Members:
Larry Davis (Pharmacologist, SF); guitar, bass
David Graves (Pharmacologist, SF); keyboards
Jim Henriques (Physicist, OC); guitar, keyboards, percussion
Richard Kallet (Respiratory Researcher, SF); percussion
Origins: Rich and Jim met years ago at music school at the University of Miami. Rich now works with Dave’s wife who is a nurse. Dave and Larry met at a pharmacology conference. Rich found Jim on the internet about four years ago, and when all got together at Dave’s house in San Francisco everything gelled quickly.
Name: As noted, ScienceNV are all trained scientists. During one of the early meetings, we riffed about how people in other fields, specifically those in the liberal arts, are often quite earnest in expressing to us their scientific expertise. (One example: after Jim became a Physics professor he entered a graduate program in music composition. Upon learning of his profession one of his instructors took every opportunity to show him that he knew what the ‘log’ button on his scientific calculator did.) The band name followed from this discussion.
Writing process: The majority of songs start as improvisations (Violet Sky/Karnival, Jalapeno Swamp Gas, No. 5, for instance) and evolve into set pieces. Dave has the luxury of being a full-time composer, having retired after taking a big stock cash-out from the biotech firm he worked for. We adapted several of his many compositions (Rim Forest, Hard Break, After Math (heavily adapted)); additionally, Dave arranged the “radio mix” of Bolero. The Devil in Witches’ Hands is an expanded version of something Jim wrote. Chacooonne is a collaboration: Jim wrote the ‘tune’ and Dave arranged it.
CD: The music is performed less live. The exceptions are the doubling and comp guitar tracks on The Devil in Witches’ Hands, a Juno 6 synth-rise at the end of Bolero, and Chacooonne, which is heavily multitracked. It was recorded on a Mac G5 using Digital Performer with Masterworks plug-ins and a Mackie 24:8 mixer, mastered by Steve Glaze at ToneFreq in San Jose.
Miscellaneous: For live performances ScienceNV adds two ‘cover’ tunes: “Hot ‘Lanta” by the Allman Brothers, and “Careful with that Axe, Eugene” by Pink Floyd.
www.sciencenv.com
