It’s Nine Perfect Lives second performance announced only two days prior to the free show at Baby’s All Right sponsored by SON Estrella Galicia, and yet, the venue is packed with attendees and anticipation. This could be because the show was (1) free and featured (2) a fantastic bill: Nine Perfect Lives, Autobahn, Anastasia Coope, and Star Cleaner Reunion. Or, this could be because Nine Perfect Lives is bound to be Brooklyn’s next hot indie project given that its members hail from already acclaimed bands. NPL’s members include Helena Straight and Stella Wave of Hello Mary, Cooper Ladomade of Rocket, and Jeanne Hill, a brilliant musician and audio technician in her own right.
Nine Perfect Lives, as expected, has an exceptional sound. They are a marriage of 90s alternative rock, shoegaze, and (much to my dark heart’s delight) a bit emo. Stella and Helena’s melodic vocals are reminiscent of the Sundays and Cranberries – ethereal, haunting, lovely. The band at its loudest is adjacent to PJ Harvey, Radiohead, and Russian Circles, and at its softest, loosely similar to Cocteau Twins, Portishead and Explosions in the Sky. In my opinion, NPL is something that’s been missing from Brooklyn’s music community and I believe will inevitably garner a considerable fanbase. Following the show, the band politely responded to some quick questions over Instagram:
Who are the members of your band?
Helena Straight: Guitar, vocals
Stella Wave: Guitar, vocals
Cooper Ladomade: Drums
Jeanne Hill: Bass
When and how did NPL come to be?
Stella: I’ve always written songs on guitar but have only played drums in bands. I thought it would be fun to start a project where I could play guitar live. Originally, I settled on a solo project but collaborating with Helena on both her and my songs was way more appealing. Helena was living in LA for a while, so we would work on songs together remotely- now that she’s back in New York it’s been satisfying to be able to play them together. We’re in disbelief that we get to play these songs live with such incredible musicians – especially being that I’m primarily a drummer, I was definitely nervous about finding a someone to fill that role, but Cooper is the best that it gets and brings a charisma to our live show that otherwise would not exist.
What are some of your favorite projects that have influenced NPL?
Bjork, PJ Harvey, Air, Cocteau Twins, Sufjian Stevens are some of the artists that have influenced our vision for this project.
What are your present plans and hopes for the future of the band? Any upcoming shows?
Well, we’re currently in the studio recording most of the songs in our live set, so we’re quite excited for those to be released. In the meantime, we hope to keep playing shows, writing, and nurturing this project.
I look forward to attending more Nine Perfect Lives shows in the future. Thank you to the band for welcoming Alt Citizen’s questions.