Cellist Michelle Faehrmann got backstage at a Brian Wilson concert in Calgary in 2011 and asked the band members where the string ensemble accompanying the former Beach Boy hailed from.
They told her they hired an ensemble in every town and were visiting Vancouver next. “I was like ah crap, I want to be that string ensemble,” she said.
So Faehrmann formed Four on the Floor String Quartet to collaborate with indie and pop musicians and bands in recording and live performance, choosing musicians for their look and ability to improvise and play by ear.
“Anytime you see string players with big bands like that, they’re usually like symphony players, older people who are just reading charts and don’t necessarily fit in with the rest of the band,” 28-year-old Faehrmann said. “I wanted to put together people who fit in.”
The quartet is poised to play its second String Fling Concert with special guests from the indie rock world.
String Fling, at the Rio Theatre Feb. 6, will not only include Faehrmann on cello, Elliot Vaughn on viola, Stephanie Chatman and Emily Bach on violin, but also violinist Hannah Epperson, Mother Mother drummer Ali Siadat and Limblifter’s Megan Bradfield on bass. Special guests are Ryan Guldemond of Mother Mother, Jay Malinowski of Bedouin Soundclash, Brandon Scott of Yukon Blonde, Laura Smith of Rococode, Tonye Aganaba, and Parker Bosley and Steve Bays of Fur Trade, Hot Hot Heat and Mounties.
It will be Fur Trade’s first live show.
“I’ve really tried to just keep it a recording project, just because I love the recording aspect so much and Parker and I work so well in the studio,” said Bays. “So it’s kind of bizarre that we would do it live with strings for the first time ever.”
Bays and Bosley had Four on the Floor and Bradfield record a string version of their single “Voyager” and Four on the Floor has collaborated with them on a yet-to-be-released song. “I like their enthusiasm a lot,” Bays said on the phone from a Vancouver recording studio where he’s working with Hey Ocean.
Four on the Floor jammed with each of their guests two months ago and asked them what their stripped-down and stringed-up hopes and dreams would be. Each artist will perform three songs with Four on the Floor.
“Everybody is super stoked, I think they’re really impressed with it,” Faehrmann said. “Again, it’s a fun experience for them. Normally it’s flipped. It’s them hiring the string quartet, so this is a very fun experience for us too, where we get to hire the musicians, so we have a little bit more of an open range of whatever we can do.”
The quartet will perform original pieces and covers between each set, and Faehrmann plans to make String Fling an annual show.
Coordinating the concert is a massive production, but Faehrmann says she wants to combat the idea that Vancouver is “no fun city.”
“We actually really have a ton of talent here and we can create really cool shows or experiences and I just want to start putting that energy out there and hopefully inspire more of that to happen and just make people aware of that, that Vancouver doesn’t totally suck,” she said. “If we focus on it sucking then yeah, it’s going to suck. If we can focus on what’s good about it then it will grow. We’re still so young and there’s so much room for growth.”
For more information, see Facebook.com/FourOnTheFloorStringQuartet.
