“I’m gonna fall. Will you catch me?” asks Adam Arnone of the audience at Harlow’s Pub, an intimate venue with a stage that has seen far more folk musicians than hip-hop artists. It’s Arnone’s release show for his new album. Just like that, he drops off the stage into the crowd, who not only catch him, but they lift him up over their heads and take him surfing.

Arnone trusts his listeners and they, in turn, trust him and will follow whatever he does musically—which is important considering his ever-evolving sound. It comes not from the streets or the clubs, but from the rolling hills and country roads of his northern New England beginnings in Peterborough, New Hampshire. It’s where Arnone listened to his musical heroes—Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, De La Soul—drinking in every lyric and committing it to memory. It’s also where at 14, he began working with friend Shalem Bencivenga (then known as DJ MF Shalem) and two turntables, a mixer, sampler, four-track tape, and a microphone.

After a successful five-year tour, Arnone returned home to rebuild his local following and raise a family. It’s here he had the time to reflect—and create something new. Now in his late 30s, Arnone left behind his former stage name, Adeem, and became front man for his latest band, Adam and the Flood. His latest album (his 12th) will be released digitally Oct. 24.

In the album, which was inspired by his mother who passed away after he began writing it four years ago, Arnone has fused hip-hop with delta blues, gospel, rockabilly, electronica, and any other style he’s felt like experimenting with. He’s also picked up instruments and used his singing voice for the first time. Titled Move Toward Life, it presents the idea of his need to be present and honor his past while not being mired in it.

A group of friends took turns contributing in the studio based on Arnone’s cell phone recordings. He wrote most of the lyrics on the spot. Then Arnone and his three new band members took those recordings and re-recorded them for the album at Loud Sun Studio in nearby Jaffrey, New Hampshire, with the help of engineer and musician Ben Rogers.

The album is interwoven with stories of Arnone’s family and the connection he had with his mother, Nancy. One song includes audio of her singing to his young daughter and an ultrasound heartbeat of his unborn son she would never meet.

She’s a part of every show now—from the red sneakers Arnone wears onstage because she once told him she liked them to the shout-out he asks the audience to give his mother at the beginning of each performance.

That personal touch flows over to Arnone’s relationship with his followers. They are just as much a part of his experience performing as he is of theirs. At the end of the album release show, for instance, he asks them to help name a song he’d written that day. Later, he puts down the mic and talks to them directly.

While he appreciates the need for a social media presence, Arnone prefers this in-person connection. “People told me it was the best show they’d ever seen, and they’d seen me play over 20 years,” he says after the album release performance. “I’m still pulling from things in my life and making art. I still have stuff to talk about.”

Want to hear what Arnone listens to for musical inspiration? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify Channel. While you’re there, check out the playlists of other musicians we’ve profiled.

Adam Arnone, Musician, Adam and the Flood
Peterborough, New Hampshire
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Top image: Adam Arnone. All photos by Jake Sebert.

The post Hip-Hop from the New Hampshire Hills appeared first on Take Magazine.

You would think—given 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’s current inhabitants—that there would be more bands out there raising hell about the Trump administration’s divisive policies. But this isn’t the 1960s, and sadly, most folks would rather not mix their music with their politics. Obviously, this hasn’t stopped bands like Rise Against or Public Enemy from espousing their beliefs, but a larger movement of furious, vitriolic rockers—one many anticipated Trump’s presidency would inspire—has yet to manifest itself.

Perhaps Rhode Island’s Downtown Boys can lead the charge. They’ve already been touring the country for months, bringing their unique brand of politically-charged, socially-conscious punk rock to venues both big and small, and inspiring Rolling Stone to declare them one of America’s “most exciting” punk bands.

Downtown Boys formed in late 2011 in Providence, and this summer, issued their third full-length record, Cost of Living, which was produced by Guy Piccioto, guitarist for post-hardcore legends Fugazi. “We were searching for a producer fairly last minute for this record,” explains Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, who plays guitar and sings in Downtown Boys. “Our bassist Mary (Regalado) originally reached out to Allison Wolfe to produce, but she was unavailable, but she recommended Guy to us. Originally, it didn’t seem it was going to work with his schedule, but just a few weeks before, he decided to go for it and it was a wonderful experience to work with him.”

Downtown Boys/. Photo courtesy of Sub Pop Records

The members of Downtown Boys are all self-taught musicians, who’ve come from far and wide, for myriad reasons, and ended up settling in Providence. Only La Neve DeFrancesco and saxophonist Joe DeGeorge are lifelong New Englanders.

“We’re on tour pretty constantly right now so we mostly live in a van,” La Neve DeFrancesco says. “I think wherever you are right now, whatever job you’re in, the goal is destroying white supremacy, tearing down the structures that have been in the process of destroying humanity for a long time and are only ramping up the effort at the moment.”

Singer Victoria Ruiz is the face of the band, which is rounded out by drummer Norlan Olivo and bassist Mary Regalado. On the Downtown Boys’ latest for Sub Pop Records, Ruiz uses her powerful voice to promote Chicana, queer, and Latino issues.

The new offering opens up with “A Wall,” which scoffs at the notion a wall could ever shatter the spirits of those it is being designed to suppress.

“Providence has a long and full music history and that seeps into what we do,” La Neve DeFrancesco says. “There is also a long political history of violence and resistance here, and that comes in as well. So much of Providence’s musical and political past, including our band’s, is centered around the mill buildings in the city and the accompanying history of industrial capitalism and slavery, and the resistance movements to those two systems, and so whatever you’re doing here, there’s that weight you have to take seriously.”

Want to know what’s on Joey La Neve DeFrancesco’s playlist? Check out our Take a Listen Spotify channel. While you’re there, take a listen to the playlists of other musicians we’ve interviewed.

Joey La Neve DeFrancesco, guitarist and singer for Downtown Boys
Providence, Rhode Island
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Top image: Downtown Boys. Photo by Miguel Rosario

The post Joey La Neve DeFrancesco Heads Downtown appeared first on Take Magazine.