Image courtesy of the band
By DCist Contributor Teta Alim
The origins of local alt-folk band Near Northeast are more international than your typical “hey, I think my friend plays drums” story.
Avy Mallik, Kelly Servick, and Alex Pio joined forces after responding to an ad for musicians needed in an Indian classical music performance at the Kennedy Center and kept in touch long after the show. Austin Blanton joined soon after, completing the group.
After releasing their first album, Curios, together last month, the band went from a four-piece to a three-piece after Pio moved to Portugal. But even with a missing drummer, the band shows no signs of stopping. The release was very quickly followed by a well-received appearance at the Fort Reno concert series.
Guitarist Mallik says that there’s a lot curiosity in their new album. Or, as the album’s producer and bassist Blanton corrects with a satisfied grin, “Curios-ity.”
Curios is pleasant. It’s something you might put on while tossing a quinoa salad or sitting at a bay window overlooking the Potomac. What the album may lack in arresting passion, it makes up in its loving care for details. Curios may not make you run a marathon or jump through fire, but it will cradle you in a freshly washed blanket and keep you warm from the spontaneous summer rains.
“Rogue and Vagabond” rolls in stormy waves with Servick’s firm violin guiding the currents. “Delmarva” feels like a quintessential indie film montage song. But the all-instrumental tracks are where you feel the purest urgency; the real fire in each band member. “Cenote” is the most interesting track and it’s a vein of thought the band should explore further. It spirals downwards like a rabbit hole as you become submerged in total darkness, but there’s still hope of reaching light.
But how Near Northeast works that washed-out sensation into Curios isn’t simple. “We do take a lot of beauty and find the dissonance, either lyrically—sometimes Kelly’s lyrics are way darker than you would think when you think about the melody—or then we will find that strange note to put in there or that change of the tone of instrument to make it a little bit uglier. There’s a lot of beauty that we like to intentionally corrupt,” Mallik says.
That dissonance comes from Blanton and Mallik’s time in noisier rock bands, while Servick brings the beauty from her time playing in an orchestra and a melodic indie-pop band in college.
“I bring a bit more of a softer sound,” she says, laughing.
Coming from Athens, Ga., Servick eventually found her niche in the D.C. music scene and a surprising amount of support and enthusiasm from other musicians. Mallik agrees, saying he found that there is more collaboration among D.C. musicians than what he’d experienced previously in San Francisco.
“D.C.’s music scene has really flowered because people want to open up their houses and have intimate shows,” Mallik explains. “Our album is a very intimate album that really speaks to that.”
The future of Near Northeast is bright; Servick just bought an electric violin to add to the band’s mix and Blanton hopes to release some songs that didn’t make it onto Curios. There are also plans to go to a cabin somewhere and figure out some new sounds. “I just want to keep making things I’m proud of,” Servick says.
Catch Near Northeast with Atoka Chase, Laurel Rose, and Pat Jones at the Glowhouse tomorrow as part of In It Together Fest.
