Alejandro Escovedo used to call him the Sensitive Boy - more than the lead guitarist in his band, but his right hand man in many ways. Now, David Pulkingham is branching out on his own, singing his own songs, and of course playing the guitar, better than just about anyone. Indie Sounds got the scoop on the solo move and what's next.

Indie Sounds: After quite a few years playing with Alejandro Escovedo, you've decided to do your own thing. That's a pretty big move, so why did you make it?
David Pulkingham: I first played with Alejandro in 2000. My first gig with him was a taping of Austin City Limits. For the last seven years, I have been on just about every gig he has played ... up until last month.
Continue reading "Five Minutes with David Pulkingham" »
Emily Wolfe dropped me an email a few weeks back - "You don't know me but ..." - to say she has a new record that I might like to hear. It took just 10 seconds listening to the attached song Lion Heart to determine that indeed I might. That track promptly made it on to the latest Harris Radio podcast and I've been spinning the entire album on my iPod repeatedly ever since. It's just that good. Indie Sounds caught up with Emily - who just graduated St. Edwards University - to find out more about the album, how it got recorded, and where she's playing out around town. You'll wanna know that for sure.

Photo by Hannah Hagar
Indie Sounds: So you just released your debut album - called Director's Notes. What's in the name?
Emily Wolfe: The title of the record is derived from a monologue in the Shakespeare play As You Like It ...
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
When I started writing, I was going through a really painful relationship fall out that lasted for several months. I didn’t expect any of the songs I was writing to turn into a full album; I just wrote because it was cathartic. But during the time I kind of felt like I was playing the seven parts that Shakespeare mentions - the infant, the school boy, the lover, the soldier, justice, the judge, and the old man ... but in relation to the seven stages of grief. There were times when I felt like someone else was directing my life, or like I didn’t have any say in the way things were going to play out. So, to me, the songs on the record are just notes that I took about my life in between scenes. They’re notes about what happened, what I wanted to happen, and what I thought the ending would look like.
Continue reading "Five Minutes with Emily Wolfe" »
Since departing Austin for NYC last year, Paul Oveisi has been a busy man - running music for Hill Country BBQ's expanding empire, and now opening his own intimate space in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, dubbed ZirZamin. Indie Sounds got the scoop on the new venue, what Paul thinks about the NYC music scene, and whether Austin is still in his future.

Indie Sounds: So, you have a new venue - in NYC - called ZirZamin. For starters, what does ZirZamin mean?
Paul Oveisi: It means "underground" in Farsi. I went back and forth on this a lot. I really, really wanted to call the club ZirZamin but a lot of folks said it was too ethnic or too tough to pronounce. After awhile, I just decided to go with my gut. I couldn't stop thinking about the word. It means more than literally "underground" but reflects the attitude musicians have in Iran, where the government prohibits music and artists literally have to find hidden spaces to work on their craft.
Continue reading "Five Minutes with Paul Oveisi of ZirZamin" »