Tales from the Cryptacize

By the time musicians are recording albums for prominent independent labels and touring nationally, they’ve generally spent years moving in and out of bands, gigging at local clubs, doing short tours of the surrounding area and so on. This is not so for Michael Carreira, percussionist for California indie-pop trio Cryptacize. With a background in classical and traditional Brazilian music, Carreira was working as a volunteer elementary school music teacher when he followed a whim and found himself suddenly thrust into the world of popular music.

“It’s a fascinating world; I’m shocked that there are fans,” Carreira said, noting that his previous experience was with music produced in an academic setting, and often for his own sake.

Performing Saturday night at the Bloomington Playwright’s Project, located at 107 W. Ninth St., with support from local acts The Coke Dares and Mike Bushman of The Alarmists (Calm Down), Cryptacize’s origins are as unusual as its sound. Starting as the brainchild of former Deerhoof guitarist Chris Cohen and singer-songwriter Nedelle Torrisi (who have also played together in The Curtains), the group finally materialized when, after hearing about the project from a friend, Carreira sent Cohen and Torrisi a link to a YouTube video of himself performing a highly sophisticated tune using only a cowbell. Carreira’s preference for small percussion instruments has since become one of the many elements making Cryptacize’s music truly distinctive.

“They’re so unique,” Cryptacize fan and IU alumna Lauren Moore said, “Their MySpace (profile) used to have them labeled as indie/showtunes, and, honestly, you can hear some sort of showtune/musical-esque quality to their music. … Their instrumentals are almost as lyrical as their lyrics … if that makes sense.”

Another quality that has been attributed to Cryptacize’s music is a sense of optimism. For example, in “Cosmic Sing-a-Long” from the band’s debut album Dig That Treasure, Cohen sings “We’re all in a cosmic sing-a-long/ ’til the day is done/ We’re all in a cosmic sing-a-long/ ’til the world is gone.” However, Carreira expressed doubt that a tendency toward optimism made Cryptacize all that different from other musicians.
“Generally, in the worst situations, the ones making music are the most optimistic,” he said. “Even the most tragic-sounding music is optimistic.”

Whether Cryptacize’s music is particularly upbeat or not, Carreira expressed enthusiasm for the band’s recently launched second tour, for playing in Bloomington and for working with Cohen and Torrisi (going so far as to call playing with his bandmates “an honor”).

And despite being new to the rigors of touring, and the fact that Cohen and Torrisi are a romantic couple, Carreira reported that life on the road had been about as harmonious as could be expected for any three band members trapped in a car together.

“We’re doing pretty well in terms of how miserable we make each other,” he said, jokingly.

Carreira has also managed to conquer his stage fright. When Cryptacize performed its first show at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall in front of a crowd of 700 people, he was so scared that he lost the beat for five to 10 minutes.

“I was just looking around with my mouth open, in awe,” he said. “But it’s the kind of thing that the second time (at Great American Music Hall) was just like playing in a coffee shop.”

Carreira credits his experience in teaching music with helping him learn how to make music both with and for other people–even though his students made for one of his tougher crowds, as when Cryptacize performed five shows for five different classes at his school.

“They thought I was awesome for seven minutes,” he said. “(After that) they can’t sit still for that long. They want to play it themselves.”