About

Praise

Berkshire Eagle 8/16/11

“[A] meaty, musically literate dose of rock-tinged pop […] this is a band with chops as well as brains.“Full Article »

iBerkshires.com 8/15/11

“Grin-worthy lyricism and rock showmanship, woven through stunning virtuoso string performance“Full Article »

1794 Meetinghouse, New Salem, MA, 7/29/11

“[T]imeless and ageless. I close my eyes and see three generations standing side by side, […] each one loving what they’re hearing for a completely different reason.” — Michael Ruocco

Soundspike, 7/25/2011

“Darlingside […] held nothing back as they showcased their sometimes quirky but seamless and exhilarating sound.” Full Article »

Origivation Magazine, 12/26/10

“A happy place between indie rock and folk […] powerhouse vocals, dreamy harmonies, dominating cello and violin interjections and good ol’ fashion guitar picking.” Full Article »

Stereo Subversion, 12/1/10

“[T]his quintet is immensely talented—each of them contribute noteworthy vocals, their production value is simple yet effective, and their lyrics are spot-on […]“Full Article »

The Ampeater Review, 11/9/10

“Pop sensibilities unconstrained by the pop aesthetic push Darlingside outside the realm of trendy, safely beyond the obnoxious trifling of those who wear their music tastes on their sleeves as a mere fashion accessory, and into deeper and more enduring places.” Full Article »

UMASS Daily Collegian, 11/15/10

“Insanely talented […] Darlingside seamlessly melded hook-drenched classical-rock melody lines with substantially infectious grooves.” Full Article »

Dig Boston, 11/19/10

“Folky in a way that occurs when you gather that many hollow-bodied instruments together, Darlingside manages to make it abundantly clear that they’ve got their roots just as much in classic rock as they do in … well, roots.” Full Article »

Wildy’s World, 8/23/10

“Darlingside spins musical tales a spider couldn’t unwind.“Full Article »

Urban Escape’s Band of the Month, 7/15/10

“[…] here in the office, we’ve got Darlingside fever. […] Their complex arrangements lend to some pretty smooth songs, and with the help of a mandolin, violin, and electric cello Darlingside is bridging the gap between classical folk and rock. I predict these guys will be VERY successful in a few years time.” Full Article »

Lucky Dog Music Hall, Worcester, MA

“You aren’t going to believe how great they are. They left a mark in my skull, wanting more.” — Eric Godin

Bernice Lewis, Songwriting Instructor

“As individuals, each member of Darlingside could easily be a top notch solo artist. Together, they are a powerhouse of vocal, instrumental, songwriting, and performing talent. Their energy is contagious, their sound is unpredictable, and their songs are unforgettable.” — Bernice Lewis

David Wax Museum

“Speaking of girls… how about Darlingside!?” — Suz Slezak

Band Members

Darlingside’s resident gearhead, Sam Kapala is happiest with his nose in a Pro Audio catalog, or his entire face in the back of the band’s rack of equipment. When he’s not designing and building shoddy carrying cases for gear that the band no longer uses, cooking some combination of wild rice, beans, and orange vegetables for dinner, or trying to convince that band that “no, seriously, we NEED two 18-inch subwoofers to complete the PA, we’ll strap them to the roof of the van if we have to,” Sam spends some of his time up in Portland, ME, where he works as recording engineer at a cleverly and accurately-named recording studio called The Studio. Other interest include running, cycling, New Hampshire, and sometimes playing drums.

Don Mitchell’s oldest memory (age 2) is of a colorful dragon kite that folded down into a can on his parents’ sailboat ‘Acacia.’ More pertinently, he remembers growing up in rural Connecticut, where his musical training began as a boy alto in Chorus Angelicus and a liberally-freckled cast member of such regional theater productions as “How to Eat Like a Child.” Adolescence came and went on its unflattering way, leaving Don with a repository of skillz including guitar, juggling, and uncanny Dr. Claw impressions. At college, he studied songwriting, music theory, and animal tracking, each of which are indispensable to him now as a rock musician. Don is known for his humility, partially-webbed toes, and ironic disposition. When asked to join the band in 2009, he said “No,” and then quickly joined the band before the offer could be reconsidered. He now fills the band role of Interweb Outreach Coordinator, which means he appears to be busy even while wasting time on Facebook.

A feeble child, young Auyon Mukharji’s lack of athleticism and physical prowess prompted his parents to enroll him in music classes at the tender age of three in the hopes that he might one day be a well-rounded college applicant. He proceeded to play the violin at a mediocre level throughout his youth, drifting in and out of youth symphonies and orchestra summer camps. He began mixing with the wrong crowd in college, which eventually led to a four-year stint of a cappella singing and frequent experimentation with the mandolin as well as some more difficult instruments. Upon graduation, he traveled around the world for a year as a vagrant musician on a Watson Fellowship, studying folk music in Ireland, Brazil and Turkey. Auyon now serves as Darlingside’s booking manager and dinner party planner. He does yoga on a daily basis, and can do more pull-ups than Harris but not Sam.

Harris Paseltiner has been playing cello classically since age 6. He has also played guitar self-taughtingly since sometime in high school. Once or twice per show, he plays Dave’s bass, too. In his spare time, he enjoys playing the organ, or his erhu, or Auyon’s mandolin, or Auyon’s saz, or perhaps Sam’s drums, or Sam’s pennywhistle, or Don’s banjo. As the old adage goes: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. Regarding music, Harris is like a horse that drinks substantial amounts of water whenever it is available. And regarding other things, Harris is often like a horse that is very thirsty and would you mind taking it back to the water please? (Harris will also happily drink coffee, or scotch, or a nice pu-ehr, if you were to lead him to one of those.)

As a child, David Senft would cry at the thought of going to college because he thought that singing was mandatory (his older cousins having all been in college singing groups). Young Dave preferred doodling in class, naming individual trees, and anything involving computers. His first website, at the age of 15, was devoted to the number 8. In college, Dave chose his extra-curricular activities based on which organizations seemed to need a new website, and wound up in a singing group after all. Soon after, he enrolled in a songwriting course with two friends, made a website for the class, and never looked back. Dave then spent two years after college as an itinerant street performer, and began learning bass when the band formed in 2009. If he’s not making music, or this website, he’s often found preparing breakfast, or looking for anything at all that might have been grass-fed.

Ampeater Review

Five guys. Five unique musical personas. One aesthetic, astonishingly more congruent than the sum of its parts.

I’m talking about Darlingside, a self-dubbed “string rock” outfit based out of Northampton, MA. String rock is an apt term since, for a band with three guitarists, guitar plays a surprisingly minimal role in Darlingside’s sound, taking a backseat to rich string arrangements. Bass too keeps mostly clear of the limelight, with low frequencies dominated by cello. Vocals also dominate, often in the form of lush five-part harmonies, and drums are the final major ingredient in the Darlingside aesthetic, commanding in both volume and intensity and perpetually diverging from the expected course. The songwriting carefully balances satisfying refrains with a penchant for exploration and, while somewhat heavy handed, is refreshingly self assured in that. Although they’ve been together for only a year, they’ve broken out of their hometown’s venerable but student-centric music scene and have the toured east coast heavily, from Portland, ME to D.C.

The band chalks its eclectic sound up to an “unlikely hodge-podge” of musical backgrounds, which merits some explanation. Harris Paseltiner (cello, guitar) is an accomplished classical cellist who has appeared twice on NPR. Auyon Mukharji (violin, mandolin, saz) traveled to Brazil, Ireland, and Turkey, on an ethnomusicology fellowship, studying and writing about the traditional music he encountered there. Don Mitchell (guitar) toured throughout the states as a boy alto and, after picking up guitar, honed his singer/songwriter talents playing for sunset boat cruises in Maine. Dave Senft (bass, guitar) started arranging vocal music in college as musical director of his a cappella group after which he spent two years as a street musician. Sam Kapala (drums, pennywhistle) began drumming at the age of seven, and his background includes ample training in jazz, funk, hip-hop, and rock. On top of it all, they’re all talented vocalists. […]

Darlingside’s sound doesn’t fit cleanly (or even approximately) into any of the numerous hip subgenres in vogue today. It’s also not the kind of music to be dissected and deified by the avant-garde, for although it’s got plenty to enjoy, it’s not bizarre, challenging, or ironic enough to warrant such attention. However, it’s still a bit too quirky to be lapped up mindlessly by the undeserving mainstream. One might wonder then where Darlingside, alienated from both extremes, will find its most ardent support.

A fair concern, and yet, I can’t shake the feeling that this music has widespread appeal. It’s music that my hip college sister, jazz aficionado father, and eccentric grandmother who only generally only listens to the Beatles, children’s songs, and feminist spoken word poetry, would probably all enjoy. And it’s music I enjoy. Pop sensibilities unconstrained by the pop aesthetic push Darlingside outside the realm of trendy, safely beyond the obnoxious trifling of those who wear their music tastes on their sleeves as a mere fashion accessory, and into deeper and more enduring places.

- Nate Greenberg, from the Ampeater Review, November 2010

Gear List

Dave

Rickenbacker 4003 Bass
D’Addario strings
Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI Active Direct Box
Korg Pitchblack Chromatic Tuner

Harris

NS Design 6-string Cello
Santa Cruz H-Model Acoustic
Hamer Monaco Elite Electric
Carr Slant 6v Amplifier
Coda Diamond GX Bow

Lava Cables
Pedaltrain Pro Pedalboard
Boss Chromatic Tuner
Chicago Iron Octavian Plus
Diamond Memory Lane 2
Roger Mayer Voodoo Vibe
Moogerfooger Ring Mod

Dunlop Tortex Picks
NS Design, Martin, and D’Addario strings

Auyon

Luther Barros Bandolim
AKG C411 Ultralight Condenser Pickup
AKG B29 L Power Supply

Kenneth Edward Sullivan Violin
Barcus Berry Violin Piezo Pickup

Contemporanea Pandeiro

D’Addario strings
L.R. Baggs Venue DI
Pigtronix Aria Disnortion
Electro-Harmonix Cathedral Stereo Reverb
Boss A/B Switch Pedal
Boss Super Shifter PS-5
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus
Pedal Pad AXS II Pedal Board

Don

Gretsch Tennessee Rose G6119-1962HT

1973 Fender Princeton Reverb

TC Electronics Polytune
Malekko Ekko 616
Strymon El Capistan
Xotic EP Booster
Zvex Fuzz Factory
Visual Sound Route 66

Sam

Pearl Masters Studio drums
18x20 Kick
8x12 Tom
14x15 Tom
5.5x14 Yamaha “Anton Fig” Signature Model snare w/ wood hoops
5x14 Free-floating snare w/ maple shell

Zildjian cymbals
20″ K Constantinople Dark ride, medium thin
18″ K Dark Thin Crash
17″ A Custom Projection Crash
16″ A Custom Crash
14″ A New Beat Hi-Hats (w/ Bottom cymbal on top)
13″ K Dark over Z Dyno Hi-Hats

Also, sometimes:
18″ Classic China
14″ A Custom Fast Crash
10″ A Extra-Thin Splash
10″ K Thin Splash
8″ A Custom Splash
14″ A Custom Mastersound Hi-Hats

Rhythm Tech tambourines and shakers

Evans Drumheads, application dependent

TAMA and Pearl Hardware
Pear Eliminator pedals

Vic Firth 8D, HD4, and SD4 sticks, and Vic Firth HB Heritage Brushes

Chauncey

In the summer of 2010, the band Darlingside adopted the van named Chauncey, the finest van there ever was!