The band Graph likes to call Whately’s Fillin’ Station Diner home, using it as a centralized base of operations and a late-night resting place after countless shows and practices.
Former Franklin Pierce College students Ry Amidon (bass, keyboards, percussion) and Matt Robidoux (guitar, vocals, samples) formed the group in Keene, N. H., but after losing their original drummer, they called on Western Mass. drummer Kivela to help them out in a pinch.
“That was last January,” recalls Amidon. “We had, like, nine shows set up for March. That was the beginning of driving very far and staying up very late at night, because we had a purpose.”
“Matt and I played in a free jazz group called Sisters and Brothers in Keene. It’s a sort of collective, so that’s how I knew him,” Kivela adds. “I was already a fan of Graph, so I knew the songs.”
Since Kivela’s conscription, the band’s been plenty busy with a summer tour, self-releasing a second EP, winning the Happy Valley Showdown, and putting together another two-week trek through the Midwest, set to begin in April.
Graph’s songs feel more like compositions than ditties, fusing guitar freak-outs with tight, precise movements and charged vocals. A typical Graph tune includes interesting synth or sample moments, dizzying tempo changes, and a surfeit of kinetic energy.
“They’re usually pretty well put together,” Amidon says of the group’s songs. “Matt writes most of the music, like the lyrics and a lot of the parts, and we kind of arrange the parts. The arrangements change a little bit; the instrumentation is always a little different.”
“We try and play with the songs until we land on something that really catches our ear and we think is interesting,” adds Kivela. “We’ve been saddled with the ‘experimental power trio’ label, and I don’t think there’s that much experimental stuff going on. It’s more improvisational than experimental.”
“I think a lot of the songs continue to be worked out from night to night,” Robidoux says. “There’s a lot of loose ends in our songs that we try to take to different places, from show to show. We like to bring in a lot of different elements& we just like to play around with stuff.”
Graph recently signed to Michigan’s Bear Minimum Records with the goal of a vinyl full-length. They are also releasing a split seven-inch with their friends Moving Pictures, and plan to use their time at Greenfield’s Bank Row Studios—one of the prizes earned at the Happy Valley Showdown—to record a song for that collaboration.
Things get a little wild when Graph plays live. “We usually play shorter sets, so we try and make our shows a little different, a little interesting,” says Amidon. “I hit a lot of things. I got tackled last night while playing percussion… I look forward to spontaneous stuff—it’s enjoyable and destructive, and that’s okay.”
“The other night Ry knocked out like eight keys in the keyboard with one kick,” Robidoux says, laughing.
“He also took a pipe wrench to his bass,” says Kivela. “He’s not allowed to have anything that heavy or solid during a show anymore. I gave him my galvanized steel trash can lid to beat on instead.”
For shows and songs and to purchase recordings, visit www.myspace.com/graphisaband
