Some bands can be easily pigeonholed. Others can’t. Portsmouth, New Hampshire’s own People Like You fall into the latter category, possessing a sound that, at times, can be best described as folk. At other times, funk-imbued psychedelic rock would be more fitting. Some of their songs even border on bona fide pop.

People Like You buck trends and reject classification. They’re a band with a sound as unique as one of their singers, the inimitable Eli Elkus.

“We never set out to write a certain type of song. It just happens, and the final result is whatever comes out in that moment,” Elkus says. “We rely on a lot of different elements and sounds in our music in the same way I would never paint a picture with just blue. That makes us black sheep, of sorts. The scene where we live is saturated with jam bands and white boy reggae—things you can describe to people in a couple of words. To me, we’re just fun, ‘freak folk.’”

People Like You first took shape in 2013 with a couple of members coming and going before the lineup solidified in 2015. The group has already recorded two albums, including People People, which was released physically earlier this summer and will be digitally released September 22nd. Before the end of the year, Elkus says People Like You will wrap the recording sessions for their third full-length, which will boast as many as 17 tracks.

Elkus (who plays guitar) and the four other musicians who make up People Like You (Eli’s brother, drummer Max Elkus; keyboardist and accordion player Justin Sheriff; bassist Rob Littlefield; and guitarist and singer Andrew Polakow) are mostly lifelong New Englanders (Polakow is the exception), and the eccentric frontman thinks a band like this could only exist where progressive minds dwell. “I think part of the reason we’re over the board musically is because it’s a conducive environment to be such a band,” Elkus explains. “I’ve been to 48 states, but I always come back to New England. It is the most authentic part of the country, and we have all four seasons here, which really weathers people and tests people physically and emotionally. Being able to live here a test of character.”

He says the band derives inspiration from New England’s majestic nature and scenery. “That definitely bleeds into our music,” Elkus says. “A common theme that I find in our music is it always sort of sounds like some party that should be going on in the woods, or on the beach. It’s a grounded sound and we are not afraid to get weird.”

Just don’t confuse New Hampshire’s People Like You with the People Like You from Massachusetts. Elkus says he’s spoken to the indie jazz outfit, and there’s no bad blood. “But they are mutant robot imposters,” Elkus jokes. “They’re not the real People Like You. I am pretty sure they don’t have blood running through their veins. I’m pretty sure they don’t have veins.”

Want to hear what Elkus is listening to on Spotify? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify channel. While you’re there take a listen to the other musicians we’ve profiled and some of the faves of the Take staff.

Eli Elkus–musician, People Like You
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
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Top image courtesy of Eli Elkus

The post People Like You Are Not Your Average Band appeared first on Take Magazine.

Creating music from New Orleans in New Hampshire is not something you would expect from seven New Hampshire-bred, classically trained musicians and a soulful singer from India who moved to Connecticut as a teen, yet the Seacoast-based Soggy Po’ Boys are churning out traditional New Orleans jazz with a distinctly New England vibe both live and on the octet’s pair of full-length offerings as well as the band’s newly-issued EP, Hang It On The Wall.

Before becoming the Soggy Po’ Boys, all eight members were in other bands, according to bassist Nick Phaneuf. “It started as a one-off gig on Mardi Gras at our favorite local bar, where all the musicians hang out,” Phaneuf says. “We all wanted to play some New Orleans tunes, and it was so fun, we figured maybe it should be a thing, so it grew very organically.”

All eight Soggy Po’ Boys were jazz players, but had never considered focusing on the New Orleans style before that pivotal night. “We decided to invest in this sound as a band and learn more about this style,” Phaneuf says, adding the Soggy Po’ Boys play hundreds of shows across New England as well as other parts of the U.S. “We are finding pockets of people who are really interested in American roots music, because it is pretty accessible, it is fun to dance to, and the horn section is just a spectacle.”

The band’s lively style of jazz incorporates elements of swing and shades of Caribbean and French music with Creole rhythms. The velvety at times, raspy at others vocals of guitarist Stu Dias blend the baritone of Barry White with the playfulness of Jack Johnson.

Most of the band’s members have moved back to New England after brief stints elsewhere. But Phaneuf will never stray again, he says. “The people and the pace of life of New England really suits me as does the access to nature and urban spaces,” he says. “If you make music here, you end up living here because in this area of the Seacoast, there is this tight-knit community of artists that supports a weird New Orleans band like us.”

This fall, the Soggy Po’ Boys will make their New Orleans debut. Until then, they have a string of summer shows scheduled throughout New England and New York. You can hear them weekly at Sonny’s Tavern in Dover.

Those who pick up any of the band’s records will surely notice that New England inspires many of Dias’ lyrics, which actually honors the genre’s earliest traditions, Phaneuf says. “The music from New Orleans is very much about that city, and we feel like we need to own the fact that we are these New England guys playing this music,” he says. “Adding to the body of music written about this place is meaningful to me. I hope in this life to write a song that expresses what makes New England beautiful.”

Want to hear what’s on Phaneuf’s playlist? Check out Take a Listen on Spotify.

Nick Phaneuf — Bassist for the Soggy Po’ Boys
Dover, New Hampshire
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Images by Benjamin David Hjelm

The post The Big Easy Comes to Dover appeared first on Take Magazine.

Molly Brown’s new band, Gilliver, seems as organic as an afterthought—a new voice coming out of Peterborough, rife with whispery vocals and an earthy sound straight out of the catalog of Cowboy Junkies or Mazzy Star.

The music is even more impressive when you consider that two main sources of inspiration for the singer-songwriter is doom metal and traditional Bulgarian women’s choir music. “It wasn’t planned, it just happened,” Brown says of the band’s sound. “I guess it’s just hard to define.”

Music fans will be able to decide for themselves on Saturday, June 9 as Gilliver performs as part of the Tenth Annual Peterborough Thing in the Spring, a five-day arts and music festival. Gilliver will perform at Harlow’s Pub (3 School Street) at 9:30 p.m. The band, which consists of Brown, her brother Dylan Brown, and Mia Govoni, is working on its first album, and have already released two tracks to BandCamp.com.

“I’ve been a musician since I was a kid,” Brown says. “In high school, I decided I was going to be an angry chick with a guitar. Then I got into Celtic music. And jazz. After ten years, I had all this material, but had nowhere to go with it.”

Enter Mia, not just the band’s drummer, but an audio engineer and producer.
“She saw some of my music online and wanted to get something down,” Brown says. “And my brother, who is also a musician, has always encouraged me, so we brought him in, and tada!”

Gilliver was born. The name, according to Brown, is a forgotten word for wall flower. “That’s how I feel most of the time, a sideline observer,” says Brown. “My life and my writing are observational, and has to do with plants!”

Actually, the music benefits a great deal not just from Brown’s work as a landscaper, but from the fact that she worked on a farm for a time. New Hampshire itself is an influence. “I sing a lot about day-to-day life, and that’s New Hampshire because that’s where I’m at,” she says. “Stone is a theme; it’s always in my background. I think about it a lot when I write.”

The band’s first album, which is still in the mixing phase, will be called Tooth in the Tilth, and is named after the first time Brown attempted to plow a field. “I messed it up real bad,” she says.

But in the end, the music of Gilliver is as laid back as the band’s musicians. “Listen, I’m a farmer, I went to school for farming,” Brown says. “There’s just something about the rhythm of the day, taking care of the animals, and sitting on the porch for an hour and writing a song.”

Want to hear what’s on Brown’s Spotify playlist and other artists we’ve featured at Take? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify channel.

Molly Brown–founding musician of Gilliver
Peterborough, New Hampshire
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Top image Molly Brown and Mia Govoni, courtesy of Molly Brown

The post From Farm to Music appeared first on Take Magazine.

When Miketon Graton was a kid living in Auburn, New Hampshire, there were times when all he wanted was to get out of the Granite State and cut some ground of his own.

So he did.

Graton bought a van for $500 and lit out with his punk band to play gigs across parts of the U.S and Canada. “There is just something inside of me that tells me to keep going,” says the 32-year-old bearded Graton of his wanderlust spirit. “I ignore it a lot of the time, but there are times when that’s where I feel the most like myself.”

Living a rock-and-roll lifestyle is one thing; living it as an unknown artist can be problematic. Without the benefit of a steady cash flow, life on the road can be daunting.

“I thought somewhere else would be more exciting or just better,” says Graton, who now lives in the Queen City with his fiancée, Alicia Jean. “They aren’t.”

After a short stint in Florida, Graton returned to New Hampshire. He soon realized that by not removing yourself completely from the past, you can always come back home to what’s left of family and friends and, in Graton’s case, to an Irish pub called The Shaskeen in Manchester, where the next phase of his life began.

Graton’s music grew out of The Shaskeen, where for a couple years he just saddled up to the long wooden bar as a patron. Eventually, he got a job bartending at his favorite haunt, listening to the kind of music he loved: punk, country, folk, Irish murder ballads, and straight up rock and roll.

Between slinging drinks and working the soundboard, Graton steadied his craft as a musician, and eventually became part owner of the bar. He saw hundreds of bands play The Shaskeen’s famous backroom, where Miketon got to perform with some of his favorite musicians, like Tim Barry and Matt Woods. “It made want to play better, to write better, and to perform better,” he recalls.

When his band Down To The Well broke up, he did some solo work; but, as Graton admits, he was built to front a band. “Playing solo was not always a strong suit of mine,” he says. “Some of my songs needed a band.” That’s when he started putting Miketon and the Night Blinders together.

A five-piece country “garbage grass” band, Miketon and the Night Blinders can bring it home. Soulful and rhythmic, with intensity wrapped in tradition, the songs on their new CD Building a Home are a countrified folk ride, an unwavering commitment to the music.

Recorded in Manchester at Black Heart Sound, the steady landscape drumming of Lee Viathan is essential. Cameron Rapaport commands the fiddle, and Mark Williams holds it down on the banjo. The threading Mike Bastek does on the stand-up bass is seamless and true.

Although considered a country/folk act, the Night Blinders are actually rooted in punk, where Graton and his other bandmates cut their teeth with other local punk bands like Yellow Stitches and 5 Bucks. “I hold on to that passion and fury, and try to infuse it in my music,” he says about the influence Manchester has on his music.

And that passion for the music, for the community he lives in, and the sensibilities he shares with other musicians is what drives Graton in his quest to be heard. “It’s inspiring learning that there are other people like me who work hard at their craft,” he says, “and soldier forth every day. It pushes me to do the same.”

Miketon and the Night Blinders – “garbage grass” country music
Manchester, New Hampshire
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Top photo of Mike Graton by Justin Chadbourne

The post “Garbage Grass” Country Music Never Smelled So Sweet appeared first on Take Magazine.