Family & friends
Band thrives on players’ diverse tastes, influences
Ifyou spent any time in the Family Crest’s tour bus, you’d hear some of the most diverse playlists ever assembled. “Let’s see, today we had on some Shostakovich, then some jazz fusion and a little Chet Baker,” said band leader Liam McCormick. “And probably some heavy metal, too. The band has seven members, and we’re all over the place. When you have that much music at your fingertips, it’s easy to become inspired and influenced by a bunch of different things.”
The San Francisco-based Family Crest’s music is just as diverse as their members’ tastes. Originally formed as a studio project, their core is now the septet (with horns, strings and flute) who play the Royale on Tuesday, on a double bill with the Dear Hunter. But in the studio, they’re joined by an “extended family” that can include hundreds of players on each album. Sessions for the upcoming disc “The War: Act I” became so elaborate that they booked a “recording tour” to include musical friends from different cities.
McCormick is a trained opera singer and an avowed fan of symphonic pop, from ELO to the Arcade Fire.
“The funny part is that a lot of my songs start out as simple guitar-voice songs. But if someone comes to me and says they play French horn — OK, I’ll learn to write for French horn. That collaborative aspect is what I love. For instance, our new single, ‘It Keeps Us Dancing,’ has a full orchestra, a choir and a bunch of excess rock instruments — multiple electric guitars, bass guitars, a mandolin. The challenge and the fun part for me is when I start figuring out how to pare that down to seven people and make it work onstage.”
Due for release next year, “The War: Act I” is the start of a conceptual project that should occupy the next few years, with a second act now in the works and a third yet to be written. Despite the title, its overall theme is more personal than political.
“It’s about the struggles and the traumas that are part of our life events and how we’re all shaped by them. And how we have a tendency to look at human beings in black-and-white terms, when there are really a lot of gray zones. I started writing songs for this seven years ago, but it’s good that we didn’t do it then. We needed to get a little more under our belt before tackling something this large.”
McCormick says that keeping the band together, and tracking all the guest players, isn’t quite the logistical nightmare that one might expect.
“It’s really not as bad as you’d think. Especially with technology being the way it is, you can build calendars that everyone can see. And a lot of us have that classical music mentality: When you grew up practicing for 12 hours a day, you’re used to a lot of structure in your life.”