The Hands Free is a new acoustic band featuring composer/performers James Moore (guitar/banjo), Caroline Shaw (violin), Nathan Koci (accordion) and Eleonore Oppenheim (bass).
They draw on ideas and material from folk music, the contemporary classical world, jazz and free improv, a natural arrival point for a group of musicians with a variety of experiences and interests. Caroline Shaw is a multi-instrumentalist, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and vocalist for Roomful of Teeth; bassist Eleonore Oppenheim performs regularly with adventurous groups such as Glasser, Victoire, and Big Dog Little Dog; multi-instrumentalist Nathan Koci cruises the worlds of chamber music, folk sessions, and musical theater; and Moore is a founding member of the praised electric guitar quartet Dither, and a frequent collaborator with John Zorn.
The four performers became friends while collaborating in different contexts for 10-12 years, but found the most joy performing together in scrappy late-night folk jams, which is how The Hands Free came to be. As Second Inversion describes, “Their resulting debut album features a beautifully eclectic mix of sounds that depict an immense variety of places and emotions—all while maintaining the warmth and spontaneity of an impromptu jam session.”
Questions and Answers
3 FACTS
1: Tortoises make great roommates, whether you realized this when you signed the lease on your place in Brooklyn or not.
2: It’s rarely a good idea to swap out your tiles when playing Scrabble. I advise you to make a strategic low point play to improve your hand for the future.
3: Grimace, the big purple thing from the McDonald’s commercials. He is supposed to be a taste bud!
11 QUESTIONS
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
I primarily write music with and for my friends and colleagues, and I think the people I work with (and their idiosyncratic personalities) are my primary source of inspiration. When I begin writing a piece of music, I close my eyes and imagine the group and a setting in which we might be playing, then I create an initial image and feeling of a sound world that might be made.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
My dad was a pianist and songwriter and had a huge record collection. He took me to many of my first concerts and gave me any album he picked up that was a little too weird for his tastes. My grandmother (Granny, who lived with us in the family home) was a serialist composer and educator. She possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of folk songs, which she exuberantly shared with my mom and her siblings, and all of her grandchildren. I took piano and clarinet lessons from a young age, but didn’t really commit to making music until I was a teenager—I stole the small nylon string guitar from under my sister’s bed and started teaching myself simple songs. By the time I finished high school I was leading a life not unlike I do now: playing in several bands, improvising with friends, and writing strange compositions of all types.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
5 great LPs that are in frequent rotation on my turntable are …
Willie Nelson, Stardust
Charles Mingus, Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Aretha Franklin, Hey Now Hey (The Other Side of the Sky)
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
I have a small painting on my wall that I bought from an artist during my first visit to Berlin about 15 years ago. It is a simple image of a man sort of floating amidst a plane of pale blue. My violinist friend Andie Tanning and I were passing through town on tour with our theater company, the New York City Players, and the artist had arranged a late night concert for us at a crazy loft party. When I look at this painting I think of that night and the inspiring community that gave us their engaged attention as we played a set of very quiet music in a raucous setting.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
In Prospect Park near where I live in Brooklyn, there is an area with baseball diamonds and a small body of water with a little dog beach. It is a great place to sit and be entertained. This is usually my first destination on a mind-clearing walk, and I have many fond memories spending time here with friends and family.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I think I would cook or garden, which both satisfy a similarly obsessive project-oriented part of my brain.
7. What was the last record/music you bought or listened to?
Balún: Prisma Tropical, a lovely soundtrack for my recent drive across Puerto Rico.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Weird Al, please give me a call!
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
The first time I performed John Zorn’s “Book of Heads” for solo guitar (a truly wild set of music featuring extended techniques with balloons, household objects, etc) was in the back of St. Mark’s Church in the East Village for a packed house of friends and colleagues. This was sort of my first solo “recital” of experimental music after moving to New York, and it left me elated and inspired.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Technology comes into play most frequently in my electric guitar worlds, including my work with my quartet Dither and in my recent guitar concerto. I love superimposing playing techniques that are “acoustic” in contrast to the electronic signal chain, and creating an organic interaction between the two elements.
11. Please tell us about the making of your latest album Upturned Cup.
Upturned Cup is the second album by my acoustic group The Hands Free, which includes me on resonator guitar and banjo, Caroline Shaw on violin, Nathan Koci on accordion, and Eleonore Oppenheim on bass. We have been playing together for over 10 years, and have developed a joyous musical language which features quirky folk forms, raucous improvisational structures and several hums, oohs, and ahhs. I am super proud of this record and stoked to bring it into the world!
