Daily Iowan

Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: 80 Hours

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mp3 samples: The Envy Corps


"Rhinemaidens"


"Wires & Wool"


"Before the Gold Rush"

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It might have been fate when 15-year-old Luke Pettipoole of Ames unwrapped Radiohead's OK Computer on Christmas morning instead of the Beatles' The White Album, which he had requested. His grandmother's intuitive gift turned Pettipoole toward a new musical direction: This music was now, and he wanted in. And so the gift wrote itself into the beginnings of his identity as a singer-songwriter and his search for the perfect words, the perfect melody, and the perfect people to share them with - his band, the Envy Corps.

Now, almost 10 years since his songwriting infancy, the 25-year-old vocalist, along with guitarist Brandon Darner, 31, and drummer Scott Yoshimura, 23, conjures constant references to his music idol. Giving an eye to the band's insightful lyrics and energetic Brit-pop-inspired instrumentals, the media compare its sound with that of Radiohead at every turn of its impressively progressing career.

But even with those comparisons, the central Iowa group fights to define itself modestly with a philosophy that comes purely from within.

"Whenever a band is new, people have to compare it with something so that they can feel comfortable," Pettipoole told the DI.

Regardless of the audience's desire to pigeonhole its sound, the Envy Corps creates its own future. The three Iowa boys will kick off their U.S. tour with indie band Eisley in April and early May, then head to the United Kingdom to promote their début album, Dwell, to be released in Britain on April 28.

For those lucky enough to be in Iowa City over spring break, the Envy Corps will return to its local haunt, the Picador, on March 22 to play a show at 10 p.m. - one of the last chances to catch the group before its departure.


A time of rapid changes

As their music went out live on the BBC radio airwaves, not even the band members quite realized the significance of what they were doing. By playing in the BBC studio in London, they had clearly come a long way from their Iowa roots.

"You're in this place where the Beatles and Led Zeppelin recorded," Darner said. "You go into the recording studio room, and the walls are covered by signatures of everyone who's played there, and it's absolutely anyone you've ever heard of. The White Stripes was there the day before us, and the next day, Arcade Fire was going to be there. It was absolutely unbelievable. I don't even think we understood how big of a deal it was for us."

This achievement is just one moment in a very long journey from Iowa to England and back again. Working out of Ames, Pettipoole and Iowa State University student David Yoshimura began laying the foundation in 2001 for the Envy Corps. With the addition of David Yoshimura's brother, drummer Scott Yoshimura, in 2004 and guitarist Darner in 2005, the guys' chemistry clicked, and they were ready to pursue a record deal seriously.

That goal became a reality when their Las Vegas entertainment lawyer, Robert Reynolds, connected them with another group he represented, the Killers. Impressed by their sound, the Killers invited them to open for it in Midwest shows on its 2006 U.S. tour.

"The Envy Corps creates its own success," Reynolds wrote in an e-mail interview. "My introducing the Killers to the Envy Corps' music speaks more to its music than to my own actions - I didn't give it a big break. These breaks will be created by artistic ability, hard work, critical praise, and passionate fans."

Gaining exposure through the opportunity, the Envy Corps was soon approached by national and international record labels. Although the band had never set foot on British soil, the idea of entering the British music scene became appealing when the UK's Vertigo sought it out, a label that also houses the Killers and Metallica. Because in part of the country's fast-spreading word of mouth and eager attitude toward new music, the band decided to sign with Vertigo in fall 2006.

"It's something from the Killers' playbook that we stole," Pettipoole said. "It's cool to have the big guns back in the corner in the UK and just kind of write our own destiny here in the United States. It's a good set-up."

After being signed, the band members recorded and produced an album on a farm near Jamaica, Iowa, and then transitioned to their new base, London, in February 2007. During 10 months abroad, the group toured England seven times, mixed its record, and put out the Story Problem EP - the largest selling EP in Vertigo's history.

After tiring from life away from home, the band members returned to Iowa in October 2007 to decompress and reconnect with fans, friends, and family. But during the time off, more changes arrived for the Envy Corps.

At the beginning of this year, founding member David Yoshimura quit the band in search of personal goals, leaving to teach in Japan with his wife.

"We're all happy for him, because he's doing something he's always wanted to do," said Scott Yoshimura. "But it's been tough, because we've all gone through this together."

David Yoshimura declined to comment, wishing the focus to remain on the band's aspirations.

Standing in will be friend of Scott Yoshimura, Brandon Ruschill, who will tour with the group. A permanent lineup is still indefinite.

"It's different, but it's good, too," Darner said. "We're working hard to make the band a better band for it."

In an age of instability for young groups, the Envy Corps wants to avoid becoming a status-accelerated buzz band, falling prey to media hype. Instead, the members want fame to come from exceptional live performances, winning fans in their own way with skill and determination. The band demands perfection, producing a live sound of nearly studio quality.

"We purposely want to make small moves," Darner said. "We'd be upset if all of a sudden we were the toast of the town tomorrow morning - we'd rather spend a year touring and earning fans one show at a time."


The essence of Dwell

"We have a really strong sense of what we want," Darner said, expressing the band members' attitude about working without outside interference.

The group produced Dwell without creative control from Vertigo. "There was no one standing over our shoulder telling us how our music should sound," Darner said. "I don't think any of us would work under that circumstance very well."

Dwell sounds similar to the band's 2005 EP, I Will Write You Love Letters If You Tell Me To, because it essentially is the EP. Many of the songs are nearly, if not exactly, identical to the recordings of the unsigned venture, with some transferring untouched.

"We spent a good amount of time getting our music right," Darner said. "When people heard our [EP], they thought it sounded completely finished."

Dwell reaches into the emotional depths of the Envy Corps, showcasing an extensive range of talent. The catchy pop riffs make you want to dance crazy naked in your bedroom (with the door locked, of course), and the intuitive ballads swell with pain and beauty.

Perhaps the most alluring aspect of the album is Pettipoole's uncanny ability to put the right words in the right place. Just by listening to the vocabulary of his poetry, one can see the intellect of the band. The songs deliver perpetually tongue-pleasing melodious phrases such as in "Wires & Wool" ("I'll shake off/this dense desideratum/like a slough/all hail to a mouth sewn shut"), in "Rhinemaidens" ("Were my last words not quite as sobering as my epitaph/faint hymns and unuttered oaths, they line the path/but I'd like to bypass ruin"), and in the haunting clincher of "Before the Gold Rush" ("You are my trumpeter swan").

"I'm kind of a word geek," Pettipoole said. "If I hear a word that catches my ear that I haven't heard before or haven't heard in that context, I write it down and make a point to use it at some time."

Because the band does not use direct references to Iowa in its music, a listener might be tempted to think the group comes from a music metropolis far from here. However, Iowa remains at the center of the Envy Corps.

"There's definitely an Iowan state of mind," Pettipoole said. "It's kind of this serene depression that people fall into, and they're not really motivated to do anything, necessarily. The flat landscape is a metaphor for the way a lot of people feel, the vast nothingness that is around us. For me, if I grew up in a big city, I think I would be a completely different person."

This nothingness forced creativity and an immense appreciation for things not found abroad - space, mobility, and a low cost of living.

"If you never leave, you never know," Scott Yoshimura said. "This place has so much to offer that nowhere else in the world does."

With downtown Des Moines reinventing itself, becoming comparable with Iowa City and adding more venues for young bands and drawing more high-profile acts, there has never been a better time for young Iowan musicians to assert themselves. Even with the Envy Corps' experience touring around the country and across the ocean, the band does not see Iowa as anticlimactic.

"I've heard other bands say there's not a lot going on musically in Iowa, but I don't know that I agree with that," Darner said. "From here, we can make anything we like of ourselves."

That's pretty clear. With a focus on perfection and an eye toward the future, the band is working on a second album, with talk of the third, fourth, and fifth. Now, all it needs is the world to hear its music.

E-mail DI reporters at:
daily-iowan@uiowa.edu

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