Pagoda (Group)

Pagoda is a group of alternative Rock of Brooklyn, New York with as singer and guitarist Michael Pitt , accompanied by: Reece Carr with the battery, Willie Paredes with low, and Chris Hoffman with the violoncello. The first album éponyme will leave on February 27th, 2007. The name Pagoda come from the Asian type of construction of the same name. According to Michael, " It was really the only name which did not fear more than the autres"

Biography

Beginnings

The founders of Pagoda, Michael Pitt and Ryan Donowho met in a mutual friend in 2000. Having the knowledge of the musical talents of Michael, Ryan required of him to play on one of its songs. It was carried out and Ryan accompanied it with the battery. Alchemy between the two musicians was instantaneous. In spite of a certain talent in the guitar, Michael taken forever course of guitar. His/her friend Rodrigo of the group The Hermitt, was, according to Michael, the only one who “to some extent left me the street it invited me to install me with approximately seven other people in this studio with Chinatown. And he learned how to me to play of the guitar,”. The first written song was “Death to Birth” which became the most known song of Pagoda.

Between 2001 and 2004, the group invited many friends to ensure the low one at the time of their concerts. Among them: Christian Zucconi, leader of the Aloke group. At the time of its presence within the group, Zucconi turned a video clip for the song of Pagoda " Happy Song, " a melody and sarcastic song.

The opening of the group

The musical talents of Michael start to be recognized in the artistic world. Bernardo Bertolucci entrusts the original soundtrack of film to him “Innocents - The Dreamers,” in which Michael plays the main role “Matthew, “. Michael will take part then with Twins off Evil in a resumption of traditional the " Hey Joe " popularized by Jimi Hendrix and Bertolucci one emptied available in no-claims bonus in the DVD of film turned from there.

The following year Pagoda contributes its share to the original soundtrack of the film " the book of Jérémie " of Asia Argento, film drawn from the book of confessions of JT LeRoy. The group quickly starts then to turn in regularly concert. The concert in Sidewalk Café with New York City was their first. The concert showed so much energy and of potential, and déclancha so much of enthusiasm than the magazine Spin magazine includes Pagoda in the list of the groups of the New York Underground to absolutely seeing.

Confirmation and rebuilding of the group

Being in Portland for the casting of the film " Last Days " from Gus Van Sant, Michael fall on Jamie Kallend in a park scraping on its guitar. It borrows its guitar to him to play about it and Kallend, impressed by its capacities, invites it to one evening " open mic night, " in which its Kallisti group plays (it was the bass player). A friendship is formed quickly and Michael proposes to mix some songs of Kallisti to the hotel where it remained and did it in one night. The destiny of these two men was to be certainly dependant because they met then at Gus Van Sant for the casting of " Last Days". A few weeks later, one proposed in Kallend the place of bass player in the group Pagoda and it accepted without hesitating.

At the same time, the group publishes an advertisement for a violoncellist. The best offer came from Indigo Ruth-Davis, a teenager of the state of Vermont which considered studies in the artistic field. The first piece that one proposed to him to play was " Sadartha." It carried out the recording of the first blow and was then quickly engaged in the group.

Pagoda being now complete, it was time to record their first Demonstration. This one contains 5 titles: " Death to Birth" and " Sadartha" accompanied by " Fetus" , " I Do" and a title has cappella " Song 1". This Demonstration was distributed free at the time of the concerts of the group. The recording proceeded with the Excello Recording Studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While gaining in maturity the group became more melody with a song and more elaborate words. Gus Van Sant was one of the witnesses of this improvement and includes two songs of the Demonstration in the original soundtrack of its film " Last Days".

" Last Days"

" Last Days " take as a starting point the dead by Kurt Cobain, the leader of the group Nirvana. In film, Michael plays the role of " Blake" , an artist contained on itself and fighting against drug and the media pressure. In one of the scenes of film, Blake leaves his/her friends at the time of a festival to insulate itself in a living room or he plays the acoustic version of " Death to Birth". In this scene, one of most intense of film, Michael had the will to contribute its own share. " I am a musician and I did not want to do that by giving the impression which I made that just for the argent" he says. " I believe that we turned the scene approximately seven times and with each I must made a different song. For the last he asked me to play this chanson". Michael also carried out for film the song " That Day" , in which he plays all the instruments by using a " Machine" loop;.

The first Album

The group recorded its first album with Milan in 2005 with as Co-producer Luca Amendolara. It left on February 27th, 2007. The months which followed the recording, Jamie and Indigo leave the group. Luca replaces bass player.

January 11th, 2007, a new composition of the group was published on the official site with the photograph of the novel members accompanying Michael. The novel members are Willie Paredes (Low), Reece Carr (Battery) and Chris Hoffman (Violoncello). The bass player/producing Luca currently works with other groups in Italy and the actor/beater Ryan Donowho preferred to turn over towards the cinema.

Discography

Demonstration EP (2005)

This Maximum-CD was distributed by the agents of Michael at the time of the various concerts in 2005. It contains the version studio of " Death To Birth". This Demonstration is now available in free remote loading on the official site.

List of the songs:

Death to Birth
Straws
Sadartha
Song 1
I C

Pagoda LP (2007) (in the past " House off Worship")

List of the songs:

Lesson Learned
Amego
Straws
Voices
Death to Birth
Botus
Sadartha
Alone
Fear Cloud
I C

Film original soundtracks

Pagoda with also taken part in the bands orginales of:

" the book of Jérémie " of Asia Argento

" Last Days " of Gus Van Sant

External bonds

PagodaOnline.com - Official site (English)

Sadartha- Forum nonofficial French-speaking person of the group
Spin.com - Critical of the last album (English). Free downloading of their nearest individual, " Let us injure Learned"

References

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