Biography of
16 Frames
 Precisely
35 seconds into the opening track of 16 Frames’ debut album, the clouds
part and a monumental chorus breaks through. “Then you wake up to the
big change/To the breakup done at close range,” sings bandleader Steve
Sulikowski, climbing upward through a dense forest of guitars to the top
of his range. “And that love is such a cruel thing,” he continues, as he
relives this heartbreaking moment, “What you want, you got/But you can’t
hold on anymore.” At once intimate and overwhelming, it’s a breathtaking
passage, one the listener isn’t prepared for, not only because it
happens so quickly, but also because such transcendent moments are so
uncommon in 21st century rock. As it turns out, conjoined musical and
emotional crescendos are plentiful on Where It Ends, the album in
question (released March 24 on Verve), produced by the veteran Matt
Serletic (Matchbox 20, Santana’s
“Smooth”).
Take the album’s first single, “Back Again,” where the lyrics trace the
aftermath of a break-up, contemplating the emptiness left behind, while
the widescreen musical payoff captures not only the sense of loss, but
the fullness of the love affair that has come to an end. Or consider
“Coming Home,” its vivid narrative carried along by a cruising groove
evoking miles flying by on the interstate, the chorus acting as a door
opening to reveal faces from a life left behind. Other tracks, like “My
History” and the title song, erupt out of intimate, acoustic essences,
the former buoyed by shimmering harmonies redolent of L.A. circa 1972.
Then there’s the pivotal “Daylight,” recorded quickly as a demo
following the completion of the album, swelling up from a loping, jangly
opening to a thrilling goosebump chorus. It was added to the album in
its original form, because it was just that good . Every inspired
musical touch is there for one reason: to serve the song.
Some bands function as democracies; others are shaped around a
single-minded sensibility. L.A.-based 16 Frames is wholly the product of
Sulikowski’s vision, and his talented bandmates—guitarist Josh Dunahoo,
drummer Daniel James and bass player Dylan Wilson, the most recent
addition to the lineup—are dedicated to the task of bringing that vision
to life.
The band name, referring to the rate at which film runs through a
projector, isn’t arbitrary. “I think of writing a song as being like
making a little movie, with a beginning, middle and end,” Sulikowski
explains. “It’s exciting and satisfying to get something that feels
complete, even if I’m playing it on an acoustic guitar. I get this high
when I come up with a melody, and I chase it, but I beat myself up over
these lyrics. I wanted them to make sense, to tell a story—something
meaningful to me, so that when I sang a song night after night I could
draw from it. I love performing live and I love recording songs—although
in the end I’m never really happy with anything I do.” At this he smiles
uneasily, not wanting to come off like a tortured artist but unable to
play down what he describes as “a weird ordeal.”
Where It Ends represents an intensive creative process that stretched
over six months of painstaking effort. The album is a song cycle about a
relationship at a crossroads, and the story unfolds in dramatic and
coherent fashion from song to song, each functioning as a scene in this
aural film, the lyrics forming the dialogue.
“The record is about that point in a relationship where you’ve got to
make a decision about which way you’re gonna go,” says Sulikowski, whose
touchstones include some artists you’d expect (Beatles,
Stones, U2)
and others you might not (Elvis Presley,
the La’s). “The songs reflect where I was as a writer and as an artist
at the time, and how I felt about what I was doing. ‘Back Again’ was the
first song written for the record, and the benchmark for where it was
going, both thematically and in terms of the feel. Then other songs just
fell into place.
“‘Coming Home’ was an important one,” he continues. “I’m from Western
Massachusetts, and it’s about where I came from and how I left. It’s
been hard to go back, but I have, and I wrote it during one of my trips
back. So it means a lot to me, but I think the song is universal enough
where people can associate their own experiences with it. ‘My History’
encapsulates the theme of the record. It’s a breakup song, and in my
mind I see the narrator writing a goodbye letter just before he or she
leaves. And ‘Daylight,’ the last song I wrote for the record, is about
moving on, and making it through one last, hard night where you’re alone
and facing your problem, knowing that in the morning things will be
different; you’re gonna finally break free and move on. So every song
has a life of its own, but they’re all meant to work together.”
During the album’s creation, Sulikowski would get up every morning,
enter his work room, grab his acoustic and spend all day writing,
surrounded by notebooks filled with lyrics, some of them devoted to the
development of a single song. “Melodies come to me easily,” he says.
“It’s the lyrics that are torture.” At night he’d read books like
Kerouac’s On the Road and Dylan’s
Chronicles, and watch DVDs, including anthologies of The Dick Cavett
Show (providing up-close looks at the likes of
George Harrison, Paul Simon, Sly
& the Family Stone, Janis Joplin and
Joni Mitchell), Scorsese’s Dylan film No Direction Home and a
documentary on the making of Born to Run.
“That stuff was like nourishment,” he says of his nightly consumption.
“I found it all incredibly inspiring.” Especially the
Springsteen documentary: “A lot
of it was about what he went through to write that one song. Watching
him questioning what he’s doing, second-guessing himself and putting
himself through this laborious process to come up with this masterpiece
was really meaningful for me. I’m not saying these songs are ‘Born to
Run,’ but realizing what he went through gave me the confidence to keep
going.”
Then he’d get up the next day and repeat the process. “I intentionally
put myself through this in order to get these songs,” Sulikowski
acknowledges. “I have no idea if I could ever do it again.”
Where It Ends is a fiercely ambitious, supremely accomplished work that
also happens to be totally accessible. Charged emotions embedded in
monster hooks—that’s a combination to celebrate. Writing the follow-up
will surely be a living hell.
Biography courtesy of
TotalAssault.com |
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