ANSEL

Displayed in the URL are several listings that we've been "selected" for through the awesomeness known as Sonicbids. Fingers crossed for SXSW :) - Multiple

Our song "Dollie and the Time of Day" from our new album Tree Party was selected by Virgin Airlines to be part of Sonicbids' "New Music Discovered" series, which will be aired to passengers on all Virgin America flights for the entire month of December. Pretty Awesome :) - Virgin

Our song "Lovely Mystery", from our new album "Tree Party" was selected for Indezonic Radios Oct/Nov Compilation CD. - Indezonic Radio

Our song "Dollie and the Time of Day" was the featured song of the day on FM102X, September 7th, 2011 - FM102x

Ansels song "Dollie and the Time of Day - from the new album Tree Party - was featured on FM102x as the "Featured Song of the Day" on September 7th, 2011. - FM102x

The Space Cadet Rockets into Reality

The Space Cadet Shipwreck is a shot of recognition, opening one’s eyes to a trippy and almost anachronistic band as unique and enervating as the lead singer and composer himself. Seated upon a piano-chair, back to his iMac, Ansel as I know him, Evan Clayburn to the masses, listens intently to the latest iteration of a new track. Light stained in blonde flashes into my eyes through the open window behind his halo of surfer-styled hair. The name of the group is presented, and given the inspiration and sole creative mind behind the endeavor, is quite perfectly appropriate.

The band of Ansel and The Space Cadet Shipwreck are products of a chance encounter between Evan Clayburn and Andrew Morehart. Standing within a nondescript floor of a red-brick apartment in Boston garbed in Mirkwood earth-tones , Evan Clayburn grasps a bottle of Stella in his left hand, his right tapping the beat in a familiar fashion to the "Hieroglyphics" song playing the background. Glancing to his right beyond a particularly captivating young lass, he notices and acknowledges Andrew Morehart’s foot likewise feeling the music. From this association and a mutual appreciation of certain philosophers and underground music the friendship that would conceptualize Ansel was forged. The first song the chance meeting would mature into would be that of On Reverie Lane, recorded in Evan’s Boston apartment using only one mic; as stated by Nas, at times all one needs. Bloomshine would come to light entirely within the Boston pad alongside Reflex Pandemonium,

The opening track But Now You Just Wanna Behave would set the transitive precedent that would hold through the album’s production process, in that it was started in Boston and reborn in West LA, shifting and growing organically across the continent. The bass and drums were recorded in a practice closet with the vocals and guitars finding their way home to the album from Evan’s apartment in LA.

Boston served as the nexus wherein Evan came upon the remaining contributors to his entrance album. Bloomshine was the blossom of a lysergic holiday Evan had undertaken with Matthew Saba, his guitar chords strumming a number of tracks on this album, with the road his ally at the current time as he rides West to LA to play on Ansel’s upcoming cd. Adam Sther came to the attention of Evan when busting an ollie over the 6 stair-set across from the Hemenway Street apartment within which I’d likewise lived on the Northeastern Campus. Adam contributed to three songs on Space Cadet although his drums and charismatic stage presence vibe live with Ansel now, his maniacal skill well-noted according to Evan by his 53-year-old father, a veteran of hundreds of live shows. Adam will be contributing to the band’s performances as well as the next album. Tom Mitchell likewise was a Berklee connect from Boston, the classical bass player who’d contributed to Space Cadet, however the grind of LA and allure of an ex in the East would lead to his quitting the band and taking flight back to Boston. The final piece to the Ansel assembly is that of Justin David, playing live on keys and guitar with Ansel at the current time, shifting to the spot of bassist for upcoming performances. Evan is keeping the karma machine running by having provided back-up vocals on Justin’s ep and doing likewise on his full album en route. The heart and soul of Evan and Andrew would come full form with these gentleman, their energies vibing and at times colliding, the album dropping the elemental result.

The band was not without its bumps along the road of production, although a heavy foot on the pedal powered them through the rough patches. Reflecting upon the cross-tinental skip the band had taken with a grin, Evan recalls the heat that came with the West Coast move; “It got a little rowdy and blurish but we all wanted to finish it” the artistic endeavor would redeem itself through an act of inspired creativity, “…until I wrote Maybe You’re Lost in the Sea, which was just blurish" Sparking Andy's Muses.d so the band went on, recording next Maybe You’re Lost in the Sea with Andy contributing the expansive sound of the e-bow guitar and violin while stymied up within the West LA apartment of an acquaintance.

Recovering from creative intoxication takes a little of that old-fashioned R&R, at times one bender leading into another, and so “a very drunken red wine night” served as the inspiration to record Anchor and Sway within the bedroom of Evan’s abode. The singing bass guitar and ukulele were at this time recorded live with additional production augmenting it with overdubs, and the spacey effect of OC’s influencing the synth that caps the song off. The songs of Rollerskater and Radiant Nowhere came together as Voltron, with the drums and delayed banjo having been recorded by Andy within the basement of his parent’s Ohio home prior to his flight to the Golden Coast following the summer that would bring about the completion of both tracks as the pieces came to fit.

The last song to be recorded in the production of the album was that of And the Fades, written and recorded by the energy conflagration that had come about due to Evan’s being “very perturbed about a relationship with a girl that was sort of going somewhere”, with the predictions presented through the lyrics having been unfortunately prophetic, adding to the substance of the track. The final mixing and production upon the album was done in April, with a third-party, Brendan Dekora, having been taken on for the final mastering to provide that final and objective “OK. It’s done.” declaration after over nineteen months of work. On the 9th of June in this final year of the Zeroes, 2009, The Space Cadet Shipwreck released worldwide on iTunes, Amazon, and a multitude of other online stores.

Biting now into the cellophane wrapper upon the hard-copy that Ansel had so courteously sent up to Portland from LA for me… peeling… peering… and impressed. The album artwork by Ashley Edwards is in synch with the style and feel of Ansel, with the overall presentation nothing short of the content contained within the cd itself. For a trip into the whimsical world that is the music of Ansel look to the sky, or your preferred online store, for The Space Cadet Shipwreck. Buy the ticket. Take the ride. Rock and Roll

For more information on Ansel see: www.anselmusic.com

To get your copy of The Space Cadet Shipwreck go to: i tunes, or see them live, and pick up a limited edition CD pressing of The Space Cadet Shipwreck

To join the Ansel fan-club and become, like, a totally hard-core groupie of the band, and don’t forget the band’s preferred writer, go to: Michaeljohnwesterman.blogspot.com

---Michael John Westerman


- Michael John Westerman, Michaeljohnwesterman.blogspot.com