U-Melt offers fans melded style

U-Melt, a New York City-based quartet specializing in progressive rock, dance beats and live improv, will be at The House Cafe at 10 p.m. Saturday. The band features (from left) Adam Bendy on bass, George Miller on drums, Rob Salzer on guitar and Zac Lasher on keyboards. Provided photo

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

By Benji Feldheim - Staff Writer U-Melt needed a challenge. The New York City-based quartet has made it a regular practice to undertake difficult feats - especially those that involve balancing musical proficiency without self-indulgently alienating an audience seeking a fun concert. For instance: The band decided Sept. 15 during a late-night set in Greenfield, Mass., to play the entire Frank Zappa album &#8220Apostrophe” - a recording packed with dense, meticulous orchestration alongside bathroom humor. Zappa's classic served as a fitting incubator for the expansion the band has undergone since its inception in 2003. U-Melt continues to strengthen the varied sides of their sound, combining odd-metered rock composition, fist-pumping dance beats and earnest lyrics. Rob Salzer's swift guitar trickery, combined with keyboardist Zac Lasher's warbling synth washes, Adam Bendy's thumping bass lines and George Miller's precise drumming create a sound that is difficult to label. Playing more than 100 shows a year, the band has a growing fan base and plays more prominent slots each year at summer music festivals such as Wakarusa in Lawrence, Kan., and Summercamp in Chillicothe. U-Melt has garnered airplay on Sirius Satellite Radio and commercial stations across the country - all without being signed to a record label. The band will bring its melding of styles to The House Café on Saturday. The Daily Chronicle spoke with guitarist Rob Salzer about the band's music changing over the years, how to balance improvisation with written songs and not driving all the way to Ohio to record an album. Daily Chronicle: How have your song structures changed, especially given the band's penchant for improv? Rob Salzer: When we first started, we were using a lot more traditional song structure. But especially by listening to artists like Zappa and becoming more influenced by each other's songwriting, we found that there's no particular way it has to be structured. A song can still be pleasing and danceable, but structure can change up as much as possible. D.C.: What did you guys play when you first got started? R.S.: Adam and me were in a band called A440, and Zach and George played in Head Monkey. We had an idea where we wanted to go, and our bands at the time weren't going there. We started as your usual jam band with hints of prog, blues, Yes, King Crimson, metal from the 1980s. It's not that we don't like jam music, but we didn't have it in mind long-term. We all grew up with dance music, so we enjoy that the scene relates to it. D.C.: Covering &#8220Apostrophe” must have been difficult. How did that come together? R.S.: The Zappa album was something we all enjoyed. My dad played it for me when I was 10, but I didn't really get it then. We're heavily working on stressing the lyrics and getting into philosophical and social responsibility subjects, but our music is fun, if not weird and serious at times. Playing Zappa is indicative of that because he brings genius with a humor side, so it was a tribute and a challenge. Parts of it were very hard and took hours upon hours of rehearsing. D.C.: What other new music is the band working on? R.S.: Josh Parish, our sound engineer, is building a studio in Brooklyn. As soon as that is up, we'll go in there to work on our next album. We have about two or three albums' worth of material unrecorded. In the past, we'd drive all the way to Ohio to do it. The recording would have to be done in about two weeks, which worked fine, but it will be nice to take a little more time and make the textures the way we want them. I don't know when it will happen, but we should be at it by late fall. D.C.: With playing so many shows a year, how do you keep things interesting? R.S.: Part of the reason why we have so much material is it helps keep it fresh. It got to a point that playing older stuff simply became mundane, and we wanted to delve into our more progressive songs. These days, the idea is to just have variety. You can get in a rut with jams where they are similar from night to night. So if we we're going to do a segue, we might talk about what will happen. But we'll also take a couple of segues a night where we don't talk about it. If you don't know what's between point A to B, it will make it interesting, and it might create tension, but it's fun and leads to new ideas, new jams, and helps with band's morale. D.C.: So, what's the road really like? R.S.: Drive, Cracker Barrel, drive, drive, drive, unload, sound check, play the show, pack it up, sleep at the hotel, repeat (laughing). Don't get me wrong. We're happy to be doing this, and we have a lot of fun, but it's a lot of work, especially if you want to play a good show. You can't get completely hammered every night. You owe it to everybody - the fans, your bandmates - to be on top of your game. Benji Feldheim can be reached at bfeldheim@daily-chronicle.com.