23rd Hour is a charming dup formed by Sherry-Lynn Lee and George Paolini. After an opportune meeting at a coffee house, the two quickly hit it off and music was born. An eclectic mix of Jazz, Classical, Rock, Folk and Pop, 23rd Hour offers a special creation for all. Their lead single and video, “Hypothetically,” is an impressive look into their upcoming release, Perfect Strangers out later this month. We had the pleasure of speaking with the group for an exclusive Indie 5-0 which you will find below. Get acquainted, below.
1. How do you combine elements of Jazz, Pop, Rock, Folk and even Classical to hone a sound that is uniquely your own?
George: The common element in all our songs is a focus on strong melodies and lyrics with a twist that tell a story. Once we have that, the genre or style of music (jazz, folk, rock, pop) becomes more of an expression.
Sherry: George has more of a jazz touch, I typically steered closer to pop and rock but was starting to explore more complex chord progressions, which is why I thought we’d make a good songwriting team when I first saw him play. Many of our songs are built on jazzy chord progressions, to which I add my classically-influenced piano riffs. We borrow from folk music when it comes to harmonies and the guitar style a little. George is a huge fan of James Taylor and Paul Simon as guitarists. These influences are also reflected in our lyrics. Some of our songs are also imbued with the folk/rock angst that drives bands like The Civil Wars. But ultimately, our melody writing is heavily influenced by pop and rock. We try to write melodies that people can easily remember and sing to, especially for the chorus. We love it when we leave a recording session and people around the studio are whistling our song.
George: Our other metric for success is a tearful audience member or two.
2. When creating songs as 23rd Hour, what is the songwriting process like? Do you both come in with your own musical ideas or is it more of a collaborative effort in the studio?
George: I usually start with a riff that will inspire a line or two. Or I have some lines written down as a potential hook and will then try some chord combinations. I then work the music and lyrics simultaneously to build the complete song. For the songs we have collaborated on, we typically started with an idea. We are always writing. We have scraps of paper, notebooks, laptop files. Quite honestly, none of it very well organized. But we have dozens of song hooks gestating at any given moment. In our house or even when we are traveling, we are never more than arm’s length from a musical instrument. Once we get a song to the point where we believe it’s good to go, we decide on the arrangement (who will sing lead, what harmonies might work and who will play what instrument). We’ll record a demo and listen to it and iterate (change a line or two, tweak the melody or the harmonies, find a chord or riff that works to support the melody).
Sherry: I typically prefer to write the lyrics first in a vacuum, with no expectation of how the song is going to sound. I find that it results in interesting rhythmic emphases when I finally put it to music. You can hear that on the second verse of “Forget”: when you said we’d meet again, I lost hope and some of the love, and with time, some of the hate". For most of the songs we write together though, we’ve typically started with a melody. For “If It’s All The Same”, George was playing these two chords on piano and I came up with the first line’s lyric and melody. Then we built the rest of the song on that.
3. What is the meaning behind your new single, “Hypothetically”? What is the theme of the song?
George: There are countless love songs that examine whether a relationship is going to work based on what the two have in common. This was an endeavor to put a spin on it. Rather than look at it from the pragmatic perspective, the song “tests” the strength of the relationship in various hypothetical situations.
Sherry: I think it was George’s poetic way of saying “I don’t know where this is going but you’re interesting, so I’d like to find out.” [laughs]
4. When penning songs for your upcoming release, Perfect Strangers, what was the overall inspiration of the songs on the record and how do they connect?
George: “Perfect Strangers” was the first song we wrote together and it stands out as a very magical moment in our relationship. We had been jamming and busking around the clock one weekend and decided to write a song. Sherry had a little riff that she started playing and the first line “Taking my guitar down to the street” came to me. We actually had no idea where the storyline was going to go, but once we had the line “Perfect Strangers,” for the chorus, it just fell into place. That moment also became the inspiration for our band name, since it was a total of 23 hours of jamming and songwriting when we finished.
Sherry: Without knowing it, we had started to write an album. Overall to me, the album is about closure, leaving the past behind, letting go of things we cannot change, opening up to new opportunities, and finding happiness, both musically and personally. At first impression, it would seem like we have nothing in common. Two perfect strangers. But as soon as we started playing together, it became very clear very quickly, that we were two peas in a pod. We didn’t just get along well and work well together, it was almost like we were two parts of the same being. We wrote many of those songs as our paths converged and we explored this new amazing bond and found closure with everything else that was holding us back. The whole is much bigger than the sum of its parts.
George: Wow, that’s deep. (laughs)
Sherry: Yeah. On the lighter side we have a joke about our tagline being “the old guy and the Asian chick” because people just don’t know what to expect when they see us. That is very apparent when we start playing to a new crowd. The change in expression is very visible from when we get on stage to when we start playing and the quizzical looks just turn into “Wow, now I get it”! I think our apparent differences yet limitless similarities give us a unique perspective and certainly makes us a strong team.
5. What song on Perfect Strangers is the most personal to you and why?
George: For me it would be “Hypothetically.” The song encompasses what I was feeling at the time: whether our relationship might actually be more than the music. Of course, now I (happily) know the answer.
Sherry: It’s funny, for the longest time, I didn’t know who this song was about and I wasn’t sure if I should ask. He finally told me that I was taking the line “If I were a cloud and you were the sky, would you sit right back and let me roll right by, sparkle your bright blue eyes?” too literally. I was pretty happy about that revelation.
George: Yeah, as a metaphor for the sky, I didn’t think “brown eyes” would cut it.
Watch 23rd Hour’s “Hypothetically” here:
What a fun interview. Thank you for featuring us on Indie 5-0!
