing drums right around that age as well. During college, Collins began to play jazz vibraphone and classical music as well and eventually went on to successfully pursue a career as a jazz musician. His debut album as a bandleader, "Valcour," has won high praises from critics and fans alike. A glowing review of the record appears in the March edition of Downbeat magazine. Collins studied classical percussion at Ithaca College and Jazz at Manhattan School of Music.
All three members of Elephantbear note Phish, the iconic improvisational rock band from Plattsburgh's sister city across the lake in Burlington, Vermont, as a primary influence of theirs. "No other band has made me feel like they do," Pedersen said, and Facteau pointed out that he probably learned "about 40%" of what he knows about bass playing from jamming along with Phish records.
Interestingly enough, Elephantbear sounds virtually nothing like Phish, but perhaps more like a clever synthesis of their other multi-varied influences. Collins noted Icelandic singer Björk, and several other various artists in his list of primary influences including Jack DeJohnette, The Meters, Miles Davis, Bach, Milt Jackson, Arvo Part, The Police, and Rush. Pedersen has cited The Foo Fighters and The Dave Matthews Band as bands that he looked to in developing the blueprint for the Elephantbear sound, both influences that can be readily heard on "Hide and Go Seek."
The songs on "Hide and Go Seek" deal heavily with themes of unrequited love and bitter break-ups. One of the many standout tracks on the record, "Green Canvas Box," serves as a parting shot to an ex-girlfriend, Pedersen said. Its a cathartic and rocking goodbye, easily recognizable for its ultra-catchy synthesizer hook. The track that opens the disc, "Eternally Incomplete," is also an ode to lost love and rocks just as hard as anything you'll hear on the radio today. This record is loaded with radio-ready modern rock songs from start to finish and definitely makes a statement that this is a young band with a promising future. And its not just straight-up rock you'll hear throughout the record, as the band proves itself versatile enough to stretch out for some New Orleans-style funk on "Make You Say Wow" and instrumental exploration on "Dark Route." Certainly one of the most interesting songs on the record is "Between The Lines," an intricate and unconventional arrangement that includes guitar, violin, cello, glockenspiel, and percussion parts and provides a great showcase for the formidable songwriting team of Pedersen and Collins.
In addition to Pedersen and Collins (Facteau was not available for the recording sessions), Other musicians who appear on "Hide and Go Seek" include noted classical violinist Ulrike Schmitz; drummer Simon Lott; bassist Matt Clohesy; Chris Hoffman on cello; tenor saxophonist Matt Blostein; Brian Coogan on piano; Joe Kacz on alto sax; Alex Jeun on trombone; Tom Barber on trumpet, and keyboardist Matthias Bublath.
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