Biography
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Founded In
San Jose, Santa Clara County, California, United States
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Members
- Bean Kaloni Tupou
Bean Kaloni Tupou is a self-taught, touring musician born and raised in San Jose, California who has also been active since 2007 in such Bay Area bands as Sourpatch, Salt Flat, Crabapple and Plume.
Try the Pie is a solo effort spanning the length of almost ten years, drawing upon a Tongan-American and a Bay Area punk background, Bean pieces together ideas of impromptu harmony, poetic imagery, soft guitar melodies, dissonance and noise. These elements are used to create a sonic collage-work to provide a variety of vivid storytelling. The project is based heavily in the ideas of mixing present experiences with indigenous folk art, inherited histories and oral storytelling of a poetic nature.
Try The Pie put their first full-length album, 'Domestication' out on Salinas Records out of Detroit in April of 2015. The record is a meditation on early life and socialization using beautiful melodies drenched in noise. 'Domestication' is the first effort using the help of other musicians and was recorded by Damien Wendel in November 2014 in San Jose, California. The album has sparked three tours: a full-band Pacific Northwest tour in March 2015, a solo East Coast tour in August 2015 and a full-band North American tour in October of 2015.
Released on November 13th, 2015, 'Rest' is the most recently released full-length from Try the Pie but it is a retro-released and was recorded in 2008. "Alu'a", the sixth track off the album, is the Tongan word for goodbye when you are staying and the other person is going. "Rest" is an album dedicated to this sentiment. Bean wrote the songs over a duration of three years (2005-2008) and recorded it in the last year by themselves in my room in San Francisco. Sometimes you can hear someone doing dishes or the beep of a dying smoke-detector. This album is an example of the slow, whispering tempo, slanted harmonies and embellished metaphors that Bean grew up listening to.
Bean has confirmed to perform Try the Pie at DIY Popfest in London in April of 2016, attaching East Coast and UK Tour dates to the mix for early May.
Other Releases:
'Bedroom': a self-recorded and distributed collection of intimate songs from 2009-2010. The album is a demonstration of the confessional-type songwriting aspects of Try the Pie.
'Wondrous': released as a 7" record on Past Survivor Records, this four track album is a haunting dedication to the "wondrous" and transformative aspects of pain. This album sparked a Pacific Northwest tour in August of 2012.
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