BROOKLYN, NY: Matt Rockteacher — a Brooklyn-based musician who heads the emerging, self-described “psyche-tronica” outfit Smokey Eyes Need Fire — lists influences from Prince to Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong to Aphex Twin. One would be as equally justified filing this adventurous auteur under New Wave as they would under Electronica, Jazz, or Psychedelic Rock. But, like most path-paving denizens on the contemporary indie/DIY circuit, Smokey Eyes Need Fire is in it to create something new under the sun. “I prefer to think of myself as a ‘synthesist,’” says Rockteacher.. “Scroll through anyone’s iPod and it will tell you that today’s music lover is into everything. I do it all at once, or one right after another. There’s every reason in the world to play a mellow R & B tune right after a rock song followed by a glitchy electro number.”
The unofficial second member of Smokey Eyes Need Fire is Rockteacher’s instrument, which he calls “The Monster.” Chance Drzewucki, the high and lonesome voiced singer who lends his vocals to some Smokey Eyes tracks, prefers to call it “The Blip Bitch.” An entanglement of electronic gadgets and wires that seem to spring from a Sunday afternoon Sci-fi flic, Rockteacher's Blip Bitch allows layers of sonic looping to be performed simultaneously in real time. Rockteacher updates the folky one-man-band image of guitar, harmonica, drum and kazoo by adding synths and many hand-held instruments to the mix, all played through the looping sound chain of the Blip Bitch live and in person. Needless to say, his live performances are a sound — and as equally a sight — to behold. “People are very curious about the Blip Bitch,” says Rockteacher, “they can’t figure out how one guy can create such a massive sound. It’s all in the Blip Bitch.”
Smokey Eyes Need Fire is currently touring in support of the first release, “Fake History For Outlandish Times,” an EP released under the independent Hotel Records label out of Brooklyn. With the new EP and Blip Bitch in tow, Smokey Eyes Need Fire sets high standards, aiming to carry on the sonic legacy of perhaps their loftiest heroes — The Beatles and The Beach Boys — to new places.
“We don’t intend to sound anything like Revolver, Pet Sounds, or any of those records,” says Rockteacher, humbly, “but we do intend to carry on that sprit of exploration, bringing experimental sounds into melodic tunes. I'd like someday for my records to sound as timeless as those great records sound today.”
