by Robert Brind
We start by discussing the quality of the newer recordings. “I think we’re coming to a point where we’ve learned so much in different ways that we keep coming together better and better, and that the next thing to happen will be better than the last one. I feel good about the journey,” Perlick-Molinari says.
That journey has grown to include collaborations with quite a few DJs and bands that French Horn Rebellion has met along the way. Although their latest EP, The Fire, features only one song (“The Fire”). It has four tracks, three of which are remixes, each very different from the others. I ask Perlick-Molinari how so many collaborations developed.
“Well, that’s the thing is that when we started the group we had a lot of fun making this music with what we had. With a computer, or maybe a guitar, very little instrumentation. In college, I would make beats in my dorm room, just on a computer. And all of a sudden, in my life as a hornplayer, I was asked to do things that were very repetitive and not very creative. You learn how to play horn, and you learn how to play in time, and in tune- articulation and crescendo- it all has to be perfect. It’s really difficult. And the way you succeed, through woodshedding. It’s being on your instrument very constantly. Constantly working on the perfect sound. And that’s where this all comes from.”
The band started young, in college. “I started making beats and when it came time to graduate I said, ‘I’m just going to do it.’” Perlick-Molinari speaks about his trials and fears in the classical world of french horn competitiveness, and then shifts back to the band. “This world, the French Horn Rebellion world, expresses more of your creativity. Coming up with your own songs, your own melody. You don’t have to be as great as another flute player, another horn player. We’re all in it together, that’s why we have these collaborations, we’re all part of this party ensemble. We keep time together, and enjoy each other’s company.”
The collaborations had to come from traveling, from mutual music appreciation at shows. “I think most of them have come from traveling, yeah. And sometimes we’ll meet people who actually are from Brooklyn, but we’ll actually meet somewhere else. And we’ll say let’s get back to New York, and we’ll do something.” In fact, one of Perlick-Molinari’s favorite traveling adventures, a trip to play in the Dominican Republic, resulted in such a collaboration. His favorite show while traveling was actually in Hong Kong.
Once the Dominican Republic became part of the conversation, we begin talking about the band’s bent toward dance music. “Those shows are kind of interesting. They get pretty crazy at shows. They’re not necessarily into the bands, they’re there to have a good time. It’s just really awesome.” On their last EP, the Rubber Ross remix is very dance oriented. “He’s got a new project, and he asked to do it. He nailed it.” The future will continue the theme of dance music. “What we want to do, [is create] something you can party with, something you can DJ for your friends. . . That’s the thing, if there’s no dancing [at a show,] we almost feel like we bombed.”
On their recorded music they really have some nice harmonies and melody lines, particularly on “The Fire.” “The female lead on a lot of the choruses is really thrown back to my brother, who is the other guy in the group. His wife is a great singer. She’s in a great band, Savoir Adore, and she sings on a lot of the stuff. She shares a studio space with us, so she’s in and out, she’s around. She can sing on stuff. If we get an idea, we can have her do it, and she can nail it.”
I ask whether or not some of those harmonies were her voice doubled. “It depends on the song. I’ll sing some of the harmonies, we’ll have other people do it. It depends really on each song. Each song is a journey. In this last year and a half, we started a lot of collaborations, and I mean only collaborations, no original songs. Every song has a guest vocalist, so every song has been a journey. [Savoir Adore] has terrific energy onstage. And on the flip side, you’re working with Ghost Beach, and they’re picky about every harmony, every melody.”
Perlick-Molinari sings with Ghost Beach, Savoir Adore, and many others to create completely different versions of his songs, and their own. Believe it or not, they even collaborated with MGMT. They were producers on one of the early EPs. “They were the first band I’d ever seen that didn’t play guitar.” And MGMT helped provide motivation for FHR’s own drive as a band that also doesn’t feature a guitar.
Given the volume of EPs and limited song selection, I ask what he would do with a big studio deal- 12 original tracks of his best stuff. “We’re putting our own label together. So, all those collaborations we’ve done, we can have other people’s music, and release it on our own label.” And yes, almost everything will be a collaboration.
Almost doesn’t mean that the French Horn Rebellion doesn’t have it’s own unique songs that are pure FHR. “The new FHR stuff that we’re working on is our own vocals, our own music, everything put together as one piece. And we can do that, make something more cohesive. That’s kind of the goal for next year. I’m really stoked about it.”
Now, with their own label, they will do what they want, not what any other label would attempt to mold them into. Their live shows reflect their individuality. They have a live bass player, a live drummer and instead of guitar solos, they have horn solos. They even pre-program their own light show. “It’s really fun,” he says with a big smile. So, check them out and wear something in which you can dance.
