Ever hear the phrase — keep Asbury weird? It’s a mantra locals (both in Asbury and around The Jersey Shore) hold dear to their hearts. Why? Because this city-by-the-sea that is steeped in rich musical history is where musicians, artists and just everyday people can explore their “weird” side. This city is a bastion of culture that encourages artists to step outside their comfort zone and go for something everyone else might deem “weird.”
And that’s where a band like Mad Feather Group comes in. These guys keep Asbury weird. The group’s sound is not the kind of you can place a finger on and say, “That’s the genre it belongs in” or “This [insert famous band] is who they sound like.” Mad Feather has a sound that’s now, it’s modern, it could easily be heard banging through the hip halls of Brooklyn or a summer festival stage, but it’s also inherently different and unique. It’s a wonderful mix that when experiencing it, you feel as though art, not just music, is literally sailing through your ear canals. It’s such an exciting sound that you gotta hear in order to truly grasp what these guys are all about.
Recently, Pop-Break caught up with Roshane Karunaratne of Mad Feather to talk about their October 6th performance with The Shady Street Show Band at Happy Mondays at Wonder Bar, as well as their unique sound and the Asbury scene.
Mad Feather Group is: Dave Colon (lead vocals, guitar), Matt Hess (guitar), Roshane Karunaratne (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Santo Rizzolo (drums, backing vocals), Brandon Tuzio (keyboards, backing vocals).
We’re based out of: Jackson, New Jersey
The Story of Our Name: Years ago when we formed, we had a working name that was very bad and we desperately needed to change it to something that was less bad, so “Mad Feather Group” came out of an hour or two of cycling through a bunch of word combinations. “Mad” as in “mad-man.” Why feathers? Probably some kind of subconscious connection to bird songs. Or not. To me it kind of sounds like a bastardized Indian name.
Any new music coming out: Yes! We have an eight-song album coming out winter ’14/’15 and most likely an EP soon after. The songs on the album are mostly ones we’ve been playing for the last two-three years, along with two others that are only about a year old. We’ve been a band for a while but we haven’t put anything out except for a few demos online, so this will be our first “official” release. Recording is being done at Lakehouse Studio in Asbury and is halfway finished.
You’ve seen us before [in other bands]: If you’ve followed the Monmouth/Ocean County music scene for a long enough time, you’ve seen some of us in bands like the Boy Judas and Love Child. The lead singer-songwriters of those bands are now both in the Jersey folk group, Thomas Wesley Stern.
Our sound has been likened to: Steely Dan, Talking Heads.
You have such a unique sound — can you talk about the inspiration for this?:
Roshane Karunaratne: We’re all consumers of music from various eras and contradictory genres, so our sound is the outcome of that. We’ve never aimed to be a genre-specific band.
Can you tell us about Feathers in the Shade the super group you formed with The Shady Street Showband?
Roshane Karunaratne: We’ve played a bunch of shows and really get along with those folks from Shady Street on both a social and musical level. They are FANTASTIC musicians! So both parties thought it’d be a fun idea to put on a “super jam” style set for our next show together. We’ve been plotting and practicing and we think people are gonna get a kick out of what we’ve put together.
http://youtu.be/r_VoHViQggM
There are so many bands out there in the Jersey Shore scene to check out — what do you think separates you guys from everyone else?
Roshane Karunaratne: We’re kind of the black sheep of this scene. We don’t quite fit in musically with a lot of our peers.
If someone read this interview and never heard you before, but decided to check you out, what song would you recommend they listen to in order to understand what Mad Feather Group is all about?
Roshane Karunaratne: Check out “Dead” on our sound cloud and our music video for “She Mouths the Psalm” on youtube.
A bit of more broad, sweeping question — what is it that you love about being in Mad Feather Group?
Roshane Karunaratne: I love exploring and developing new sounds with my best friends!
What can the people coming out to Happy Mondays expect to see from you guys in terms of a live experience?
Roshane Karunaratne: You can expect a whole lot of spastic dancing, weird head jerks, silly props, lights changing colors, tight grooves accented with the occasional abrasive “bleep” or “bloop.” A dance party with a hint of chaos.
How much do you guys improvise during your live performance – to me your music seems to really lend itself to that.
Roshane Karunaratne: About eighty percent of what we do in our songs is pre-arranged, but most of our songs have sections that we allow ourselves to go off into noisy, faux-jazzy tangents. We usually make up the setlist as we go along on stage and that keeps things flowing organically.
What do you have planned for the rest of 2014?
Roshane Karunaratne: Stay tuned for our new album and a possible release show at the end of December in Asbury, along with a couple of fresh music videos.
http://youtu.be/JNRPLge7oj0
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