The bare essentials

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Some bands don’t travel well on a CD … or mp3, or whatever you’ve got in your musical bag of tricks.

Sometimes you just don’t get that unique feeling that the band can bring to you live. However, there is such a band that not only travels well in portable listening format, but also excels at it. Cabinessence is just such a welcome outlier.

Cabin-what?

“[The name is] a Brian Wilson song that was supposed to be on the album Smile, which never came out in its originally intended form,” says Jacob Arnold, who contributes Cabinessence’s guitar and vocals.

Taking a cue from such recording greats as The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Wesley Willis (okay that last one was a joke), Cabinessence is able to foist its sound, style and feeling to the iPods, stereos and CD players of the world.

Arnold and Nathan Maricle, both on vocals and guitars, handle most of the songwriting. Though the sound isn’t complete without David Pulliam on keyboards and guitar, Tim Coulter on bass and Mike Ronne picking up the beat.

Starting back in 2003, Arnold and Maricle put together their musical talents and sat down to begin what eventually became Cabinessence’s first record. It was a good start for what has now become an established group.

“Just Nathan and I made the bulk of our first record during 2003¬–04,” Arnold says. “Met Dave and finished the record. Slowly found bass and drums after many tries.”

Listening to Cabinessence is an ambitious leap into the chaotic meld of styles that they so eloquently put in order. Listeners might be entranced by distorted waves of sound one moment and be tapping their toes to a country ballad the next.

“The style or genre of our music is constantly expanding as we write and record more music,” Arnold says. “Up to this point it lies somewhere in the psychedelic/country/soul/funk vein. Every once in awhile a new tune will come along and widen the box a bit more.”

That box certainly is wide, filled not only with Cabinessence’s form, but also the influences that carry with them. Influences that are progressive so listeners can clearly hear and enjoy Cabinessence without feeling they are ripping off their predecessors, a pratfall many bands fall into.

“Nathan and I write the bulk of the songs,” Arnold says. “Usually, one will bring a mostly finished song to the band and we flush it out together. Or we cover the entire process in the studio as we record it. Except for a very rare case. Lyrics always come last.”

Clearly no strangers to the studio, it is this obsession with their compositions that makes Cabinessence such a versatile act. Their music comes from such meticulous collaboration that it is able to jump effortlessly across mediums and that—much in the style Arnold’s idol, Brian Wilson—is the key to their increasing success.