After eight months of creating music behind closed doors, psychedelic pop quintet The Pulselings will make their public debut.
Emerald staff members/musicians Aaron Shakra, Carl Sundberg, Ryan Nyburg, Natasha “Nat” Chilingerian and Helen Schumacher began meeting in August 2003 to write music, create an image for themselves and practice their craft. They will appear at The Buzz Coffeehouse open mic Friday at 8 p.m.
The reporters-turned-rockers decided to give new careers in music a shot after spending a long day together at the July 2003 Oregon Country Fair in Veneta, where Shakra said they experienced an “artistic revolution.”
“We were all feeling the groove at the fair and bouncing around to beats in the drum circle,” Shakra said. “Because Carl had brought his guitar with him, and Helen had her bass, I grabbed a djembe and we jammed out after dark. Ryan pulled out his harmonica and Nat started singing. We just busted out into song, and we had this amazing harmony. It was like we were destined to play together.”
At the time, The Pulselings had a sixth member — Emerald reporter Steven Neuman, who had provided a Hawaiian twist to the group with his talents on the ukulele. But last month Neuman quit the band. Nyburg said Neuman left for personal and philosophical reasons.
“Just a few weeks before he quit, he went on this crazy acid trip and we didn’t hear from him for a week,” Nyburg said. “Then he came to us saying that he was too good for music, that he wanted to go off and start his own business, conduct science experiments and invent new technology.”
The Pulselings said their emotional connections to their instruments have kept them strong. Schumacher is a true child prodigy — she picked up the bass at age three.
“I actually constructed my first bass from colored crepe paper, old Barbie dolls and glittery pipe cleaners,” Schumacher said.
Sundberg learned to play guitar after his parents kicked him out of the house at age 12. He hitchhiked to Mexico and moved in with a man named Caesar, who shared with Sundberg his love for playing guitar.
“It’s a lot better than crack,” Sundberg said.
Shakra said African polyrhythms have always interested him profoundly, and he began actively studying African percussion instruments in fall 2002. He also plays guitar, mandolin, ocarina, and has recently begun exploring the shamisen, a three-stringed Japanese lute. He said his experience in the band has been “groovilicious.”
Nyburg, on the other hand, took up the harmonica on a whim at the beginning of summer 2003.
“I like the harmonica because it feels like breathing,” Nyburg said. “And breathing is good.”
Chilingerian brings in the group’s true psychedelic sound with her passionate renditions on the sitar. She said she bought her sitar after learning of the death of former Beatle George Harrison, who played the classical Indian instrument on many songs by The Beatles.
“For me, playing sitar is a way to keep George alive,” she said.
Chilingerian, who provides vocals for the group along with Schumacher, said her voice grew to perfection out of nowhere during their first jam session at the Oregon Country Fair. She said she always considered herself tone-deaf and weak-voiced, but ever since joining The Pulselings, her vocals have become more powerful by the day.
“It was like my voice had been hiding my whole life, just dying to come out, and now here it is,” she said. “I never sing in a room that contains glass because I fear I might break it!”
The Pulselings plan to unveil themselves tomorrow with a wild show full of color, transcendence, and celebration. They will play a selection of songs from their upcoming debut album, “The Pulselings Visit Wonderland,” which touch on the subjects of meditation, time travel and perceptions of the universe. Chilingerian and Schumacher will incorporate lyrics in a variety of languages, such as Afrikaans and Brazilian Portuguese.
“We just finished making an elaborate set for the show with a spinning, rainbow-colored, hypnotizing wheel,” Sundberg said. “We’ll be dressed in 1960s go-go attire this time, but next time you might see us looking all gothic.”
Shakra said he hopes The Pulselings will strike a chord with audience members and inspire them to start their own musical revolutions.
“While we are classified as a pop band, I think we are, in a way, using pop against itself,” he said. “You know, infecting the system from the inside with our message of revolution. The intention behind our lyrics, I think, is rather simple: Death to the bourgeoisie; death to any and all oppressive classes. But still, the music is really danceable.”