Sirsy jumps from relentless rock to heartbreaking howls in their varied original repertoire. They can command stages in local bars like Shifty’s on Burnet Avenue and at multi-band bashes such as last September’s Tipp Hill Fest. They’ve opened for national acts including Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Maroon 5, Lifehouse and Blues Traveler and always manage to blow the doors off any venue they attack.
All of Sirsy’s powerful sounds of guitar, bass lines, drums, flute and vocals come from a giant band of exactly two members: Melanie Krahmer and Rich Libutti. Although they often draw comparison to The White Stripes, the similarities stop at stand-up female drummer Krahmer, as Sirsy carries their very own style and swagger, best exemplified in the duo’s energetic and engulfing live show. But it wasn’t always that way.
Sirsy began in 2000 in Albany as a rotating group of musicians who primarily played covers. “We went through, I think, 11 guitar players and four or five drummers in just a matter of a couple years, and a lot of them were great musicians,” Krahmer says in a phone interview with Libutti also on the line. “We just never found two people who are on the same page as us. You can tell when you’re jelling as a band and when you’re just people who are playing together. The two of us have always jelled as a band.”
In 2006, they decided to scrap the lineup changes and take on the daunting task of creating the sound of a several-piece band with only two members. “It seems like an impossible thing to take on,” Libutti recalls now. “But after we did it for a little while we were like, ‘Ah, I wish we had done this a long time ago.’”
Libutti and Krahmer discovered that the twosome arrangement clicked when they revisited the noted Manhattan venue Bitter End, where they had performed many times before with a bigger band. “It was the first time we played there as a duo and the next day I had three missed calls on my machine from the Bitter End saying that they had always liked us before, but this two-piece thing was blowing their mind and we were better than ever,” Krahmer notes. “That’s when Rich and I realized we really made the right decision. The Bitter End in New York City was asking us to come back and we weren’t having to call them and beg for a gig.”
The group already had one album out at the time, 2000’s Baggage (independent), featuring a variety of players and two others, also independently released, with a more consistent lineup, Away From Here (2002) and Ruby (2004). “Basically, Rich and I were writing most of their parts because Rich and I always wrote the songs,” Krahmer explains. “Which is probably why none of them wanted to stay in the band with us {Libutti laughs hard} because we’re two control freaks.”
When they recorded 2007’s Revolution (independent), the results of the new duo arrangement eventually caught the attention of Funzalo Records in 2009 in a roundabout way. Sirsy had been working with New York City lawyer Peter Thall, whose clients include artists such as Barry Manilow and James Taylor. Thall loved the band and was helping them along when a friend of his, Mike Lemboe, president of the Tucson, Ariz.-based Funzalo Records, called looking for new artists.
Lemboe, who has logged years of experience with both major and independent record labels, instantly took to Sirsy, especially noting their press kit as one of the best he’d ever seen from an independent band. (“That’s what you get when you have a couple of geeks in a band,” Krahmer jokes.) But he needed to see the magic live before he’d sign the duo. A January 2010 Sirsy gig in Chicago attended by Lemboe and other Funzalo reps ultimately cinched the deal.
Sirsy signed two months later, which led to the reissue of Revolution following a remix by noted knob spinner Paul Kolderie, a record producer and studio engineer who has worked with artists spanning Radiohead and Hole to Martin Sexton and the Pixies. They rereleased the album in July 2010 and watched it take off on numerous college and AAA (adult album alternative) radio stations.
Perfectionists Krahmer and Libutti are currently consumed by their next album. “We have almost 25 songs written for this new CD and we would have probably released something in 2010, but the label really wanted to rerelease Revolution,” Libutti says with a tinge of disappointment. “But we did it in our own DIY independent way for a number of years and we trust the label and our manager.”
Sirsy hopes to hit the studio in the coming weeks. “Hopefully, the album will be done by June, which to me seems like that would give them plenty of time to market it by early fall,” Krahmer explains. “But again, our manger would yell at me for saying these things. He’d say that I’m an excited child trying to rush things.”
“Actually, he’d use a little more colorful analogy,” Libutti adds.
Credit Krahmer and Libutti’s energy for driving Sirsy to achieve those musical goals. They have notched more than 200 tour dates annually for six years, traveling up and down the East Coast and as far west as the Windy City. They’ve also garnered enough of a fan base to fund all of their albums, up until the remix of Revolution. For the first version of the album, fans alone raised $16,000 for the project. Krahmer emphasizes that “we really, sincerely, couldn’t have done what we’ve done without the fans.”
Krahmer recalls that the Sirsy fans had made an impression on the ever-popular Grace Potter and the Nocturnals—before Potter’s posse had even heard the duo. Sirsy scored an opening slot for a Nocturnals show in Albany when, according to Krahmer, Potter announced from the stage:
“I’m from Burlington, Vt., and I’ve been driving around seeing these Sirsy stickers on people’s cars for a couple years now. I have always wanted to know what this band is about and I finally got to hear them tonight and they were great. If you’re here to see Sirsy, please don’t go get your coat and leave. Give us a chance.”
Krahmer laughs as she continues the story, adding, “I thought that was really cool. By the third time we opened for them it was at the Westcott Theater and she {Potter} gave me a kiss on the cheek, which I still haven’t washed off.”
Although many of their experiences opening for major acts have been positive, Krahmer’s not shy when it comes to labeling John Popper of Blues Traveler as a “douchebag” after he nearly kicked Sirsy off an Albany bill. “We were playing for free and had pre-sold like 200 $25 tickets to our fans,” Krahmer says. “We were making them a substantial amount of bank with no financial return—and then he didn’t know our name. So he said, ‘And thanks to that first band, too, I don’t know what the hell they’re called.’”
Aside from harmonica-playing douchebags, Sirsy has impressed audiences with their amped-up gigs that are worth the usual touring trade-offs of late nights and long drives between destinations, which are accomplished in their Ford Econoline E250 nicknamed Betty. (“It’s a white Ford,” Krahmer explains. “Betty could stand for Betty White or Betty Ford, however you wanna do it.”)
The most noticeable characteristic of the Sirsy tandem is that they’re still having fun while making music. Libutti and Krahmer laugh about her addictions to Diet Mountain Dew and eating tons of vegan jerky. Krahmer insists, “It sounds really awful, really terrible, but my favorite is the Mesquite Lime and the Thai Peanut. Those two I highly recommend.” Just don’t run to Wegmans too fast.
Sirsy will perform at a no-cover show at Shifty’s, 1401 Burnet Ave.,
on Thursday, May 10, 8 p.m. For more information, call 474-0048.
