WE AREJason Mohr - Vocals, Guitars
Aaron Schleicher - Guitar, Vocals, Keys Tuc Krueger - Drums Ryan Schleicher - Bass, Vocals Chris DeMay - Piano, Guitar, Organ |
Photo: CJ Foeckler
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Bio
It’s been said that brothers have a natural way with harmony singing. In Juniper Tar, only two of the members are brothers by familial relation—guitarist Aaron and bassist Ryan Schleicher—but some bonds go deeper than family. After all, you can’t pick your relatives, but you can pick the guys who will stand by your side as you play every bar with a stage in your hometown (When the town is Milwaukee that means a lot of bars). Juniper Tar’s harmonies aren’t immaculate, but that’s the beauty of them: they howl and scrape up next to each other, like excited shouts of exaltation when a long lost friend walks in the door and you immediately pick up where you left off. Juniper Tar has been at it for seven years, and before this they have sometimes left their home—for New Orleans, for San Francisco, for Los Angeles. But the music always called them back. There’s good chance the band’s new album, Since Before, will bring it all back home for you, too.
If you ask singer-songwriter Jason Mohr, he’ll tell you that Since Before is something of a concept record. It’s not worth spelling out a story, because there really isn’t one. Listening to Since Before is like spending the night in a crummy, rundown tavern and drunkenly eavesdropping on conversations taking place among strangers—there’s tales of sadness, celebration, and strength in these songs, but it’s more about the details than any over-arching narrative. If you want to get literary, you could say Since Before is Raymond Carver-esque, mapping out the million little fragments that make up real life for regular people. But in all honesty, the band was really inspired by Queensryche’s freak-out 80s prog-metal masterwork Operation: Mindcrime.
Not that Since Before sounds anything like Queensryche. (While a stirring singer, Mohr can't quite match the dulcet tones of Geoff Tate.) Since Before is more reminiscent of boozy, late-night records full of warmth and heartbreak and wisdom made by other “brother” bands, like the Beach Boys’ painfully soulful Holland or the Kinks’ country-ified barroom classic Muswell Hillbillies. As for the storytelling, so well-considered and deft yet also subtle and layered and in no hurry to reveal itself, anyone who’s pondered life’s shortcomings while listening to Townes Van Zandt will find plenty to ruminate on here.
Since Before is a record to take into your heart. It can’t be summed up by breaking down the influences or name-dropping some trendy and thoroughly ridiculous genre tag. The great thing about Juniper Tar is that it doesn’t belong to any era or specific scene. It’s just a band that makes music intended to speak to people on a real, human level. An album made by friends that have become family, Since Before is the best buddy you haven’t met yet.
-Steve Hyden, 2012
If you ask singer-songwriter Jason Mohr, he’ll tell you that Since Before is something of a concept record. It’s not worth spelling out a story, because there really isn’t one. Listening to Since Before is like spending the night in a crummy, rundown tavern and drunkenly eavesdropping on conversations taking place among strangers—there’s tales of sadness, celebration, and strength in these songs, but it’s more about the details than any over-arching narrative. If you want to get literary, you could say Since Before is Raymond Carver-esque, mapping out the million little fragments that make up real life for regular people. But in all honesty, the band was really inspired by Queensryche’s freak-out 80s prog-metal masterwork Operation: Mindcrime.
Not that Since Before sounds anything like Queensryche. (While a stirring singer, Mohr can't quite match the dulcet tones of Geoff Tate.) Since Before is more reminiscent of boozy, late-night records full of warmth and heartbreak and wisdom made by other “brother” bands, like the Beach Boys’ painfully soulful Holland or the Kinks’ country-ified barroom classic Muswell Hillbillies. As for the storytelling, so well-considered and deft yet also subtle and layered and in no hurry to reveal itself, anyone who’s pondered life’s shortcomings while listening to Townes Van Zandt will find plenty to ruminate on here.
Since Before is a record to take into your heart. It can’t be summed up by breaking down the influences or name-dropping some trendy and thoroughly ridiculous genre tag. The great thing about Juniper Tar is that it doesn’t belong to any era or specific scene. It’s just a band that makes music intended to speak to people on a real, human level. An album made by friends that have become family, Since Before is the best buddy you haven’t met yet.
-Steve Hyden, 2012
