#54 Voxtrot / Sparrow House

Several weeks ago we told you about a guy, alone at the Flèche d’Or on a winter evening. His name was Emil, and his group was called Loney, Dear. But that night, his band was just him, solo.

Emil wasn’t the only one alone with us that evening at the Flèche d’Or. Jared van Fleet, who went onstage with his band but didn’t seem to be with them, was also there. Jared manned the keys that night with Voxtrot, but always stayed apart: he ate dinner without them, and had hardly ever hung around with the rest of the group. As soon as the concert finished, he joined up with us and tried his tapping hand in the wind and the cold on the rendition of “Saturday Waits” from Loney Dear, always with a radiant smile. Afterwards, we passed him the guitar, and we were the ones who tapped and drummed around him.

We then subjected Jared Van Fleet to the same disastrous circumstance we wrote about weeks ago with Emil: to record quiet, timid songs among the noise of the Flèche d’Or. This, of course, didn’t do justice to the delicacy of his compositions. However, in spite of the excessive wind, we managed to hang onto the gem we recorded in the cold. And we promise to do it better the next time.

The day after, we had a meeting with Ramesh, the brains behind Voxtrot. This young guy, with his goatee and scatterbrained attitude, smiled incessantly. His naïve and light presence contrasted with the more mature, excessively sensitive Jared. Two guys from the same band, but two different personalities; personalities that summarize the band that continues to search for a sound, somewhere between clear pop and more worked tunes, which show nothing but maturity. Voxtrot is a group looking for its sound, a Ramesh possesses more wisdom than it seems. (He wrote the song “Get Off the Internet [I’ll Meet You in the Street]” a couple days after this film.) So here, have a look at the two. Ramesh...