key of v

Both members of Key of V have musical influences almost as similar as their genes. As tikes, they sat in on their dad and uncle “jamming” in the basement, although V was belting out Patsi Cline while E was more into Grease. Both learned harmony from either elementary school music class or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Eventually a hip step-mom familiarized them with nineties female artists like Mazzy Star, Frente!, and Alanis Morrisette. She bought them each a copy of Fiona Apple’s “Tidal,” an important influence V recalls, because “inside her album she said that a lot of her songs were taken from her mother’s poetry books. At the moment I understood what writing a song must be like, especially since it had something to do with poetry." In later years they would listen to more nineties alternative (Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Tool), and V would even be moved by some 80’s heavy metal. Key of V began as Val (V) LaCerra’s mere outlet and was not intended to become a live show. V recalls, “I remember telling my friend on the phone: ‘I just want to make an album. I don’t wanna do anything with it, I just want to have it. Maybe play it for my kids someday.’” Using four different trial versions of recording software she downloaded, a beat-up acoustic with 5 strings, and a factory PC mike, V recorded her first full-length album, “Carbon Nation.” The album incorporates the layered oddities and vocal harmonies that would follow into Key of V, but without the relief of upbeat tunes and sprinkled with an often sadistic-sounding laugh. After the completion of Carbon Nation, V began experimenting with looping found sound and layered vocal tracks that would later make their way onto “Songs in the Key of V [2007]. When her sister Erin (E) returned from studying abroad in Ireland, V dumped the PC and started recording with a 4-track, recruiting her sister and eventually playing on the street, where they were noticed by the community and eventually local venue owners, who invited them to entertain. Since then Key of V has been trying to tour as much as possible without a car, even riding their bikes to local gigs with equipment strapped to them (of course only to venues with in house PA’s). In 2008 and 2009 they helped organize, host, and headline a local music festival called Absorb, which featured over a dozen local bands. “It came kind of naturally.” E reveals, “We had attended enough festivals to know how they were supposed to be run, and our friends and us are all intelligent and personable, so we just did it. Absorb gave us a chance to act as ambassadors in our town between different music groups and genres.” In addition to Absorb, Key of V has organized other multi-band local shows and done all of their own promotion and advertising. “We’re artists, so we understand aesthetics” says E, “Visually and sonically” adds V. They hand burn and package all their albums one-by-one, and even though they have encountered some difficulties (paint smears, CD’s cracked during shipping, and the often overwhelming task of hand-making a stack of CD’s before a show) Key of V seems happy to get their hands dirty: “If we don’t make our albums, someone else will, and that bothers me,” V says. “It’s like eating genetically-modified produce from Paraguay versus food from your best-friend's garden. Each one of our albums possesses a certain vitality that is linked with our creative processes and us. That energy is just as important as the energy produced by the music on the CD. Or maybe I am still a control freak.” Updated 9/1/2009 All our lives do is divide us.