VAN PIERSZALOWSKI was born in California, but spent his summers on Kodiak Island in Alaska, where his father works as a commercial salmon fisherman.
Every summer Van goes up north to work on his father’s boat, The Shawnee. The work is intense - 20 hour days, weeks without touching land, no showers or toilets, and stormy seas - yet this young songwriter finds the money is good and that there is inspiration in the natural beauty he sees around him.
In summer 2005, Van took this inspiration and started writing songs. Together with Joshua Barnhart, Cambria Goodwin, Ryan Stively, and Zebedee Zaitz, Van formed Port O’Brien - named after a now-abandoned cannery site where his parents met in the 1960s.
Port O’Brien’s full length debut All We Could Do Was Sing was released on City Slang in May. The band’s music is full of delightful contrasts - the male and female vocal counterpoint, the urgent rushes of instrumentation mid-song meeting with the gentle strum of acoustic guitar, and tender music battling with ferocity. Lyrically, the band draws upon the imagery of life at sea in an effort to transport listeners away from the city and to the ocean side.
Pitchfork has praised the album’s “intelligent indie-folk songs” while All Music declared that “Pierszalowski’s idiosyncratic alt-rock/weirdo folk” deserves the same kind of attention paid to Will Oldham and Jason Molina.
Port O’Brien are currently touring All We Could Do Was Sing and will play the Róisín Dubh on Wednesday October 29 at 8pm.
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago. See www.myspace.com/portobrien and www.portobrien.com
