Um

Um began as David Hurwitz's late night recording project. He spent three months in a friend’s basement apartment in downtown NYC recording music in the middle of the night with friends from Here We Go Magic and Plushgun. These sessions turned into an experimental LP known as Rita Hayworth Face. It's sound is inspired by the landscape where it was created: late night and early morning hours around Greenwich Village and the Hudson River. Songs are layered with multiple vocal tracks, drum machines, synths, reverb, distortion and poetic lyrics on society, priorities and life in the twenty tens.

A month or two later David met bassist Bryan Percivall at a party in an old cork factory in Brooklyn. Bryan had recently finished jazz school with honors but talked obsessively about rage against the machine and live Hendrix recordings. He also bore a strange physical resemblance to Paul McCartney. All good signs. After hearing Rita Hayworth Face and having a few psychedelic jams together Bryan told David that he knew the drummer they needed to bring this album to life: Jojo Shwarz, a friend from college and the son of an opera singer and a classical violinist. Raised in Germany, Jojo earned money in high school performing in the percussion section of an orchestra. In college Jojo alternated between double bass drum and jazz ensembles. After a few phone calls and emails Jojo was living in New York and the three were working together on live arrangements of Rita Hayworth Face. Late one night around this time David got a phone call from Mexico. A friend there on vacation spent the night listening to a girl sing old jazz and folk standards. "She's great, she's from Brooklyn and she wants to join a band,” said the friend. A few weeks later Kate Atherton was back in America and layering her voice into the developing texture or Um. Lastly, Tim O'Brien, a long time shredder and friend of David's agreed to take over the lead guitar responsibilities. Tim expresses himself best with many effects pedals or in any conversation involving Phillip K Dick and/or quantum physics. Although Hurwitz remains the primary songwriter Um is now a 5-piece band and all members contribute creatively to the visualization of the songs on Rita Hayworth Face and the creation of new material. Um hopes to release Rita Hayworth Face sometime later in 2010 then go on tour and never come home.