Aloud

Aloud is an American, Boston-based indie rock band known for its songwriting and vocal prowess as well as using a two lead singer approach.^[1][2][3][4]

Founded in 2002 by Jen de la Osa (lead vocals, guitar, keys) and Henry Beguiristain (lead vocals, guitar, keys), the group is rounded out by bassist/backing vocalist Charles Murphy and drummer Frank Hegyi. From 2006, Aloud released music under the Lemon Merchant Records label before signing with Mother West in 2013.

Aloud is currently on tour promoting their fourth studio album, It's Got To Be Now, recorded with producers Charles Newman and Benny Grotto

History

Formation and early years: 2002-2006

Aloud was formed in May 2002 by vocalists/guitarists Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain out of an earlier version of the group named Feedback, which included bassist Roy Fontaine.^[5] Rob Acevedo was recruited to play drums^[6] for the fledgling band on an indefinite, but temporary basis. The four spent the summer working on a home-recorded four song demo titled Don't Trust the Radio, which was released on July 31, 2002^[7] and sold at shows.

Aloud spent 2002 and most of 2003 performing solely in the Boston area. In early 2003, Aloud stepped into the studio to record another four song demo titled Pretty Little Picture. Rob Acevedo eventually was replaced by Eric Anderson on drums before Ross Lohr was taken on near the end of the year as a permanent member.

With the addition of Lohr, Aloud recorded The Sooner It Comes, a six-song EP, with producer Ian Hughes in early 2004. Aloud expanded their touring area to a greater portion of New England and New York City.^[8]

That same year Aloud met with future collaborator Hugh Wyman. Wyman would initially offer suggestions on improving the band's guitar gear before approaching them to produce their first album. They spent the first few months of 2005 organizing, refining, and rehearsing material before spending the Summer and some of the Fall recording.

The band made its first real mark after releasing their debut album Leave Your Light On on May 2, 2006, to positive press and national airplay on college radio.^{[9][10][11][12]} Leave Your Light On was released on Lemon Merchant Records Lemon Merchant Records. Aloud toured the record through the Northeast United States till the end of the year while concurrently working on material for their next record.

Fan the Fury and a new lineup: 2007-2009

In April 2007, Aloud made it to the semi-final round of the 29th annual WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, beating out 15 other groups for the wildcard slot.^[13] In the same month Jen de la Osa was nominated for Best Female Vocalist by the Boston Phoenix.^[14]

Aloud spent the rest of 2007 writing material for a second album, eventually choosing to record it that Fall in New York City with Sony mix engineer Caleb Shreve (then going by the moniker Chuck Brody). In between recording sessions, Aloud made their first appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon that October.^[15]

Fan the Fury, was released on March 25, 2008. A national tour to support the album followed. A film titled Hard Up In The 2000s, a documentary of the Spring leg of the tour, was released on September 12, 2008.^[16]

In October 2008, it was revealed Aloud had been developing a multimedia live performance of Fan The Fury titled I Just Want To Witness..., taken after a lyric in the songs Witness and Justice & Forgiveness.^[17] The show integrated Aloud's live performance of Fan The Fury in its entirety with corresponding films, and was developed with filmmaker Johnathan Carr. Films were contributed by Johnathan Carr himself as well as directors Erin Bowser, Mike Pecci, Chris March, and animators Kristin Osiecki and Timothy Scholl. I Just Want To Witness... debuted in Boston on November 18, 2008. While this has been the only full performance of I Just Want To Witness..., Aloud later performed the majority of the show in New York in 2009.^[18]

In December 2008, music from Fan The Fury was heavily featured in Bad Habit Productions' presentation of The Laramie Project.^[19]

The latter half 2008 saw significant changes to Aloud's core lineup. Bassist Roy Fontaine parted ways with the group in September 2008. Subsequently, Aloud toured as a three-piece during the Fall 2008 leg of the Fan The Fury tour. After the tour, former Baby Strange bassist Tim Hare began filling in on bass for live shows for the remainder of the year.

Drummer Ross Lohr left the group shortly after Fontaine's departure. His final performed with the group was January 29, 2009 in Allston, MA (although, in 2011, Lohr tracked drums on the Aloud single "The Cash and the Pearls").^[20] He still appears in the music video for the song "Julie". Elaborating in an interview a year later, Henry and Jen stated Lohr left the band "the day after we filmed the Julie video" because he no longer enjoyed performing with the band and amicably parted ways.^[21]

Aloud performed the third and fourth legs of the Fan The Fury tour with a rotating cast of live members: Jonathan Schmidt (from the band Morningwood), Rob Lynch (ex-Harris), Travis Richter (from the bands The Motion Sick and Naked On Roller Skates), Jesse James Salucci (The Lights Out) and Tommy Mazalewski alternated on drums. Tim Hare, Ryan Majoris (from the band Keeping Riley), Matthew Girard (from the band The Motion Sick and The Future Everybody) alternating on bass.

Since October 2009, bassist Charles Murphy (ex-Pyotr, ex-Comma) has been performing with the group, eventually joining as a full-fledged member of the band.

The free EP Live 2009 was released at the end of 2009, capping off the group's Fan The Fury era. The EP contained performances from one of the final shows of that tour at Howler's Coyote Cafe in Pittsburgh, PA on November 18, 2009.^[22] The live show was recorded, engineered, and mixed by Bengt Alexander. The EP was released to the public as a free digital download on December 31, 2009.^[23]

Exile: 2009-2011

From April 2009 - July 2010, Henry and Jen worked with producer Daniel Nicholas Daskivich on completing the third Aloud release, Exile.^[24] In interviews, the band indicated Exile would be sonically different from previous Aloud releases.^[25]

The recording process initially began as "therapy", but quickly stretched on over the course of a year. Aloud’s touring members and friends guested on several tracks, with Daskivich taking on the majority of the drumming on Exile. The group worked on the record song by song, often building instrumentation around an acoustic guitar. As a result, the record featured material that was sparser and more experimental than Aloud’s previous albums. The songs loosely drew upon de la Osa and Beguiristain’s respective experiences as US-born children of Cuban exiles. Further inspiration was taken from Reinaldo Arenas’ memoir, Before Night Falls.^[26]

Aloud launched their first crowdfunding campaign on the Kickstarter platform to pay for manufacturing of the record and defray costs associated with the tour in support of the album. Exile was released on October 12, 2010, garnering some of the band’s strongest reviews, specifically with regards to Aloud’s musical versatility.^[27]

The subsequent US coast-to-coast US tour ran from October 2010 through January 2011 and included a stop at the 2010 CMJ Music Marathon. A second coast-to-coast leg included Aloud’s SXSW debut, and ran from mid-February through March 2011. Later that year, Aloud released a non-album single, “The Cash and the Pearls”. The recording reunited de la Osa and Beguiristain with Ross Lohr in the studio, who performed drums on the track. Aloud celebrated the single’s release with a tour of the south and midwest, followed by a month-long residency in their hometown of Boston.

De la Osa and Beguiristain were approached earlier in the year by the Berklee College of Music to participate in BANDED, a documentary intended to become a part of the school's PULSE curriculum. The months-long project followed them and four other groups from the Boston area to document the life of a song, from its genesis to completion in the recording studio. ^[28] The project culminated with the recording of "You Will Know" at Mad Oak Studios with head engineer Benny Grotto. Grotto encouraged Aloud to record the song as live as possible in the studio.^[29] The band found the experience enjoyable and booked a second session with Grotto at Mad Oak to record "Such a Long Time" in the same manner.

Banded and It's Got To Be Now: 2012-present

Discography

Studio albums

• It's Got To Be Now (2014)
• Exile (2010)
• Fan The Fury (2008)
• Leave Your Light On (2006)

Members

• Henry Beguiristain: vocals, guitar, piano/keys, mandolin (2002–present)
• Jen de la Osa: vocals, guitar, piano/keys (2002–present)
• Charles Murphy: bass, mouth sounds (2009–present)
• Frank Hegyi: drums, percussion (2012-present)

Past members

• Roy Fontaine: bass, backing vocals (2002–2008)
• Ross Lohr: drums, percussion (2003–2009)

Trademark

Issues surfaced in early 2005 with an electro-pop French duo going by the same moniker. The duo consisted of Cyril Bodin and Gregory Louis. Paperwork submitted by Bodin and Louis to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (SN: 76580505) is open to the public and can be viewed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.^[30]

The main argument was in first use dates. Bodin and Louis listed September 23, 2003 as the date of first use. De la Osa and Beguiristain argued their first use in commerce of the name “Aloud” had been used prior (May, 2002). Bodin and Louis' application has remained in stasis January 21, 2005. However, Bodin and Louis broke the group up in 2005, making the point moot and clearing the way for the American 'Aloud' to use the name without any foreseeable hindrance.

Cyril Bodin (lead singer) is currently in a rock band named Amen Birdmen^[31]

External links

• allthingsALOUD.com - official site
• Aloud YouTube Channel

Notes