After hosting Adore Tuesdays at the Living Room for nine months, former Backbeat scribe Ru Black is launching a new Tuesday-night soul series tonight at Epernay Lounge, 1080 14th Street, in the Theatre District. Dubbed the Blueprint, the series is set to kick off this evening with singer, songwriter and producer CRL CRRLL. Black says the series will not only focus on soul, but will also spotlight different experimental live-music styles.
Performers in the coming weeks include Jen Korte and friends on Tuesday, August 20, and LadySpeech on Tuesday, August 27. On Tuesday, September 17, an Amy Winehouse tribute is scheduled featuring Isis Speaks, Mandy Yoches and more. Karma Leigh will be making the move as well and will be on hand creating live paintings. In advance of tonight's show, we caught up with CRL CRRLL (aka Carl Carrell) for a quick chat.
Westword: Can you give me a rundown on what it is you do?
CRL CRRLL: I'm a musician, and I've been playing in a band for a little while, and I'm also a producer. I produce a lot of R&B and hip-hop stuff, but I also do some electronic stuff, and I've been dabbling in some different genres.
Have you been working with local artists, or national as well?
Some local, some national stuff. I've worked with a lot of local artists, but I just started venturing out in the last two years more on national acts, just kind of dabbling on production and a little bit of writing and stuff. But, yeah, I'm from here, born and raised. Went to school out here. Grew up on the west side of town, but I kind of bounced back and forth between the west side of town and the east side growing up.
How long have you been involved in music?
Well, involved seriously in music, probably the last, I would say, six or seven years. Before that, I was really into sports. I played basketball throughout high school and tried to play a little bit in college. I kind of got more into music and then started getting more into the music scene.
You said you're also in a band?
Yeah, I'm still in a band called the Ever. We're an indie-rock band. That project and my solo project are like two different worlds. That's how I met a lot people that I know, playing in that band. We travel a little bit and play out and about, mostly around Colorado.
How does the Ever differ from your solo project?
My solo stuff is more neo-soul, more electronica-sounding. The band stuff is more Portugal.The Man meets the Black Keys type of music. So less electronic and more rock style.
What do you have in store for your show at the Blueprint?
With my solo thing, I set up some screens that are pretty much see-through until you project images on them. I have a projector that I project different images on to bring out more of the emotions of the songs that I produce. All the images and different things change. I control them throughout the set, and then I'm controlling all of my sounds and different things like that live. It's more interesting to watch than for me to try to describe it.
Is it laptop-based stuff, or are you playing instruments?
I produce all of it. I'm just basically using the program called Ableton to run all of my sounds and stuff. I'm just triggering banks. I break my songs down to parts, like keys, drums, synths, stuff like that, so that way I can trigger each part and put effects over them and cut each part in and out and chop parts up. Stuff like that. It's a little different than what I usually do with the band. Usually with the band, I'm just playing keys and singing. It's a little different, but still the same live feel.
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