Big Sir

Big Sir’s third record is a twitchy creature at heart. Smooth trails of melody are stirred up with a flickering set of rhythms, soft synth lines and various guises of bass guitar. The duo – Lisa Papineau, and The  Mars Volta bassist Juan Alderete – continually tweak their output, playing with elements of soul, funk and even the odd foray into drum and bass BPMs.

Regions opens the album with a funked, sliding bass-line and clap-happy backbeat. Papineau’s vocal breathes intimately across the sparse backing – synths fill the glacial atmosphere. The minimal approach is nothing new, but Big Sir have enough creativity to remain listenable. So where some songs might fail to connect in an emotional capacity (the looping break that is Ready on the Line is of little interest), there are tracks like Old Blood which find new territory in distorted guitars and a gutsier approach.

Be Brave Go On has Alderte on full funk mode, his bass slapping (in a thoughtful manner) while Papineua displays her ethereal and hushed intonation. It doesn’t really go anywhere, but as the title line is repeated with more and more intent it becomes a strange highlight. It’s followed with Our Pleasant Home, the live drum sound and electronic strings becoming a hypnotic canvas for the Papineau to display her falsetto edge.

Big Sir have probably made their best record yet in Before Gardens After Gardens, trickling icy soul and fiddly patterns into the mix, all making for a set well worth a listen.

An interview is one of the most authentic and honest windows into the hearts and minds of the artists and musicians we’ve come to admire. And, in this particular case… an added dose of humility. Logistics and self-deprecating humor aside, there is no better approach towards familiarizing yourself with the music you know and love, than by speaking with the musicians who have created the compositions that their fans have come to hold dear to their hearts. Throughout the years Lisa Papineau and Juan Alderete of Big Sir have created a fan base dedicated to the evolution of their multifaceted sound.

With the two having such a diverse creative output that extends far outside of their album releases, Lisa and Juan always seem to give the time needed to Big Sir for stages of growth in the bands legacy to continue and 2012 marks the next cycle. The ethereally haunting vocal and synth work of Lisa Papineau along with the sea of effects bassist of The Mars Volta Juan Alderete utilizes combine for a compositional mastery in which the sum is greater than the parts. With this Los Angeles dynamic duo’s third full length album, Before Gardens After Gardens, set to release on February 7th of this year via Rodriguez Lopez Productions / Sargent House, Big Sir has created an authentic and diverse harmonious experience bound to have you yearning for more. When we received the album from Sargent House and dove in together, it felt like love at first sight.

Sound Colour Vibration was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to speak with Big Sir and get a firsthand look at the creative dynamic behind this band and their insight regarding a shared passion for music enriched with Los Angeles tradition, trust and mutual respect for one another, the influence of fearless whip-cracking manager and Sargent House matriarch, Cathy Pellow, creative contributions and unique signature musicality of fellow artists, and the strong camaraderie setting the foundation for their beautifully cultivated sound. Ladies and Gentlemen… It’s our pleasure to present to you Sound Colour Vibration’s exclusive interview with LA band, Big Sir.

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We are very excited to announce two new west coast shows for Big Sir with Marcel Rodriguez Lopez of (Zechs Marquise & The Mars Volta’s) electronica project called Eureka the Butcher featuring Sadah Luna don’t miss them if you are in the  area:

BIG SIR & EUREKA THE BUTCHER feat Sadah Luna
2/19 @ Hemingways Lounge - Hollywood, CA w/ Gregory Rogove
2/20 @ Harvellle’s - Long Beach, CA w/ The Vespertines

follow  @bigsirband , @eurekabutcher , @j_alderete , @lisapapineau

HEAR EUREKA THE BUTCHER

Big Sir isn’t as big as Big Sur…but they could be. This dynamic duo made up of Lisa Papineau and Juan Alderete (of The Mars Volta) has explored a stunning amount of sounds and textures using both electronic and analog beats over their three album career. Their latest album, Before Gardens After Gardens is no different and continues this tradition of audio exploration.

Sounding a bit like Sarah McLachlan if she went totally electronic, Big Sir creates songs that while danceable are undoubtedly haunting and intimate. Taking electro into nearly ethereal directions Before Gardens After Gardens is a chilled out, beautiful record that soars on the voice of Papineau and floats along on the beats created by Alderete. For a band that creates songs via laptops and the internet, Big Sir have created an album that sounds so rich, so produced, and so texturally intense that it sounds like a million dollars. Chalk it up to technology or their songwriting ability it doesn’t matter, Before Gardens After Gardens remains a brilliant record.

After twelve years of working together and two previous albums Big Sir have so completely jelled as a band that their ability to write songs as good as they are is like second nature to them. Before Gardens After Gardens is a strong effort that’s as radiant and ravishing as it is memorable and unearthly. Filled with chilled out grooves and heavenly vocals this is the soundtrack to the afterlife on a rainy day and it’s awesome. 

Big Sir, the longtime collaboration between singer/composer Lisa Papineau (Air, M83 collaborator) and The Mars Volta’s bassist Juan Alderete, will release a new effort on February 7 via Rodriguez Lopez Productions /Sargent House. The album, Before Gardens After Gardens, is a collection ethereal prog-rock numbers, as evident on this premiere of “Our Pleasant Home.” The track features The Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala on drums, and is buoyant and eclectic – a marriage of noises that somehow creates something beautifully cohesive. - Emily Zemler

Stream or DL : Big Sir - Our Pleasant Home

Big Sir the long time band of Lisa Papineau & Juan Alderete have a fantastic new album called Before Gardens After Gardens coming out on RLP/Sargent House on February 7th. You can stream or get a Free Download of the track Ready On The Line  HERE . We have the CD and some new merch now available for Pre-Order HERE and we are offering a great Deluxe Bundle for only $30. To find out more about the Album and all the special contributors that played on it go HERE.

Big Sir, the Los Angeles-based project of vocalist Lisa Papineau (ME & LP, M83, Air) and The Mars Volta bassist Juan Alderete, will release their third album, Before Gardens After Gardens, in February. The two composers’ articulate, electronic-tinged blend of R&B, jazz, and hip-hop falls somewhere between Papineau’s acoustic solo work and Alderete’s forays into prog-rock as part of The Mars Volta.

Before Gardens After Gardens’ first single “Ready on the Line” spikes Papineau’s exquisitely harmonized Bjorkian voice with whistles, chimes, and mechanical claps. The subtle background heartbeats, reminiscent of Timbaland’s early work with Aaliyah, anchor the buoyant track, which otherwise threatens to float away on Papineau’s upper range, especially when she screams, “Get so high!” Stream it or download it below.

Big Sir – “Ready on the Line”

Before Gardens After Gardens is out February 7th on Rodriguez Lopez Productions / Sargent House. The album also features contributions by The Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala, RX Bandits’ Matthew Embree,  bassist Jonathan Hischke, and Beastie Boys producer “Money” Mark Ramos-Nishita.

Big Sir at the Bootleg Theater

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Big Sir now has two shirts available at the merch store and will have them on their tour dates. 

Big Sir will be playing a few shows on the West Coast to debut new songs from their upcoming album along with some classics. Kicking it all off on September 30th at the Bootleg in Los Angeles will be Juan Alderete, Lisa Papineau and Cedric Bixler Zavala in the line up for that  show. Make sure to come support and hear the incredible new songs. We can’t wait! GET ADVANCE TIX for LA. Below are full list of dates so far with a few more possibly to be added.  

BIG SIR LIVE
09/30 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Bootleg 
10/01 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Bikini Bar
10/03 - San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall
10/04 - Santa Cruz, CA @ Moe’s Alley
10/06 - Seattle, WA @ The High Dive
10/07 - Olympia, WA @ Eastside Club Tavern
10/08 - Portland, OR @ Purple Church
10/09 - Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
10/10 - Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s

(Source: artistdata.sonicbids.com)

Premier Guitar’s  Chris Kies talks to bass player Juan Alderete backstage while in Chicago on tour in The Mars Volta where they both talk through his current Rig. 

Big Sir is Lisa Papineau and Juan Alderete. After a five year wait Big Sir have just finished their 3rd album and it will be coming out on RLP / SH in January 2012 with a lot of great special guest players including Cedric Bixler Xavala on drums. We have already been talking a lot about Lisa and Juan’s other projects; Sargent House put out Lisa Papineau’s solo album Red Trees in 2010 and is releasing the new EP she just did with our own Matthew Embree under the moniker ME&LP entitled Chez Raymond on August 9, 2011. Juan plays bass in The Mars Volta, as well as in the Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group and Vato Negro. So we figured it was time to start talking about their new Big Sir album and to introduce to you this music if you are not familiar already. So we will be giving away for FREE Download their last album entitled Und Die Scheiße Ändert Sich Immer all weekend, just enter your email address - we won’t spam you and you can unsubscribe anytime if you don’t want any further news from Big Sir.  Enjoy and share it with friends! - Sargent House / Rodriguez Lopez Productions.

(Source: sargenthouse)

Lisa Papineau is one of our favorite singers and musicians at Sound Colour Vibration and we are very excited to bring this interview to our site. She was born in New England and is a current resident of Paris, France. Lisa has released two full length solo records, two records with her project Big Sir that includes The Mars Volta bassist Juan Alderete de la Peña, soundtrack scores and so much more. Now with a new Big Sir album completed and awaiting release along with a new project with RX Bandits guitarist and singer Matt Embree, she has created a legacy of music that is already showing its timeless nature. We contacted her to get some info on these various new projects and these are the results, enjoy! ~ by  Erik Otis

You are releasing an EP this July through Sargent House with singer and guitarist of RX-Bandits, Matt Embree. What brought you guys together for a release and where was the EP recorded at?

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It’s done! Just turned in the master for the new Big Sir album. More news to come about release date. It will be coming out on Rodriguez Lopez Productions.