Sounding Out: Ivan and Alyosha

On the right hand side of this web page there is a list of ‘Labels’ that describe music. Honestly, I don’t like having it there. I think that labeling and categorizing artists and music is really doing them and their music an injustice. From my perspective, it is hard to be open to music and art when we approach it with preconceived ideas and expectations of what it should be and sound like. It was with this notion in the back of my mind that I sat down to talk with Tim Wilson, Ryan Carbary, and Jesse CarMichael of Ivan and Alyosha at Neptune Coffee, in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle.

Ivan and Alyosha have a great new EP, Fathers Be Kind, which was released this past week. The EP is receiving a lot of positive attention both locally and nationally. I, for one, flat out love this EP. I think that Tim, Ryan, Pete Wilson (Tim’s brother), Tim Kim, and Jesse have written a collection of really special songs here.

by José Mandojana

With beautiful vocal harmonies and influences that range from Roy Orbison and early Beatles to traditional Hymns and gospel music, Ivan and Alyosha write and sing songs that celebrate family, friends, and their faith. For them, their music is simply an extension of who they are and what they believe. But as Fathers Be Kind receives more attention, they now find themselves trying to keep their music from being categorized and labeled as religious or secular depending on the song and/or the audience. For them, they don’t really understand why there needs to be any distinction. It’s all just music to them.

“I recently heard someone refer to our band’s sound as gospel-tinged, folk-pop.” Tim said. “I would never have thought that people would have associated that with us. Maybe its because of the harmonies or because of some of the subject matter….I don’t really know.” Tim added that whether it is with a pop song or a hymn, singing is a spiritual experience for them either way. “It is just how we live our lives.”

As Tim was speaking I was thinking about my wife’s family. I told Tim, Ryan, and Jesse that when I married into my wife’s family, I entered a world of music that was different from what I experienced growing up. Inevitably, at her family’s gatherings, everyone breaks out into song. The songs can be jazz standards, country songs, or traditional hymns…all with beautiful harmonizing. There is no distinction made between what songs are ‘religious’ and what are ‘secular.’ All the music is just part of who they are and their life experiences.

Tim responded to this by saying that he understood and could totally relate. “The harmonies just come out naturally and that is what we do when we are out on the road. At 3am driving to the next town, we too sing old country songs and hymns and we are all doing harmonies as best as possible…sometimes it is rough," he said laughing. "Sometimes it is great.”

Glorify   

Everyone in the band grew up playing instruments and singing in church, Tim explained, with the exception of Ryan. Ryan jumped in and said that while he did not go to church growing up, it was the old hymns and lots of harmonies in the music that drew him in as he got older. “I remember Pedro The Lion doing an old hymn and I remember thinking ‘what is this?’ I had never heard anything like it before.”

About the hymns, Tim added, “there is a certain richness to the history, both musically and lyrically.” But Tim said that it is only now that he is starting to realize just how much traditional gospel music, going back 50 and 60 years, has influenced his writing. “I don’t know if it is just buried in my subconscious and it just comes out naturally, but it’s kind of funny when you do something three, four times a week, every week for 30 years…it’s just kind of burned into me.”

With just one of the their many musical influences being church music, the band tried, for a while, to get as far away from that association as possible. But Tim said that as their audience has grown, they have come to see that some people are interested in the musical style and their beliefs, and many others just like their music and don’t really care what they believe in. Then Tim said, “I think that it has alienated some people, but it has attracted an equal amount or more.” Ultimately, they don’t really care what people think about what they believe in or choose to sing about. “We live under that umbrella of our faith, encompassing everything that we do, so it is just natural that we are going to write about the things that we believe in.“

Tim said that they have come to realized that whether it is him singing about what he believes in or someone else singing about what he or she believes in, say political ideology, the idea of an artist getting one’s point across and changing minds is the same. Ryan said, “Everyone has a world view and everyone is singing about it.” Tim added, “I don’t think that what we are doing is anything different (from other artists).”

The problem, he acknowledged, is that an artist singing about his spiritual life is not perceived the same way as an artist singing about his political views.  For many, there is a unfavorable association...and this was not always the case. Tim said that he felt that there has been a ‘commercialization’ of the church over the past 30 years by the ‘Christian American Culture’ that has done a lot of harm, especially musically. “We don’t want to be associated with that. But it is hard to get away from it. People are like, oh, yeah you’re a Christian band, I get it. And my response is ‘no’ were not and you don’t get it.”

Tim and Ryan both talked about the longstanding tradition of religion being a part of music. “People forget, because we are so secularized as a society now, the influence of religion on art, in general, over thousands of years...I think we are just an extension of that tradition, in a way. When people ask us about Christian rock, it is not even a thought in our minds."

From my perspective, regardless of how Ivan and Alyosha’s music is categorized….or not (hopefully), it is just plain old good. I told them that beyond the lyrics and music, I thought the new EP really advanced the sound of the band. 

Sonically, Tim said, we wanted it to sound as good as possible. He then smiled and said, "I heard someone call it ‘mid-fi’ where their first album was pretty ‘low-fi.’ With that he started to laugh. “But we were trying to do ‘hi-fi’ on the new album.” He then said in a more serious tone that they were limited to some extent with the equipment that they have. “For the most part, when we go into the studio we are just trying to get the best sound and performance that we can.”

Tim and Ryan said that they try to be perfectionists in the recording studio. If something does not sound just right, if someone is off pitch, they do another take. That can make for a lot of do-overs, especially with at least 12 tracks of just vocals on most songs (at least two for each of them). Ryan smiled and said, “It’s depressing because there is a playlist count on each track showing how many takes we're doing.” 

With Fathers Be Kind now complete and the band set to leave on a two month cross-country tour, I asked them if they get as much pure joy out of performing as they do from just singing and creating music together? Ryan said that he loves creating songs and putting them together. Playing in front of people and entertaining is just different. “Going out and playing and performing is something that we are still learning how to do. We have to create a different kind of connection with the music than when we are just playing for ourselves.”

Tim went on to say that, for the most part, what they try to do at shows is simply have fun. “I think that people respond to that more than us trying to look cool. We try to just play our balls off and forget that there is this odd thing going on where people are standing there watching.” Ultimately, Ivan and Alyosha hope that they create a special environment where their audience connects with the music as much as they do and everyone can let loose and have a great time. Because, in the end, it is all just art and expression.

Living For Someone   

Ivan and Alyosha start touring next week. You can check out their schedule here.