Performing in the great outdoors are members of The Coteries, from left, Matt Runciman, Emily Parasiliti and West Orange native Ben Brosh. The trio found a new voice during an 11,000 miles trip across the country during which they sang outdoors at national parks.
WEST ORANGE, NJ — A West Orange High School alum’s folk rock band is gaining traction within the music industry, having just been accepted to perform at next month’s Millennium Music Conference in Harrisburg, Pa., and at the Cape May Singer-Songwriter conference in March.
On top of that, The Coteries — consisting of WOHS graduate Ben Brosh and South Orange residents Emily Parasiliti and Matthew Runciman — were selected out of 300 other artists to be one of just 10 musicians included on the Millennium conference’s compilation album.
Each of these achievements represents a major opportunity for the blossoming band, especially considering that the conferences will put the members in close proximity to hundreds of other artists and industry professionals, while the album will expose them to even more of the music business. It is a chance greatly appreciated by The Coteries.
“It is a huge honor,” Parasiliti told the West Orange Chronicle in a Jan. 23 phone interview. “We could not ask for more.”
What is even more impressive is the fact that the group has actually not been together for that long. Having met through friends, Parasiliti said The Coteries have only been performing together for the past year and a half. And she said it was not until July that they really discovered their musical identity.
They made that revelation during an 11,000-mile long North American tour in a 26-year-old Volkswagen van lovingly named “Trusty Rusty.” It was while traveling down highways, and stopping to record videos of themselves performing in each national park they visited, that they stripped away their electric instruments in favor of honing an acoustic sound they felt passionate about, Parasiliti said. It is a style of music they are still focusing on today.
And it was not just their performance that improved during the trip. Brosh said The Coteries’ original songs are based on personal experiences and the places they have seen. Getting the chance to explore the United States on an intimate level was invaluable to their music, he said.
“I think all of us kind of wanted to see America,” Brosh said in a Jan. 23 phone interview. “Our music is rooted in Americana, so for all of us it is like a rite of passage to travel around the country and see what was out there other than the East Coast.”
Of course, the closeness of traveling around in an old van proved to be a bonding experience as well.
“When you are stuck in the middle of Montana in below freezing weather, and all you have is each other and a tiny little van and Nicholas Sparks movies, it does bring you closer together,” Parasaliti said.
But The Coteries, especially Brosh and Runciman, had a solid musical foundation even before their trip, thanks to their respective backgrounds growing up in West Orange and South Orange.
Brosh said living in a community as diverse as West Orange exposed him to a wide range of musical genres that influence his playing today. Though he attended private schools, Runciman said he also received an eclectic musical education throughout his youth; plus, getting the chance to work with so many different types of local musicians was immensely helpful.
“I started playing more music when I went to St. Peter’s in Jersey City, and I got into playing with more people at that time,” Runciman said in a Jan. 23 phone interview. “I played with Maggie Kraus, who is a Maplewood-born musician who tours nationally right now and is really talented, as well as the acoustic scene. So just having memories like that to start off my musical life is something that was very positive for me.”
Even Parasiliti, a Boston native, has noticed a positive impact on her career due to South Orange. She said The Coteries have made a good living performing at restaurants throughout the Northeast — as opposed to playing the low-paying, often less-attended New York bar circuit as many bands do — but their residency at Ricalton’s Village Tavern is particularly special. That is because its management has been highly supportive, she said, and residents are always responsive.
If all goes well, however, the band might soon be playing at venues larger than local eateries. With the Millennium and Cape May conferences and a debut album on the horizon, The Coteries hope to become the latest band to benefit from the recent folk music revival.
“We are very excited to see what 2015 brings for us, to say the least,” Parasiliti said.
Who knows, West Orange might have helped produce the next Mumford and Sons.
To see The Coteries’ schedule of upcoming performances, visit http://www.thecoteries.com/.