Interview with Amsterdam's Earbiter

1) Top 5 on your I-pod right now?
-Grizzly Bear "Ready, Able"
-Small Black "Weird Machines"
-Fela Kuti "Roforofo Fight"
-Andrew Bird "Not A Robot But A Ghost"
-Marvin Gaye "Inner City Blues"

2) Greatest band ever? Why?
The Beatles. Kurt Vonnegut put it nicely: "The plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.""

3) Would like to record a song with .......... ? (dead or alive, doesn't matter). Why?
Rachmaninoff? We'd have a lot of laughs in the studio.

4) How often and where do you write new material?
I feel like I'm often writing new material but not often finishing it. It takes a while to make sense out of the initial ideas.

Lyrically, a song can start pretty much anywhere. For example, I started writing "Landlocked" into a notebook while holed up in a friend's house with boarded windows during a hurricane on the East Coast a few years back (just weeks before that, my apartment was destroyed by another storm... it was a weird time.) But usually, I write under more normal circumstances, you know at like a coffee shop or at home.

Musically, all the work is done at our home studio, named The Animal Kingdom, here in California. I'm partnered with Collin Arthur and we're writing and recording material for the project's first full-length album now. Collin's exceptionally talented and is helping me take the material to new places. I'm excited about the results. We aim to have it finished in early 2010.

5) Best band on Earbiter?
Hmmm, they are all so good.

6) When are you going to play in Amsterdam?
Hopefully soon! Do you have a spare couch?

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SD Reader: Dakotafish "Landlocked"

Artist: Dakotafish
Song: “Landlocked” (from their self-titled CD)
Heard by: Amy McCain, University Heights

It had a great beat, I loved the bass line, and I liked the vocals that hauntingly sang in the background. I know it sounds weird, but it’s almost like a cross between Michael Jackson and Franz Ferdinand. It had kind of surreal lyrics. The one line that caught my ear the most was “rats jumping ship before it sinks in the sand.” It sounded like they had a drum machine, and it was very layered as far as instrumentation goes. They maybe had an actual bass guitar, but it sounded more computer-generated than, like, live music. I really dig that style. I could see that song in the background of a car commercial.

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Earbiter: Dakotafish - Landlocked

Dakotafish uit California schuwt het experiment niet. Mike Fish is het genie. Hij speelt bijna alle instrumenten. Maar dan de video. Die is met evenveel liefde gemaakt als het nummer. 1 en 1 is 3 in dit geval. Landlocked is ook de titel van de EP die deze zomer uitkwam. Ja ik hoor af en toe ook een Radioheadish soundje voorbijkomen, maar het iets meer folky.

Radioheadish sound? Yep, but folkish. Great video? Yep. Great track? Yep. Wanna hear more? Yep.

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Soundheard: D is for Dakotafish

Weird name, huh? Dakotafish is the project of musician, Mike Fish, that was formed in 2007 in San Diego, CA. Blending beats, vocals & orchestral arrangements flawlessly, Mike Fish could easily become a leading musician in the indie scene. Also, I can't stress enough how much he sounds like Thom Yorke, so if you're a Radiohead fan...or not, give this guy a listen.

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Examiner: Dakotafish releases animated "Landlocked" video

Dakotafish just released an awesome animated music video for a song on his self-titled EP called "Landlocked." A friend of the band, Mike Lichter, hand drew 1400 illustrations on paper bags and brought them to life with stop motion. It's great when artists are able to make great music videos like this with limited funds... it's no easy task.

Dakotafish has a Radiohead style sound, though they are a little more folkier than Radiohead. You'll definitely hear the similarities between the vocals of Dakotafish front man, Mike Fish, and Thom Yorke.

In the summer of 2007, Fish formed the Dakotafish project in San Diego (they are based in Encinitas, California). He plays many of the instruments heard on the self-titled EP, but Jennifer Argenti and Manuel Rhueda help with the strings and drums, respectfully (Aaron Sterling played drums on the EP.) In February, Fish released a second EP called Motion In Relation To Other Objects. It contains tracks that he started working on while recording his first EP, but he didn't feel like these songs went well with the four on the original EP. Motion In Relation To Other Objects is absolutely free to download off Dakotafish's site. Check it out.

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Indie Muse: Dakotafish EP

For all those Radiohead fans out there, I recommend keeping a very close eye on Mike Fish, also known as Dakotafish. Though his music is a more instrumental based than Radiohead, a little folkier, I won’t be the first person, and definitely not the last, to acknowledge how similar his vocals are to Thom Yorke. It’s eerie.

I am extremely impressed with the four tracks on his self-titled EP, and if Fish’s debut is as memorizing as this EP, I could easily see him becoming a leading musician in the indie scene. His blend of beats and guitar rifts, mixed with various electronic and orchestral arrangements makes for a unique sound that fits perfectly with his vocals.

In the summer of 2007, Mike Fish formed the Dakotafish project in San Diego (they are based in Encinitas, California). He plays many of the instruments heard on the EP, but Jennifer Argenti and Manuel Rhueda help with the strings and drums, respectfully (Aaron Sterling played drums on the EP.) Fish seems like a really cool guy, which can easily be seen in the FAQ’s he coincidentally wrote and answered. He is also a talented photographer, and you can see some of his pictures here. The EP packaging was beautifully done, and the aesthetics on their own make this worth physically owning.

Fish said after taking his EP to the Amoeba CD store in Los Angeles, “As a friendly rocker behind the counter took it away, I felt a little like I was looking at the last scene from ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’ You know, with the guy wheeling the ark into that huge government warehouse amongst thousands and thousands of other buried and lost artifacts?” Don’t allow that to be the fate of this EP. Check it out.

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Under the Rotunda: Dakotafish

With just four released songs under his belt, Mike Fish is making quite a splash (get it?) under the moniker Dakotafish. His debut EP was just released, and it's quite a captivating start. The first thing that you'll notice is the vocals. Powerful and full of character, they soar above the music in a Thom Yorke-like fashion. And this comes on top of his well-orchestrated folk tunes, which are full of creativity. Throw in some innovative guitar playing and off-kilter beats, and you've got one awesome folk EP.

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I Guess I'm Floating: Dakotafish "Landlocked/ Teenage Years"

The very first thing you'll notice about Dakotafish, more specifically the man behind the band Mike Fish, are the eerily similar vocals to Thom Yorke. There is nothing wrong with that, who wouldn't want to have a divine voice as long as it didn't come packaged with that crazy-looking mystical eye. There is something about his debut EP that gets under the skin and into your ears, it's not an overpowering or struggling to be different sound that plagues many new acts. With that haunting voice, rich strings, and off-kilter instrumentation the music creeps up on you like that eerie Passover mist taking the firstborns in Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments.

If you want some fine beats mixed with coy guitar plucking, I'd recommend checking out the catchy single "Landlocked". If you really want to hear that Thom Yorke comparison in full bloom, check out "Teenage Years" and then hit up a family tree and find out how many branches separate these two.

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