arts & life

PHOTO BY IRISH JURVIS

mu s i c

Daniel Ericksen, August Leo and Drew Barosik

Ready For Their Close-Up

Reisa Shanaman | Special to the Jewish News

Local musician

Daniel Ericksen has

a thing for debut

albums — and adds

his own indie-pop

band’s to his list.

Taxon Clade, the band’s epony-
mously titled debut album

details

Taxon Clade’s debut album, Taxon
Clade, comes out July 5. The band
will celebrate with an album
release party 8 p.m. Thursday,
July 7, at the Loving Touch in
Ferndale. $5. (248) 820-5596;
thelovingtouchferndale.com;
taxonclade.com.

W

atching the music
video for Midtown-
based trio Taxon
Clade’s “All the Time Here Again”
may evoke a strong sense of nos-
talgia for summer camp. The video
features Daniel Ericksen, 23, the
indie rock band’s lead singer/guitar
player/songwriter, singing and
strumming the mellow tune all
around Belle Isle.
Ericksen, who grew up in
Huntington Woods, spent 11 sea-
sons at Wooden Acres, first as a
camper and later as a counselor
before eventually being named the
camp’s song leader. He cites his
early musical experiences there as
being especially formative.
“I got a lot of confidence at
camp to play songs,” he says over
iced chai teas at Midtown’s Avalon
Bakery. The first song he per-
formed there was “What Becomes
of the Broken Hearted” by Jimmy
Ruffin during a camper talent
show. “Then I also sang ‘You Shook
Me All Night Long’ by AC/DC,” he
says. “It was awesome. I ripped off
my shirt.”
Losing his shirt mid-show has
become a tradition carried into
his performances with his current
band, Taxon Clade, beginning
with their first-ever-show together,
in July 2014, at Ferndale’s Found
Sound.
“It was a super-hot summer day
and there’s no air conditioning in

there. We were going to play 40
minutes, and I have a tendency to
sweat a lot,” he says. Describing
their sound as soul pop groove, the
band might be compared to fellow
folk-leaning indie outfits like My
Morning Jacket and Fleet Foxes.
Ericksen, who had his bar
mitzvah at Temple Emanu-El in
Oak Park — where he attended
preschool and religious school
through high school — says that
Jewish culture plays a role in his
life every day, and he is especially
fond of matzah ball soup. “My papa
used to say that if you throw the
matzah ball at the wall and it goes
through, then it’s perfect.”
Two years after their first per-
formance, the band is preparing to
release their first full-length album,
the eponymous Taxon Clade,
which Ericksen says will more
closely resemble how they sound
live than last year’s six-song EP We
Could Do That. The band, includ-
ing Ericksen and grade-school
friends Drew Bartosik (on bass/
backup vocals) and August Leo (on
percussion), started recording the
album a year ago, after first per-
fecting the songs in live settings.
“I have a thing for debut albums.
I think debut albums should be
awesome,” Ericksen says. “There’s
just so many bands that come out
with these amazing first albums.
The Doors came out with The
Doors, Rodriguez came out with

Cold Fact. It wasn’t popular in
America but [in] South Africa
and Australia it was. To me it’s
just a flawless album.” He counts
Rodriguez, and his raw, organic
sound, as a major influence, par-
ticularly on his band’s forthcoming
album.
Fortuitously, Ericksen shared an
unexpected afternoon with his idol
last summer, right in the middle of
the recording process. While out
on a bike ride with Nick Sapounas,
a member of Ericksen’s other band,
Gray/Bliss, they happened upon
the Motor City music legend sitting
with his sister at the Trumbullplex.
Naturally, he had a guitar in his lap.
“I told Rodriguez I’m a musician
and that I am a huge fan of his. He
gave me his guitar and told me to
play a song, so I started playing
his song ‘Hate Street Dialogue.’ He
invited us back to his house. It was
completely surreal,” he says.
Ericksen feels that experiences
like this one, especially while in the
midst of recording his own album,
are sure signs he is on the right
path. Beshert, even.
Taxon Clade had the opportu-
nity to work with another local
music legend, Jim Diamond, on
the self-titled forthcoming album.
Diamond, a music producer and
studio engineer, is perhaps best
known for his work on the first
two White Stripes albums and for
playing bass in Detroit garage rock

band the Dirtbombs. “I messaged
him a year ago to see if he could
record our album,” Ericksen says.
“It was right when he was about to
move to France, though, because
he lost his property Downtown, so
he had to move his studio.”
Although disappointed, Ericksen
sensed that Diamond was inter-
ested, so a year later he followed
up to see if he might be available to
mix and master it. The timing was
right this time.
“We [met him at] Assemble
Sound in Corktown, which hap-
pens to be right by our practice
space,” he says. “We went there for
two different sessions and mixed
six songs or so. It was awesome.
He was really down to earth, super
humble, really cool to work with.”
Walking around the band’s
Midtown stomping grounds, the
group has a tangible presence.
Look up and you are likely to see
street posts with Taxon Clade stick-
ers or bulletin boards plastered
with posters announcing their
upcoming album drop and release
party.
“That’s the town we’re in — you
have to be a go-getter if you want
to make stuff happen,” Ericksen
says. “There’re a lot of bands that
put out new music but nothing
happens. You can’t expect things
to just happen to you. If you want
something, you have to go out and
get it.”

*

June 30 • 2016

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