Video: Cousin Earth cranks it at the New Jersey Ukulele Festival
By Kevin Coughlin
On New Year’s Eve, First Night Morris County will feature man-eating snakes, wise-cracking hypnotists and dancing fleas, among dozens of other acts.
But the wildest act of all may be a gang of ukulele-toting Brooklynites who call themselves Cousin Earth.
They don’t tiptoe through the tulips; they take a sonic backhoe to the garden, cross-pollinate like crazy, and harvest wondrously weird musical crops right before your eyes and ears.
Covers range from Disney to Zappa. Original songs are inspired by cartoon themes. Amps are dialed to 11.
Patrons of last summer’s New Jersey Ukulele Festival still don’t know what hit them. The staff at Morristown’s First Baptist Church, on 51 Washington St., where Cousin Earth will perform at 7:15 pm and 8:15 pm on First Night, should inspect the roof now, to make sure it’s bolted securely in place.
Formerly known as Ukulelian, the band consists of lead ukester Joey Calfa, Terry Brennan on vocals and kazoo, Corey J. Feldman on uke-bass and trumpet, Tara Lawton on vocals and melodica, and Nate Searing on drums.
We asked Corey J. Feldman to reveal the group’s diabolical strategy for making Cousin Earthlings of us all.
MORRISTOWN GREEN: Cousin Earth is not what people typically think of when you say “ukulele.” How would you describe Cousin Earth?
Corey J. Feldman: We are a fun-time progressive ukulele rock band from outer space! Our band features tiny instruments like ukulele, ukulele-bass, melodica, Microkorg, kazoos, and percussion toys as well as more traditional instruments like guitar and bass guitar at times.
We play styles ranging from Bluegrass, Ragtime, and Rock, to Latin, Prog, and Electronica. We also focus on vocals and big harmonies where we all sing. Inspired by artists like Frank Zappa and Phish, we like to mash up seriousness, musicality, and humor.
MG: How did you cook up the idea of marrying ukuleles with rock and roll?
Corey: That was really Joey Calfa’s doing. We were a more traditional rock band (Mercury Landing), before we grew into Cousin Earth. Joey picked up the Ukulele on a trip to Hawaii and became obsessed with it. Through YouTube he was inspired by all the cool ways people were using the instrument.
He started a side project with Mercury Landing drummer and college buddy Nate Searing after a trip to Costa Rica where people really responded to his ukulele playing.
At first, the idea was to add a rhythm section to cover songs as chord melodies (a very popular tradition on YouTube where instrumentalists play the melody and chords of a song at once without any accompaniment or vocals).
Once the rest of us in Mercury Landing got a sense of the project we all thought it would be fun to join in. The band which was still considered a side-project at that point began to add vocals and interpret Mercury Landing songs as chord melodies as well.
One day Joey plugged the uke into his pedal-board and was surprised at how well it translated. At that point we all started playing the game of what songs can’t we do with a uke. I remember when we first decided to attempt this really progressive song and laughed at how well it worked.
Slowly we started to uke-ify more of the old band’s songs and write new music as Cousin Earth. We did a few shows with both setups, and then we ended up entirely in the realm of the ukulele. It wasn’t until this year that we’ve started incorporating guitar back into our live shows.
MG: Have you gotten any strange receptions from audiences who showed up expecting something more… traditional?
Corey: I think that’s one of the best things about our shows. People expect a “ukulele band” to be mellow and perhaps less exciting than a traditional band. That makes it really fun for us to defy their expectations.
I think some people think they are going to get some kind of Jack Johnson-type songs, and what they end up getting is loud, diverse, and very orchestrated. Even when Joey is sound-checking all his pedals, I think people immediately realize that this is no regular ukulele show.
MG: Your performance at this year’s NJ Uke Fest spanned an eclectic range of artists and styles. Who are your musical influences? How do you decide what makes your set list?
Corey: We have many musical influences across every genre. I have already mentioned Frank Zappa and Phish, which are huge, but Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Umphrey’s McGee, Andy McKee, Jake Shimabukuro, the Muppets, Mr. Bungle, the Kinks, John Scofield, Daft Punk, Anything Disney, and David Bowie all come to mind along with way too many to list.
As far as our set list is concerned, we have a formula with a lot of rules. We think it’s important to blend originals and covers, usually back and forth to an extent so that the audience can always get something new and something familiar.
We always try to have our sets grow in intensity as well. No artist can get covered more than once in a set and we try to showcase as many genres as possible. That means that we tend to have multiple songs that fit one ore more of the criteria of genre, intensity or cover/original.
We try to play a different set-list every night and thus try to constantly use different songs to follow our formula. We also currently do six medleys and try to change those up as well. So basically, everything is fair game and if you think it wouldn’t translate to uke, that usually makes it to the top of our list of songs to play.
MG: Have you ever played a First Night gig before? What is a typical New Year’s Eve like for your band?
Corey: This is our first First Night! Last year we had the pleasure of doing Gatsby-themed private party for New Year’s that was so much fun. This is our first public performance for New Years. Being from New York City, there is always so much stuff to do on New Years. We usually end up seeing shows, or just spending time with family and friends. As the band progresses we are looking forward to many more nights of ringing in the new years with new friends and fans.
MG: What’s up your sleeves for First Night Morris County? What can newcomers to Cousin Earth expect?
Corey: I’ll try not to spoil it all, but you can be sure that there will be some fun medleys full of nostalgia, covers that both kids and adults will love, and originals that will make you dance. We’re gonna go from Disney to Zeppelin on this performance. You can also expect to see a guitar by the end of the show. If you know what Joey does on a uke, imagine what he can do with extra strings and frets.
MORE ABOUT FIRST NIGHT MORRIS 2017
MorristownGreen.com is a proud sponsor of First Night Morris County. This year’s silver anniversary show features nearly 90 events –art, comedy, dance and music for all ages– filling 27 venues, all within an easy walk or a free shuttle ride in downtown Morristown. The alcohol-free fun starts at 4:45 pm and continues to midnight–with two fireworks shows thrown in. A $25 badge gets you into everything. (Discounts available for groups of four or more.) Admission information and a performance schedule are here; you can download an app with the full roster and venues.
