By Lily O’Brien
“In this band we have the freedom to do what we want to do and go where we wanna go,” says Laurien Schleuder, one of the three female singers/instrumentalist/songwriters making up the Amsterdam-based band Snowapple.
Having just arrived in the U.S. for a West Coast tour—and promoting a new, third album, Tracks—the band will be making its first ever Marin appearance on Thursday, March 23 at Sausalito’s Harmonia—located in the legendary former Record Plant recording studio.
With musical backgrounds that include such diverse styles as opera, jazz, Latvian folk music, Brazilian pop and gospel, and drawing inspiration from song stylists like Edith Piaf, Tom Waits and the Andrews Sisters, the trio is hard to place in any one genre. “We like to create our own sound, using elements from different music styles,” says Schleuder, who describes the band’s sound as “fairy-tale folk/dream-pop/improv, with a dash of cumbia.”
On this tour Snowapple is minus one—Una Bergin opted to stay behind with her 1-year-old son. But Schleuder (vocals and guitar) and Laura Police (vocals, keyboard, flute), will be joined by three Mexican musicians, adding “Latin grooves and lots of positive energy.”
The women of Snowapple, Schleuder says, were “naturally drawn together,” writing original songs inspired by world travels and sung mostly in English. Tracks is a “train-themed album with brand new songs about travelling between nostalgia and longing,” Schleuder says.
“I think it is an interesting blend of things, but it comes together very naturally,” Schleuder says of Snowapple’s music. “We don’t think about being different, we’re just constantly looking for new and beautiful things and moments. Both in music—and life in general.”
Snowapple, Thursday, March 23, Harmonia, 2200 Marinship Way, Sausalito; 7:30pm; $20-$25; 415/332-1432; harmoniamarin.com.
