Altered Zones

By Jenn Pelly

MP3: Julian Lynch: "Canopy"

MP3: James Ferraro: "Cinderella"

In a recent interview, DIY archivist Michael Azerrad, author of the 10-year-old indie bible, Our Band Could Be Your Life, called the musical period of the present one of greatest he's ever known. “If you think music sucks right now, in the deepest sense you are old,” he told The Village Voice. Azerrad's words echo the ethos of seminal blog-era indie label Underwater Peoples, founded two-and-a-half years ago by four seniors at DC's George Washington University: Ari Stern, Mike Mimoun, Evan Brody, and Sawyer Carter Jacobs, now a first-year student at Brooklyn Law School.

The label has also served as an avenue for Brody, Ari, Sawyer, and Mimoun's own music; they formed the band Family Portrait in 2009, and released a 7" and an LP prior to the band's recent shift from a neo-'50s jangle-pop four-piece to a more electronics-oriented trio, which still includes Ari and Brody, and occasionally, Mimoun on drums. When I met up with the guys at Mimoun’s downtown Manhattan apartment, the four 23-year-olds continually finished each other’s sentences as they discussed UP's origins and growth.

AZ: You guys attended GW together. How did you first meet?

Ari: We lived on the same floor.

Sawyer: I lived with some dudes and hung out; they lived with other dudes and hung out.

Brody: Ari and I smoked a joint one day and walked to the National Mall. Ari’s from Livingston, 25 minutes away from Ridgewood. I was surprised I never met Ari until college. It is quite possible we attended the same Bar Mitzvahs.