Danish band makes spare, haunting, emotional, lo-fi rock; read their story and take a listen. What do you get when you mix fragile Bjorkish vocals, music box twinkle keyboard and melodica sounds, dreamy steel guitar string washes and cryptic yet full-fledged emotive lyrics? All the way from Copenhagen, Green Pitch show how strong quiet can be. Green Pitch features the ethereal yet sweetly strong vocals of Rex (that’s a girl, that Rex) Garfield and the guitar intertwinings of partner Ste Rasch. The music evokes sounds of old school Bjork (circa Sugar Cubes) and the melodic tunesmithing of a Sam Beam or a Sufjan. Their record, Ace of Hearts, came out overseas last year but will be making its US splash here on Funzalo Records in 2007. Green Pitch is Rex Garfield and Ste Rasch at its core. Green Pitch is music, courage and determination. Green Pitch is bigger than the sum of its parts.
In Rex’s words, a bit of a Green Pitch bio: I was born in Paris on December 24th, 1979. My mother and father had just moved there from Denmark with my three older siblings, because my father had been offered a job there as a preacher. A year after I was born he died suddenly, and my mother brought the family back to Denmark to raise us. Since I was a child I’ve been fond of words and have spent much time writing. When I was 17, I picked up my father’s old Spanish guitar and started writing songs, but kept these to myself. In 1998, Ste moved from a small Danish island to Copenhagen, where we met, spending our last year of high school in the same class. He played guitar with the rock band The River Phoenix, which I joined for awhile as a backup singer. Ste and I became close friends and started composing songs together, and recording our music on a four track in the “Rivers’” rehearsing room. I was very confident and strong willed as a child, but that disappeared when I first started singing. I remember working in the rehearsing room alone, uneasy because someone might hear me. I’d wait for the bands in the other rehearsing rooms to start playing, so my voice would go unnoticed. I dreamed of performing, and often went with Ste to clubs where they had an open mic night. To Ste’s frustration, I always chickened out.