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Sonic Boom: Fredalba

Sonic Boom

Named after a Parisian prostitute, Fredalba is a driving, soulful, funky rock ensemble with a sound potent enough to ignite body and soul of all but the comatose. Led by the earthy, spiritual rumble of Eric Balfour's vocals, thisgroup is all about layers: fat bass lines, ripping drums, deep percussive rhythms, silky keyboard textures, guitar work which ranges from fierce rock to intelligent pop to blues-laced slide (sometimes in the same song) and, of course, lyrics.

" All of our songs have an element of positive reinforcement, a sense that things can get better," notes Balfour. He attributes his singing and songwriting instincts to growing up around Native Americans. "That was abig influence. A lot of the songs didn't even have words. They were prayer songs which had no literal translation. They just had intent."

The roots ofFredalba's intent were sown in Los Angeles in late '97 when bass player Ryan Posner and lead singer Eric Balfour got together for an informal back-porch jam. "I had my acoustic," says Posner, "we wrote two or three songs and everything just clicked." After assembling a band willingto "push what music is doing and keep it intelligent," as Balfour puts it, Fredalba played their debut gig at Los Angeles's Opium Den in March of '98. A weekly stand at Goldfingers followed, and as their live sets becamestanding-room-only affairs, Fredalba wound up in the studio recording their debut EP "real low underneath" for Val Jean Records. With veteran producers Matt Sorum, whose credits include Poe (prod) as well as being the drummer of Guns 'n Roses and The Cult, Fredalba set out to capture -and layer -their live energy.

"It all happened so quickly," remembers Balfour, "Francoise (Koster of Val Jean records) said, 'I want to sign the band' and we all went, 'Wow.'" When asked why she launced her indie label by signing a band of young (average age 20), relative unknowns, Koster responds, "When I saw what they were doing live - how they captured the audience - it confirmed my sense that this is music which can take you somewhere else. The depth, the energy, all of that comes through."

Peruvian born percussionist Alfredo Malatesta attributes the power of Fredalba's sound to the diversity of the band members. "Each of us brings a different element from our background; it's not just this stright line and that's the only place we're going to walk." Bass player Ryan Posner, who hails from Connecticut, echoes this sentiment, "We have a grass-rools rock 'n' roll feel, but we also have Latin influences (Santana, Latin Playboys, Pancho Sanchez), and hip-hop influences (Sugar Hill Gang, GrandmasterFlash, Wyclef Jean)... with six people you get a whole bunch. It converges, it's a meltmg pot basically."

The force of that musical melting pot can be heard on "real low underneath. The album title comes from a desire to squeeze as much as possible onto each track. As bassist Ryan Posner explains it, "Each sound is coexistent on theother and everything rests on everything else, and everything's underneath everything else, so it's kind of a paradox of an album to tell you the truth."

Whether it's the hip -hop flavored, bass-heavy celebration "Boom Chick A Boom, " the sweetly mournful refrain "There's no one to love" on "My Garden, " or the detennined, upliftmg "Progression, " "real low underneath "a paradox which pleases.

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Friday August 8, 2003

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