Debut EP Release With DAJ Records
Silver Spoons
Available October 15th, 2018
Julia Chen, piano/composition
Dan Stein, bass
Peter Manheim, drums
EP Release Show:
October 15, 2018 @ Rockwood Stage 3, New York NY
As a shy bespectacled child, Julia Chen learned to rely on music to express her personality and connect with others in ways she couldn't with words. Raised in Brooklyn by parents from Poland and China, she grew up learning piano by ear from her mother who was a poet and mathematician. Julia's parents met at Ohio State University's math program before making the big move to New York City, and many years later Julia returned to small town Oberlin, Ohio for college where she met bassist Dan Stein and drummer Peter Manheim. As fate would have it, this trio all found themselves in New York after college and resumed playing together after a long and lonely hiatus.
When Peter called Julia to say that a friend had offered him a last minute overnight recording session for the upcoming weekend, Julia didn't hesitate. "Silver Spoons", her first EP, was born in the wee hours of a cold February morning at Figure 8 studios in Brooklyn, birth pangs eased by coffee and vegan brownies from Dan's local food co-op.
To explain some song titles: the Madagascar-native succulent Kalanchoe Bracteata (also known as Silver Spoons) is one of many beautiful houseplants that fill Julia's apartment. "A Pox on Both Your Houses" is a famous line from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', and the song's melody was written on top of a drum beat created by Nathan Friedman, another Oberlin graduate. "A Bicycle Needs a Woman Like a Fish Needs a Man" is a nonsensical rearrangement of a feminist slogan coined by Irina Dunn but often incorrectly attributed to Gloria Steinem. "No Cigar" is close.