Correction appended
Eugene-based Medium Troy is “heavy bass lines, loud, hip-hop-esque, bohemian-eclectic phatness.” That’s how bass guitarist Jesse Ferreira describes the music he and his band members like to call “Bohemian Dub.”
“It’s the Eugene flavor, basically, that we bring to it,” said guitarist and vocalist JoJo Ferreira, a University journalism student on hiatus. The brothers form the heart of a band that has drawn hundreds of people to its latest headlining shows, and been voted as the first and second-favorite local band in the last three annual WOW Hall polls.
The web-based series, produced by the local music event organizer and promoter Cindy Ingram, is an ambitious effort to help boost the Eugene scene into the national spotlight.
The series will include “a bunch of random stuff,” including creative skits and a joke-of-the-day from the infamous Frog, often seen selling his joke books in front of the University bookstore. The show is still in the beginning stages of production, but some plans are clear, such as a feature looking into local bicycle culture. “The idea would be to invite people to come check out Eugene and enter into the scene,” said Ingram, who also produces the Eugene Chosen battle of the bands event. Each webisode will also include an accompanying music video, and Medium Troy was chosen to be first band to be part of the series. “I think that their sound is really representative of a happening subgroup in Eugene. It’s really representative of the young Eugene,” Ingram said. “A little bit of reggae and hippie jam, but it’s young, so a little hip-hop flavor,” she said.
The event promoters will encourage Medium Troy fans to show up with their cell phone cameras to help film material that will later be uploaded and edited into a single, collaborative video.
“It’s kind of inviting everyone to be a part of this feeling, it’s more personal,” Ingram said.
The Bohemian Dub phenomenon varies from three to 10 members at any given show. Traditional and electronic instruments are molded with melodic spins, pitch shifts and sampled “whale call” imitations.
“We’re a bedroom hip-hop production project … A lot of times the song will start hip-hop production style and we take it to the jam session,” said JoJo Ferreira.
Now, the new album, the band’s second, will incorporate more vocal harmonies and orchestral backing sounds. Violin, cello and brass timbres will all be a part of what JoJo calls their “mini orchestra.”
“It’s really ambitious, I guess, with the scope of the people involved. I think we have like six different drummers involved,” JoJo Ferreira said.
Medium Troy’s funky freshness and upbeat reggae flavor contrasts often with sarcastic lyrics and a potent social message. “Essentially we’re kind of like an iPod on shuffle,” said JoJo Ferreira.
“High school jam sessions,” inspired by Sublime and Pink Floyd, led the brother duo to form their colorful product, Medium Troy, three years ago. “We grew up listening to the same music. We have the same sensibilities when it comes to music, so it works out pretty well,” said Jesse Ferreira, who many may know from his job in the EMU’s Holy Cow food joint.
After its first West Coast tour, the band was discovered by the Van’s Warped Tour founder, who added it onto the schedule. Medium Troy is now set for a second West Coast tour, as well as a European tour this summer.
Four of the group members are producers, and drummer Gabe Edelman is producing new tracks for Grammy-nominated independent hip-hop artist Planet Asia.
JoJo Ferreira explained his creative process. “I sit and make beats for hours and hours and will figure out hooks and stuff. Most of my lyrics happen when I’m walking, if I get home before I forget them. I think it might be the rhythm of walking,” he said. “What a beautiful day/ You got your smile and I got mine/ What a beautiful day/ I rode my bike to the cemetery and I got high,” JoJo sings in the song “Beautiful Day.”
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‘Bohemian Dubbing’
Daily Emerald
May 31, 2009
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