The four-piece band recently released a four-song EP, “Me (secrets) You,” on its own I Heard You Wanna Fight Me Records, and the dance-y, melodic sound -- driven both by Shane Olivo’s guitar and Jessi Nakles’ keyboard -- will please fans of bands like Interpol, Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and The Fratellis.
The sound is infectiously poppy yet substantial at the same time. It looks back a bit, but doesn’t feel retro or dated.
“I think the style music we're doing is hitting more in the UK,” says Olivo, who also runs Bobby Peru’s Recording Studio on the South Side. “There's a few bands like The New Loud springing up over there mixing dance elements in with noisy guitar and punk sensibilities. Hopefully it will eventually catch on more in the States.”
Olivo, who was a member of ska band Highball Holiday, and Nakles are augmented by drummer Tim Frank (who uses the stage name Radish Beet), a veteran of many Milwaukee bands, including Great Big Atom Smasher, and bassist Desiree Couillard.
Olvio says the band’s members write collaboratively on the music, while he writes the bulk of the lyrics.
“We draw our inspiration as much from each other as the bands we listen to. The song writing process could start with ideas from any one of us. We've radically changed arrangements of songs that we felt weren't originally getting the right treatment. At shows people who have our EP sometimes approach us and say this or that song was different and how it's nice to hear evolutions of the songs at the live show.”
That evolution will continue, says Olivo, for a band that is just really getting started.
“We're hoping to reach into more electro territory. Half of Radish's drum kit is electronic and we're hoping to add more sound options as well as reaching further into synth territory. At the same time we'll be holding fast to the edgy/noisey guitar spasms. We don't plan on using the electronics to sequence or smooth out the band’s sound at all.”
The New Loud has a string of dates in December in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indianapolis and returns home in January to play in Milwaukee and get busy on a follow-up to the EP, according to Olivo.
“We have all the material ready for a full-length which we hope to begin recording in January 2007 with a fall release in mind. It should be between 10 and 12 songs. Since the four-song EP, some songs have evolved and a couple of the new incarnations may make the full-length cut.”
At the same time Olivo continues to produce and engineer local bands at Bobby Peru’s.
“I'm recording a really wide array of bands/artists from mohawk punk (like) The Brutal Dildos, to a husband and wife acoustic folk duo to Eric Blowtorch's endless catalog of originals. I'm also recording some emo-y stuff such as Smalltown Daydream and Heroes Villains.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
