Midwest hospitality is certainly not lost on Alex Schaaf, the one-man band turned frontman for a trio.
Schaaf has gone from being the sole creative mind involved in indie band Yellow Ostrich, playing with loop pedals to create his first album under the moniker, Mistress, to working with bassist Jon Natchez and drummer Michael Tapper. His thoughts on the forthcoming yet-to-be-titled album revolved around the new sound.
"The other [album] was more like a person in a room," Schaaf said. "It was more intricately constructed, whereas the new one is three people and it just comes from playing shows together. It's a bigger, live sound than the Mistress stuff."
With the beats that showed up on the last album, stemming from the great vocal harmonies and counter melodies, I can only imagine that this new record will be a crowning achievement. What better way to test out new material than to play it on the road?
"Last time we played some new stuff, but we'll be playing some newer new stuff; it'll be about half and half," he said.
Schaaf seemed really excited to talk about his hometown, Prairie du Chien, which, for those of you not from Wisconsin, is just a two-hour jaunt west of Madison. Apparently most of the press people he does interviews with have no clue where this is.
"I'm so used to talking to people who have no idea about anything in Wisconsin, so I usually just say I'm from this small town, it's near Milwaukee," Schaaf said. "Have you heard of Milwaukee? Okay it's near there."
Even nearer to Milwaukee is Schaaf's alma mater, Lawrence University, in Appleton. He graduated in the spring of 2010 with degrees in English and music. It wasn't until halfway through his time at Lawerence, however, that he really got into playing guitar.
"I've been playing [piano] since I was young and through college," he said. "[But] I didn't start playing guitar seriously until, like my junior year of college."
The notion of him not being a life-long guitarist becomes difficult to grasp once you've watched Schaaf play on stage while simultaneously layering intricate vocal harmonies on his loop pedal for songs like "Libraries" and "Hold On." Yellow Ostrich met a great crowd when they played at Der Rathskeller this past spring, and Schaaf hopes it continues to grow with each return trip.
The band has been touring with rising act, Ra Ra Riot since Oct. 26, and though they won't be able to play this weekend's show in Madison, Yellow Ostrich and fellow opener Delicate Steve are up to the task to entertain.
Catch them at the Sett this Saturday, Nov. 19 at 9 p.m. Admission is free and Schaaf says concert goers should also plan on staying for Delicate Steve.
"They're gonna be really awesome so people should definitely stick around for them," he said.
