The Fantastical Fun of Savoir Adore

Sadly, I will have to wait a few more weeks to check out the 215’s latest in hip hotspots, Boot & Saddle, as dreamy electro-poppers Savoir Adore had to...

Sadly, I will have to wait a few more weeks to check out the 215’s latest in hip hotspots, Boot & Saddle, as dreamy electro-poppers Savoir Adore had to cancel their September 25th stop in South Philly due to scheduling conflicts.  However, I did recently get a chance to chat with Paul Hammer, one-half of the Brooklyn duo, about their backgrounds, what inspires them, and just what they have planned for the future.

“We have such diverse influences,” says Hammer, before adding, “But I think it stems from a classical music background.  We’ve been surrounded by music since we were kids.  Our families are a huge influence.” (Hammer’s father is keyboardist and composer Jan Hammer of Mahavishnu Orchestra, while Deidre Muro, who learned to play piano and violin at a young age, and trained as a jazz vocalist, grew up in a house with an electronic music composer and performer for a father, a mother who played the organ, and a brother who composes.)  But despite their classical training, their influences are vast and diverse, according to Hammer: “We listen to tons and tons of classic rock stuff, to early 90s pop stuff, and the music of our childhood and electronica.”  He also tells me that a lot of the influence behind he and Muro’s male/female approach to sharing vocals was inspired by Stars: “They’re a big influence on us.  I saw them in London seven years ago and I just loved the dynamic vocal interplay.”

When it comes to their own sound, Hammer tells me that they kind of enjoy throwing a lot of their most disparate influences into their personal aesthetic: “We like to experiment.  We were both solo singer/songwriters when we met and we were pretty much tired of just strumming an acoustic guitar.  Savoir Adore is inspired by the songwriting of the 60s, but the synthesizers and production of 80s and the ambience of bands like Sigur Ros.”  The band currently have three full-lengths, the most recent of which, Our Nature, was re-released for the second time over the summer, and Hammer tells me that they’re eager to start working on their next release.

Savoir Adore recently released a music video for “Regalia,” (off of Our Nature), which would seem to be equally inspired by the avant-garde sci-fi of German Expressionism and the intentionally campy sci-fi of 1980s American blockbusters.  Hammer is fairly enthusiastic about music videos as of recently and has said that Savoir Adore’s own have been largely inspired by the “other-worldly” art that the duo grew up loving: “I’m very inspired by music videos that have been coming out recently and how creative people are getting with them.  Our videos are inspired by a lot of childhood fantasy movies, like The Neverending Story… Deidre’s a big fan of Labyrinth.”  And while their Philadelphia appearance got cancelled, Savior Adore do have a small handful of upcoming lives dates (September 21st at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, September 24th at DC9 in Washington DC, and September 27th at Toquet Hall Teen Center in Wesport, CT) and Hammer tells me that they’ve been attempting to add a film-inspired element to their live show: “We’re trying to build the live experience to match the cinematic quality of the music with the way we use the lighting and how we dress in all white… The live experience is just inspired by this fantasy stuff and just having fun.”

[youtube http://youtu.be/33g1V7es534]

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Band Interviews

During the day Izzy Cihak teaches transgression, subversion, and revolution at Temple University. At night he haunts Philthy's best venues to cover worthwhile acts for Philthy Mag. Morrissey is everything to him and, in their own heads, all of his friends see themselves as Zooey Deschanel.

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