No Good Fences Required
Electro-pop troupe Neighbors is a communal effort in every sense of the word. Named after the eccentric folks living adjacent to frontman Noah Stitelman, the band attributes childhood friendships to the making of its debut EP, Hooligans, and boasts half a dozen members with six degrees of separation.
The brainchild of Stitelman, Neighbors manifested in 2009 when Jacksonknife, the band he was previously part of, was on the brink of breaking up. A departure from his past bands alt-country rock sound, Neighbors takes listeners off the beaten indie-rock path and onto an experimental route combining various instruments, like keys, violins and drums with poppy synths. When I started doing the Neighbors stuff, I didnt want to make rock music so much anymore, Stitelman says. So I just started making electronic music instead.
Recording the four-track Hooligans almost entirely on his own in his Williamsburg apartment, Stitelman reached out to longtime friend Matt Rubin, who helps runs San Franciscos Paper Brigade Records. Meeting at school in San Francisco where both were studying photography, a passion that Stitelman still pursues today, the two have remained friends throughout the years and decided to join forces.
Another friendship-fueled collaboration came in the form of mixing and producing the EP. Stitelman recruited renowned engineer, producer and his oldest friend Kyle Johnson, who has worked with Modest Mouse, The Hives and Rogue Wave in the past. That guy is a genius, Stitelman says about working with Johnson, who hes known since the third grade and played music with before. Hes really good at what he does, so I learned most of what I know from just watching him. And while Stitelman recorded most of Hooligans himself, it wouldnt have been complete without the help of his five bandmates.
Meeting Evan Johnson, Steph McCarthy, Anne Miner and Eric Beug through friends and finding Brian Harney via a Craigslist ad for a violin player, the group came together toward the end of the recording process and put the finishing touches on the album together.
With a surprisingly limited electronic background, the Neighbors mastermind relied on his musical tastes and the Harry Potter franchise for motivation to complete this record. Listening to a variety of indie rock and looking to old-school idols including Jimmy Dorsey and Dean Martin, a pair whose music Stitelman would rather make, and finding his muse through J.K. Rowlings magical Hogwarts-centered series, Hooligans began to take shape. Actually its funny the movies I was watching the most and books I was probably reading the most was Harry Potter, he reminisces. I distinctly wanted the record to sound more fantastical in a way that those movies and books seemed, and for it to sort of be very bubbly or colorful...w which I guess isnt very cool.
Whether he believes his bewitching inspiration was cool or not, Neighbors blends haunting vocals, exploding synths and wondrous melodies reminiscent of the mythical elements that the films offer. Enforcing a song evolution by meticulously going through each track from the lyrics to the melodies, the creative process for Stitelman is a slow, but rewarding one. In the beginning youre not really comfortable with the song, you dont really know it yet, he explains. The melody doesnt stick, its not sort of ingrained in your head, yet. But the better you can pick apart your stuff and know it before you call it finished, the better itll be in the end.
And while this method of revisiting his work and improving it has remained a constant, the manor in which songs are created varies. While the electric guitar and percussive tinged track Im A Building, Im On Fire gradually transpired and went through many different incarnations, the idea for the enchanting, accordion-laced Hooligans, on the other hand, was randomly stumbled upon. I was just sort of sitting down and screwing around, and not having any idea of what I wanted to do, he recalls. I just started messing around with the accordion line, and out of that, sort of built that song. Hooligans boasts softly sung lyrics about not being 100% honest with people and how that sort of manifests in your daily relationships, multi-instrumental orchestrations and electronic beats, all of which are elements spread throughout the EP.
Pairing lush, other worldly melodies with very real and relatable lyrics centered around themes of withdrawal and relationships, Neighbors is making its mark in Brooklyn and has plans to hit Philadelphia, Boston and D.C. in the upcoming months, with hopes of expanding their fan base, playing different venues and seeing what the music scenes there have to offer. But for now, Stitelman will continue to work on his music in Brooklyn, the place he feels most at home, with his band of Neighbors.