nothin S.G. Carlson & The Tines Debut Live On Video | New Haven Independent

S.G. Carlson & The Tines Debut Live On Video

Kicker Pictures

S.G. Carlson & The Tines

Sam Carlson has made it one of his personal and professional goals to create new ways to help New Haven’s music scene survive, thrive, and proliferate. His latest endeavor involves video, a media he has used with success before. But this time he’s using it to showcase a live performance of three songs at one of New Haven’s live venues — even if that venue can’t be open for an audience to enjoy them in person.

Three From The State House stars S.G. Carlson & The Tines performing two songs released this past year and one still unreleased, all under the soft lights of the popular local venue, as well as the shifting gaze of Kicker Pictures, a Connecticut-based video production company that have teamed up with Carlson’s Sans Serif Recording to offer an alternative way to convey live music to the masses yearning to see and feel its vibe.

No one wants to go a year and a half without seeing or playing music,” said Carlson in a phone conversation this past week. The hope is to do them at different venues around town with different artists at each location.”

For this shoot, Carlson chose the State Street venue where Patrick Dalton — friend, studio partner at Sans Serif, and bandmate in The Proud Flesh — has worked sound since the State House opened in fall 2018.

Pat did the sound recording and mixed and mastered it,” said Carlson. We were lucky enough to be able to use the space. I reached out to Los” — that is, State House owner Carlos Wells — and he said yes. We wanted it to be like a record release and wanted to remind people that the State House is still there.”

Although Dalton and Carlson have been filming their own short videos, known as the Sans Serif Sessions, at the recording studio for a variety of local acts, this time Sans Serif paired with Kicker Pictures for a more elaborate project.

They did such a good job,” said Carlson. It was an eleven-camera shoot. They used all cinema-grade cameras. They went all out.”

Kicker Pictures worked on a previous video that Carlson’s recording studio was involved with, a more stripped down” one, according to Carlson, featuring the band Youth XL that was filmed at the Edgewood Skate Park in Westville. Sans Serif did the audio for that one as well, initiating a partnership between them. Carlson had also worked with Kicker on concept videos for two of his songs: In the Morning You Will Find,” from his latest EP, and Holy Motors,” from his April release Sings The Hits. They also collaborated on Ports of Spain’s Able Archer” (“the spoon-bending video,” Carlson said) from last year’s album of the same name.

Give them any wacky idea and they will make it work, or give them the reins and they will make it work,” said Carlson. They have become good friends of mine. At this point I say, I have a song, you want to do a video for it?” and they do a really good job.”

The inspiration to do the three songs at State House began with Carlson’s drive to perform live. I had put together a band to play shows with, and all shows stopped, so we decided to make another record. We learned all the songs and never got to play. It seemed ridiculous to spend all this time rehearsing and never playing live.”

That band, S.G. Carlson and the Tines, includes Ilya Gitelman — who, along with Carlson, makes up the band Ports of Spain — on guitar, J Thompson on drums, and Sean Koravo on bass. Katherine Von Ancken, a visual artist and musician who provided vocals on one of the songs from the last EP, also appears in the live performance singing with Carlson.

We totally put the cart before the horse,” said Carlson. We recorded stuff and learned how to play it out afterwards.”

That stuff” included their most recent EP The Enemy Is Listening, released on Free As Birds records in October and Sings The Hits, which was released in April. Carlson chose one song from each to debut at this live session. The third song, Collarbone,” is from a new EP. Carlson said they are in the middle of finalizing that currently and planning to record in January with hopes for a summer solstice release.”

There are only so many of these things we can do, so we are going to constantly record. Collarbone’ is a taste of what is coming next,” he said.

Carlson is hoping to connect more filmed performances with live music, similar to what Audiotree has been doing. To that end, he and Dalton have also been recording and filming the Sans Serif Sessions at the studio with a variety of local acts such as The Split Coils and Ceschi.

They are popular right now,” said Carlson. In the studio, the video is done by Pat and I. The videos (at other locations) with Kicker Pictures is a whole team doing it. The production values are much higher.”

Sans Serif Recording

Sam Carlson

Carlson has done his share of live streams since venues shut down in March and was quick to praise the efforts that go into setting them up, but he was also quick to share his excitement and interest in finding new ways to help musicians get more music to the masses in the most autonomous way as possible.

To get music out, these live in-studio sessions are one of the only ways where bands have more control,” he said. Livestream is cool but there is such an X factor to it. I have seen some that are engaging and some where the audio-video is off, but this is live, and you can be both in it and watching it so you can make sure the performance is the best you can do. I have done a handful of livestreams, but I prefer the video format. District is awesome. Scott” — that’s Scott Amore, who runs sound for those events — does a great job, but not all are that level of production value. I have a huge appreciation for what District is doing. My show there was basically my EP release show.”

Carlson not only shouted out the District livestreams but also the weekly Fake Four shows on Twitch.

I’m of the mindset that a rising tide lifts all ships,” he said. Let’s talk about all the shows.” Carlson’s community-focused outlook is rooted in his simple yet determined need to keep pressing forward.

Pat and I got this space, and we were going to open the studio, move in in March, with an April 1 opening planned and a grand opening,” said Carlson. That all changed as suddenly as everything else.

We are still not formally opened, but we will have a grand opening eventually. What we can do in the meantime are these one-on-one sessions and filmed performances. It’s a way we can adapt to things,” he said. This particular session is my band, but the thing that makes it more interesting is it’s the first of this thing we are doing. It is the test subject. We will try it with my band first then start inviting people to do them.”

Carlson and Kicker Pictures have a few sessions in the works already and even more ideas for future projects, but Carlson is not opposed to offers from other venues that might want to let other local musicians and these filmmakers into their space.

We would like to do them other places,” added Carlson. If there is a laundromat or pool hall that would like to host a band after hours, we will figure it out.”

Three From The State House as well as more videos by Kicker Pictures and Sans Serif Recording can be found on their respective YouTube channels.

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