For her forthcoming debut album, violinist, songwriter, and singer Skye Carrasco initially thought big. "I had envisioned all these different instruments - piano, trumpet, trombone, string bass, maybe even some accordion," she said in a phone interview promoting her June 17 Rozz-Tox show.
"It ended up being much simpler that I had originally imagined," she said. "As I recorded the songs - the vocals and the violin parts - ... and really listened to them a lot, ... we decided that perhaps we should start with some drums and electric bass."
That's where it started, and that's where it ended. The first half of the album - which the Iowa City resident hopes to release this fall - is so lightly adorned that it might escape listeners' notice until the relative cacophony of "Empty Buckets." That track signals a distinct change in tone, from elegantly lyrical to abrasive and often discordant.
