With his debut solo EP, “Lo & Behold,” ready for a proper album-release show in a few weeks at Pianos on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, J. Alan Schneider today premieres a Proving Ground Session video for “Arkansas,” a quietly intense track that is emblematic of the music you’ll find on the 5-song release.
Understanding Schneider’s background helps give context to “Lo & Behold.” He grew up in New Hampshire, took piano lessons from his neighbor and immersed himself in both clarinet (his private teacher was the second-chair clarinet player in the New Hampshire Philharmonic, and his band director was the first chair) as well as bass guitar in a pop punk band. He studied music technology at Northeastern University in Boston, a major that included both composition and production curricula.
Highway 81 Revisited’s newest On The Rise artist, Schneider, who moved to New York for his day job as a copywriter, recently discussed the process of making the EP over drinks at The Bonnie near his place in Astoria, Queens.
“My apartment is right there,” he said, gesturing out to the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard above-ground stop on the N and Q subway line. “You can’t really record in my apartment because every three minutes you have to wait for the train to go by. So I went down to my girlfriend’s apartment down on 30th, she is about maybe six blocks from the train, so you can’t hear it from her apartment.
Schneider, who played his first solo NYC show in August at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3, also on the Lower East Side, recalled his youthful musical exploits that have set him on his current path.
The acoustic guitar, now his primary instrument as a folk artist, was initially a tool for songwriting in the punk band. Later, during and after his Northeastern years, he’d play in Boston-based pop punk outfit Jet Black Sunrise. Now, his listening, while diverse, veers more toward artists like Bon Iver, Anais Mitchell, Milk Carton Kids, the Nickel Creek/Punch Brothers projects, The Staves and Nathaniel Rateliff.
The Pianos set is part of a 5-date run, the rest of it through New England: one show each in Boston, Burlington, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
J. Alan Schneider will perform at Pianos (158 Ludlow St, New York, NY 10002) Saturday, Oct. 8. His set is at 7 p.m. 21 and over.
For more information on J. Alan Schneider, visit his website or Facebook page.