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September 7th, 2016

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Frank LoCrasto - Daytona

For one humid summer day in Philadelphia, the jazz-inspired, synth exotica solo artist, Frank LoCrasto enjoyed The War on Drugs rhythm section as his backing band. The group recorded Daytona, a smooth number featuring an infectious groove, a museum-worth of vintage synthesizers, and Miner Street’s telltale ambient reverb effects.

     Charlie Hall curated the project. As the drummer of The War on Drugs, he had met Frank on tour, and had long wanted to show the world LoCrasto’s incredible talent. Charlie also harbored a great deal of respect for the community Frank played with in New York, so bringing him to Philly for Shaking Through made a ton of sense.

     When he was young, Frank’s dad bought him a Casio keyboard. He practiced incessantly, and by the time he was of age, a managed to get into the music program at The New School in New York. It was there that he fell in love with vintage synthesizers, and quickly stood out among his peers as a go-to jazz-fusion keyboardist.

     He also caught the eye of legendary jazz guitarist Pat Martino while playing a gig in Philadelphia. The opportunity to tour with Martino was compelling, so he dropped out of school and went on the road. He imagined it’d be the time of his life, but after only a few months, Frank became disillusioned. He made his way back to New York, found work playing restaurants - and anything else he could do to make a living playing music. His feelings about music only seemed to darken, but after a short stint back at his parents’ home in Texas, Frank started to see his network back in New York City in a different light.

     He was asked by a friend to do some home recordings for a commercial music library company. He could do it on his own schedule, and it was easy. He could also work on his own music recordings, which became a source of new light for Frank.

     For Shaking Through Frank put together a simple demo of Daytona. It included drum machine and synth bass - placeholders for something of a dream team rhythm section that would include Charlie Hall and his War on Drugs bandmate, David Hartley.

     Though he had prepared rigorously for the session (right down meticulous charts), Frank enthusiastically welcomed everyone’s input throughout the day, which opened the door for some serious experimentation with effects, tape machines and microphones pointed out the window into the street.

     Daytona turned out great, in part the result of Frank’s years of ups and downs - going to New York, leaving New York, going back again. Those years seemed to set the stage for a creative equilibrium that he is now comfortable with, such that a small group of excellent folks in an environment of collaborative creativity could be a 100%  pure success.

 
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LO-RES

16 bit / 44.1 Kbps

463.4 MB

375.6 MB

94.1 MB

HI-RES

24 bit / 88.2 Kbps

1.6 GB

1.5 GB

873.6 MB

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