This Friday, June 27, marks the end of one of Seattle’s most
quietly ambitious musical projects of recent months. Since the
beginning of the year, local “post-baroque nu-hoppers” Foscil (the more “serious” project from most of 8-bit rockers Truckasauras)
have taken over Belltown’s BLVD Gallery on the last Friday of
the month for a musical residency, switching up their configuration
with each performance. After months of honing their new material,
Foscil are now moving into the studio to record a new album,
appropriately titled Residential.
The foundation was laid for Foscil’s residency at last year’s
Bumbershoot, where Foscil members Tyler Swan and Adam Swan curated the
music for BLVD’s art exhibition (Foscil couldn’t perform because member
Ryan Trudell was in Peru).
“We realized how cool it was to combine music and art in the
gallery format,” says Adam Swan of the experience. “People were more
open to listening to the art of the music, rather than being there
because it was the place to be.”
After Bumbershoot, Foscil (along with BLVD curator Damion Hayes)
decided to try taking the gallery performance concept to BLVD’s
Belltown location. They tested the idea with a “proof of concept”
performance in November 2007 and officially kicked off their
residency in January with a traditional live set. After that, the
band branched out with an all-electronic set, a set as labelmate ER
Don’s backing band, a full collaboration with producer/MC Specs One,
and they’ll be capping the series with the complement of a horn
section. Adam describes it as “basically all of the different
projects/variations that we’ve done as a band or in the studio.”
“It was cool to not be confined by the nightclub format with doing
these shows,” he adds. “There weren’t really many costs, or the
headache of promoting enough to make the clubs happy. It was just on
us, which freed us up to do whatever we wanted artistically.”
Far from being just a set of performances, the BLVD residency has
essentially allowed Foscil to open up their creative process to the
public. The gallery performances were a method of vetting new
material. Now the group are taking the lessons they’ve learned over the
last few months back into the studio to record the follow-up to 2005’s
self-titled release.
“The songs have progressed in huge amounts because we’ve played them
differently, in front of people, and with different pieces of gear,”
says Adam. Comparing it to the last album, he says, “We have a bunch of
new gear since then, and we are definitely way better at our
instruments. We haven’t used our new studio gear with Foscil, just the
Truckasauras and ER Don albums.
“To tell the truth, the main reasons we did this are pretty selfish
in a way,” he continues. “The fact that people came out to support and
were into it is awesome. You can’t really ask for anything more than
that.” 
Foscil play Fri June 27, BLVD Gallery,
8 pm, free, all
ages.