The Bainbridge-based musical trio Westerly Sound is seeking support via a www.kickstarter.com campaign to produce their debut album.
“Life is full of transitions.” That’s the delightful and frank perspective songwriter and Westerly Sound band leader Matt Bellman brings almost immediately to any conversation about his songs.
He should know.
Seven years ago the musician/husband stepped reluctantly into a new world, leaving his East Coast life and late night rock and roll lifestyle behind for good. His wife Kate led the charge, determined this time to find a peaceful place where the couple could regroup, establish a new life, and start a family. Guitar in hand, he arrived on Bainbridge Island and started attending musical jams looking for players that would share his new vision.
It wasn’t long before Matt met songwriter and guitarist, uke, and harp player Sarah Favret and fiddler Raffi Minasian. But, as the music unfolded, something else happened too.
“We’d get together for a three-hour practice, but we’d spend two hours sharing stories and laughing and then playing music for the remaining hour,” Bellman said.
“Although we’d never said it, we all felt like we’d known each other before we met. Truth is, we’d all had similar experiences, heartbreak, family challenges, but through it all we were comforted by music. That empathy unfolded sonically into the ‘Westerly Sound,’ much like the stories in the waters of the Puget Sound. Harmonies and secondary melody lines, dynamics, even the tempo and feeling, all came together. In many ways our songs are private conversations unwinding segments from our lives — our kids, our loves, our dreams — both past and future.”
Last year, Westerly Sound decided to focus on making a record and began the recording process. The outcome was slow experimenting with different recording methods.
“It was a frustrating process on our own,” Bellman said. “We’d get anxious with the sounds, the details, the layers. We were our own worst enemy. We’d start over, looking for a process that would work, then start again.”
Finally, after more than a year, Westerly Sound pooled their resources and called upon another Bainbridge resident, veteran recording engineer and musician Johnny Bregar. He agreed to take on the project as an engineer, additionally offering his superb musical talent to the project.
“Johnny freed us up to focus on the music and our performance as a band,” Bellman said. “His studio guidance really makes this possible, both as an engineer/producer and guest artist on the record.
“The first three tracks of the record are the start of our project,” he explained. “All of us involved in the project are Bainbridge residents, so we’re reaching out to the community at large. We’ve gathered our internal resources to get the project this far, but to finish the tracks and produce a high quality product, we need support from our community.”
The group has raised nearly half of their $5,000 goal already. Visit www.kickstarter.com and search “Westerly Sound” for more information or to donate.
