Concert goers wondering what happened to drummer, singer, writer and lead brother Simone Felice, have noticed a new face on the drum kit; its Jeremy Backofen, and he is not new to the Felice Brothers. Backofen runs Tranzendance Productions, and has worked as Producer and Engineer for the Felice Brothers since the Iantown record.
Additionally he has worked with "Mshanghai string band", "AA bondy", "Gregory and
the Hawk" and "Gill Landry" from Old Crow Medicine Show and Mice Parade. This is what he had to say
about his initial work with the Felice Brothers, "dirtbags. scumbags
to some,.. i love these guys. they’re unique and difficult to
quantify, but as familiar as a smell of your house. i was first
introduced to them when they had a few songs to record. we did a live
gtr/vocal performance in one evening in bearsville studio B. i thought
what we all thought that night. great songs, great night. that record
became known as "iantown". that was the beginning. the boys started
playing more and more together over the next year and eventually
started a proper band with a bunch of new material. we put together a
triage operation an old estate in Kerhonkson NY that used to be a
shakespeare summer camp. we took up residence in the old cafeteria
which had tons of room and a little stage in the far end. the roof
leaked everywhere, there were piles of mildewy old costumes all over,
crusty mice infested mattresses, the whole place was a bit rugged. we
had to run extension cords for about 100 yards to the nearest building
with power. that is what i powered the entire studio with. during the
next few weeks, we captured some amazing music that became "thru these
reins and gone" and was later released by Loose in england as "Tonight
at the Arizona". those original songs still have the stink of that
room in them. we got struck by lightning. ian never missed a beat,
just kept on going and then the thunder happened below the opening
vocal line. studio gear set up in a lightning storm and we just kept
rolling. brave. we all knew that was the take. we had been in the
studio toiling over the follow up record to arizona and "adventures"
was born. it was all about quickness and vibe. for "Adventues" we set
up in an old chicken coop and cut live. live to 8 track with live
vocals. i didn’t even tweak anything on the fly because i was in the
coop with the band playing percussion. we added a few extras on top of
that, mostly just backup vocals and harmonies, and that was it.
"these days getting to play skins with the boys is one of the greatest
thrills of my life. i've never really considered myself a drummer but
i've always loved to play, so to get an opportunity to play stank
beats in this stank band is so much stank fun you can't even imagine.
there is no other band on the planet that i would rather be playing
drums for. no band. i just go where i'm needed and i'm lucky enough
to have been needed to fill in on beats for a minute. as soon as i'm
needed to cut new hot hits, then i'll be on the other side of the
glass loving that just as much. i'm just thankful to be in the same
room with these guys."
He is considered one of the rising star producers in rock music and is
being considered in some circles to be an heir apparent to mega
producers like Daniel Lanois, Brendan O'Brien and one of his biggest
fans Rick Rubin, although he admits that his greatest inspiration is
Quincy Jones. "when i got to hang out with Q at SXSW, i was on cloud
99. i was thinking ok, i'm here. i'm in the same room as Q. such an
honor. Q is to music what the Dali Lama is to Zen. he's just done so
much and made so many mistakes that he gets it now. he gets the
secret to life, to music, to love. the whole time we were cutting
Yonder i was just constantly studying orchestration, arrangement, and
always picturing myself in the studio with Bruce channeling a scumbag
version of Q, and saying, "ok,..what would dirtbag Q do?"
