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Sound Painter - 2012

by Dallas Frasca

/
  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Recorded in Brooklyn, NYC @ Rola Pola Studios
    Songwriters: Dallas Frasca / Jeff Curran / Pete McDonald

    “Great vocals, riffs & groove!” - SLASH (Guns & Roses)

    As far as accolades for Rock N Roll music go, it doesn’t get much better than legendary Guns & Roses guitarist Slash not only spinning a copy of your album all around the USA in his tour van, but actually taking the time to let you know he digs it too. That’s exactly what’s happening right now for Melbourne’s Dallas Frasca and their sophomore album “Sound Painter”.

    After much hullabaloo, build, anticipation, blood, sweat, tears, money, lust and lunacy, “Sound Painter” was released in Australia earlier this year. Lead single All My Love carved the way, blasting out across Australian radio waves and taking out 3rd place (from over 16,000 entries) in the International Songwriting Comp.

    All My Love is the first track to be lifted from Dallas Frasca’s forthcoming 2nd album “Sound Painter”. Recorded in New York with Australian producer Andy Baldwin (Bjork, Chrissie Amphlett, Living End, Kram, Cat Empire) at Rola Pola Studio’s in Brooklyn – check it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO3b4w5lBPs

    Recording next to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn in a warehouse shared by the Jewish community, the band did the entire album with no click tracks for that true honest rock sound and the intent of being able to show they can perform it live. After 4 months of writing and rehearsals in Melbourne, Dallas, Jeff Curran (guitar) and Samuel Lukies (drums) hit The Big Apple and tracking wise, smashed down eleven songs in 3 days. All guitars and drums and most vocals on the album were live takes with next to no over dubs and most songs were captured in their first or second takes. The entire record features no bass; just Dallas and Jeff dueling gargantuan slabs of riffs on 2 Les Paul’s through 1960’s Fender and Silvertone amps. The sixties permeates throughout in fact, all drums were 1960’s Slingerland and Ludwigs and the vocals were also all done though 1960’s mics.

    In Frasca’s own words: “Recording in New York, we had to ride our pushies 7 km’s through Manhattan and across the Willamsburg Bridge every day, from our accom to the studio, and then back again at night. New York was spread out in front of us. That change of scene, from writing in Footscray, Melbourne in the middle of winter to then living in Soho, Manhattan in summer - was inspiring. It gave me, Jeff and Pete a chance to be anything we wanted to. You can hear the confidence on the record.

    All My Love was the first song that we wrote together, when it happened it was like a lightning bolt that inspired us and gave us the strength to push through as we wrote the rest of the album. Every song on the album has its own individual personality and sound and hence “Sound Painter” as a whole is like a giant painting with all colours of the rainbow being used. It tells so many stories and yet it is obvious that the strokes across each one were from the same brush…..”

    When it came to selecting the first single to be released from the album, the band threw it too public opinion, literally. As Frasca explains:

    “We held a listening party in Melbourne and played the entire album to 'fans and industry only' (around 400 people) which was received by roaring cheers and clapping after every song and a standing ovation at the end of the evening. Our producer even surprised us and flew out from NYC for the event! Afterwards we asked our captive audience to pick out the first single.”

    Indeed, from the comedic to the heartbreaking, the making of “Sound Painter” has been beset with challenges and journeys. Firstly, following a run of national shows to help pay for the record, Dallas and band mates Jeff Curran (guitar) and Peter McDonald (drums) arrived wearily home only to have all the takings from the entire tour stolen at Melbourne airport. Enter fan based damage control with Frasca fans banding together and raising over $4500 for the band, $4500 that meant “Sound Painter” could actually be finished. Then, when it was finished, it was stolen. That is to say – upon returning from New York, the band held a listening party to pick the first single and the laptop with the only completed version of the album was stolen by someone at the party. Long story short is that the laptop was returned with ‘no police involvement’ after simultaneous mild heart attacks from all three band members.

    Says Frasca: “It's been 2 ½ years since our first album, (2009’s “Not For Love Or Money”) but we took away any deadlines and pressure and let the songs dictate when they were ready to be recorded. By way of just playing, we overhauled the band’s sound. Jeff(guitar) and I have been playing together for over 6 years now, and we made the decision that this album would be about capturing everybody's true strengths as musicians. Jeff had his last alcoholic drink, we got serious about what we wanted to achieve and when Pete (drums) came into our lives, it was like our stars has aligned. I feel people have only been able to hear 10% of what we are capable of on our previous recordings compared to this one.”

    And so, after months of rehearsal’s in Footscray, the band headed off to record “Sound Painter” next to the Willliamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, New York with a producer they had met after playing a raucous 2 am set at a hippie festival in regional Victoria. Within the first 10 minutes of leaving the airport in New York, a rock was thrown from an over pass, smashing their cab window. It was on.

    “Sound Painter”

    Using no click tracks for that true honest rock sound, all the guitars, drums and most vocals on the album were live takes with next to no over dubs and most songs were captured in their first or second run through. The entire record features no bass; just Dallas and Jeff dueling gargantuan slabs of riffs on 2 Les Paul’s through 1960’s Fender Silvertone amps.

    Dallas explains: “Being in the studio making “Sound Painter” was the most challenging and rewarding artistic endeavor I’ve ever undertaken. The songs were never controlled by traditional laws of timing or "right", as each song grew we took its lead and let "it" tell us what it needed. We always knew when they were finished. I remember Pete creating each drum sound with Andy before every new track, we would lovingly butcher the kit each time before we started to record, taping tambourines onto bass drums, wallets onto snares and tuning the kit to the key of each song. It was groups of special little moments like these that still stick out to me.

    When we first wrote 'All My Love' (first single) together as a band it was like a bench mark for what we wanted to achieve. We kept beating tracks together and ended up with well over 100 songs to choose from. We whittled that down and the entire album was then tracked in 6 days. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Andy Baldwin, there are very few people on the planet like Andy. A gifted musician himself, I learnt so much from him as a producer and a person. He pushed us and got more out of us as musicians than we ever expected from ourselves.

    For example, album closer ‘Ain't No Fury’ was the last song I recorded. I did it by myself before I flew to India and then left the acoustic skeleton with Andy. I remember my world being blown apart when I heard the vocal line that Andy had put on the chorus line when I was in Udaipur, Rajasthan. I had a cow resting next to me and a goat at my feet in an internet cafe and I couldn't believe it was my song. I wrote the song for my best friend and she cried right there with me with happiness when we heard it.

    “Sound Painter” is tough, heavy, big and loud. Tougher, heavier, bigger and louder that anything Dallas Frasca has done before. Though the themes are universal, lyrically there’s a feminine strength that runs throughout. Musically, it’s an album that angles for the knockout punch, no dancing around for the points decision. Searing riffs give way to melodious break downs, blues progressions careen their way into sludged Zeppelinesque builds. Curran’s dynamo riffage constantly chops away throughout – as authoritative in the notes he doesn’t play as to emphasise the ones he does.

    Frasca: Each song on the album is a part of the story of a crazy upside down year. A relationship break up, feeling destroyed but overcoming and feeling free and positive again – sometimes all at the same time.

    ‘Coming Home’ is about Melbourne Town, I recently moved back here and it was like I had moved back in with my tribe again, in the right place surrounded by good people. The lyrics for ‘Coming Home’ flowed freer for me than any other track on the album. ‘Better Without You’ was one take start to finish. It was intentionally the moment on the album where the band truly got to jam out with no 3:30min restrictions, just spirit. The end jam was so exciting to watch the boys connect and create. None of us knew when or what Jeff and Pete were going to do and that’s the point.

    The recording of ‘One Man Woman’ is the track that stands out for Curran, in his own words: whilst recording it, we just hit this major halt one morning! Andy took us all downtown Williamsburg for some time out, at which point I left the table frustrated and just wandered around a bit, trying to find inspiration. And did, the feeling of hardship and bare minimum standard of living that in that part of New York was the feeling I wanted to encapsulate. I also kept thinking soul, rock, nut-bush, Tina Turna vibe and what it must have been like recording back in those days and what they would have had to make do with. I went back to Andy and the band and said, lets capture that vibe, but lets strip everything back rather than add it on and use things we never would normally. So together we all bashed our hands on snare skins, made mouth percussion sounds, stuck pens in glasses, wailed mouth sirens; and the track came together.

    Frasca sums it up: Ultimately - the universe brought us altogether at exactly the right time in our lives, we were all ready to work hard, we were all ready to share our ideas and no one had any delusions of grandeur.... We just wanted to make a powerful f**cking album that would be listened to for generations to come!”
    The “Sound Painter” Tour

    With lead single All My Love still blasting across radio airwaves, as well as being voted in the top 15 finalists out of 16,000 entries in the International Songwriting Comp, and straight from blowing audiences away at Byron Bluesfest a few weeks ago, catch Dallas and the band launching the album across a national tour of gargantuan proportions, doing what they do best: TOUR DATES – www.dallasfrasca.com

    Dallas Frasca - BIO

    By the age 18 Dallas Frasca was on the road, channeling all the sass and irreverence of Chrissie Amphlett and Suze Demarchi. Armed with power and torque reminiscent of Aretha Franklin and Betty Davis her stand out voice didn’t take long to get noticed. After developing nodules and being forced not to sing for 18 months she turned her gaze to the guitar, and her evolution was complete.

    In 2006, she won triple j’s “Light Your Fuse” competition from over 500 entries. Her career exploded from there. Dallas won the 2010 ‘Artist Of The Year’ at the Musicoz Awards and her album was voted in the ‘top ten’ best roots releases on JJJ in 2009. She has also stormed the stages at countless major festivals (Big Day Out, Falls, Bluesfest, Pyramid Rock, Festival of the Sun, Queenscliff, Southbound, and major French festival – Blues Passion Cognac). The bands tribal and stomping roots performances have earned them a large, loyal fan base.

    In 2008 Dallas sang for Aussie Alt-Rock royalty Midnight Oil in Sydney, in support of Amnesty International. In early 2009 Dallas was invited to perform as one of seven artists from seven continents of the planet for International Earth Day in Montreal. It not only allowed her the thrill of holding a dialogue with fellow-artists about social and environmental issues, but she caught the ear of Canadian promoters who have invited her to come
    back and tour there.

    Dallas Frasca is a hard working independent juggernaut who, with her band and this yet to be released album, is carving her own path, both here in Australia and internationally. From the new album, “Sound Painter” - expect huge slabs of guitar riffage, rock slamming drums and heavy, soulful vocals strewn across an album of heartbreak and comebacks.

    "There is no doubt that Dallas Frasca is one of Australia’s legitimate female rock stars". Warp Magazine June 2012

    Anyone who thinks rock ‘n’ roll is dead needs to go and spend some time with Dallas Frasca. – TONE DEAF

    “Currently one of the most successful independent musicians in Australia.” Time Off

    "So next time you hear of a Dallas Frasca show close to where you reside, buy tickets, venture out and be prepared to have one hell of a night." - AMN

    "The best Australian female fronted act going around." AAA Backstage

    “There is nothing that will prepare you for the sassiness and might that is Dallas Frasca...” The 59th Sound

    “The bittersweet vocals of Dallas Frasca begin. By this time the chair cannot contain your excitement, as what your ears have been deprived of hearing, since the likes of Janis Joplin; have finally returned. Sound Painter is a record that you can’t miss out on.” Sam Cuevas - Dearhead Press

    "A guttural blues howl laced with demonic slabs of guitar riffage." Rhythms Magazine

    “Frasca’s voice seems to be getting more versatile and refined – she has the makings of a superstar.” Inpress Magazine
    "All her hard work and sacrifice is going to pay off.” Australian Music Network

    "Every now and then a gem pops to the surface of the Australian Music Industry, and Dallas Frasca's, Sound Painter is one such jewel." Reverb Magazine - 4/5 stars

    "A battering, bruising, brilliant performance from one of Australia’s most commanding artists." 13Notes

    All My Love is available for free download at www.dallasfrasca.com
    credits
    released 04 May 2012
    Produced by Andy Baldwin & Dallas Frasca
    Mixed by Andy Baldwin
    Mastered by Andy Baldwin @ Rola Pola Studios
    Artwork by Josh Meney @ Non-Entity Design

    Management:
    management@dallasfrasca.com

    www.dallasfrasca.com
    www.facebook.com/dallasfrasca
    www.twitter.com/dallasfrasca
    www.spankbettyrecords.com

    Includes unlimited streaming of Sound Painter - 2012 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 9 Dallas Frasca releases available on Bandcamp and save 25%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of River Queen, God's Gonna Cut You Down (single 2022), Seeking Available Mavens (single 2020), DIRT BUZZ - EP (digital) - 2016, Love Army (digital) 2015, NAKED - LIVE AT THE TOFF - Unplugged - 'digital only' - 2014, Sound Painter - 2012, Not For Love Or Money - 2009, and 1 more. , and , .

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1.
All My Love 04:05
ALL MY LOVE Figure out the riddle, Don’t be fooled There is more behind what you see Figure out the riddle, Cause when he lied My world was blown, I nearly died ALL MY LOVE IS GONE * 4 And it’s time for me to be free again. Try and steal the lime from my light Sabotage my life for your fame You’ll never cleanse your shit filled brains Identity crisis is your name Lying won’t make you look good Everyone always comes undone Clench your fists and puff your chest right out Manipulate, we know you’re about ALL MY LOVE IS GONE * 4 And it feels so good to be free again Only in my own time did I find that your desire Crossed into my lake that had dried Everybody sees you’re full of doubt Kiss me with your lips I dare you, go on do. ALL MY LOVE IS GONE * 4 And it feels so good to be free again Figure out the riddle Don’t be fooled There is more behind what you see Figure out the riddle Don’t be ruled By what you’re told, cause I’m not sold Figure out the riddle When I opened my eyes The truth was often disguised Figure out the riddle Cause when he lied My world was blown, I nearly died ALL MY LOVE IS GONE * 8 And it’s time for me to be free again
2.
ONE MAN WOMAN BREAK UP BREAK DOWN WITH YOUR 60/40 LOVE YOU KISS MEANS MORE TO ME BABY, THAN ANY OTHER LOVE I’M GONNA STAY AROUND THIS TIME & WORK THINGS OUT NOT RUN OFF, WHEN A PROBLEM COMES AROUND BREAK UP, BREAK DOWN WITH YOUR 60/40 LOVE WHERE ELSE AM I GONNA GO? NOW I’VE FOUND, THE GOOD IN YOUR BAD NO MATTER HOW I TRY, MY DEVIL WON’T DESTROY I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN.. I’M COMING HOME TO YOU I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN.. .. YOUR LOVE IS MY DRUG I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN…. THE RIGHT WAY TO GO I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN.. UUUH UUUHH UUUHH UUHHHH BREAK UP BREAK DOWN WITH YOUR 60/40 LOVE I DON’T WANNA BEGIN NO, MY STORY AGAIN WE’VE CREATED A TALE BABY, YEAH THAT DOESN’T HAVE TO END & I WON’T BE MISLEAD BY OTHER PEOPLE’S FIRE I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN.. I’M COMING HOME TO YOU I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN... YOUR LOVE IS MY DRUG I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN…. THE RIGHT WAY TO GO I’M A ONE MAN WOMAN.. UUUH UUUHH UUUHH UUHHHH THESE DAYS WE’RE GUTLESS, TOO SWALLOW WHAT CAME OUT IN MY COMPANY, I FOUND THE GOOD IN YOUR BAD OLD WE WILL GROW TOGETHER WITH OUR FISTS, YEAH HELD UP HIGH WITH OUR 60/40 LOVE * 8 DON’T BE SO GUTLESS * 4
3.
Coming Home 04:06
I AM COMING HOME A shadow of your former self I am alive, that's all that matters Jump out before u forget how I believed in a paradise, I was engulfed by gigantic waves It's now my way and the highway I am coming home Making you all mine I'm starting again and I'm not afraid Close one door ands one opens up Face the light that is now ahead You make me feel like a good woman Put on a smile it gives you more worth When I looked, I found a mirror I am coming home Landscapes in your mind I am a sound painter Making you all mine I am coming home Landscapes in your mind I am a sound painter Making you all mine
4.
ONE BOTTLE DOWN A WISE OLE WOMAN TOLD MY EAR THAT A GOOD ONE IS SOMEWHERE NEAR YOU GOTTA RECOGNISE A COMMON GOAL INSIDE SOON YOU’LL FIND A GOOD SOUL I’M SO MUCH BETTER WITHOUT YOU DID I REALLY LOVE YOU I GUESS YOU WILL NEVER KNOW I TRIED TO GIVE YOU ONE MORE CHANCE BUT I CAN’T CHANGE WHAT WON’T MEND I GOTTA FIND ME SOMEONE BETTER CAUSE WHAT’S BEEN DONE WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN I’M SO MUCH BETTER WITH OUT YOU
5.
Hey ego psycho… yeah my pretty little bird You’re still the witch, that I met the day before Her feathers brighten up the entire room Then she takes off all her clothes, So you look at her body. She doesn’t even know, “You ain’t in the circle.” You will never be, you will never be You see we have an understanding, yep, you and me Invite them in to play, a price you’ll pay Birds of Wisdom I can see them a mile away Birds of Wisdom You can never avoid their prey A secret is a whisper, in another one’s ear And when I left my room, at the same time you revealed Your formula’s inapt, but I’ll take what I can grow Garden of Eden’s delights, picked the apple , took a bite.. Continuity is very very cruel If you take a look, you’ll see there is a fool Don’t tell anyone, I’d sure you never would. I cut my arm and the scar still shows Birds of Wisdom I can see them a mile away Birds of Wisdom You can never avoid their prey
6.
You’re pickin’ on me and I got no where to go You shook me from side to side I don’t mind you made a fool out of me We never saw eye to eye. You fucked it up bad, yeah ya ragged me out And boy it took me by surprise. Common sense pulled me from your clutch Manipulation took me for a drive I’M GOING BACK ROW KICKIN’ WITH MY MAN GOING BACK ROW WHERE THE COOL KIDS GO Whoah, whoah Out for the count, never really had any doubt When I put back in your place Easy come, I’m letting go tonight My enemy to a memory Be real smart ‘cha give away Argue with a fool, then there’s two. Standing for your right, I can see the light I’m like a honey bee to the hive I’M GOING BACK ROW KICKIN’ WITH MY MAN GOING BACK ROW WHERE THE COOL KIDS GO Whoah, whoah I’M GOING BACK ROW KICKIN’ WITH MY MAN GOING BACK ROW STOP YOUR PICKIN’ ON ME Whoah, whoah
7.
Hey Mama 03:36
HEY MAMMA Hiding beneath these sheets of selfishness I have nothing left to prove Why don’t you break your pact of loneliness? And come on into my groove, here we go now… Behind the door of your old grand finesse Beyond your voice that does soothe How’d it turn out to be such a mess? My glass tears will never move, here we go now… HEY MAMMA * 4 Hiding beneath these sheets of selfishness I have nothing left to prove Why don’t you break your pact of loneliness? And come on into my groove, here we go now… HEY MAMMA * 4 Cause what I think of myself is way more sturdy than you’ll know, Out of reach from your clutch and you’ll never know… HEY MAMMA * 4 Cause what I think of myself is way more sturdy than you’ll know, Out of reach from your clutch and you’ll never know…
8.
FREEDOM (part 2) When the phone answered, a woman picked up. I’ll just get him, he’s in my bed. You gave me something I can’t treat You started a delusion that I just can’t mend, c’mon Deceit should be a punishable crime, Locked behind four walls and from mankind. Blood rushed out, I never felt. Distorted views are in my head. FREEDOM Seven years on, still calling my name, His girlfriend rang me the other day. You gave me something that I just can’t rid, I never, never, never will forgive … FREEDOM
9.
ANYTHING LEFT TO WONDER OH OH OH OH OH FEELING OF ENLIGHTMENT WITHOUT TRYING BOY THE KNOWING THAT THERE WILL BE NO MORE CRYING CONCRETE FEET, TRUTH’S ON THE STREET ONE PART LOVE, AND ONE OF HATE IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO WONDER? * 2 OH OH OH OH OH IF YOU’RE FEELING DOWN, I KNOW A WAY TO GET BACK UP TRIED TO SAVE THE FIRE, YOU SMOKED YOUR LOVE AWAY YOU KNOW WE CHOOSE HOW WE LOSE HUNG YOUR HIGH OWN WOUND NOOSE IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO WONDER? * 2 YOU WILL HAVE TO PUNCH ME HARDER YOU WILL HAVE TO PUNCH ME HARDER TO KNOCK ME DOWN, TO KNOCK ME DOWN. I WAS LOOKING UP WHILE YOU WERE LOOKING DOWN POOR BOY AND NOW I’M GONNA LEAVE YOU WITH MY HEAD, HEAD HELD HIGH YOUR LIES WERE ALWAYS SO CONSOLING, THE TRUTH ENDED UP BADLY HURTING IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO WONDER? * 2 YOU WILL HAVE TO PUNCH ME HARDER YOU WILL HAVE TO PUNCH ME HARDER TO KNOCK ME DOWN, TO KNOCK ME DOWN. FEELING OF ENLIGHTMENT WITHOUT TRYING BOY THE KNOWING THAT THERE, THE KNOWING THAT THERE, KNOWING THERE’LL BE NO MORE CRYING RIDING ABOVE WHAT WE SEE NOTHING LEFT OF YOU AND ME IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT TO WONDER? * 2 YOU WILL HAVE TO PUNCH ME HARDER YOU WILL HAVE TO PUNCH ME HARDER TO KNOCK ME DOWN, TO KNOCK ME DOWN.
10.
I ONLY SEE YOU I'm behind the wheel, You want my ride Remain the same While I touch the sky I'm after something that u can't , can’t ever give Out came your monster In the darkest shade of mean Defied the weight Like a boat on water I'm after something that u can't, can’t ever give I ONLY SEE YOU and I don’t mind at all I ONLY SEE YOU Cause I am blind You were the ghost, haunting my dreams I am the sin up in the back of your head Guess that, that some birds just aren't meant to be caged You’re sitting high up all on your throne Looking around for someone just as tall Seems that there's no one no one left around at all I ONLY SEE YOU and I don’t mind at all I ONLY SEE YOU Cause I am blind
11.
AIN’T NO FURY WHAT IS WITH THE WORLD TODAY? I CAN FEEL THE WEIGHT OF CHANGE RUNNING AROUND TRYING TO DO RIGHT I CAN ONLY DO THE BEST I CAN HOLDING ON TIGHT, TO MY BEST FRIEND YEAH SHE GUIDES MY WAY FEELING ALRIGHT, GOT TO DO RIGHT GOTTA FIND THE GOOD OLE WAY AIN’T NO FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. HEAL ME HURRY, CAN’T YOU SEE THAT I’M WORN FEEL MY COURAGE, I CAN FEEL IT’S GETTING WARM AIN’T NO FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. WE GOT AN UNDERSTANDING, YOU & ME TO BE THE BEST THAT WE CAN WHEN THE RAIN IS POURING DOWN ON ME YOU GRAB ME BY THE HAND I GOTTA FIND A WAY, A QUICKER WAY TO SHAKE THIS BAD FEELING YOU SAID, “YOU’RE GONNA MAKE IT”. I SAID, “IT’S GOT ME ON MY KNEES.” AIN’T NO FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. HEAL ME HURRY, CAN’T YOU SEE THAT I’M WORN FEEL MY COURAGE, I CAN FEEL IT’S GETTING WARM AIN’T NO FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. FORTUNE FAVOURED ALL THE BRAVE TODAY FORTUNE FAVOURED ALL THE BRAVE AIN’T NO FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. HEAL ME HURRY, CAN’T YOU SEE THAT I’M WORN FEEL MY COURAGE, I CAN FEEL IT’S GETTING WARM AIN’T NO FURY, LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED.

about

Recorded in Brooklyn, NYC @ Rola Pola Studios
Songwriters: Dallas Frasca / Jeff Curran / Pete McDonald

“Great vocals, riffs & groove!” - SLASH (Guns & Roses)

As far as accolades for Rock N Roll music go, it doesn’t get much better than legendary Guns & Roses guitarist Slash not only spinning a copy of your album all around the USA in his tour van, but actually taking the time to let you know he digs it too. That’s exactly what’s happening right now for Melbourne’s Dallas Frasca and their sophomore album “Sound Painter”.

After much hullabaloo, build, anticipation, blood, sweat, tears, money, lust and lunacy, “Sound Painter” was released in Australia earlier this year. Lead single All My Love carved the way, blasting out across Australian radio waves and taking out 3rd place (from over 16,000 entries) in the International Songwriting Comp.

All My Love is the first track to be lifted from Dallas Frasca’s forthcoming 2nd album “Sound Painter”. Recorded in New York with Australian producer Andy Baldwin (Bjork, Chrissie Amphlett, Living End, Kram, Cat Empire) at Rola Pola Studio’s in Brooklyn – check it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO3b4w5lBPs

Recording next to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn in a warehouse shared by the Jewish community, the band did the entire album with no click tracks for that true honest rock sound and the intent of being able to show they can perform it live. After 4 months of writing and rehearsals in Melbourne, Dallas, Jeff Curran (guitar) and Samuel Lukies (drums) hit The Big Apple and tracking wise, smashed down eleven songs in 3 days. All guitars and drums and most vocals on the album were live takes with next to no over dubs and most songs were captured in their first or second takes. The entire record features no bass; just Dallas and Jeff dueling gargantuan slabs of riffs on 2 Les Paul’s through 1960’s Fender and Silvertone amps. The sixties permeates throughout in fact, all drums were 1960’s Slingerland and Ludwigs and the vocals were also all done though 1960’s mics.

In Frasca’s own words: “Recording in New York, we had to ride our pushies 7 km’s through Manhattan and across the Willamsburg Bridge every day, from our accom to the studio, and then back again at night. New York was spread out in front of us. That change of scene, from writing in Footscray, Melbourne in the middle of winter to then living in Soho, Manhattan in summer - was inspiring. It gave me, Jeff and Pete a chance to be anything we wanted to. You can hear the confidence on the record.

All My Love was the first song that we wrote together, when it happened it was like a lightning bolt that inspired us and gave us the strength to push through as we wrote the rest of the album. Every song on the album has its own individual personality and sound and hence “Sound Painter” as a whole is like a giant painting with all colours of the rainbow being used. It tells so many stories and yet it is obvious that the strokes across each one were from the same brush…..”

When it came to selecting the first single to be released from the album, the band threw it too public opinion, literally. As Frasca explains:

“We held a listening party in Melbourne and played the entire album to 'fans and industry only' (around 400 people) which was received by roaring cheers and clapping after every song and a standing ovation at the end of the evening. Our producer even surprised us and flew out from NYC for the event! Afterwards we asked our captive audience to pick out the first single.”

Indeed, from the comedic to the heartbreaking, the making of “Sound Painter” has been beset with challenges and journeys. Firstly, following a run of national shows to help pay for the record, Dallas and band mates Jeff Curran (guitar) and Peter McDonald (drums) arrived wearily home only to have all the takings from the entire tour stolen at Melbourne airport. Enter fan based damage control with Frasca fans banding together and raising over $4500 for the band, $4500 that meant “Sound Painter” could actually be finished. Then, when it was finished, it was stolen. That is to say – upon returning from New York, the band held a listening party to pick the first single and the laptop with the only completed version of the album was stolen by someone at the party. Long story short is that the laptop was returned with ‘no police involvement’ after simultaneous mild heart attacks from all three band members.

Says Frasca: “It's been 2 ½ years since our first album, (2009’s “Not For Love Or Money”) but we took away any deadlines and pressure and let the songs dictate when they were ready to be recorded. By way of just playing, we overhauled the band’s sound. Jeff(guitar) and I have been playing together for over 6 years now, and we made the decision that this album would be about capturing everybody's true strengths as musicians. Jeff had his last alcoholic drink, we got serious about what we wanted to achieve and when Pete (drums) came into our lives, it was like our stars has aligned. I feel people have only been able to hear 10% of what we are capable of on our previous recordings compared to this one.”

And so, after months of rehearsal’s in Footscray, the band headed off to record “Sound Painter” next to the Willliamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, New York with a producer they had met after playing a raucous 2 am set at a hippie festival in regional Victoria. Within the first 10 minutes of leaving the airport in New York, a rock was thrown from an over pass, smashing their cab window. It was on.

“Sound Painter”

Using no click tracks for that true honest rock sound, all the guitars, drums and most vocals on the album were live takes with next to no over dubs and most songs were captured in their first or second run through. The entire record features no bass; just Dallas and Jeff dueling gargantuan slabs of riffs on 2 Les Paul’s through 1960’s Fender Silvertone amps.

Dallas explains: “Being in the studio making “Sound Painter” was the most challenging and rewarding artistic endeavor I’ve ever undertaken. The songs were never controlled by traditional laws of timing or "right", as each song grew we took its lead and let "it" tell us what it needed. We always knew when they were finished. I remember Pete creating each drum sound with Andy before every new track, we would lovingly butcher the kit each time before we started to record, taping tambourines onto bass drums, wallets onto snares and tuning the kit to the key of each song. It was groups of special little moments like these that still stick out to me.

When we first wrote 'All My Love' (first single) together as a band it was like a bench mark for what we wanted to achieve. We kept beating tracks together and ended up with well over 100 songs to choose from. We whittled that down and the entire album was then tracked in 6 days. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Andy Baldwin, there are very few people on the planet like Andy. A gifted musician himself, I learnt so much from him as a producer and a person. He pushed us and got more out of us as musicians than we ever expected from ourselves.

For example, album closer ‘Ain't No Fury’ was the last song I recorded. I did it by myself before I flew to India and then left the acoustic skeleton with Andy. I remember my world being blown apart when I heard the vocal line that Andy had put on the chorus line when I was in Udaipur, Rajasthan. I had a cow resting next to me and a goat at my feet in an internet cafe and I couldn't believe it was my song. I wrote the song for my best friend and she cried right there with me with happiness when we heard it.

“Sound Painter” is tough, heavy, big and loud. Tougher, heavier, bigger and louder that anything Dallas Frasca has done before. Though the themes are universal, lyrically there’s a feminine strength that runs throughout. Musically, it’s an album that angles for the knockout punch, no dancing around for the points decision. Searing riffs give way to melodious break downs, blues progressions careen their way into sludged Zeppelinesque builds. Curran’s dynamo riffage constantly chops away throughout – as authoritative in the notes he doesn’t play as to emphasise the ones he does.

Frasca: Each song on the album is a part of the story of a crazy upside down year. A relationship break up, feeling destroyed but overcoming and feeling free and positive again – sometimes all at the same time.

‘Coming Home’ is about Melbourne Town, I recently moved back here and it was like I had moved back in with my tribe again, in the right place surrounded by good people. The lyrics for ‘Coming Home’ flowed freer for me than any other track on the album. ‘Better Without You’ was one take start to finish. It was intentionally the moment on the album where the band truly got to jam out with no 3:30min restrictions, just spirit. The end jam was so exciting to watch the boys connect and create. None of us knew when or what Jeff and Pete were going to do and that’s the point.

The recording of ‘One Man Woman’ is the track that stands out for Curran, in his own words: whilst recording it, we just hit this major halt one morning! Andy took us all downtown Williamsburg for some time out, at which point I left the table frustrated and just wandered around a bit, trying to find inspiration. And did, the feeling of hardship and bare minimum standard of living that in that part of New York was the feeling I wanted to encapsulate. I also kept thinking soul, rock, nut-bush, Tina Turna vibe and what it must have been like recording back in those days and what they would have had to make do with. I went back to Andy and the band and said, lets capture that vibe, but lets strip everything back rather than add it on and use things we never would normally. So together we all bashed our hands on snare skins, made mouth percussion sounds, stuck pens in glasses, wailed mouth sirens; and the track came together.

Frasca sums it up: Ultimately - the universe brought us altogether at exactly the right time in our lives, we were all ready to work hard, we were all ready to share our ideas and no one had any delusions of grandeur.... We just wanted to make a powerful f**cking album that would be listened to for generations to come!”
The “Sound Painter” Tour

With lead single All My Love still blasting across radio airwaves, as well as being voted in the top 15 finalists out of 16,000 entries in the International Songwriting Comp, and straight from blowing audiences away at Byron Bluesfest a few weeks ago, catch Dallas and the band launching the album across a national tour of gargantuan proportions, doing what they do best: TOUR DATES – www.dallasfrasca.com

Dallas Frasca - BIO

By the age 18 Dallas Frasca was on the road, channeling all the sass and irreverence of Chrissie Amphlett and Suze Demarchi. Armed with power and torque reminiscent of Aretha Franklin and Betty Davis her stand out voice didn’t take long to get noticed. After developing nodules and being forced not to sing for 18 months she turned her gaze to the guitar, and her evolution was complete.

In 2006, she won triple j’s “Light Your Fuse” competition from over 500 entries. Her career exploded from there. Dallas won the 2010 ‘Artist Of The Year’ at the Musicoz Awards and her album was voted in the ‘top ten’ best roots releases on JJJ in 2009. She has also stormed the stages at countless major festivals (Big Day Out, Falls, Bluesfest, Pyramid Rock, Festival of the Sun, Queenscliff, Southbound, and major French festival – Blues Passion Cognac). The bands tribal and stomping roots performances have earned them a large, loyal fan base.

In 2008 Dallas sang for Aussie Alt-Rock royalty Midnight Oil in Sydney, in support of Amnesty International. In early 2009 Dallas was invited to perform as one of seven artists from seven continents of the planet for International Earth Day in Montreal. It not only allowed her the thrill of holding a dialogue with fellow-artists about social and environmental issues, but she caught the ear of Canadian promoters who have invited her to come
back and tour there.

Dallas Frasca is a hard working independent juggernaut who, with her band and this yet to be released album, is carving her own path, both here in Australia and internationally. From the new album, “Sound Painter” - expect huge slabs of guitar riffage, rock slamming drums and heavy, soulful vocals strewn across an album of heartbreak and comebacks.

"There is no doubt that Dallas Frasca is one of Australia’s legitimate female rock stars". Warp Magazine June 2012

Anyone who thinks rock ‘n’ roll is dead needs to go and spend some time with Dallas Frasca. – TONE DEAF

“Currently one of the most successful independent musicians in Australia.” Time Off

"So next time you hear of a Dallas Frasca show close to where you reside, buy tickets, venture out and be prepared to have one hell of a night." - AMN

"The best Australian female fronted act going around." AAA Backstage

“There is nothing that will prepare you for the sassiness and might that is Dallas Frasca...” The 59th Sound

“The bittersweet vocals of Dallas Frasca begin. By this time the chair cannot contain your excitement, as what your ears have been deprived of hearing, since the likes of Janis Joplin; have finally returned. Sound Painter is a record that you can’t miss out on.” Sam Cuevas - Dearhead Press

"A guttural blues howl laced with demonic slabs of guitar riffage." Rhythms Magazine

“Frasca’s voice seems to be getting more versatile and refined – she has the makings of a superstar.” Inpress Magazine
"All her hard work and sacrifice is going to pay off.” Australian Music Network

"Every now and then a gem pops to the surface of the Australian Music Industry, and Dallas Frasca's, Sound Painter is one such jewel." Reverb Magazine - 4/5 stars

"A battering, bruising, brilliant performance from one of Australia’s most commanding artists." 13Notes

All My Love is available for free download at www.dallasfrasca.com

credits

released May 4, 2012

Produced by Andy Baldwin & Dallas Frasca
Mixed by Andy Baldwin
Mastered by Andy Baldwin @ Rola Pola Studios
Artwork by Josh Meney @ Non-Entity Design

Management:
management@dallasfrasca.com

www.dallasfrasca.com
www.facebook.com/dallasfrasca
www.twitter.com/dallasfrasca
www.spankbettyrecords.com

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Dallas Frasca Melbourne, Australia

“Great vocals, riffs & groove!” - SLASH (Guns & Roses)

'Full throttle power' - ROLLING STONE


For a decade, award winning, Dallas Frasca has not stopped. The band toured the world with over 1000 shows under their belts. dallasfrasca.com
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