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Wednesday, August 21, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Sweet Remains to grace Sisters Folk Festival with harmonies
By Ceili Cornelius
Correspondent
Sweet Remains is a band
made up of three guys who
didn9t know they needed to be
in a band together.
Greg Naughton, one of the
three members of the band,
spoke with The Nugget on
the creation of the band, their
sound and their autobiograph-
ical film. The Sweet Remains
will be featured at this year9s
Sisters Folk Festival.
Known for their strong
melodic drive and comparable
sounds to bands of the 1960s
and 970s such as Crosby,
Stills, Nash and Young, the
Sweet Remains have been
a band on the road for over
10 years. Greg Naughton
and Rich Price attended col-
lege together in Middleburg,
Vermont, and went into music
together as a hobby. They
would sit in at each other9s
sets around New York per-
forming their own songs.
When they decided to go into
music together, they realized
the benefit of touring as a unit.
<Touring is expensive and
lonely, and being together we
were able to keep each other
company. However, through-
out our small music tours,
we felt like we were missing
that third harmony part,= said
Naughton.
Several years later, after
being separated for a while
and going on their own career
paths, Naughton and Price
found each other once again
in New York City through a
mutual record agency that was
going under. There is where
the two met Brian Chartrand.
They met for a jam session
in a hotel room and instantly
recognized the kinship they
had, and thought of Chartrand
as the third harmony part they
had previously been looking
for.
At first, the band9s name
was RGB, standing for
the members9 first names.
However, they thought of
the connection the band had
as a showing of how much
remained in their sound even
after two of the members
went off on their own.
<We thought of the three
of us connecting as a sort of
phoenix rising from what
remained, and that is where
we got the name 8Sweet
Remains9,= said Naughton.
Naughton and the two
other band members began
touring around the East Coast,
eventually moving westward
to where they are now nation-
ally known. They were all
touring with the band amidst
their own solo tours as well.
<We still did our own solo
recording and work while
also recording and writing for
the band, and we then played
the songs for producer Andy
Zula, and he has since been
the producer on all of the
band9s projects and albums,=
Naughton said.
Naughton describes the
band9s music as containing
broad strokes of Americana
and singer-songwriter rock
8n9 roll.
<A big inspiration for our
sound was Crosby, Stills,
Nash and Young with three-
part harmonies, Americana
folk, and rock instrumental
sound,= he said.
This year, an auto-
biographical film starring
the band members, <The
Independents= will be air-
ing in select theaters. There
will be a special screening
at the Sisters Movie House,
Wednesday, September 4, at
6:30 p.m. ahead of their per-
formances at the Sisters Folk
Festival. The event is free to
the public with a suggested
donation, with a limit of two
tickets per person.
The movie came about
after many years of collabora-
tion and talks with the mem-
bers of the band on if they
actually wanted to do some-
thing like this. Naughton had
previous theater experience,
owning a theater company in
New York while he was on a
break from music.
<In the middle of our tour I
began writing this film about
the band9s unique relationship
and their funny experiences,
and I felt fascinated by it,= he
said.
The film tells the story of
how the three men were fig-
uring out how to be in a band
4 and a touring band as well.
They went back and forth for
a long time on if they wanted
to hire actors for the film, or
just play themselves. They
opted to just play themselves.
<We went to the extreme
stock character version of
ourselves and in the movie,
we all kind of meet at crisis
points in our lives, which is
exaggerated slightly,= said
Naughton.
Rich Price, in the film, was
expected by his family to be
a super-scholar, which is what
he was in school before he
met Greg. Greg was in col-
lege and a tree-limbing arbor-
ist before finding music.
<Brian9s character was the
most exaggerated, that he was
this homeless lost hippie, but
he was without a job floating
around looking for another
music gig in real life when
we met him,= said Naughton.
<Playing ourselves really
allowed us to have a safe zone
to completely be ourselves
while filming.=
The band members had a
wonderful time doing the film
together and have already
received praise for the film. As
stated on their website: <8The
Independents9 debuted at the
Santa Barbara International
Film Festival where the
Hollywood Reporter hailed
it as 8An extremely engaging
film... An unconventional and
sharply written script which
subverts all the clichés of the
star-is-born story.9=
Over the summer, the band
has been recording new sin-
gles every month.
<For the start of every
month we release a new sin-
gle. It has been a nice way
for us to break out into the
streaming world and interact
with our audiences better,=
said Naughton.
Eventually, all of the sin-
gles will be collected into one
record. The band has been to
Superior
Escrow
Execution
Ultimate
Service
PHOTO PROVIDED
The Sweet Remains — stars of stage and screen.
Oregon a number of times,
but never to Sisters.
<We look forward to it
very much and I have friends
in Bend I am looking forward
to getting to see as well,= he
said.
The Sweet Remains will
be playing the Sisters Folk
Festival, September 6-8.
Tickets are still available. For
more information visit www.
sistersfolkfestival.org. They
will also host a question-and-
answer session at the screen-
ing of <The Independents=
on Wednesday, September
4 at Sisters Movie House at
6:30 p.m.
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