‘Trouble is in the making,’ she sings.
Leaving everything and everyone you know is one of the hardest things a person can do.
And when she resigned herself to the passenger's seat for a cross-country drive from a
forgettable Midwestern town to metropolitan California, the unknown was all she had
left. While her husband and future guitarist attended graduate school at Stanford
University, her necessary unraveling began. The fear and restriction that held her life into
such a small space had to be released. She was meant to spread out her words, her voice,
and her music. To love people in ways they aren't used to being loved.
At this same time, her future drummer was starting a new life in San Francisco, after
playing in numerous metal bands on the shores of Hawaii, and her bassist had given up
Army life in favor of living in a tour bus in Los Angeles, stealing food from grocery
stores and washing up in restaurant bathrooms between gigs with his Canadian
bandmates.
Just a few years later, after Sarah Ziebarth and her research scientist husband Jon released
the first collection of ThreadSpinner songs (The Firefly Lawnchair Parade), they met
Warren Crone (bass) and Jesse Cardin (drums) in Santa Barbara. Despite the wideranging
backgrounds, the ex-heavy metal drummer, the military man-turned rock star,
and the former members of a mega-church worship band have quickly bonded – with the
common purpose of creating music that truly connects with others.
ThreadSpinner’s Night Chorus EP is the first collection of songs from this ragtag family.
Spanning four days in the studio, these recordings were captured with great skill and care
by Jay Ferguson - a successful frontman (Spirit, Jo Jo Junne, Jay Ferguson), keyboard
player (Joe Walsh, Crosby, Stills and Nash) and composer of television/film scores (The
Office-US) and mastered by Brian Gardner (The Killers, Linkin Park, Tori Amos, Fiona
Apple). The purpose of these sessions was to simply record attention and honesty. With
just a few takes for each song, the motivation was to capture something real and raw,
rather than something made perfect and lifeless through manipulation and studio trickery.
The intimacy of the lyrics, and the piano-driven chord progressions call for attentive
listening. Ambient guitars and a dynamic rhythm section plot together to create a large
complex sound. Above it all Sarah’s big, yearning voice creates an experience that is
deeply felt by the listener.
The EP is a snapshot though – ThreadSpinner is most alive when performing. Although
they have been together for just a year, they have shared the stage with artists like Eleni
Mandell and The Submarines, playing shows from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and
have begun to taste that connection with the audience that they long for. Happyland.com
describes the live sound as ‘raw, haunting, and unabashedly romantic.’
It's no small thing to find a girl who is willing and able to front a rock band, but Sarah is
not interested in being a solo artist - instead allowing the entire band’s creative energy to
weave together and breathe a more complex life into the songs she has conceived. It is
all about honesty and an overwhelming love for the ones listening and taking part in the
exchange.
‘Trouble is in the making – my love is for the taking’ she sings.
Go on. Take it.
