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The 25 members of Polyphonic Spree travel en masse, wear white robes, and sing about topics like sunshine and peace. But hold the Hari Krishna jokes: This Dallas-based symphonic supergroup is a tightly choreographed, highly engineered pop production. With a roster that includes nine singers, two drummers, and a string section, getting anything done is a nondenominational nightmare. So when it comes to rehearsing, recording new material (the album Together We're Heavy is due July 13), or opening for David Bowie on his North American tour, the Spree relies on more than just good cheer and a burned-out road crew. Here's a look at the logistics.
How Polyphonic Spree Spreads the Word
Wire all nine singers individually. "They all have their own microphones," says singer and frontman Tim DeLaughter. "With that many people onstage, it's better for us to carry our own mixer board and run all the channels ourselves."
Tour with two buses - and 20 laptops. "We're definitely wired," he notes.
Have the headline act cart your stuff. "David Bowie's crew has a huge trailer, so they carry our gear with them," says DeLaughter. Current kit includes: keyboard, harp, traditional wind instruments and strings, drum set, and even a theremin (think Star Trek theme song).
Book large venues - even if it means playing a skating rink. "We're not wearing skates or anything, but we are performing on the ice," says DeLaughter.
When you can't assemble the group physically, do it virtually. "I use a software program called Finale," says Ricky Rasura, the band's harp player and one of its composers. "I come up with a melody, then write it out on my laptop. Finale knows the exact instrumentation. And it's very flexible - you can write for whole orchestras on it."
Exercise extreme patience in the recording studio. "It was challenging," admits DeLaughter. "We had to take individual tapes and digital files, dump them into more than a hundred tracks, and then mix the record."
- Adrienne Day
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