Musician Amelia Meath happened to cross paths with producer Nick Sanborn a few years ago when they were each on the road pursuing separate careers (Amelia as a member of trio Mountain Man and Nick as a producer under the name Made of Oak). She asked Nick to have a go at mixing one of her melodies, and the result was so good they decided to team up. Thus Sylvan Esso was born in 2012. While Amelia hails from Boston and Nick from Milwaukee, Durham’s creative community and good food tempted them to relocate and base the band here. Their self-titled debut album, recorded in Nick’s Durham digs, was released in May and quickly hit No. 7 on the U.S. independent charts – the catchy single “Coffee” has garnered all sorts of acclaim, and they performed it on The Tonight Show in July. They told Managing Editor Jessie Ammons about their own go-to tracks, from Bonnie Raitt to R.E.M.
The Song That Makes Me Think Back on My Early Days in the Business
AMELIA “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” by Talking Heads.
NICK “Radio Attack” by Prefuse 73. I was 18 when this came out and hadn’t even considered the idea of listening to instrumental hip-hop until this record hit me. Somehow I took the opposite route of most people, since Prefuse 73’s stuff was my doorway into hip-hop as a whole, leading me (somewhat backwards) to J Dilla, Pete Rock, Madlib and the rest.
The Song That Made Me Want to Pursue Music
AMELIA “Cold as Ice” by Foreigner.
NICK Tough to say. I definitely remember hearing “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M. on the radio as a kid and thinking for the first time, “Wow, that’s a really good song. I want to do that.” That said, I think They Might Be Giants actually had a bigger effect as far as convincing me that music was something anyone could pursue.
The Song That Made Us Want to Officially Collaborate Together
AMELIA “Play It Right”…
NICK … which started as a song Amelia had written for Mountain Man and asked me to remix.
The Song That Reminds Me of My Childhood
AMELIA “Green Lights” by NRBQ.
NICK “Thing Called Love” by Bonnie Raitt. My parents were huge fans of her album Nick of Time (and by default, I was, too), and I can’t hear it without being instantly transported back to the kitchen of my childhood home.
The Song That Characterizes the 2012-2013 Period in Which We Moved to Durham and Started Sylvan Esso
AMELIA “Backseat Freestyle” …
NICK … by Kendrick Lamar. This was one of the records we listened to constantly when I moved here.
If I Had to Save One Album in the World and Throw Away the Rest
AMELIA The White Album by The Beatles has a little bit of everything in it.
NICK Kid A by Radiohead. But who wants to live in that world?
The Album We Listen to on the Road That Reminds Us of Home
AMELIA Lateness of Dancers by Hiss Golden Messenger …
NICK … Or Blanko Basnet’s self-titled album.
The Song That Helped Inspire Our Album
AMELIA “Ship” by Micachu.
NICK Too many to count. But one was “Are You That Somebody” by Aaliyah.
A Song by a Local Artist We Should Be Tuned In To
AMELIA Make Out Booth – all the songs!
NICK “Folk Hero” by Loamlands. So good.
Ed. Note: This article first appeared in the December/January 2015 issue.
