TEEN MEN EMBARK ON AUDIO/VIDEO ODYSSEY

By Michael Lello

Teen Men, featuring Nick Krill and Joey Hobson of Wilmington, Delaware’s The Spinto Band, as well as Albert Birney and Catherine Maloney, is an audio/video project as much as it is a band in the traditional sense.

Krill said the group started a few years ago  when he and Birney, a filmmaker and former Spinto Band member, “decided to get together and do some recording and video collaborations. ”

“We had just finished a Spinto Band album, and he had just finished a big movie, so it was sort of like an excuse to do some work in our respective trades that didn’t have much baggage associated with,” Krill said in an interview with Highway 81 Revisited.  “I guess there was nothing to worry about. ”

Teen Men has recorded about 10 songs and several videos for future release, with an eye toward an album in 2014.  The band has only played out a few times and will perform on a bill with Philadelphia-based Needle Points on Saturday, Nov. 9, in a show presented by Highway 81 Revisited.

“For the live show there’s synchronized video,” Krill explained.  “We wanted it to be an interactive thing where the songs interact with the video and the crowd interacts with the video, so it provides a basis to work around those ideas.”

Last month, Teen Men opened the Buried Beds album release show at new Philadelphia venue Boot & Saddle.

“That was really good,” said Krill.  “All  of those sets have been really fun.  It’s more like all the sets were really nerve-racking because they’re brand new and we’ve never really done this kind of setup before.  They’ve all been learning experiences:  learning how to integrate the video the best way, learning how to set up the videos the best way.  It’s all very much still a learning experience to find out how to fine tune everything and make it work the best.”

Saturday’s show at The Bog will mark the area debuts for both Teen Men and Needle Points.

“We’re not really trying to plan too much,” Krill said.  “I guess it will be a normal show for both of us.  I think it will be fun, though, because both bands seem to have a very visual interactive aspect.  Not at all the same kind, but a very kind of like theme surrounding them, a theme surrounding each band, so I think it will be a cool evening of entertainment, a big night of entertainment.”

Krill, who has a long history of working with Scranton-based artists, recently finished recording and mixing  a new album featuring members of Scranton’s defunct And The Moneynotes.  Krill said the album features a core of ATM’s Mitchell Williams, Setty Hopkins and Roy Williams, with contributions from ATM’s Pat Finnerty and Brian Craig as well as Cabinet’s J.P. Biondo and Nick Driscoll on clarinet and saxophone.

“I’m real excited about that,” Krill said.  “We just recorded it last month, so that will be really cool to hear those guys making music again.

For more information on Teen Men, follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teenmen and Twitter at  twitter.com/teen_men.