SIMILAR
FASHION

On their new album "Portrait of", LA's Similar Fashion has wild, pivoting, and colorful arguments about how to move through Logan Hone's playfully melodic songs. Deerhoof's John Dieterich produced the album, bringing electricity to Lauren Baba’s rich viola, clarity to Greg Uhlmann’s staccato guitar, and thunder to Jesse Quebbeman-Turley’s gargantuan drums.

Folding in elements from Bill Frisell's Americana, Arthur Russell's plainspoken disco, Tim Berne's contrapuntal puzzles, and Deerhoof's booming punk, Similar Fashion stays restless and exploratory, uncomfortable in its ostensible hometown of "jazz," but unwilling to settle for too long anywhere else.

"Portrait of" showcase a raucous jumble of glassy experiments at different scales, shifting nimbly from a curious little sea-tumbled shard to a massive downtown obelisk looming overhead. Stated plainly in "Portrait of Arthur Russell," this album is the generative and beautiful collision of "research and dancing."

This was the first album I made after moving to Los Angeles, recorded at the tail end of the glorious year I spent at CalArts. When I first visited CalArts, I had come out from Utah to see Jessica Li a couple months after we had started long distance dating. I had spent 4 incredible & focused years at Snow College practicing jazz and was searching for my next step. I visited the school that week and was totally lifted by the energy and music I heard. The most striking was Greg Uhlmann's recital. Lauren and Mike both played in the show and I started dreaming of moving out and putting a group together with them.

Right after I moved to LA, I worked at getting everyone in the same room to play some music. We got together at Mike's tiny rehearsal room at ABC and it was instant chemistry and magic. Scheduling everyone for a second rehearsal was tough so Lauren said we should just book a show and go for it. We played 4 shows over the next few months, between July 2014 - Feb 2014 (Curve Line Space, 1604 House, MorYork, & Rockwood House), and then we recorded this album in a jam-packed day right before Mike moved to New York. He had a completely stacked week of recording because everyone was trying to capture his sounds before he split! We played in Greg Hartunian's upstairs bedroom recording studio and it was hot hot hot in there!

"Missed the Boat", "Fresh and Clean", and "Play" (by Christian Asplund) came from the thrilling musical time & growth I had at the Avant GaRawge in Provo from 2013-14. "MJT" was written for the first group I put together in LA called "Pure Phantom Trio" with Trevor Anderies & Alex Noice. And the rest of the pieces were written for Similar Fashion (originally called Logan Hone Quartet). The musical influences are well represented in the music: New York Downtown jazz, especially Chris Speed,Tim Berne, & Ches Smith, Christian Asplund, and the CalArts teachers & scene at the time.

Listening now, I hear a lot of excitement & adventure in my own playing and a lot of friendship, grace, & openness from the rest of the band. I remember showing these recordings to Vinny Golia at his house during one of our lessons. The end of "Mother Figure" reminded him of a nature documentary and he liked "Don't Touch That" the best. I remember playing "Snapshoot" to Marc Lowenstein and he felt like without a bass, the drums felt like they were in another room than the other instruments. haha! I really really enjoyed all the music lessons I had during college.

I made a zine of sheet music & memorabilia which is included in the download or available here: loganhone.com/Library/scores/2015similarfashionalbumzine.pdf

This album was graciously released by pfMENTUM. Thanks to Louis Lopez, Max Gualtieri, and Jeff Kaiser for all their work & efforts to release it :)
Order a CD at pfmentum.com/product/logan-hones-similar-fashion-pfmcd096/

I hope you enjoy the interplay of the OG Logan Hone Quartet!

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