Olde School, the new album from New York City’s East Village Opera Company is an album 300 years in the making. Using a few centuries worth of opera’s greatest hits as their launching point, the album took twelve months and fourteen engineers to record and mix the sixty five involved musicians in ten different studios around the world.

the MUSIC – old school meets old old school EVOC has once again taken a selection of opera arias and re-imagined them as popular songs, using full symphony orchestra, R&B horns, and choir alongside the group’s guitars, drums, keyboards, string quartet, and singers. Arias by Verdi, Puccini, Bach, Mozart, and Wagner collide with Rock and Roll, R&B, 60’s and 70’s Pop, Surf, and Soul in an explosive mosaic of sound that is deliciously eclectic and singularly cohesive at the same time. As filtered through the group’s irreverent sensibility, a seemingly bad idea (rock meets opera) comes off as a triumphant celebration of all music in a musical highwire act that deftly balances tradition and renewal.

The result is a record that is entirely familiar and boldly original. It starts with a bang and ends with a whisper – taking a tour through centuries worth of popular music that leads the listener to the nexus of European and American culture, a place not unlike that classic jam session in Heaven – only Hendrix and Mozart have seemingly met and collaborated on this remarkable new record.

the PROCESS – old school meets new school  “We started with records from thrift shops and opera scores I found in the delete bins at the Strand Bookstore for selecting the material,” says producer/arranger Peter Kiesewalter. “Then we gathered round the piano, stumbling our way through these gems and trying to figure out ways to make them our own. I put pencil to staff paper in writing initial arrangements out for the band and orchestra, just like I did in the old days.”

The record hearkens back to a pre-digital age when musicians played real instruments with an anything goes approach and no worries about song length or market demographic. “There’s a spirit and sense of unfettered experimentation that artists like the Beatles, Marvin Gaye, Brian Wilson, and Led Zeppelin had on those great records of the mid to late 60’s,” Kiesewalter continues. “We unshackled the restraints on our imaginations in coming up with treatments, convincing ourselves to play and sing what we would never do with any other artist for reasons of, let’s just say, good taste.”

Recording in stages and in various studios around the world, however, required an embrace of technological innovation. Files, sessions, scores, and mixes were all done in the digital realm and sent from studio to studio via internet lines. “Technology is not music’s evil foe, like some
hardcore old schoolers might have us believe. I know that Freddy Mercury and George Frideric Handel alike would be using Pro Tools and computers were they alive today.”

“We took more liberties with the original arias on this record than we did on the last one,” says singer and EVOC co-founder Tyley Ross. “This time around we challenged ourselves to do more English songs – which are pretty scarce in opera save for baroque and 20th century works. We played around with some Italian and French arias translated to English but they didn’t jive with us stylistically, so on this record we’ve written some new lyrics and music, integrating them into the arias we selected.”

the BUZZ

Started as somewhat of a lark in 2004 by Canadians Peter Kiesewalter and Tyley Ross after
collaborating on a film project, EVOC turned the heads of New York’s music community with a series of electric genre defying shows at Joe’s Pub, the intimate venue housed by the New York Public Theatre. Initially meant as a one-off project, they were quickly signed to Decca/Universal records and met with universal praise from both classical and rock critics and fans. The Washington Post proclaimed - “Opera crossover acts are becoming a veritable cottage industry, but the East Village Opera Co. is markedly different.”

They have toured the world with a unique live show, combining a seemingly incongruous classical string section with a powerhouse rock band. Time Out New York stated that the group “electrifies the classics for a new generation.” The Associated Press mused the band was “dramatic” and “mesmerizing” while the Wall Street Journal agreed noting; “The band rocks hard, and deranges the opera stuff with savvy skill.”

In a rare feat not many artists can claim, EVOC headlines around the world in both eclectic rock clubs as well as some of the most prestigious classical concert halls. The band’s appeal is evident in both cases - The Chicago Tribune raved; “nobody puts a fresher, friskier contemporary spin on opera’s greatest hits than the East Village Opera Company.” The band has also performed at esteemed events such as the Sundance Film Festival, the Miss USA pageant (nationally televised
on NBC), and the world-premiere of the Da Vinci Code in Hong Kong. EVOC has also been celebrated at the 2006 Emmy's with an award for their PBS Special “EVOC LIVE”, and they have received commissions to pen new works from both the New York Public Theatre and the New York City Opera, for whom they have also performed at Lincoln Center. 

the TECH SPECS – for the geeks

Kiesewalter – “After figuring out keys and approaches with the singers, I recorded rough demos using midi gear, adding our guitarist Ben Butler after forms were sketched out. I wrote rhythm
charts and initial orchestral arrangements using pencil and paper, printing final versions using the
scoring program Sibelius for better legibility. 

Rehearsals with bassist Richard Hammond, drummer Jeff Lipstein and myself further honed in on grooves and transitions before recording bed tracks at Avatar Studios in New York on their renowned Neve 8068 console with engineer Kevin Killen. Multiple guitar overdubs took place at the Magic Shop in Soho and my studio on the Lower East Side using an arsenal of vintage amps – Hiwatt, Vox, Marshall, Fender, etc. The string quartet and choir were recorded at Avatar and the Magic Shop, followed by a trip to Prague to record the Czech Philharmonic string section. Orchestral brass and winds and R&B horns were recorded back in New York to maximum control over the separation between the sections come mix time. Vocals were continually being laid down at my studio during all this (one mic for all vocals – a Brauner VMA) – it was important for the singers to get comfortable with the arias, the language, and the approach they would end up taking that would differentiate our version from a “legit” singer’s approach. Keyboards were real as opposed to samples – grand piano, Wurlitzer electronic piano, Hammond B3 organ and Farfisa, tack piano, vibraphone, and Moog synthesizer.

Some computer based soft-synths were added for color here and there. The final mixdown took place over 16 very long days at Saint Claire Recording Company in Lexington, Kentucky with Grammy winning engineer Neil Dorfsman on an J Series SL9000 SSL console. The Pro Tools rig (150 voices) and console (80 inputs) were pushed to the absolute max on almost every tune because of the sheer amount of information – but I knew that this record was going to be sonically large from the get-go.”