Local 913, Episode 59: Cold Weather
Mark Ramsey, front-man for the Pittsburgh indie rock band Cold Weather, took some piano lessons as a child and ended up revisiting the instrument in college in a class called “Piano for Non-Pianists.”
“The instructor was like ‘You’re a natural piano player! You should stop playing the saxophone and start playing the piano’ and I was like ‘Yeah, but I love playing the saxophone!’ He was basically, in a nice way was like ‘You’re not very good at the saxophone, but you’re very good at the piano!”
Not only did Mark start playing piano again, he also plays bass and guitar as well as arranges for his band Cold Weather. Along with producer, Jake Hanner, the band recorded their full length debut, 2015’s When Waking. The ABC show “The Family” recently used a song from that album on their season finale, which can be viewed online. The band also just released two bonus songs including “Nothing But Mountains,” born out of a jam session between Ramsey and bassist Sarah Lacy. The track, which features Chris Fazio from The Hills and The Rivers on strings, demonstrates the experimental and creative side of Cold Weather along with Hanner’s production lead.
“He [Hanner] is really good at hearing the whole range of sound. He wouldn’t necessarily know what the part should be, but he would know where it should be. There were a couple of songs in the process of recording this album where we recorded way more than ended up on the track. This was one of those songs. To a certain extent, you have to put the editor hat to the side. There were a couple ideas that I had where at first Jake would be like ‘aahhh?’ and I would be like, ‘ Just trust me!”
For more on Cold Weather, check out their Facebook page.
