Between dreaming and performing, a stop at Daryl's House
With a mustache that curls over his lip, Zac Little looks like a general or colonel, fighting on either side of the Civil War.
His narrow face and beard place him squarely in some faded photo, wearing a military uniform, with a canvas tent in the background and sense of indifference surrounding him. Through it all, he remains unfazed by the technology pointing at him.
Just take a look at Zac Little and he is likely to draw some type of emotion out of you.
Listen to the music that he makes with his band, Saintseneca, and you just might drop what you are doing. Saintseneca may not bowl you over with its sound, but the approach to making music that Little marshals could just draw you in.
Imagine the Violent Femmes playing the music of Wilco, or vice versa, and you can get a sense of the sounds generated by Little and his band.
From the house concerts and basements of Columbus, Ohio, to building a band that is picking up steam, Little and Saintseneca are making their way to Dutchess County for a performance at Daryl’s House in Pawling on Sunday.
Little will be busy in Pawling, as he sings and can play the guitar, bass, sitar, bouzouki, mandolin, dulcimer, keyboards and percussion — among other instruments.
Supporting Little’s vision will be Maryn Jones on vocals and bass; Steve Ciolek on vocals and guitar; Matthew O'Conke on drums, percussion; and Jon Meador on vocals and keyboards.
Asked about playing a venue owned by Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates fame, Little seemed excited.
“They’re pop music geniuses,” he said of Hall and Oates, one of rock music’s most successful acts.
You are unlikely to refer to Saintseneca as “pop music geniuses.” But Roberto Hull, 29, co-owner of Darkside Records and Gallery in the Town of Poughkeepsie, likes what he has heard and believes the band has a bright future.
“They’ve got that whole ensemble thing going on,” said Hull, a LaGrange resident. “Sometimes that can get jumbled. A lot of other bands don’t pull that off well. But they sound clean and smooth.”
Hull called Saintseneca “fresh” and said he hears a little grunge rock in their sound as well.
“They seem to have what it takes to keep pushing forward,” he said.
Little is 27. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, but he grew up in rural southeast Ohio, close to the West Virginia border.
“It’s pretty remote,” he said. “There are lots of hills. It’s beautiful.”
Asked if where he grew up inspired him creatively to any degree, Little responded, “I think it was inspiring in the way that anyone’s upbringing influences them or inspires them.”
He continued, “Can I say that my life experience or whatever was more interesting than anybody else’s? It certainly informed who I am to a large degree.”
Little said growing up “in the middle of nowhere ... helped me appreciate things.”
He was “isolated by geography” and envied his friends in the suburbs.
“When you’re a teenager, you want to hang out with your friends,” he said.
Malls and movie theaters were not in the mix for Little. But, he said, “you end up becoming a little more creative about making something to do. I had fun with it. I would push a couch down a hill instead of going to the mall.”
Little brought his creativity with him, from the country to the city. And now he’s sharing it with the rest of us, through his songwriting.
“Sometimes, songs take me years to write,” he said. “But then, sometimes you sit down and the whole thing is revealed to you all at once. I tend to think of that process as unearthing something ... I think that, at its best, songwriting is something that you’re kind of exhuming or unearthing, like in an archaeological dig.”
Along with songwriting, Little discussed dreams during a recent telephone interview with the Journal. The impetus for that conversation was a line in press materials that described Little’s dreams, in which, he said, he could taste, smell and feel heat and pressure.
“Sometimes, you get ideas or results,” he said of dreaming. “You might have a problem, you’re trying to work through it and all of a sudden it comes to you in a dream.”
On occasion, those results help craft a song.
“I might be working through vocal melodies to sing over a certain guitar part,” Little said. “I’ll wake up and have a melody in my head.”
John W. Barry: jobarry@poughkeepsiejournal.com, 845-437-4822, Twitter: @JohnBarryPoJo
If You Go
Saintseneca, with opening acts the Sidekicks and Yowler
Where: Daryl’s House, 130 Route 22, Pawling
When: 7 p.m. Oct. 11
Admission: $15 for reserved seating; $10 for general admission.
Information: Visit www.darylshouseclub.com or call 845-289-0185