BIOGRAPHY

PRESS

A TALE OF GOOD NIGHT, STATES…

When a band’s five members live 400 miles apart, a year in the same county is nearly certain to generate a song or two; in the case of Steve Gretz and Joe Tanner, twelve months spent together in northern New Jersey produced Good Night, States’ forthcoming album, In The Impossible Tension.

The EP was composed and recorded entirely by songwriter Gretz and multi-instrumentalist Tanner in the midst of a demanding once-a-month single release schedule undertaken by the band in 2008, with the goal of spending any additional time together fleshing out the more idiosyncratic elements of the band’s sound. The result is a Good Night, States record in an unusually intimate context: deeper, darker songs set to the sounds of a few toy keyboards, an acoustic guitar, and one conspicuous vintage delay pedal.

Prominently featured are the handheld 1980 Casio VL-Tone, also a calculator, and the 1974 Panasonic R-1088, a monophonic organ with built-in AM radio.

Good Night, States’ remaining three members, all Pittsburgh residents, contribute crucial elements to the painstaking live recreation of In The Impossible Tension: keyboardist Megan Lindsey on organ and synthesizer overdubs; bass guitarist Trevor Baker controlling in real time the record’s intricate application of analog delay; and drummer Dan Harding at the helm of a dizzying array of acoustic triggers, samples, and loops that enable him to replace the album’s Roland TR-707 drum machine. In accordance with the band’s DIY ethic, Baker modded and built the delay unit from a kit in his Lawrenceville basement and the recording’s guitar tones resonate through Gretz and Tanner’s homemade amplifiers.

Since the recording of In The Impossible Tension, Tanner has relocated to Philadelphia, and Good Night, States is now songwriting - in its traditional, driving-across-the-state manner - for a new full length album.