Silly Rabbit
Silly Rabbit Uses Technology For The ‘Whole Music Experience’
You’ll find Silly Rabbit at the intersection of technology and live music.
It is here that this Seattle band wraps funk and rock with sequencers and synthesizers, sends traditional guitars and bass crashing over the stage alongside dubbed drum beats and video-laced light shows.
But the band’s attempts to meld high-tech gadgetry with the human element have not always met with voices raised in praise.
Indeed, in the lo-fi capital of the universe, Silly Rabbit has, at times, found itself chastised for its electronic components.
“We used to get comments like, ‘They’re a good band but they rely too much on technology,” says singer Anthony Russell.
“Now, a lot of bands all of a sudden are starting to buy synthesizers and drum machines. They’re the same people who used to bash us for doing this stuff.”
As Russell sees it, musicians have often divided into two camps: There are the live bands who rely on straight-up guitars and drums and find the use of synthesizers and drum machines distasteful, if not downright blasphemous to the soul of music; and there are the tech musicians, folks like Prodigy and The Orb who have tired of the same old instruments and rely instead on a computer-created palette of rhythms and melodies.
Of late, however, the dividing line between the two has bled into distortion. Artists like U2 and David Bowie slathered their recent albums with doses of electronica. Many others are following suit.
Russell says Silly Rabbit has been doing just that since its beginning five years ago.
“What we’ve always tried to do is merge the two worlds,” he says from the Seattle club Colourbox where he books bands. “By taking the two opposing forces and taking the best elements of both – good solid ripping guitars and the danceable grooves of techno music – you can create soundscapes that are … well … I love it.”
Silly Rabbit began as Russell’s project with a rotating cast of band members. It was more of a funk thing than anything else and it wasn’t always as focused as it could have been, he admits. But a few years later the lineup began to solidify and so did the band’s sound and live performance.
In their hands, hip hop, funk and rock submerge and surface through ethereal expanses and labyrinthine rhythms – all in dance-throbbing fashion.
“It’s not as rappy as Beck, it’s not as hardcore techno as Prodigy and it’s not as mellow as Sky Cries Mary,” Russell says. “But I think if you drew a circle and put all those people around the perimeter, we would somehow fall inside the circle.”
Now Silly Rabbit is working on their second album, one that will be more mellow-groove oriented with an expanded trip hop element, Russell says. The group hopes to release it early next year.
In addition to Russell, Silly Rabbit counts five people among their ranks: Brian Northrop on keyboards, Zach Barnhardt on drums, Keith Montgomery on bass, Danny Green on guitar and Russell’s brother Joseph on lights and video.
Joseph Russell uses claymation and animation video clips, old film projections along with slides and lights to paint a scene behind the band for each song.
“Our band is very much about the whole experience,” Russell says. “We truly do try to put on a show.”
Pacific NW Hip Hop 