Premiere: Fellow Fellow, ‘The Traveler’

Kevin Bronson on June 9th, 2016

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Fellow Fellow is a seven-piece chamber pop band masterminded by singer, songwriter and Wurlitzer-wielder Cooper Wolken. They make music that sounds like a bunch of guys stayed after band practice to cut loose, explore new sonic ground and shout “More tuba!” Their debut album “The Traveler” debuted last spring as an interactive dance-theater show at Art Share-LA, a cabaret-inspired affair featuring monologues written by Wolken, delivered by actor Jacob Gibson and backed by Jordan Saenz’s choreography and the band’s live music. It helped Fellow Fellow win a grant from New Music USA to finance the completion of the album, recorded at Kingsize Soundlabs, so nice job, fellows. The septet features the talents of Wolken along with guitarist Steven Kai van Betten, bassist Marcus Buser, trumpeters Julian Beutel and Andrew Rowan, tuba player Stefan Kac and drummer Nick Hon, some of whom also play in L.A. bands such as Fell Runner, Bird Concerns, River Song Quintet, GRAMPUS and Evil Genius. The album’s woozy, wonky title track is a joyride through the imagination of Wolken, whose songs are inspired by the neuroses inherent in moving from a small East Coast town to L.A. More tuba.

||| Stream: “The Traveler”