Ocean Versus Daughter

Don't let their name fool you: Ocean Versus Daughter's music is never watered down.

Perhaps the most accomplished expatriate band in Prague, Ocean Versus Daughter is celebrating the release of their first full-length album, Slightly Parted. Most local music fans will need no introduction to the band, consisting of pianist and singer Flanna Sheridan, cellist Matt Ford, synthesizer maestro George Allen, violinist Jarmila Junková and drummer Nick Jennings, who have been regulars on the Prague music scene for years, playing gigs throughout the country and touring as far a field as Germany.

Slightly Parted is the first time Ocean Versus Daughter's lush, layered sound has been captured in all its thrumming complexity. It is also the fruition of one year of recording, though its origins go back farther than that, to the very roots of the band. Sheridan tells The Prague Post that what started as "a DIY project" soon took on a life of its own.

"Earlier this year, we were playing at Rock Café for the Refufest Benefit Concert with the awesome Slovak duo Longital, and we were approached by a manager who has a lot of experience with Czech bands on the European market. He pitched us to Indie Scope, a Czech label, and they agreed to help us with distribution. This is wonderful for us because there is only so much you can do on your own," she says.

"We recorded the instrumentation here in Prague at Unicorn Studios, and I recorded the vocals at House in Motion in Denver with Josh Mackey, an old friend and band mate who used to live here in Prague. He went back to the U.S. to study audio engineering and studied under Steve Albini in Chicago," she adds.

Though the album appears to be a team project, the results are truly distinct. Album highlight "Turpentine" captures the band's pulsing melancholia, with Sheridan's childlike vocals equal parts spoonful of sugar and bitter pill as she refrains, "I ate all your cake while you were away," over a moody, symphonic soundscape.

Sheridan's intricate, driving piano and voice is at the center of this densely layered mix - all innocence and experience at once, like a church choir singer with a broken heart. Not surprisingly, the singer says she is the main architect for most of the band's material, often bringing fully crafted songs and lyrics into the studio.

"I kind of go nuts and stay at my keyboard for a few days until I find the song. When I am happy enough with it, I bring it to the band like a naked little baby. They knit it some clothes. Matt's cello acts as kind of backbone in a lot of songs, so he usually crafts something very sonically pleasing, and then George, Jarmila and Nick build the rest of the song into its final form," she says.

This single-minded, collective approach to songwriting has set the band apart from many other expat efforts, making Ocean Versus Daughter a refreshingly serious addition to the local musical landscape.

"We feel more integrated into the Czech music scene than we used to, but we do still feel a bit like outsiders, but that's OK. I think it's often the case that a band feels more at home when they travel than where they're based," Sheridan says.

The band has been looking forward to the release of the album for some time, but that doesn't mean they are simply resting on their laurels. Having just returned from a tour in Germany that included shows in Hamburg, Berlin and Kiel, Ocean Versus Daughter is hoping to tour England in the near future and is laying groundwork for tours of the East and West coasts of the United States next summer. In the meantime, they are working with Emile Rafael to create a music video from the album's first single, "Appolina."

"We're also planning a short tour in France and Germany for spring 2012. Additionally, we've been talking about making a split EP on vinyl with another band, and we'll start to focus on that early next year. We're going to try to do as much as we can," Sheridan says.

It would seem the band has done a great deal already.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com