LOURDS Have Mercy
Inside Connection: Friday, June 9, 2006
Rock Debut with Classic Elements
by Barbara Bales
LOURDS is a rock band from New York City. It is also the name of the band’s founding member, who, at age 6, dazzled audiences at Carnegie Hall when she did a violin recital. “I was in a bunch of youth orchestras as a child,” the singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist says. “At Carnegie Hall, it was the New York Symphony Youth Orchestra, I believe. I was the youngest member of the orchestra by far, so that was a big deal. I practiced symphonies by Mahler and Elgar incessantly as a child, so I believe I played them at the Carnegie Hall performance. The solo I was known for then was Pablo Sarasates’ ‘Malaguena.’ All of this happened between the ages of 5 and 8, so details from one performance to the next are truthfully a blur.” Since then, LOURDS has not stopped performing.
The band’s current lineup has been together for about one year. In April 2006, Breaking Records released their self-titled debut. Both parties have developed an excellent business relationship. “There’s nothing like trust,” says Lourds, who had worked with the label’s executives before the band signed with them.
“I recorded, sang and played all the instruments on a song called ‘Goodbye Losers’ that I wrote a couple years ago at a production house run by the label president, Bernadette O’Reilly,” she says. “It’s a sports arena anthem, and through the efforts of executive producer Sherrie Fell [vice president of Breaking Records], we got interest in the song from ESPN. As a result, I did another version of the song, ‘Victory,’ specifically targeting the sports market. Over the past two years, Bernadette, Sherrie and I have licensed the song everywhere, getting placement in movies, on ABC football, ESPN and women’s basketball. We have made a decent amount of money for ourselves and for Nelson-O’Reilly Productions on this one song. From doing business with this one track, our morals and business ethics were apparent and it was clear that we are all trustworthy, go get’em and cut from the same cloth.”
A relationship formed, based on “mutual respect, honesty and handshake agreements,” Lourds maintains. “It began feeling like family to me, so when Breaking Records wanted to sign our band to their label, it felt natural and right when the rest of the band met the label, they immediately shared my sentiment”
Rounding out the quartet are guitarist Gene Blank, drummer Sarah Vasil and bassist Joey Sagarese. Prior to joining Lourds, Gene played in the bands Bile, Supermassive and Uranium 235. His influences range from Jimi Hendrix to Dave Matthews. Sarah took up the drums in grade school. (At the time, she was entertaining thoughts of becoming a golf pro.) Sarah had been in the bands Sarastatic and the Drive before relocating to New York City, where she met Lourds. Among Sarah’s influences are Keith Moon, John Bonham and Samantha Maloney. Upon hearing Rancid for the fast time, Joey was catapulted into what he describes as “a lifetime of punk rock and hardcore.” Among his favorite groups are Bad Religion, Metallica and Led Zeppelin. Lourds describes their new CD as rock with classic elements. ‘That’s what we hope people will feel about it,” she says, “a timeless rock record with distinct and memorable songs, like those classic records from the 1960s and 1970s that never get old.”
In 2003, Lourds (the band) had been performing regularly in different clubs, most notably CBGB’s, which resulted in the release of Basement Tapes. “CBGB’s has always been packed with diehard fans for many years and that’s why Basement Tapes was released,” she says. “It was just a collection of lo-fi basement demos recorded at different times that sold thousands of units.”
The band was handpicked to play the Billboard Digital Music Awards in L.A. and recently performed at the Whisky-a-Go-Go. They have also been performing in clubs across the country. Signing with Breaking Records allowed them to record with Ed Stasium, whom Lourds describes as “the greatest producer of all time, who produced and recorded records for rock legends like my hero, Freddie Mercury, as well as Mick Jagger, the Ramones and Living Colour.”
She describes the current lineup as “amazing musicians who started playing when they were young, all trained but not classically trained. We left the gate running, playing out with existing songs of mine. But we have newer songs we’re really excited about, where we’re collaborating more on the songwriting.”
In addition to what she refers to as “great music and an awesome live show,” the band uses “nontraditional instrumentation peppering a classic rock backdrop with the distorted electric violin soloing like a guitar, as well as the mandolin. We work hard, we play with all our souls, and we rock hard, period.”
In 1995 Music Publisher Bernadette O’Reilly and Composer/Producer Eve Nelson crossed paths. This meeting manifested the creation of a production company known as Nelson-O’Reilly Productions. They were writing, producing and composing songs for various artists such as Chaka Khan, Eva Cassidy and Melba Moore, just to name a few. Eve was also into writing themes and TV commercial jingles. This included commericals for L’oreal, Coca-Cola, Lowes, Exxon, and I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter. For you NBA fanatics, “I Love This Game” is also a product of Nelson-O’Reilly. A more detailed display of their work is listed under History on the Breaking Records website. (I am sure you will be like and say, “Awe man, I remember that!”)