Amy Obenski is used to doing things out of order. She went to music school as a child, only to get a 9-to-5 job as an adult, which made her realize she wanted to forsake a steady paycheck in favor of making music. She’s been doing that for 12 years now. But instead of working from her longtime home of Santa Cruz, she decided to fly to France three years ago and then work her way back. Since then, Obenski has built a transatlantic following devoted to her emotive, contemplative, folk-rock sound with the help of her new group, The Carbone Band, whom she met in France.
In some ways, Obenski says, it makes sense that she didn’t really find success until she left the U.S. “In California, I’m just a girl from California and it’s not very cool,” she offers. “But in France, it seems exotic and interesting to be from California.” Obenski is back in the states now, but living in San Francisco and raising money to master and print her latest album, which she cut with The Carbone Band, via a French Kickstarter-esque website, called KissKissBankBank. After recording many records with just her voice and a guitar or piano, she says she’s excited to get the new music out to her fans. “The music has changed,” she explains, adding that The Carbone Band has made her tunes more energetic and charged. “Generally my music had been very mellow and subdued—almost folk rock. I’m not completely sure what you would call it now.” You might say it has a certain … je ne sais quoi.
INFO: To help fund Amy Obenski’s album, visit kisskissbankbank.com/amy-obenski-the-carbone-band-part-1
