Tag: Homer Steinweiss

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dave Guy Shares Cinematic and Strutting “7th Heaven”

Raised in the East Village, acclaimed and highly sought-after trumpeter Dave Guy was surrounded by hip-hop and the hustle that seemed to define the city in the 90s. During those formative days, he and his playing style were influenced by the likes of Donald Byrd and Hugh Masekela, but also by A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul.

His time at LaGuardia Performing Arts High School furthered this path. Guy remembers sharing playing time with Big Crown Records co-founder Leon Michels and highly sought-after drummer Homer Steinweiss. “Being in the All-City Jazz Big Band, I would see them rehearsing all the time,” the New York-born and-based musician recalls. “They were already doing things with The Dap-Kings back then—which was crazy.”

His voice as a player began to take shape and continued to be refined through his studies at The Manhattan School of Music and The New School — and then playing with Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Charles Bradley and Menahan Street Band, The Sugarman 3 and more. He has played on albums from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Pharrell Williams, Lee Fields, the legendary Al Green — er, correction, the Rev. Al Green — and a lengthy list of others. And adding to a growing profile, Guy currently plays with The Roots live and on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Guy finally steps out into the much-deserved spotlight with his full-length debut, Ruby. Slated for a September 20, 2024 release through Big Crown Records, the 12-song album sees the highly sought-after NYC scene mainstay exploring New York jazz and pushing the boundaries of the style by incorporating elements of hip-hop and soul in a way that’s both unique and modern.

As fate would have it, a classic case of “when one door shuts, another opens” was really what got the ball rolling on the album. “I never wanted to force my own project,” Guy explains. “There was always a lot going on between things—the timing was never right.” But when The Tonight Show went on hiatus during last year’s Writers’ Strike, there was an unexpected free moment.

Within days, Guy started recording sessions with Steinweiss and Nick Movshon (bass). What initially started out as a just an opportunity to create music, quickly took shape and direction when they ended up laying down something that felt wildly special and authentic. The result is an album that captures different moods and serves as an invitation to the world as Dave Guys sees it and feels it.

Ruby‘s first single “7th Heaven” is a anchored around a a bed of twinkling and dancing keys, a strutting bass line from Movshown, boom bap-like drums from Steinweiss and ethereal backing coos from Clairo/Claire Cottrill serving as a funky and anthemic bed for Guy’s regal and soulful horn melody. The result is a composition that’s swaggering yet cinematic, while capturing the energy and vibe of a day — or night — in and around New York.

“It has a groove and is more in line with what the guys and I are known for with Menahan Street Band, but it is also in-your-face and catchy,” Guy says. “It’s a bit of an ode to Tijuana Brass too, a Herb Alpert-esque track with a tight horn line and has that energy that pops.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Holy Hive is a Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay act featuring:

Interestingly, Holy Hive can trace its origins to when Spring and Steinweiss met on a Minnesota farm through their respective girlfriends, who are cousins. The duo began a long-distance friendship, which over time developed into a folk-based recording project. Back in 2016, Spring relocated to New York. Shortly after, the duo were invited to tour with fellow JOVM mainstay Lee Fields. That tour dramatically changed their approach and sound: after the tour they began exploring the relationships between the traditions and lyricism of folk and the aesthetics and rhythms of soul music — seamlessly meshing them into something anachronistic yet uniquely theirs. And with a new sound, they began honing their sound with a year-long monthly resident at Red Hook, Brooklyn-based dive bar Sunny’s with a rotating cast of collaborators.

Spring and Steinwess then spent the next couple of years working on folk and soul inspired material that thematically focused on love and loss. The end result was teh duo’s full-length debut, last year’s Float Back to You. Recorded at Steinwess’ Diamond Mind Studios, the album was produced by Steinwess and consists of 10 originals, a cover of Honeybus’ “Be Thou By My Side” and a re-working of the old Irish folk standard “Red is the Rose.” The album also featured an impressive array of guest stars including Mary Lattimore (harp), El Michels Affair’s Leon Michels (sax, keys), The Shacks‘ Shannon Wise (backing vocals), The Roots’ Dave Guy (trumpet), Nick Movshon (bass) and Spring’s wife Sophia Heymans (piano).

The duo’s self-titled sophomore album is slated for a September 24, 2021 release through their longtime label home Big Crown Records. The album reportedly reviews a natural but subtle evolution for the duo: while still largely centered around the old-school soul and folk that has won them attention and praise, the Spring and Steinweiss push their sound and songwriting approach in new directions with narrative-driven Mexican ballads, Turkish funk and even a bit of Chicano Soul being added to the mix.

“We wanted this album to be a blending of our musical personalities – a continuation of our Folk Soul experiment,” Holy Hive’s Paul Spring explains. “We started the album together on tour, staying in Air BnBs with small mobile recording rigs. Then the pandemic forced us to work on it separately from our own quarantined homes. And finally, months later and reunited in New York, we finished it together in the Diamond Mine Studio.” Steinweiss continues, “I think we achieved something new and exciting on this album. We went deeper into ourselves to find inspiration, and we did a lot of self-reflection to find the words and themes that we wanted to express. There is a sadness to the album as a whole, but it was finished during a sad time for the world so I think it reflects a lot of what we have been going through.” Unsurprisingly, their self-titled sophomore album may the most personal of their growing catalog with the album’s material thematically touching upon the joys of partnership and love, and the fact that sadly no matter how hard you may try, all things end. So you dust yourself off, maybe figure it all out and (hopefully) try to start over again with some level of perspective.

The self-titled album’s first single “Ain’t That The Way” is a woozy and uneasy stomp featuring a persistent rhythm punctuated by handclaps, a looping and twinkling keys, a soaring hook and achingly plaintive vocals. And while displaying a breezy and infectious craft, the song is centered around the fact that all things good and bad end. Heartbreak is a part of our lives — and so is what you do with it.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Holy Hive Releases a Dreamy and Nostalgia-Inducing Animated Visual for New Single

Holy Hive is a Brooklyn-based soul act featuring:

Paul Spring, a St. Cloud, MN-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, who spent his formative years studying ancient languages, poetry and classical guitar before making a name for himself as a folk artist, eventually self-releasing seven albums, including a well-received children’s album Home of Song.
Homer Steinweiss, a Brooklyn-born and-based drummer, who has played, toured and recorded with a who’s who of contemporary soul and pop music including Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, The Jonas Brothers, St. Vincent, Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings— before settling into a highly-south after session player.
Joe Harrison, a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist who has played with Frank Dukes and Charles Bradley.
The band can trace its origins to when Spring and Steinwess met on a Minnesota farm through their respective girlfriends, who are cousins. Steinweiss and Spring soon began a long-distance friendship, which, over time developed into a folk music recording project. Harrison, was working at a studio assistant at The Diamond Mine Studios at the time and he started to sit in on the duo’s sessions, eventually joining the band as a full-time member in 2015 when the band began recording as Holy Hive.

In 2016 Spring relocated to New York and the members of Holy Hive were invited to tour with JOVM mainstay Lee Fields. That tour dramatically changed their approach and sound: after the tour they began exploring the relationships between the traditions and lyricism of folk and the aesthetics and rhythms of soul music — seamlessly meshing them into something anachronistic yet uniquely theirs. And with a new sound, they began honing their sound with a year-long monthly resident at Red Hook, Brooklyn-based dive bar Sunny’s with a rotating cast of collaborators. Then they spent the next couple of years working on folk and soul inspired material that thematically focused on love and loss.

The end result is the band’s long-awaited full-length debut Float Back to You. Slated for a May 29, 2020 release through Big Crown Records, the album is the follow-up to their critically applauded debut EP Harping and a string of well-received singles. Recorded at Steinwess’ Diamond Mind Studios, the album was produced by Steinwess and consists of 10 originals, a cover of Honeybus’ “Be Thou By My Side” and a re-working of the old Irish folk standard “Red is the Rose.” The album also features an impressive array of guest stars including Mary Lattimore (harp), El Michels Affair’s Leon Michels (sax, keys), The Shacks‘ Shannon Wise (backing vocals), The Roots’ Dave Guy (trumpet), Nick Movshon (bass) and Spring’s wife Sophia Heymans (piano).

Earlier this year, I wrote about the album’s first single “Broom.” Tracing its origins back to the band’s first tour with Lee Fields, the track is a shimmering and mournful bit of blue-eyed soul meets 60s folk. “At the time, we were a folk trio with nylon guitars playing Nick Drake inspired arrangements,” the band’s Homer Steinweiss recalls in press notes. “These songs did not go over too well with the So-Cal soul audience. Inspired by Lee’s music, we saw a need to write a more soulful song to appeal to them. After covering Donnie and Joe Emerson’s ‘Baby’ in San Diego, Joe made some chords, Homer laid a beat and paul activated the falsetto to make this tune.” Interestingly, “Float Back To You,” the slow-burning and shimmering third album single and album title track is a achingly plaintive ballad that further cements the band’s sound — in particular, I’m reminded Simon & Garfunkel, Scott Walker and blue-eyed sound.

Featuring line animation by Sophia Heymans, the recently released video for “Float Back To You,” the video manages to capture those things we can’t quite have — carefree summer afternoons and nights, while following a woman, who decides to take various garden gnomes, rocking horses and the like into her home to read to them.  It’s a simple yet surreal fantasy centered around the sort of feverish nostalgia we all have right now. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brooklyn’s Holy Hive Releases a Playful Visual for Mournful Single “Broom”

Holy Hive is a Brooklyn-based soul act featuring:

Paul Spring, a St. Cloud, MN-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and guitarist. Spring spent his formative years studying ancient languages, poetry and classical guitar before making a name for himself as a folk artist, who self-released seven albums, including a well-received children’s album Home of Song.
Homer Steinweiss, a Brooklyn-born and-based drummer, who has played, toured and recorded with a who’s who of contemporary music including Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars, The Jonas Brothers, St. Vincent, Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings– before settling into a highly-south after session player.
Joe Harrison, a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist who has played with Frank Dukes and Charles Bradley.
The band can trace its origins to when Spring and Steinwess met on a Minnesota farm through their respective girlfriends, who actually are cousins. Steinweiss and Spring soon began a long-distance friendship, which, over time developed into a folk music recording project. Harrison, was working at a studio assistant at The Diamond Mine Studios at the time and he started to sit in on the duo’s sessions, eventually joining the band as a full-time member in 2015 when the band began recording as Holy Hive.

In 2016 Spring relocated to New York and the members of Holy Hive were invited to tour with JOVM mainstay Lee Fields. That tour dramatically changed their approach and sound: after the tour they began exploring the relationships between the traditions and lyricism of folk and the aesthetics and rhythms of soul music — by seamlessly meshing them into something anachronistic yet uniquely theirs. And with a new sound, they began honing their sound with a year-long monthly resident at Red Hook, Brooklyn-based dive bar Sunny’s with a rotating cast of collaborators. Then they spent the next couple of years working on folk and soul inspired material that thematically focused on love and loss.

The end result is the band’s long-awaited full-length debut Float Back to You. Slated for a May 29, 2020 release through Big Crown Records, the album is the follow-up to their critically applauded debut EP Harping and a string of well-received singles. Recorded at Diamond Mind Studios, the album was produced by the band’s Steinwess and consists of 10 originals, a cover of Honeybus’ “Be Thou By My Side” and a re-working of the old Irish folk standard “Red is the Rose.” The album also features an impressive array of guest stars including Mary Lattimore (harp), El Michels Affair’s Leon Michels (sax, keys), The Shacks’ Shannon Wise (backing vocals), The Roots’ Dave Guy (trumpet), Nick Movshon (bass) and Spring’s wife Sophia Heymans (piano).

Float Back to You’s latest single is the shimmering and mournful blue-eyed soul meets 60s folk-like “Broom.” Centered around shimmering guitar chords, a steady backbeat, a gorgeous yet soulful arrangement and Spring’s aching falsetto, the song can trace its origins back to their first tour with Lee Fields. “At the time, we were a folk trio with nylon guitars playing Nick Drake inspired arrangements,” the band’s Homer Steinweiss recalls in press notes. “These songs did not go over too well with the So-Cal soul audience. Inspired by Lee’s music, we saw a need to write a more soulful song to appeal to them. After covering Donnie and Joe Emerson’s ‘Baby’ in San Diego, Joe made some chords, Homer laid a beat and paul activated the falsetto to make this tune.”

Directed by Sesse Lind, the recently released video for “Broom” is shot on a Long Island City, Queens industrial rooftop — and we follow the band’s Homer Steinweiss as he kind of jazzercises to the song.