Brooklyn band Jodienda to play Basement 414 with folksy sound

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Brooklyn-based “noisy/folksy” band Jodienda (pronounced ho-DI-enda) is taking a miniature tour throughout a few cities in the Midwest. The band will perform at 8 p.m. Oct. 11 at Basement 414, 414 E. Michigan Ave.

The State News caught up with band members John Melillo and Steve Formel via phone before they launched themselves west. The two members talked Brooklyn stereotypes, what draws them to play music and writing songs on North Carolina beaches.

The State News How did you guys start out Jodienda?

John Melillo We played in separate bands here in New York City and those bands broke up, but we had played together, so many times that Steve liked the way I played and I liked the
way Steve played.

Steve Formel I was playing drums in a band and John was playing guitar, and neither of us were doing any singing. At that point we were just friends and I moved away for a while.

One day he played me these really cool tracks that he recorded himself on the beach (in North Carolina) and I was like, “Wow, you can write songs too.”

SN How would you describe your music?

JM Noisy/folksy. There’s so much in there. We’re trying to do songs that combine an almost Alan Lomax kind of recording — that really primitive kind of music.

SF We played a show recently where someone told us we sounded like the embodiment of the Dust Bowl.

SN Is music something you plan on pursuing into the future?

SF Obviously there’s not many people who can and it’s tough to make a living doing that. I work in films, in all different kinds of aspects, both as an electrician and a sound mixer.

JM It’s not like we have a professional career goal to be Lady Gaga or Britney Spears.

SF I would kind of like to be Lady Gaga.

JM I wouldn’t mind being Britney Spears. … It’s more like we see the music as a project that we want to pursue as an art. It’s something that we love to do, but we don’t expect to be making the big bucks soon. Music can’t be a 100 percent thing — everyone has their day job.

SN What draws you to playing music?

JM What draws me to playing music is a sense of personal fulfillment and a sense that I enjoy the tactile aspects of it. I enjoy the way you have to work out a song.

I think of a song as kind of a problem you have to solve. It has to be interesting to people, but it has to be singable.

SF Music is just one of those things that I’ve been having to do since I was little. If there was an instrument, I had to bang on it or touch it … I get cranky if I haven’t played in a while. I get a lot of pleasure out of somebody telling me they really like it.

I also get pleasure from somebody walking out of the room because they hate us that much. Just the fact that my music is doing something.

SN How do you think being Brooklyn-based influences your music?

JM Being a Brooklyn-based band doesn’t really mean anything, but one way it does mean something is obviously, in New York, there are just so many bands here — there’s so many people around just making music and playing music. It’s not a stylistic thing, in Brooklyn and (New York in general) you can’t help but be running into crazy bands all the time.

SF Yeah, stylistically, Brooklyn doesn’t really have anything to do with us.

JM I don’t really think there is a Brooklyn style.

SF Also, John and I have moved around quite a bit in our lives. He is pure Midwestern.

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