By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
After Ours has its genre to itself.
The host at a show they were playing in Detroit heard the guitar-drum duo play and dubbed their sound “head nod jazz.”
Guitarist Eli Kahn liked it. The music was described by the action it induced in listeners, rather than what musicians themselves were doing.
The duo, based in South Bend Indiana, where Kahn and drummer Arthur Schroeder grew up, has a “jazz adjacent sound.” They’re not banging out chorus after chorus of “All the Things You Are” or a head based on the “I Got Rhythm” changes. Instead, they mix covers of Britney Spears, Soundgarden and Radiohead into their sets.
After Ours will their “head nod jazz” to Grounds for Thought Sunday, June 18, at 6 p.m. for the monthly free concert series hosted by the shop and BG Independent News.
The show coincides with the vinyl release of their newest recording “Music for Cats.”
Schroeder and Kahn have been working together for 15 years, starting with the big band at University of Indiana South Bend where Kahn studied classical guitar. They’d met earlier in an intro to music class at the college. Schroeder, however, stopped going to class and dropped out of the school. However, when the big band lost its drummer, an older teacher who died, Schroeder was enlisted to fill in.
Afterward the played an extended stint with a hip hop band and picked up other gigs as a rhythm section.
Schroeder got his start in music when a jazz-loving uncle thought it was a joke to buy his nephew a drum set to play around the house. Schroeder later played snare drum in the school band. The same uncle later introduced Kahn to lounge jazz.
Kahn was inspired to play guitar at 15 when he was in a music store and heard a guitarist shredding in a music store. His mother, who was a piano technician, said if he wanted to take electric guitar lessons, he’d first have to study classical guitar for a year. From there he got into different styles, including metal, which helped hone his technique. Then heard the Return to Forever and other early fusion sounds.
He graduated from college in 2010 and hasn’t played classical guitar since. Influenced by Americana jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, he started playing a hybrid guitar, a seven-string instrument with four treble and three bass strings that enables him to mix acoustic and electric sounds. Using loops and effects, the sound is more expansive than expected from two musicians.
Schroeder and Kahn have lived together and would explore concert videos, trading influences. Their first ensemble was a trio, but then later shaved that down to guitar and drums. Being a duo that punches bigger than its size helps makes the band more viable.
The guitar has the melody and harmony, and the drums provide the rhythm. Kahn employs lops to add density.
“I just enjoy total freedom,” “Kahn said. “This is very free. We can completely lean into what we want to do. A lot of the set is very improvisatory.”
“Looping comes down to an artist finding something meaningful that can run over and over and over again,” Schroeder said, “and just being able play with all the great sounds those machines end up making that you weren’t even thinking about when you were trying to manipulate them.”
The duo format also allows them to add members to recordings as the music demands.
About a year ago Kahn moved to Asheville, North Carolina. Working as a freelance musician, he’s been adding experience in other styles. He’s picked up bass and plays with Cuban and Brazilian as well as with funk and rhythm ‘n’ blues bands that dominate the local scene.
He takes care of the management side of After Ours and is working “building our name down here just how we did in Midwest .”
