The Stairs have spent hours trying to decide what they would call their sound, just in case someone ever asked them. And when they were finally asked, they still couldn’t come up with an answer.
Nevertheless, the band members were willing to divulge what they had come up with so far. Ryan Walsh, Stairs’ vocalist and guitarist, described their sound as ‘compli-pop’ (as in complicated pop). Emma Westling, vocalist and daughter of a certain former Boston University president, claims the Stairs wish they were art rock but are actually not. Another member yells out that they are grade school art rock. Walsh chimes in again, saying that their sound is ‘strange and contrived.’ Drummer Eric Meyer pitches in that they’re ‘genre-bending.’ Finally, Westling says that they leave ‘no band untouched,’ which satisfies The Stairs for now.
No matter what they’re calling their sound, the Stairs’ music impressed the non-profit Dedham Visionary Access Corporation enough to give them a $10,000 grant, allowing the band to finance the recording of a full-length album. As a stipulation, the band agreed that they would involve the community as much as possible, and they responded by holding an elementary school drawing contest to design the album cover, inviting numerous Dedham guest musicians to play on the record and shooting a documentary about the making of their record to be aired on a public access channel.
After two years of spending their grant money on equipment, studio time, mastering and pressing, The Stairs’ debut album, Miraculous Happens, is hitting the Boston streets. It is an eclectic array of songs that can be compared with other loose musician collectives like Belle and Sebastian.
The album was a long time in the making. While living in Dedham, Walsh and Meyer, who had been friends since childhood, met Evan Sicuranza and eventually the three of them formed a band. Once they realized they cared more about the band than their other college activities, Walsh applied for and received the DVAC grant. They needed more band members, so they recruited their friend John Ling as bassist while at a party.
Then they decided they needed a ‘girl voice instrument’ according to Westling, which was not what she had in mind she wanted full-time member status and was eventually granted it. Finally, while working at the American Repertory Theater, Walsh made instant friends with Rob Johanson, who they eventually convinced to be their keyboardist.
‘The Stairs came together out of desperation and quiet wonder,’ Sicuranza joked, adding that the group was more like a ‘codependent, abusive relationship’ than a band.
Sicuranza said that The Stairs offer something that many other bands do not, which is a sense of humor ‘a lack of coolness, what some people might call dorkiness.’
Jon Westling might not be so quick to agree on the sentiment. When asked whether her dad was a fan of the band, Emma said that he liked the group’s members but ‘thought that something was wrong with us because we were so morose.’
She added that her father feared that songwriter Walsh was suicidal, and he often asked how each member of the band was doing. Emma explained that he took time out of his busy schedule of motorcycle magazine readings and crossword puzzles to come to their CD release party, where the elder Westling saw the Stairs live for the first time after which he decided that they sounded much better and happier live.
Sicuranza says that by default, The Stairs are an indie band but he does not want to give the impression that they’re pretentious. Walsh says they are willing to take different sounds into consideration and that they are not set in their ways, which is what separates them from other bands. In fact, he joked that The Stairs are going to have a suggestion box at the front of the stage.
Since the release of Miraculous Happens, which can be purchased at Mojo Records and CD Spins in Cambridge, the band has been working on promotion, which will mostly be done through touring.
‘I can count the number of times we have played live on one hand,’ said Walsh.
That being said, playing live is now The Stairs’ mission. Manager Priya Dewan said their plans are to ‘get a far outreach [of fans] through sheer saturation,’ sort of a grass roots approach. The band feels that there is no better place to begin than near home. ‘People know all about being loyal in Boston, even when it’s hard,’ Westling said, alluding to the tenants of Fenway Park.
In terms of who they are and what they want to be, The Stairs are a modest bunch. According to Meyer, ‘We tend not to think in terms of genres. We’re just trying to be the Stairs and good.’
The Stairs will play at the Choppin’ Block, 724 Huntington Ave., tonight.
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