You might remember Portland duo Philip Grass from their piece of Dropping Gems's Gem Drops 3 compilation that we covered a while back. Now, they've crafted a four-track EP that's the label's first release of 2014. Burton Schaber and Ben Durfee met while attending the University of Massachusetts, and after discovering overlap in their tastes, they began producing music together.
Combining jazzy samples, pitched vocals, and a strong instinct for the calming and whimsical, the Find EP is sure to transport you to a more relaxed place. Stream the EP below and make sure to grab a copy on Bandcamp!
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EM: Where did you draw influence for the Find EP?
PG: We were moving from Amherst, MA to Portland when most of the original versions of the songs were made, so definitely a lot of driving?
EM: How did you end up working with Dropping Gems?
PG: Before we moved, we had been commuting from Amherst to shows in Boston put on by the Jass label, and they told us about Dropping Gems. We looked them up and ended up doing a remix of one of Natasha Kmeto's songs… we made her a CD and brought it to a show, and she showed it to Aaron. He asked us to play with Giraffage, Barisone, and DJAO, it just went from there.
EM: How does the Portland music scene compare to others you've been a part of?
PG: It’s very welcoming. Music is a big deal here, and coming from a much smaller town we were excited to find a thriving community to join.
EM: In terms of musical collaboration, what do each of you bring to the table?
PG: We have a good system of checks and balances, and I think we really rely on each other to make sure that we don’t get too caught up in a certain thought process without thinking about how we could change it.
EM: What's up next for Philip Grass, now that this EP is finished?
PG: Probably just back to work. We are revising our live performance a lot right now, and finally starting to put together a good space to record in.
Philip Grass
Find EP
- Dropping Gems
- March 4, 2014
