The Narrative
The Narrative is an American independent indie rock band from Long Island, New York, formed in 2007. They are currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. Since 2011, the band has consisted of Suzie Zeldin and Jesse Gabriel. Previously, the group featured the drummer Charlie Seich. The group started its musical career with their debut EP Just Say Yes, released in 2008, where "Eyes Closed" stands out as the most popular song with more than four million views on YouTube. Its debut album The Narrative was released in 2010. As well the group release two supporting tour-EP, Nothing Without You in 2010 and Kickstarter EP in 2011. A follow-up EP b-side compilation album, B-Sides and Seasides was released online in 2012. The Narrative released its second studio album, Golden Silence, on December 2, 2016.
History
2006–08: Formation
In 2006, after graduating, Jesse Gabriel decided to find some musicians to begin a musical project. He wrote a three-page open advertisement and submitted it to Craigslist. After some answers, he looked saw Suzie Zeldin's response, who was also looking for musicians to form a band, and they decided to meet. They found that they had studied in the same school on Bellmore, Long Island, but never met. The two decided to collaborate in music, around October 2006, naming the band "January Window", before changing it to the Narrative. Zeldin spoke to U-T San Diego, explaining the following about the change of band name, "We came up with the name while we were recording the 'Just Say Yes' EP. At one point, we had put together a list of random band names, mostly from literary terms, poems, or song lyrics we liked and sent them around to our friends. For a short time, we settled on January Window which is from a Sylvia Plath poem. We ended up not liking it after a while and revisited the list and found The Narrative Paradigm which seemed a little wordy and pretentious so we shortened it to The Narrative. We decided it was a good name and have been happy with it."The band's first song released was the demo version of "End All Arrival", under the name January Window on January 1, 2007, on MySpace, which was later used on their debut album. Jesse would not sing in the band initially, but Suzie asked him and he decided to sing "Slide" by the Goo Goo Dolls. Following this "audition", Suzie was pleased by his voice and Jesse was thus included in the lead vocals and the back vocals. Drummer Charles Seich was added to the band after being introduced to Jesse and Suzie for the purposes of recording their EP.
In 2007, Suzie participated in many band projects, singing in Russian on "I'm Breathing... Are You Breathing Too?" by Envy on the Coast, Fairmont's song "Melt Your Heart" from the album Transcendence, and The Minus Scale's song "No Matter What I Say You're Going To Do It". She also sang guest vocals on the Dashboard Confessional side of the New Found Glory split EP Swiss Army Bromance song "All About Her", as well as on at least one track on the newest edition of the released Dashboard Confessionals, Wire Tapes Vol 2. Before the Narrative she also released solo material, such as the Excuses EP, featuring four songs.
2008: ''Just Say Yes''
The Narrative spent the next couple years on Zeldin's cramped Upper West Side apartment writing songs to their first EP entitled Just Say Yes. The production of Just Say Yes was made without a big idea; Jesse explains, "we're really just excited about recording the songs we worked on." The EP was produced by Bryan Russell, who gave to the group a directional help on developing its sounds, influenced by bands as Death Cab for Cutie and Jimmy Eat World. Just Say Yes was released independently on August 30, 2008.Since its release, the band received two large promotions, when Myspace Canada featured the full EP for streaming on the website's front page. Through the years and late 2011–2012, songs from Just Say Yes were featured on episodes of MTV's reality TV shows: Real World: Brooklyn and Real World: Cancun, Jersey Shore, Savage U, TV shows on MTV2, MTV's Canada Peak Season as well on VH-1, Nickelodeon's TeenNick series Gigantic, National Geographic and Starz. They also received an unsigned showcase on Absolutepunk.net, Friends or Enemies Unsigned VIP Band and named in the AbsolutePunk Top 100. On May 1, 2009, the band announced via Facebook that they would have a short tour with Destry to support the EP, in June staying within northeastern America. The East Coast tour started on June 18 to 28.
2010–11: Debut album: ''The Narrative''
In 2009, The Narrative began to record their debut album, entitled The Narrative. The band recorded the self-titled with the same producer of their debut EP, Bryan Russell on his studio Red Wire Audio in New York. Different from their first release, production of The Narrative took an original direction, "We're not looking to sound like anything or anyone else. We might say, "Hey, this part reminds me of this song. Maybe we can take it in that sort of a direction and it'd be cool, but we never start out trying to write a song like one that has already been written," explained Jesse. Without a bassist member, the group called their friend Ari Sadowitz to be the studio bassist for the album.On July 23, the Narrative premiered the song "Silence and Sirens" in an acoustic version on the program of WOOD-TV West Vibe Eight West. The Narrative was officially released on July 27, 2010, through the project "The Record Collective". On July 29, the band premiered the album live on a show at Gramercy Theater with Relient K and the Gay Blades.
The album was featured on the front page of MySpace U.S and PureVolume.com who declared them one of the "Top Unsigned Bands of 2010", The American Creative Top 20 Albums as well featured in the national campaign, launched by Propellerhead Software and leading A&R consulting agency Room 64, "RM64 Artists Record". The band has been touring nationally with Eisley, Relient K, Mae, including CMJ playing in the Big Picture Media showcase and SXSW showcases during the year supporting the self-titled. In September 2010, they were a featured band in the Alternative Press article "Unsigned Bands, AP Wants You!", stylized as AP&R in the issue No. 267. On June 1, 2011, they appeared live on Fox 5 San Diego, while touring with Eisley, featuring a small interview and also performing the acoustic version of "You Will Be Mine".
The band parted ways with their drummer Charlie in early 2011, later explaining that he left the band due to the financial difficulties of the band's expenses on the Eisley tour and personal needs. The Narrative then brought out touring drummer and Long Island native Jay Scalchunes to help them complete a five-week stint of the Vans Warped Tour, playing on Kevin Says Stage from July 19 to August 14, 2011. On October 19, 2011, the Narrative made another showcase at the CMJ Marathon on Sullivan Hall. The Narrative's song "Fade" was featured in the soundtrack of the film produced by Bob Fugger, The Chateau Meroux, released in 2012.
2012–2016: ''B-Sides and Seasides and Golden Silence''
On March 26, 2012, it was announced that the band had started work on their second studio album titled Golden Silence. The album was produced by Bryan Russell and Justin Long and recorded in an English cathedral barn, built in 1900, in Upstate New York. Zeldin said that the band took a new direction with the album, "We do feel like the songs we recorded are more mature than our previous releases" she explains "We feel much more confident in the kind of music we want to make". The band was helped by Jay Scalchunes to be the session drummer and Ari Sadowitz the bassist for the recordings of the album.To support the album production, the Narrative released through digital download their b-side compilation album B-Sides and Seasides on April 4, 2012. The b-side features acoustic versions of the album The Narrative and Just Say Yes, and also two new songs "Hallelujah", and "Make It Right". It also features covers of Radiohead, "Karma Police" and from Brand New, "Tautou". These songs were produced for the tour EP Kickstarter, supporting the band's 2011 Spring Tour; the campaign on Kickstarter raised about $8,500. Some acoustic songs were also released on the support tour EP Nothing Without You.
On July 18, Jesse posted a note about the new album on Tumblr, where he talked about the desired release date in the same year and the difficulties from its releases. On November 25, Z100 started they annual contest "Z100 Hometown Hero". The Narrative was nominated with twenty-seven other musicians for one-month competition of "demands" through Eventful. The band stayed in the second step the contest with five, and won the 2º place.
In 2013, Suzie Zeldin joined the folk/Americana project Twin Forks created by Chris Carrabba when he was recording the solo album Covered in the Flood. The group first formation consisted in Chris Carrabba, Suzie Zeldin, Jonathan Clark and Ben Homola from Bad Books. The band debut happened on the SXSW 2013. While Suzie went on tour with Twin Forks, Jesse recorded in the beginning of 2014 a solo project with Bryan Russell titled Here, Sit, Stay, released on October 22, through digital download.
On January 27, 2014, the band re-issued the EP Just Say Yes through VIDA Records and 프로시마뮤직엔터테인먼트 in South Korea.
On February 15, 2014, it was announced that the lead single from Golden Silence, titled "Chasing a Feeling", would be released online on June 3, 2014. The accompanying music video was premiered on July 28, 2014, on Idolator. On January 12, 2016, The Narrative released the promotional single titled "Moving Out" through digital download. Following, "Toe the Line" also as promotional single, was released on January 27, 2016. On October 28, 2016, The Narrative premiered its last single "California Sun", announcing the album release date. Golden Silence was released on December 2, 2016, independently by the band through digital download.