Aloud is an American indie rock band known for its songwriting and vocal prowess, as well as using a two lead singer approach.Aloud: profile, BU Source, December 2005Live Review, The Noise, November 2005
Founded in 2002 by Jen de la Osa (lead vocals, guitar, keys) and Henry Beguiristain (lead vocals, guitar, keys) in Boston, Massachusetts, the group is rounded out by bassist/backing vocalist Charles Murphy and drummer Chris Jago. In 2017, the band expanded its lineup to include Alanah Ntzouras Maguire on saxophone and Vanessa Acosta on trumpet. Aloud has released music under the Lemon Merchant Records label since 2006, with the exception of their fourth studio album It's Got To Be Now.
Their latest EP Observer Affect is due to be released December 2024.
History 2002-2006: Formation and early years
Aloud was formed in May 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts, by lead vocalists/guitarists and primary songwriters, Jen de la Osa and Henry Beguiristain, who met as teenagers in the Miami-based band Rain.Loud & Proud: Aloud mixes pop smarts with hard rockin' (archived), D-Filed, 2003 Aloud evolved out of an earlier version of the group named Feedback, which included bassist Roy Fontaine. Rob Acevedo, who drummed for Rain, was recruited to play drums for the fledgling band on an indefinite, but temporary basis.about the band, The Internet Archive Wayback Machine, December 4, 2002 The four spent the summer working on a home-recorded four song demo titled Don't Trust the Radio, which was released on July 31, 2002, and was briefly sold at shows in the Boston area.Don't Trust the Radio, Public catalog at copyright.gov, October 31, 2002 In early 2003, Aloud recorded another four song demo titled Pretty Little Picture. Rob Acevedo would be replaced by Eric Anderson on drums before Ross Lohr was taken on near the end of 2003 as a permanent member.
The Sooner It Comes and Leave Your Light On
With the addition of Lohr, Aloud recorded The Sooner It Comes, a six-song EP, with producer Ian Hughes in early 2004. Aloud expanded their touring area to a greater portion of New England and New York City.Past Shows, 2004 , www.allthingsaloud.com That same year, Aloud met Hugh Wyman of the Boston band Baby Strange. Wyman became a frequent collaborator and adviser. He would eventually produce Aloud's debut album Leave Your Light On in 2005.
The band made its first real mark after releasing their debut album Leave Your Light On on May 2, 2006, to positive press and national airplay on college radio."Aloud", MySpace Music Review, May 6, 2006"Aloud and Clear", Stuff@Night Magazine, May 9, 2006CD Review, The Noise, July 2006CD Review, Performer Magazine (Northeast), July 2006 Aloud toured the record around the Northeast United States till the end of 2006 while concurrently working on material for their next record.
2007-2009: Fan The Fury and a new lineup In April 2007, Aloud made it to the semi-final round of the 29th annual WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, beating out 15 other groups for the wildcard slot.The 29th Annual WBCN Rock N' Roll Rumble , WBCN.com Jen de la Osa was nominated for Best Female Vocalist by the Boston Phoenix that month.’S no joke: A Best Music Poll pre-party, Paradise, April 4, 2007, April 9, 2007, The Boston Phoenix
De la Osa and Beguiristain spent the rest of 2007 writing material for a second album, eventually choosing to record it that Fall at Fireplace Studios in New York City with Sony mix engineer Caleb Shreve (under the pseudonym Chuck Brody). Between recording sessions, Aloud made their first appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon that October.CMJ: Band - Aloud (archived), Limewire Music Blog, October 17, 2007
Fan The Fury, was released on March 25, 2008. Fan The Fury contained more overt political themes than any of Aloud's previous work, and was praised as a more mature offering than Leave Your Light On. A national tour to support the album followed. Hard Up In The 2000s, a film documenting the Spring leg of the tour, was released on September 12, 2008.Hard Up In The 2000s - the tour documentary, www.allthingsaloud.com, September 12, 2008
In October 2008, it was revealed Aloud was developing a multimedia live performance of Fan The Fury titled I Just Want To Witness..., named after a lyric in the songs "Witness" and "Justice & Forgiveness"."Aloud: I Just Want To Witness..." stage show in Boston, www.allthingsaloud.com, October 22, 2008 The show integrated Aloud's live performance of Fan The Fury in its entirety with corresponding films, and was developed with filmmaker Johnathan Carr. Films were contributed by Johnathan Carr himself as well as directors Erin Bowser, Mike Pecci, Chris March, and animators Kristin Osiecki and Timothy Scholl. I Just Want To Witness... debuted in Boston on November 18, 2008. While this has been the only full performance of I Just Want To Witness..., Aloud later performed the majority of the show in New York in 2009.CMJ performance to include "Witness…" films , the Aloud blog, October 13, 2009
Music from Fan The Fury was heavily featured in Bad Habit Productions' presentation of The Laramie Project.Bad Habit Productions presents The Laramie Project , badhabitproductions.org, December 2008.
Lineup Changes and Live 2009 The latter half 2008 saw significant changes to Aloud's core lineup. Bassist Roy Fontaine parted ways with the group in September 2008. Subsequently, Aloud toured as a three-piece during the Fall 2008 leg of the Fan The Fury tour. After the tour, former Baby Strange bassist Tim Hare filled in on bass for live shows for the remainder of the year.
Ross Lohr left the group shortly after Fontaine's departure. His final performance with the group was January 29, 2009 in Allston, MA. He still appeared in the music video for the song "Julie". Elaborating in an interview a year later, Henry and Jen stated Lohr left the band amicably "the day after we filmed the 'Julie' video" because he no longer enjoyed performing with the band and wished to dedicate more of his time to philanthropy.Aloud’s latest interview on The Dweezil Show (audio), WMFO 91.5FM, November 28th, 2009
Aloud performed the third and fourth legs of the Fan The Fury tour with a rotating cast of live members: Jonathan Schmidt (from the band Morningwood), Rob Lynch (ex-Harris), Travis Richter (from the bands The Motion Sick, Naked On Roller Skates, and Kingsley Flood), Jesse James Salucci (The Lights Out) and Tommy Mazalewski alternated on drums. Tim Hare, Ryan Majoris, and Matthew Girard (from the band The Motion Sick and Golden Bloom) alternated on bass.
Bassist Charles Murphy began performing with the group in October 2009, joining as a full-fledged member of the band shortly thereafter.
The free EP Live 2009 was released at the end of 2009, capping off Aloud's Fan The Fury era. The EP contained performances from one of the final shows of that tour at Howler's Coyote Cafe in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 18, 2009.Free music from Aloud: "Live 2009", Aloud news, December 21, 2009. The live show was recorded, engineered, and mixed by Bengt Alexander. The EP was released to the public as a free digital download on December 31, 2009.Live 2009 microsite
2009-2011: Exile From April 2009 to July 2010, Henry and Jen worked with producer Daniel Nicholas Daskivich on completing the third Aloud release, Exile.Aloud’s 3rd album “Exile” arrives this Fall , Aloud news, July 2, 2010 Teasing their work on the album in interviews, the band indicated Exile would be sonically different from previous Aloud releases.Aloud (cover story) , Performer Magazine, December 2009
The recording process initially began as "therapy", but quickly stretched on over the course of a year. Aloud's touring members and friends appeared as guests on several tracks, with Daskivich tackling the majority of the drumming on Exile. The group worked on the record song by song, often building instrumentation around an acoustic guitar. As a result, the record featured material that was sparser and far more experimental than previous albums.
The songs loosely drew upon de la Osa and Beguiristain's respective experiences as US-born children of Cuban exiles. Further inspiration was taken from Reinaldo Arenas’ memoir, Before Night Falls.Two for the Road, Boston Globe, 2010-09-17 Aloud launched their first crowdfunding campaign on the Kickstarter platform to pay for manufacturing of the record and defray costs associated with the tour in support of the album.
Exile was released on October 12, 2010, garnering some of the band’s strongest reviews, often focusing on Aloud’s expanded musical versatility.Aloud, DigBoston, 2010-09 The subsequent US coast-to-coast US tour ran from October 2010 through January 2011, beginning at the 2010 CMJ Music Marathon. A second coast-to-coast leg included Aloud’s SXSW debut, and ran from mid-February through March 2011.
Aloud released a non-album single, “The Cash and the Pearls”, after the second leg of the tour. The recording reunited de la Osa and Beguiristain with Ross Lohr in the studio. Aloud celebrated the single's release with a tour of the south and midwest, followed by a month-long residency in Boston.
De la Osa and Beguiristain were approached earlier in the year by the Berklee College of Music to participate in BANDED, a documentary intended to become a part of the school's PULSE curriculum. The months-long project followed them and four other groups from the Boston area to document the life of a song, from its genesis to completion in the recording studio.Banded: Behind the Making of a Song, Berklee College of Music The project culminated with the recording of "You Will Know" at Mad Oak Studios with head engineer Benny Grotto. Grotto encouraged Aloud to record the song as live as possible in the studio.Aloud presents their 4th record, It's Got To Be Now, Kickstarter The band found the experience enjoyable and booked a second session with Grotto at Mad Oak to record "Such a Long Time" in the same manner.
2012-2015: A rock n’ roll band making music live
De la Osa and Beguiristain spent January and February 2012 writing new material for a follow-up to Exile. They resumed their tour schedule in March and began road-testing material which would eventually make up It’s Got To Be Now. In March they performed at Boston to Austin, a SXSW party produced by DigBoston and sponsored by Converse. There, they shared the stage with other Boston-based acts OldJack, Lake Street Dive, Bad Rabbits, The Wandas, and Moe Pope & Quills.
To mark their tenth anniversary as a band, the Boston Phoenix released a 10th anniversary EP collecting songs which “define the band’s evolution over the past decade”. A retrospective film directed by Stephen LoVerme, titled Aloud: I Can’t Believe That Worked, began production. Though the film was indefinitely shelved, a trailer was included with the release of the Boston Phoenix EP. The group was nominated in the Boston Phoenix's Best Music Poll for Best Indie/Powerpop Act.
Frank Hegyi joined as Aloud's permanent drummer in June 2012. Aloud continued touring throughout the summer and fall, debuting and refining songs. “You Will Know” was formally released as a 7-inch vinyl single in September, with “Such A Long Time” as its b-side.
It's Got To Be Now Aloud returned to Mad Oak Studios with co-producer Benny Grotto in December 2012. In the same fashion as “Such A Long Time”, their performances were recorded live in the studio. To maintain the live element, percussionist Andy Wong was invited to record miscellaneous percussion with the band. Vocals were recorded at Serious Business in New York under the supervision of co-producer Charles Newman. Additional overdubs were tracked at Mad Oak Studios with Grotto in January 2013. In sum, the album took six days total to record. “This is what we’ve set out to make here,” the band wrote to fans at the time, “an album that sounds like a band playing music in a room together.”