• Recent Blog Posts

    • busk till dawn by Dave

      You’d think that during a hard-earned month off, that members of the band would be doing things like, maybe, NOT performing or playing music.  But you’d be WRONG! Because Auyon and I have been traveling Europe, playing music on the street with two good friends. While obviously the other members of our band are totally […]

    • A Summer Tour Retrospective, Part 1 by Don

      After a frantic day and a half teasing the house back into a semblance of cleanliness for the summer tenants, the band departs for Albany, NY in a cloud of dust.  Yes, even a herd of turtles can raise dust clouds.  After a successful first show that night performing with local band Alta Mira, Sam […]

    • When we become rock stars by Auyon

      At our average show, we spend about twice as much time shuffling our instruments and gear in and out of venues than we do actually playing our instruments (or, in Sam’s case, “playing” his “instrument.”) While the process has had its benefits, such as well-developed pecs and deltoids, it has grown tiresome. It may be […]

    • Rock Enviably by Darlingside

      So much do we love the girls over at Green Eyed Monster that we’ve offered their subscribers and customers a little bargain: You guys keep doing what you’re doing — that is, helping the environment by toting your totables in green-eyed style — and we’ll give you a free download of “The Catbird Seat,” track […]

Bios

Darlingside is

Auyon Mukharji: vocals, violin, mandolin, saz
Don Mitchell: vocals, guitar
Sam Kapala: vocals, drums, pennywhistle
David Senft: vocals, bass guitar, guitar
Harris Paseltiner: vocals, cello, guitar

Band Biography

Darlingside is a Northampton, MA-based “string-rock” quintet that is exploding onto stages across the Northeast. Together only a year, they have already played to packed houses from Portland to D.C., headlining such prestigious venues as The Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Brooklyn Bowl in NYC, and the Paramount Theatre in Rutland, VT. Lush five-part vocal harmonies, classical cello-violin duets, and compelling break-beats characterize the band’s sound. Darlingside keeps audiences on their toes with exuberant stage presence, spontaneous a cappella, frequent instrument switches, mind-boggling covers, and a widely eclectic, cross-genre blend of original material. Darlingside’s unquestionable originality is borne of an unlikely hodgepodge of musical backgrounds: Harris began playing classical cello when he was six, and appeared twice on NPR with his classical piano trio. Auyon earned a travel fellowship after college to study and write about the traditional music of Brazil, Turkey, and Ireland. Don toured nationally as a boy alto, picked up the guitar in high school, and honed his singer/songwriter talents playing for sunset boat cruises in Maine. Dave began singing and arranging vocal music in college, where he became musical director of his a cappella group, then spent two years learning guitar as a street musician in Boston and abroad. Sam got started on drums at the age of seven, and his intricate style fuses jazz, funk, hip-hop, and rock. Together, the five close friends are “a powerhouse of vocal, instrumental, songwriting, and performing talent,” with “a surprisingly rich voice that belies their relative youth.”

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This is the third incarnation of the band, after a two-year hiatus and a slight personnel change. While we are in many ways a different band now, those of us from the original band hold those experiences very dear, and we all count the original members among our closest friends: Dan Wollin, guitar and vox; Shea Chen, guitar and vox; and Eli Walker, bass. We would not be half the band we are today without them and their continued support.