Phar\os

Phar\os

Being in a band is….quite fun. There are certain thrills you get when someone else plays something that makes you totally rethink the feel of your own part. An interesting harmony can turn any melody upside down, and we do this a lot in Phar\os. Dave and I are both the songwriters, and that’s one of the things that makes our sound somewhat unique. We each write songs individually at first, but the final product always ends up being wildly different than the original idea.

Studying music at Bowdoin College really helped us shape our songs and push the bounds of our music. There’s virtually nothing we learned in our classes that doesn’t apply to our own music, even though it is technically considered pop music. We take a largely intellectual approach to Phar\os music because, bands like Radiohead taught us that pop music can be smart too. It can be dark, emotional, abstract, and intellectual all at once; like making a Charles Ives piece that grooves like a Chili Peppers track.  

Connor Smith - Guitar \ Vocals

Connor Smith – Guitar \ Vocals

Our new album, The World Unfolds (and I am Falling Under) can be difficult to describe objectively, because I’ve been inside of it for so long.  At any given time, I know what parts to listen to, where the excitement is. I know exactly what the source of every sound is, and I know its intention.

I wonder what it’s like to hear it for the first time. I imagine that most of the detail doesn’t really register until after repeated listens. This EP is a dense mix and we’re happy with that, but something we’re already thinking about for our next release is creating interesting textures without needing so many layers all the time.

It’s not news to anyone that making music isn’t sustainable as a living for most people, so we each have found employment in other areas. I develop iOS apps at a company in downtown Boston. Dave is a culinary developer (chef) in Seattle.

Dave Raskin - Guitar \ Vocals

Dave Raskin – Guitar \ Vocals

One of the hardest things about being in a band is doing all the non-music stuff. I think a lot of musicians don’t become as successful as their work might merit, because they aren’t particularly good at taking off their musician hat and putting on their business hat. Once you’ve sorted out all the musicians who can do that, a much smaller percentage even have the necessary funding to properly support an album.

No one’s going to download your music if they don’t know it exists, so you can either do nothing and hope someone powerful both sees and takes a strong liking to it (I strongly discourage this approach, especially if your music is at all esoteric), or you can buckle down and start a marketing campaign. And hey, it’s not all bad! We’ve had a lot of fun building and continually improving our website and we have some ideas for an iPad app floating around too.

Having a website has allowed us to start thinking about new ways to communicate with other people. I want to encourage everyone to think critically about music, so a mini-experiment I did was putting a feedback page on our website. The feedback page is just one small thing to strengthen the bridge between the musicians and the listener. It’s largely inspired by the way many indie developers email back and forth with their customers to offer support and address issues. We hope you’ll like our music, but regardless of your opinion we want to hear from you directly!

The other members in the band are Rami Stucky, percussion, and Simon Moushabeck, bass and keyboard.

Rami Stucky - Percussion

Rami Stucky – Percussion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connor Smith
Phar\os
http://pharosband.com
@FlghtOfThCondor
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Pharos.band

Click on the album cover art below to get your very own copy of
The World Unfolds (and I am Falling Under):