Break As We Fall release EP

Evan Churchill discusses formulation of one of Corvallis' prominent acts

By: Craig Bidiman

Posted: 5/9/08

Break As We Fall is a solid band. Solid in the way that if you pick up their EP at Bombs Away Café today, you will hear how natural they sound as a band. Inspired by jazz, '90s rock and ska, they just work. The best way to describe the sound of the band's self-titled EP is to imagine if Jason Mraz and Maroon 5 had a child that started a ska band, mixed with a healthy dose of awesome.

Evan Churchill (guitar/trumpet/vocals), Dan Grossen (guitar), Alec Kretchun (bass/vocals), Alex Moffat (Drums) and Tim Karplus (keys/vocals) want people to enjoy listening to their music as much as they enjoy playing it.

"We want the listeners to get the message of our songs," Churchill said, "a lot of our songs are about believing in yourself, following your dreams, doing what you love and the stereotypes women face due to public image and pressure. It's about overcoming those stereotypes."

Break As We Fall plays because its members love music, living up to the messages of their songs.

"I read in an interview online that there are two kinds of people in this world: musicians and businessmen," Churchill said. "Musicians create whether they get paid or not. Businessmen create only if they are getting paid. I will create no matter what."

Churchill started the band with Kretchun in February 2004 while both were in the band Sweater Club. Sweater Club broke up in 2006.

"[Break As We Fall] started as a side project, next to the Sweater Club," Churchill said.

"I picked up the guitar, and I always loved singing. Writing songs was an outlet. We started playing at coffee shop gigs, and eventually we became a rock band, because that's where our music was going."

The band has pretty lofty goals, and Churchill plans to take Break As We Fall as far as it can go.

"I graduated in '06 and I've been working a day job for two years, and I realize more and more that music makes me happy," he said. "My goal is to make a living in the music industry."

The band is definitely on its way toward achieving this goal, even though the recording process of the EP took a while to complete.

"We didn't have much of a budget, and we got a lot of things done through favors," Churchill said. "We did a lot of recording at Whitemoon Productions in Eugene... we just rehearsed and performed."

The band's song "Defeated," however, was recorded at Visionarium Productions, which is also in Eugene.

"Sweater Club recorded a full-length album there a few years ago," Churchill said, "and we previously recorded an early version of 'Defeated' there as well.

"Ben Ordonez, the producer there, has an all analog setup, and we did some interesting things with the guitar at the end of the track."

"It was almost like a chorus effect, recording the same guitar parts over each other and giving a wall of guitars feel. The flaws and slight differences in each recording gave it that tone."

When working together as a band, playing and recording for hours at a time, it is important that the band members have good chemistry. According to Churchill, tension works to their advantage.

"With every band, there are differences in opinion, especially with the writing process. The tension is necessary to take the song in the direction it's supposed to go, though. It becomes more of the band's song than one person's song."

On top of the band's recording and performance schedules, they still manage to play for many good causes.

"We have played shows for environmental awareness, energy conservation, benefits for the genocide in Darfur, the recent Beatles at OSU project for CARDV [Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence]," Churchill said.

"Music is an incredible tool for communicating, and we want to use it to do good. We want to make a positive impact on the world."

Break As We Fall's release show with symmetry/symmetry and Slater Swan will take place at Bombs Away Café tonight at 9:30 p.m. Admission is $5 for people 21 and older.

Break As We Fall will also be perform in this month's Oregon State Battle of the Bands on May 30.

Jeremy Hansen

diversions@dailybarometer.com