Biography
Night Genes is the musical brainchild of Eric Ingersoll, who began writing these songs in his notebook as he took in rainy summer days in England, crowded city streets in China, and trips home. And that’s where this project started in earnest, in Ingersoll’s hometown, Boise, Idaho, a city that invokes the Old West as it informs the folkloric qualities of his material.
These are dark, folky songs, sung in a bold baritone that engenders a certain rawness. This is complicated by simple but majestic musical arrangements, an unexpected playfulness, and even a pop-sensibility at times.
The band’s first album, Two Phantoms & A Holy Ghost, was self-released in Fall 2009 and was well-received by fans and critics. It was a meditative, weighty, but hopeful group of songs featuring reflections on our apparent, or sometimes not so apparent, mortality.
Seeking a change of scenery and new inspiration, Ingersoll set course for another rough-and-tumble western city, the great Barbary Coast, commonly known as San Francisco. Two more musicians joined the project upon his arrival and quickly brought new life to the music: erstwhile co-conspirator David MacFadden-Elliott (keyboards/percussion/samples) offers effortless bass lines and beats; and Amy Foote, (vocals/keyboards) adds textures, floating harmonies, and electronic oddities with both chords and vocal chords.
The new album, Like the Blood, covers a lot of ground in subject and in sound, which you might expect from something written from Idaho to China to San Francisco.
Lyrically it moves past mortality into rebirth; the idea of evolution and progress from a generation to the next, as death may be the end for one person, there are those that do continue on. Are we who continue seeing progress in our constant evolution? Is it hindering or helping us? Does any of it even matter? Perhaps senselessness carries just as much weight as the meaningful. What does your job, generation, choices or identity mean with all this cosmic pushing and pulling? What about excitement and fun dammit?
Sonically, these songs are a bit like the musical version of an Old Fashioned with rabbit-shaped ice cubes. Much of the guitar was recorded with a $100 Silvertone guitar from the early 1960s. David has introduced compelling loops with his sampler. Amy soars through each track with dancing, effortless melodies. The music is more brave, fun, and elemental than ever before.
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