On their ten year journey through the Chicago music scene, Forty Piece Choir continues to create multifarious music with unbridled spirit. By embracing the charisma of its members, they merge Rock-N-Roll, Indie, Psychedelic, Blues, Pop, Country, Rockabilly, and Folk genres to capture harmonious arrangements of dynamic brilliance. The heart of Forty Piece Choir is its undaunted will to create artistic music, often drawing comparisons to influences that include the Beatles, Velvet Underground, 13th Floor Elevators, Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, and Jesus and Mary Chain. Lyrically optimistic, their words transcend the philosophy of life, love, family, faith, hope, happiness, and even compassion for death.
With a performance at House of Blues, Forty Piece Choir has released their fourth full length compact disc “The Profound Nature of Life” abroad on its Cooked County Records imprint. Exclusively available through CD Baby, the new record was recorded by the band and mixed/mastered by Mike Hagler of King Size Sound Labs (Wilco, OK Go, Neko Case, The Reputation). Reverberating 50’s Rock-N-Roll artists such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard, Forty Piece Choir crafts their rawest and most upbeat collection of compositions while retaining their eclectic array of musical inspirations.
In 1997 Forty Piece Choir formed when Dana Okon and Dan Dominiak met in the south side coffee house folk music circuit. With the addition of rhythm section Ryan DeYoung and Mike Boyle of local pop punk favorites Winepress; Kelly Kruse soon brought her angelic voice and melodic keyboards to the fold. The band aspired to create a new blend of artistic music that advocated optimism and positive ideals.
Bringing in Chuck “Shaft” Gonwa on bass and Eric Hofmeister on the drums by 1998, home recording sessions began with up and coming producer/engineer Edgars Legzdins (Plane, Blue Room Studio) whom would soon join the ranks of Forty Piece Choir. In 1999 the sextet released their debut full length compact disc Salud on Cooked County Records, a fictitious record label created by member Dana Okon for his solo output. Home Pride Productions states, “Forty Piece Choir lives in a world where music and life, fate and karma are all beautifully intertwined. All of this hippie feel-good vibe would be only so much positioning if it didn’t find its way into the grooves, but it does, in spades.” Grabbing the ear of Chicago Q101 disc jockey James VanOsdal in 2000, the debut’s opening track Snail On A Star was included alongside Lucky Boys Confusion, Sister Machine Gun, and the J. Davis Trio on the “Local 101 ~ Volume 2” compilation.
By 2000 Forty Piece Choir grew into a septet including Timothy “Smu” McCarthy on bass and current members of The 1900’s Tim Minnick on drums and Ed Anderson on multiple instrumentation. Meticulously recorded by Legzdins, their sophomore full length Face Your Fear was released on subsidiary Cooked County Records label Blue Room Studio in 2002. Mixed by Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Modest Mouse, Tortoise) at Engine Music Studios, the albums endowments were charmingly brought to life through Deck’s interpretation. Patrick Conlan of Illinois Entertainer shares these words on Face Your Fear. “Continuing their successful harvesting from a broad spectrum of influences and styles, Forty Piece Choir sculpts marvelous, cinematic compositions on Face Your Fear. Packed with sensuous sonic details that invite repeated listens, Fear overflows with sweetly crafted sophistication that manages to be achingly gorgeous, swimmingly whimsical, and playfully eclectic while sounding lushly integrated.”
Tennessee, the third full length Cooked County Records release from 2003, saw the group maturing as a quintet. Recorded by Groovemaster Studio producer/engineer John Doyle (Plain White T’s, Kill Hannah, Disturbed), the band solidified its home recording techniques with Doyle’s keen ear. Roots Music Report declares, “Forty Piece Choir has created an absolutely phenomenal album. Tennessee is a rollercoaster of an album that at times submerses itself deep within the mind, and floods the senses with audio ecstasy. This group represents true musicality in that they are not caged by a particular musical styling. “Forty Piece Choir” hints that there at least forty different influences in every song, so every song is a different journey into musicality.”
Forty Piece Choir has shared the stage with Stars, Gogol Bordello, Jackson Browne, Pat MacDonald, Waco Brothers, Robbie Fulks, Essex Green, Baldwin Brothers, Leona Naess, Sleeping At Last, Josh Rouse, Umphrey’s McGee, Bo Deans, Dave Mason, Ekoostik Hookah, and an endless array of talented artists. While frequenting the Chicago club scene, Forty Piece Choir has appeared at House of Blues, Metro, Double Door, Schubas, Empty Bottle, Abbey Pub, Hideout, Park West, and everywhere in between. Festivals, including Toronto’s North by Northeast Music Festival and Sturgeon Bay’s Steel Bridge Song Fest, have received the energy of Forty Piece Choir’s music favorably. “It’s an energy that makes for a good live show, says Hostage Radio program director Billy Giannopoulos. “They’re a band that a lot of Chicago acts should look up to,” he says. “There have been a lot of changes in the band but they keep coming back with more and more powerful songs and records.”
