Pete Freedman
The Colurs Rise From The Ashes of Roy G and The Biv.
In '08 and '09, Max Townsley and Drew Erickson appeared to be on the brink of something pretty special. The supremely talented and young musicians had released a handful of tracks under their Roy G and The Biv moniker, and they were seemed primed to blow on a national level.
Their good time electronic wizardry earned them all sorts of love from the local press, and from entities beyond, as well. In '09, the band announced that they'd been commissioned to do some remix work for the then-dying-down-but-once-quite-hot electro-dance outfit The Bravery
Not sure what became of that effort, but the point remains: Roy G and The Biv were gaining traction. One big-headed former Observer music scribe even once went so far as to call them “the sugar to Alan Palomo's spice.”
And then? Well, nothing.
The band broke up.
Erickson went off to Boston to study composition at the esteemed Berklee College of Music. Townsley, meanwhile, stayed in Denton and eventually joined up with Midlake for a cup of post-The Courage of Others touring tea. In other words: Each went off and got a musical education.
Here's where the news gets good again, though: With their schooling now complete, Townsley and Erickson are again collaborating, and again doing so under a color spectrum-oriented moniker.
The Colurs, as the twosome now refers to itself, is a new entity — so new, in fact, that their BandCamp page remains blank at the time of this posting.
But the band does already have a national management team behind them (Nettwerk), and they've quietly been posting teasers of their material to YouTube over the past few months.
And those teasers, with some help from the folks at Mystics Creative, have become increasingly impressive of late, thanks to a new Denton-filmed video series called “Live at the Normal House.”
In late May, The Colurs released clip of them and — get this — a full backing symphony performing a beautiful track called “Easy to Love.” About 10 days ago, they released an even more impressive follow-up called “Washed Away.”
Somewhat regrettably, this new music is a far cry from the twosome's highly enjoyable electronic efforts. But that sense of regret is minor; this new, baroque pop material, which recalls a bouncier Beirut, is undeniably beautiful. The backing performers, commissioned from around the region by Erickson and Townsley to perform the orchestral parts the twosome had composed to back their own playing (sounds like Erickson's putting that degree to work), only add to the music's appeal.
Unfortunately, however, the band has no immediate plans to perform live around the region any time soon. But, Townsley says, audiences can expect more music shortly.
“We will be slowly releasing more music online,” the singer says. “[We] actually might be starting relatively soon with that.”
In the meantime, check out the band performing “Washed Away” at the Normal House below. Then download the audio of that performance right here. Then? I dunno. Maybe jump for joy at the fact that these local talents are back in the limelight? Yeah, that.
