THE DRUMMER (AND THE BASS DRUM) left about a year ago. Shortly
thereafter, the bassist departed. Beguiristain and de la Osa found themselves
working solely together, but then came to realize they were the true core
of the band. The departure of their bandmates simply laid the situation out
for them to recognize.
"It was really Henry and I making most of the decisions most of the time
anyway," explains de la Osa, who also recognizes the other disadvantage of
getting
a group of four different people to fully participate in one enterprise. "There
are
not a lot of people who can record, play shows here and go on tour and still
stay in
that band - stay in that cycle," she shrugs.
Aloud's cycle has been buoyed from the beginning by their superb songwriting
and performing skills. Jen de la Osa is a dynamo on stage and on record. She's
a petite woman with a larger-than-life voice and her guitar playing seemingly
has
its own personality with all its side notes and pick-slides. Her vocals are one
of
the hallmarks of Aloud's sound; powerful enough to blow the doors down,
yet accurate enough to blow just the right doors down. Partner Beguiristain's
work has its own personality, one that counterpoints de la Osa's bombast
and raw power. Whereas de la Osa rides a chariot of blood and thunder,
Beguiristain simply sidles up to your ear with an almost conversational
style of lyric and melody.
As the creators and sole proprietors of the Aloud sound, the two are enjoying
the liberation of flying duo (in lieu of solo), yet they also feel the
challenging side
as well. "It's pretty liberating, but it's scary and frightening," admits de la
Osa.
While the group wouldn't mind having full-time, committed band members, they
realize their current pattern really isn't so bad. "The shitty thing is that you
don't
have permanent guys and the stability isn't there," says Beguiristain, ever the
optimist. "But at the same time, you get to meet people who really enjoy
playing
music, and just some really cool people."
Some of the really cool people who have happened upon Aloud's path include
Motion Sick drummer Travis Richter, who has saved the band's bacon on a few
occasions when other drummers (yes, multiple drummers) were unable to make
the gig. "Two shows, Travis came in and saved our asses," recalls de la Osa.
Aloud
has also enjoyed the percussive company of Harris' Rob Lynch. "We've had two
guys come in and play on [the new record]," says de la Osa. "Three, counting
Dan."
That's producer Daniel Nicholas Daskivich, who has also subbed-in for some
tracks on the as-of-yet unnamed Aloud record currently in production. Daskivich
is quickly becoming the band's George Martin, working closely with de la
Osa and Beguiristain.
These two-and-a-half members of Aloud are indeed working on a new
record, one which pledges to be altogether different from previous offerings
Leave Your Light On and Fan the Fury. One of the things that makes Aloud
so special is the apparent ease with which they write quality songs. "The fun
thing about working on this record is that we basically wrote 30 to 40 songs
and
plucked these out," says Beguiristain, who then went into the studio and
recorded
them - backwards. Not the kind of backwards where you insert subliminal
messages designed to make people worship Satan, drink Pepsi or vote for
Candidate X, but the kind where one puts down the melody first, and then
fills in details such as bass and drums. "Totally backwards from what we
usually do," says Beguiristain.
If Leave Your Light On was an establishing fist up in the air carrying a road
flare, then Fan the Fury was that same hand, defusing and setting light to the
same bomb, working outwards from within. Their current output of songs turns
the lens back inward. Maybe it's something brought on by the band upheaval and
paring down or maybe it's simply the emotional and musical maturity of a band
coming into its own. Or maybe it's everything all at once.

Huge-voiced Jen de la Osa ripped into vocals with reckless abandon for the
first two records, but now she appears to have measured her vocal approach in
initial demos. This seems to have come not with any grand change, but a
different
sort of context of artistic self-location.
"The perspective changed on the songs and how to approach them," says the
vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. "Instead of a band in a room creating a
song,
it's more like using the studio to create the song - it's a piece of art, so
you're going
to throw a brushstroke here and what's it going to sound like?"
Aloud's current brushstrokes are creating stunning, multi-layered works.
They look at each new song (and in the larger sense, each new record) as a
continuation and alteration of the previous one. "I think it's just like
anything,"
says de la Osa. "When you finish a record, you're like, 'Well we should write a
song
that's just kind of the opposite of what we just did." The band is self-critical
to a
point, almost an extreme, but it's the understandable sort of self-criticism
where
you are uncomfortable seeing pictures of you younger self.
"I'm never going to get tired of Fan the Fury," says de la Osa. "I think that
was the record where we really found our footing and our voice, lyrically and
musically. It's all there. And I think we've just kind of expanded on that."
Aloud is expanding even as their membership has contracted. They steam
on, touring here, recording there. They aren't against the idea of drafting
new,
permanent members to their roster, but they are in no hurry either.
"The short answer is we're still single, kinda looking," smiles Beguiristain.
"Enjoy long walks on the beach, etc. etc." Their inner-intensity, measured by
their light-heartedness and constantly evolving music, makes it seem as if
Aloud
is truly enjoying finding themselves. Even if there is no one final answer to
the
question of "Who am I?" It seems as if these two - at the end of the day - are
ready to live with whatever the answers might be.

http://myspace.com/Aloud