BYRON COLEMAN GOES BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD WITH HIS LATEST MUSICAL PROJECT, WRITES RYAN O’CONNELL

Some would say improvisation is a jazz musician’s gift, but Byron Coleman and his brother-in-law Pete Carr (who together form acoustic duo The Sketching Room) have it in spades.

‘Halfway through recording [title track to their debut album] “Pushing Cars”, we realised it was lacking something,’ says Byron. ‘It needed a new beat. But we didn’t have any drums in the studio at the time—so we just tapped an old drumstick onto the base of a keyboard. When you hear that weird slapping rhythm, that’s what that is.’

This studio memory captures the band’s do-it-yourself ethos well. One look at their debut CD Pushing Cars reinforces the point—a white square of paper is pasted on thick black card, adorned with sketchy broom-broom cars and the band’s roughly-pencilled title; all homemade charm. Not only did the pair write, record and produce the album themselves, but handcrafted each unit before personally posting them to customers who requested it via e-mail.

But the homemade style isn’t just about looks.

Read More....