Presskit – INNER EAR BRIGADE

Band Bio

Inner Ear Brigade (IEB) is an ensemble of musicians based in the San Francisco Bay Area who play a unique mix of progressive rock, jazz, and experimental pop, all delivered through their originally detailed compositions and arrangements. They recently released their 2nd full length album “Dromology”. The music is “fun, happy, accessible, and proggy.” Steeped with a vintage analog sensibility, effects processing, and synthesizers, IEB crafts their sounds from “ RIO elements (Rock In Opposition), Canterbury (Sound), and Zappa”. IEB is Bill Wolter (guitar and compositions), Ivor Holloway (sax), Andrew Jamieson (keyboards), Stephen Wright (bass), Alison Niedbalski (vocals) and Christopher Lauf (drums).

IEB History

For nearly a decade, Inner Ear Brigade has played countless shows and released critically acclaimed albums with their special brand hybrid and complex rock music. Created by band leader, guitarist, and composer Bill Wolter, around 2006 in Oakland California, IEB has existed in various sizes and configurations in the San Francisco Bay Area. IEB has played countless shows and festivals in their various incarnations including the Switchboard Music Festival, Prog by Prog West, Smile Progressive Rock Festival, NorCal Prog Festival, and the Outsound New Music Summit, as well as Nation wide touring on the East Coast in New York City.

Band leader Bill Wolter’s songwriting and composition approach has been highly intuitive, working for hours at the piano and guitar creating chord progressions, melodies, riffs, and musical ideas. The music flows out in a natural fashion and the result is an original amalgam of influences broad musical influences. Bill Wolter has studied Music Composition at Mills College with Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, and was inspired by hearing John Zorn’s music in the late 90’s.

Music influences are birthed from the borderlands of musical convention and experimental practices. Some of our top influences would be French band Magma, John Coltrane late work, French classical composer Olivier Messiaen, Brazilian Jazz musician Hermeto Pascoal, American Bandleader and keyboardist Sun Ra, New York Composer John Zorn’s music, South East Asian Carnatic music, Frank Zappa, John Cage, and J.S. Bach.