Picture Book are brothers Dario Darnell and Lorne Ashley, born in New York and raised in Manchester. Dario and Lorne's father is the legendary August Darnell, whose musical creations include Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band and Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
The two multi-instrumentalist brothers attended university in Liverpool, honing their writing, recording and performance skills whilst collaborating with other artists and developing Picture Book's electronic dance sound. The songs on Picture Book's debut EP At Last were co-written with Grammy nominated vocalist Greta Svabo Bechho featured on Deadmau5's Raise Your Weapon.
Q and A
What are your earliest musical memories?
Funny you ask this because just yesterday our mum showed us an old VHS tape of me and Lorne performing the first song we ever wrote when we were seven and nine! I'd written a song on my first shitty Casio keyboard (which people are probably using now cause they're so 'retro'!!) about the girlfriend I had and Lorne was playing the shaker (a spaghetti tin mum had let him shake). We were both dressed in three-piece suits looking insanely fresh! The band was called Pro Q - Ha! It might be on YouTube very soon, we'll post you a link.
Since we wrote that song, we haven't stopped being in various projects and bands up to this point right now.
Manchester and Liverpool are famous musical cities, do you think you've taken anything from the famous bands the cities have produced?
Not really, only the desire to be different. We weren't really raised on those musical flavours (indie guitar vibes) we've always had a different diet of music to the city we've lived in.
Has your dad's left-field approach to songwriting had any influence on your own lyrics?
Yes very much so, however this EP was a bit of a different case as most of the lyrics were co-written by Lorne and Greta.
What do you think are your songwriting strengths?
Chords, melodies and thick creamy dense textures. We cant stop writing melodies so we have to just throw them all in there! Although a lot of Dance music doesn't really focus on meaningful lyrics but we pride ourselves on our stories and images as Lorne studied English Literature at Birmingham University and loves writing poetry and lyrics.
How did you get together with Greta?
I studied music for one year at Liverpool University and met Greta there. She played violin so I asked her to play a line on a track I'd written.
While Greta was at my studio (my bedroom!), I asked her if she could maybe lay down a top line vocal melody I had in my head. After she did it she told me it was the first time she'd ever sung on a track! So me and Lorne took it upon ourselves to work with her to develop her voice into what we knew it could be - Great.
What kind of sounds and/or whose music influences what you are doing right now?
Right now... A lot of 2-step, the Berlin house scene, Maya Jane Coles, Pantha Du Prince. For Lorne, the latest two Radiohead albums. For me, all of Feists work, Lianna Le Havas and Drake.
However our biggest priority is the song. We've never wanted to follow a trend, we just care about the chords, melodies, lyrics and groove. Long live the groove!
What piece of equipment is your 'must have' when you are putting together song?
A piano and a guitar.
How do you put your songs together and what would be a typical starting point for a track?
The chords, melodies and Lyrics - then off into Ableton World to make it groove-a-licious.
Picture Book's At Last EP is available from their Bandcamp site. At Last will be closely followed by a remix package in February.
Buylink:
picturebookmusic.bandcamp.com
Website:
www.picturebookmusic.com
Youtube:
www.youtube.com/picturebookmusic
Soundcloud:
soundcloud.com/picture_book
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/PictureBookMusic
Twitter:
twitter.com/#!/picture_book
The two multi-instrumentalist brothers attended university in Liverpool, honing their writing, recording and performance skills whilst collaborating with other artists and developing Picture Book's electronic dance sound. The songs on Picture Book's debut EP At Last were co-written with Grammy nominated vocalist Greta Svabo Bechho featured on Deadmau5's Raise Your Weapon.
Q and A
What are your earliest musical memories?
Funny you ask this because just yesterday our mum showed us an old VHS tape of me and Lorne performing the first song we ever wrote when we were seven and nine! I'd written a song on my first shitty Casio keyboard (which people are probably using now cause they're so 'retro'!!) about the girlfriend I had and Lorne was playing the shaker (a spaghetti tin mum had let him shake). We were both dressed in three-piece suits looking insanely fresh! The band was called Pro Q - Ha! It might be on YouTube very soon, we'll post you a link.
Since we wrote that song, we haven't stopped being in various projects and bands up to this point right now.
Manchester and Liverpool are famous musical cities, do you think you've taken anything from the famous bands the cities have produced?
Not really, only the desire to be different. We weren't really raised on those musical flavours (indie guitar vibes) we've always had a different diet of music to the city we've lived in.
Has your dad's left-field approach to songwriting had any influence on your own lyrics?
Yes very much so, however this EP was a bit of a different case as most of the lyrics were co-written by Lorne and Greta.
What do you think are your songwriting strengths?
Chords, melodies and thick creamy dense textures. We cant stop writing melodies so we have to just throw them all in there! Although a lot of Dance music doesn't really focus on meaningful lyrics but we pride ourselves on our stories and images as Lorne studied English Literature at Birmingham University and loves writing poetry and lyrics.
How did you get together with Greta?
I studied music for one year at Liverpool University and met Greta there. She played violin so I asked her to play a line on a track I'd written.
While Greta was at my studio (my bedroom!), I asked her if she could maybe lay down a top line vocal melody I had in my head. After she did it she told me it was the first time she'd ever sung on a track! So me and Lorne took it upon ourselves to work with her to develop her voice into what we knew it could be - Great.
What kind of sounds and/or whose music influences what you are doing right now?
Right now... A lot of 2-step, the Berlin house scene, Maya Jane Coles, Pantha Du Prince. For Lorne, the latest two Radiohead albums. For me, all of Feists work, Lianna Le Havas and Drake.
However our biggest priority is the song. We've never wanted to follow a trend, we just care about the chords, melodies, lyrics and groove. Long live the groove!
What piece of equipment is your 'must have' when you are putting together song?
A piano and a guitar.
How do you put your songs together and what would be a typical starting point for a track?
The chords, melodies and Lyrics - then off into Ableton World to make it groove-a-licious.
Picture Book's At Last EP is available from their Bandcamp site. At Last will be closely followed by a remix package in February.
Buylink:
picturebookmusic.bandcamp.com
Website:
www.picturebookmusic.com
Youtube:
www.youtube.com/picturebookmusic
Soundcloud:
soundcloud.com/picture_book
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/PictureBookMusic
Twitter:
twitter.com/#!/picture_book
