What's Up! Magazine

The band is comprised of lead singer Karen, guitarist/back-up singer Jon, drummer Shea and Nathan on banjo/harmonica/back-up vocals. Photo by Cameron Jennings

The band is comprised of lead singer Karen, guitarist/back-up singer Jon, drummer Shea and Nathan on banjo/harmonica/back-up vocals. Photo by Cameron Jennings

The band is comprised of lead singer Karen, guitarist/back-up singer Jon, drummer Shea and Nathan on banjo/harmonica/back-up vocals. Photo by Cameron Jennings

Four Players formed mostly out of the blue. Lead singer Karen and guitarist/back-up vocalist John both met at Western through the Theater program, and then drummer Shea (Sweaty Sweaters) and Nathan (banjo/harmonica/back-up vox) joined up for some friendly jam sessions. Not expecting it to be a major preoccupation of their time when they started playing together last December, one year later there’s a set album release date. Along with the drive to further their band.

They went from playing together twice a week, and then the jam sessions transformed into show rehearsals. “It’s like when you don’t know if you’re in a relationship with someone or not,” explained John, “we just kept testing those waters and figuring it out.”

“John told me, ‘this thing is becoming this thing with a capital T,’” Karen laughed.

4-P found refuge at JINX Art Space on Flora Street to record Four Score; a decision they’re happy with. “It’s an effective and super affordable thing,” John divulged about the fledgling studio, dubbed Hi-Jinx Audio. The band claims Isaac Holden was a huge part of the recording and production of the album. “Every minute the band has spent in the studio, Isaac has been there,” John said about Holden. Four Score is currently being mastered by Rich Canut III.

The band has an unorthodox style as far as songwriting goes. Each member is separated by their own arrangement style, which is fused into the final product.

“It’s a co-op kind of thing, I don’t know if that’s the ultimate way to put it, but everybody in a way has space to function as an independent songwriter,” said John of the band’s creative process.

Added Nathan, “They don’t sound like normal songs just for that reason. And Karen’s songs are just like… a journey.”

The band’s eclectic style, spanning from show-tunes to celtic music, stuck out to me the first time I listened to Four Score. With Karen’s theatrical, constantly evolving vocal melodies, John and Nathan’s hip hop background (case in point: The Roaming Moanies), and Shea’s draw from the Sweaty Sweaters; it all made for a unique combination. I think, most definitely, the band benefits from its approach.

My favorite aspect of the album is its dramatic take on something folky and rootsy at heart. It’s produced like the soundtrack to a Broadway play…but with extra harmonica and Western-style strings. I definitely laughed out loud at some of the lyrics. For example, the song Party Bros’ Heaven: “you’re my bro, you’ve always been my bro/we believe we never sleep, because in sleep the party dies.”

Thematically, the group is admittedly tongue-and-cheek. The band teases (lovingly) and their lyrics create and mold humorously realistic characters, something Nathan calls “a sincere adoption of roles.” Of course, this is mostly to do with half the band being involved in theater. On the song’s dramatic structure, said Karen, “there’s such a strong element of truth that it’s beautiful.”