April 10, 2014
Ben, Mike and Lydia sat down with Sean DeTore of the Mix Tape podcast, at KIRO radio, to chat all things St. Paul de Vence: the history, the upcoming record, Brylcreem, the big show at Seattle’s Showbox on Saturday, April 12th…and so much more. They even played a few of the new tunes in studio. You can listen here: http://kiroradio.com/listen/9970100/
February 13, 2014
This just in: On April 12th, we’ll be taking the stage, along with Campfire OK, at Seattle’s iconic Showbox in support of our good friend Kris Orlowski’s new record! We’re so excited to be playing a room with such history.
“On July 24, 1939 the doors opened, and fans flocked to, Seattle’s newest entertainment hot spot – a beautiful art-deco gem named The Show Box. This year marks the 75th anniversary of The Showbox, one of Seattle’s few extant entertainment venues that can lay claim to having provided local music fans with such an astonishing breadth of entertainment over the decades. From the Jazz Age to the Grunge Era to the current wave of Seattle exports – neo-folk and hip hop – the storied ballroom has featured shows by touring icons such as Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters and the Ramones — as well as those by homegrown talents ranging from burlesque queen Gypsy Rose Lee, to grunge gods Pearl Jam, to the current dynamic duo on a course for world domination Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.”
We hope you’ll join us for this big night!
KRIS ORLOWSKI ALBUM RELEASE
with CAMPFIRE OK
7pm doors // $12adv // all ages
January 23, 2014
So, we just had an amazing four days in the studio. We loaded in on Friday with two vehicles full of instruments and gear, boxes of provisions, five band mates, a producer, an engineer and his in-house crew…we came out late Monday night with a lot of great sounds put to tape!
And I know that anyone born before 1985 is saying to themselves, “Tape! Nice figure of speech. I remember when it really was tape.” Haha, but the kicker is we really did record to 2-inch tape, through a beautiful vintage Neve console, with some great vintage mics. (That whole last paragraph was for anyone who likes to geek out on that sort of thing).
What I really came to tell you is that we went in there with a very ambitious plan and we somehow came out with more than we planned. It was a magical 4 days. Everyone’s playing was on point, and some beautiful mistakes happened that opened new ideas…we just really got into the flow of the whole thing – making an album in a way that is not done very often in these days of high-tech/low cost recording equipment.
We went into the studio as a band. Played songs as a band. And experienced all the energy of the space as a band. I know you’ll be able to feel the difference when you hear it! I couldn’t have asked for a better crew of people to work with!
So, what’s next? Well, we captured all of the “basic tracks,” which are all the core parts of the songs that we can build on. We recorded all of the main vocals. We also did a lot of overdubs that we needed, added horns (yeah horns!!), electric guitars, shakers, whatever. Next, we’ll move over to our producer, Mychal Cohen’s place for a couple days of listening through, making edits and doing any additional overdubs that need doing. Then, it will be on to mixing…more on that when the time comes.
The journey continues! But, we are so grateful for a harmonious, inspiring, and successful four-day run at London Bridge Studios! Many thanks to our engineer on the project and owner of the studio, Jonathan Plum and his amazing crew. We really were given the rock star treatment, they are amazing, and it allowed us to focus on the work and really create!
I’ll keep you updated as we move along towards a record! For now, I’ll leave you with this gem (the image below). On the studio wall when you enter is a photo of a very young and relatively unknown (at the time), Pearl Jam c. 1990, during the making of their groundbreaking debut album “Ten,” which was made in the very studio we had the pleasure of spending 4 days last week. We decided to be nerdy fans and remake the photo, St. Paul de Vence style. Haha…we’re so silly! Enjoy!
-Benjamin Doerr
St. Paul de Vence 2013 / Pearl Jam 1990 - London Bridge Studio
December 26, 2013
Thanks to our 357 backers, we have fully funded our Kickstarter campaign and will be heading into the studio to begin cutting our second record this January!! We could not be more thrilled! Thanks to the generosity and support of our friends, family and listeners we raised $15,153 on our goal of $14,750.
We look forward to sharing the new music with you!
Here’s to a new year and a new record!!
You can read all about the project and see how it went here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stpaulband/st-paul-de-vence-lets-make-a-record
December 21, 2013
This is it folks! Kickstarter is counting down, by hours, the time we have left to reach our funding goal. If we don’t reach it, we don’t keep any of the amazing pledges we’ve gained so far. Nearly 300 supporters (so far) have shown their support and we are so grateful. We need your help pushing it over the edge. Let’s make a record together!!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stpaulband/st-paul-de-vence-lets-make-a-record
December 12, 2013
Ben talks with the music blog, Ear To The Ground about the past year, upcoming record and the Kickstarter campaign. Read the full interview here: http://www.eartothegroundmusic.co/2013/12/11/artist-interview-ben-doerr-from-seattles-st-paul-de-vence-folk-music-kickstarter/
November 22, 2013
In the two years since our debut album release we have evolved and grown; tightening our connectedness and creativity as performers, and expanding our sonic landscape. Our journey continues to bless us with radio play, world-wide record sales, and amazing performance opportunities. Throughout this time we’ve also been crafting a new set of songs. We could not be more grateful, and it’s time to get back in the studio to make a record of where we are now.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
We’ve decided to fund this record through Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is a crowd-funding resource that helps independant projects of all kinds gain funding through their supporters like you – our friends, fans and family.
You can view our campaign page here to see what this is all about: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stpaulband/st-paul-de-vence-lets-make-a-record
By raising funds independantly, we can produce and distribute our best recorded work yet, with complete creative control. And the fun part is, when you give, you recieve. Check out the rewards for different pledge levels. We’ve worked really hard to make sure we give back to everyone who joins us on this journey.
Also, given that Kickstarter is a crowd-funding resource, we need a crowd to make this work. If you can share the kickstarter page with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and such, it would be hugely helpful!
Again, this is the link!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stpaulband/st-paul-de-vence-lets-make-a-record
The privilege of being here, living the dream of making music, and asking you to help us bring this project to life is not lost on us. We are so grateful to you. We hope you’ll join us in making this record!
Thank you,
Benjamin Doerr & St. Paul de Vence
November 20, 2013
We are super excited to announce that we’ve been hard at work, writing and rehearsing and we’ll be headed into the studio in January to record our second album! We’ll be launching a Kickstarter in the next couple of days to help us fund this project and more details will come with that.
We’re so happy to be working with producer Mychal Cohen, and we’ll be in studio at Seattle’s historic London Bridge Studios. This is going to be an amazing journey and we can’t wait to bring these songs to you!
We will, of course, keep you updated about our progress with the music and the Kickstarter campaign. Thank you all so much for all your support!
Don’t forget, you can always find us on facebook, twitter and instagram.
November 14, 2013
We’re very pleased to announce our DEC 14th show with the Portland-based sister-band, Joseph, and Broken Anchor. This show, presented by Seattle Living Room Shows, is a very special one for us as we’ve been hard at work rehearsing material for the new record. We’re excited to get these songs onto the stage and share them with you! We hope you’ll join us, Saturday, Dec 14th. There is limited capacity at this new, secret, down-town venue location. For tickets and information email seattlelivingroomshows@gmail.com. You can also check the Seattle Living Room Shows website. See you there!
October 17, 2013
The delightful Seattle-based music blog, Inside Right Wrist, has released a second video of ours from the Wenatchee Summer Concert Series. This one is of another brand new song called Spring! We are so grateful to Julia Wayne and the IRW team for helping us get this out there!
Read the article and watch the video here: http://www.insiderightwrist.com/featured-big/st-paul-de-vence-spring-first-look-and-listen/
Enjoy!
October 4, 2013
We are so excited to team up with Inside Right Wrist for the premiere of our brand new live video! The video was captured at our performance in Wenatchee, WA back in July. You can read the full article and watch the video here: http://www.insiderightwrist.com/featured-big/st-paul-de-vence-mama-first-look-and-listen/
A huge thank you to Julia Wayne and the team at IRW for getting our music to the masses. Enjoy!
September 2, 2013
Bumbershoot is here! And the Stranger gave us a little shout out: “Inspired to begin writing songs about his grandfather’s experience fighting in WWII, Benjamin Doerr’s St. Paul de Vence project has a bit of Beirut’s sepia-toned Old World feel and esoteric instrumental choices (concertina!). Filled to the brim with super-sincere lyrics and swooning harmonies, their debut album was just what the plaid-wearing types needed to hold themselves over until the Fleet Foxes’ new record.”
Glad to bear that torch
May 3, 2013
Ooooooooh! We are VERY excited to announce that we will be at Bumbershoot 2013! We’ll be announcing our time slot real soon, but we’ll be playing Monday with many great Seattle acts we love and some amazing national acts including Allen Stone, Ivan & Alyosha, Justin Townes Earle, The Maldives and Hot Bodies in Motion! What an amazing year this is shaping up to be!!
April 15, 2013
We are super excited to welcome Lydia Ramsey into the St. Paul family. Lydia comes to us sharing her amazing talents on the banjo, mandolin, guitar, vocals, concertina, and trumpet while maintaining the creation of her own beautiful music!
March 21, 2013
L.R. Baggs has added Ben to their featured artist line up! He’s in with some pretty great company, too – the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show, Peter Frampton, Justin Townes Earle, Of Monsters and Men and Sean Watkins, to name a few. The band has been delighted to have such a great relationship with the folks at L.R. Baggs. These are the guys, and gals, that make it possible for our lovely acoustic instruments to sound so good on stage. They not only make the best sounding pick-ups and pre-amps, they are the sweetest bunch of people you could find. We want to extend a HUGE thank you to the L.R. Baggs company!!
See Ben, and all the great L.R. Baggs stuff at http://www.lrbaggs.com/artists/ben-doerr
{For you gear geeks out there, pretty much the whole band is using the Para Acoustic DI pre-amps, and Ben is also using an Element pick up in his ’49 Martin D-18 and an Element VTC in his Martin 000-15SM.}
December 29, 2012
We are super honored to be on the KEXP listener-voted Top Albums of 2012!! There were a lot of great albums this year and we are in some wonderful company on that list! We owe a HUGE THANK YOU to KEXP and its listeners for all the support this past year. It’s been an amazing journey and we know 2013 promises more awesomeness!
Happy New Year!
December 11, 2012
Wow-oh-wow! We did it! We sold out the Triple Door! Thank you so much to everyone who come out, and to all of you who have supported us this entire year that brought us to this lovely cloud we are floating on now! And we owe a HUGE thank you to our beloved local indie radio station, KEXP! They have been wonderful to us, playing our music on the air all year and making ‘Pink Wine’ Song of the Day this summer. On top of all that, the day of the Triple Door show they had us in studio to play live on air! That broadcast and video (yes, the filmed it, too!) will be available soon on the podcast at KEXP.org.
And of course big ol’ bear hug thank you to Kale Lotton & Jonny Gundersen of Le Wrens for joining us!
So, wow. Here we are. Looking forward to all the magic 2013 has to offer. Can’t wait!
October 24, 2012
A dream come true! St. Paul de Vence will headline their debut appearance at Seattle’s beloved Triple Door on Friday, November 30th! This will be a very special show including special guests and new sonic landscapes. For tickets visit the Triple Door website.
INFO:
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30
The Triple Door
216 Union Street
Seattle
6:30pm doors / 8pm show
$15 in advance / $18 day of
all ages
September 6, 2012
SPdV is closing out the summer with a great show launching Seattle’s newest outdoor venue! They will be joined by Le Wrens and other Seattle favorites for a sweet night of whiskey, food, music and friends – all under the gorgeous late summer skies of this beautiful city!
July 20, 2012
We’re very excited to share the news with you that REI has licensed 5 songs off of the full-length record to use in their online ad campaigns. The first two, featuring “Go” and “Pink Wine” have been released and can be seen while viewing shows on Hulu and elsewhere on the web! Many thanks to the good folks at REI.