Santa Maria Sun / Art

Sing softly and carry a big sound

SHELLY CONE

There have been many attempts to describe the sounds of Lompoc band Clark, and the trio, admittedly, will accept any and all of them. That’s because listeners find the band to be a little indefinable—and its members agree.

Ready, set, sing: Dana Friley, Andrew White, and Gabriel Friley make up the band Clark. The trio is made up of longtime friends who worked together in the band Widescreen Reason before breaking off to produce a dreamy, folksier sound. PHOTO COURTESY GREG LAWLER, ZINKWAZI.COM

The band’s sound has been described as lullabies for adults—which is pretty accurate, but still doesn’t quite say it all, because the soft melodies appeal to more than just grown-ups. The best way to talk about Clark is to describe what the musicians do without pinning them to a particular genre.

The band—made up of Gabriel Friley, Dana Friley, and Andrew White—creates soundscapes that are a mix of dream rock and folk, with an emphasis on ethereal moods. Think Simon and Garfunkel, Iron and Wine, or Nick Drake.

Friley is quick to point out that his music really doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre, and he likes to play around with people’s descriptions of the band’s sound.

He’s called it “gangsta folk,” which he said is a play on words because the music is so far from being gangsta rap. He’s called it “folktronica” because some songs have an element of electronica in them. He’s also used the term “folkabilly” on one song that has a rockabilly influence. All of these terms, of course, he uses tongue-in-cheek.

“A lot of folk artists have trouble saying they are folk because they’re usually something else as well. Folk is such a broad term,” he explained. “I’m kind of at a point now where I really don’t define it.”

Clark was started as a spin off of a five-person band called Widescreen Reason.

“We were writing songs that didn’t fit the dream rock band we were into,” Friley said. “It was more folk, but it was still dreamy like the dream rock band.

“I enjoyed the songs enough and wanted to play them, so I decided to create a separate project of it,” he said.

The project has been a good fit for the longtime friends. Friley writes most of the music along with help from his wife, Dana, who is also a songwriter, and then White works on the structure of the songs.

“Usually I work on something until I get stuck, and then I ask for a little help from my friends,” Friley said.

His life experiences, however, are what help inspire him in the first place.

“Yesterday I was running by a field when I was watching these field workers cut celery with a machete, and I was stuck by the poetry in that,” he said. “I see something like that, and it sticks with me.”

Finding such inspiration doesn’t come automatically, though.

“The trick is to be attentive enough in life and in touch with yourself to connect with what you experience and find the extraordinary in the ordinary,” Friley said.

With the help of another friend, Tad Wagner, who will be doing some overdubbing work, Clark is getting ready to release a split single with another band, called Le Petit Protest. Both bands will have two songs on the CD.

“We’re really excited about it,” Friley said. “We’re really pleased how our recordings are coming out.”

The band enjoys sales from its current CD, Here Comes Tomorrow, but Friley is happy just living for today.

“I think we feel really lucky to be able to do this with our friends and the support of the local community,” he said. “When we started out in music, we had big dreams and big goals. My dream and goal has really become just to continue with songwriting and recording and playing live and let the rest take care of itself.”

INFOBOX: Easy listening

Check out Clark at www.myspace.com/clarkprojects. Here Comes Tomorrow is available at www.CDBaby.com.

Arts Editor Shelly Cone still holds onto her big dreams. Give her a wake-up call at scone@santamariasun.com.