Genre is not so much a box to be confined in as it is a bag of tricks for Bronx-based musician/animator Jhariah Clare to pull from. The multi-disciplinary artist has a compulsion for writing larger than life songs, stacked high with strings, horns, keys, and broadway-esque vocal arrangements. So attendees of his live show may be surprised to see him hit the stage with no band in sight – just his drummer and musical collaborator Cole Raser seamlessly transitioning from hard-hitting rock cuts to complex swings fit for a Harlem jazz club. That chameleon-like musicality is exactly what makes the two of them such a fitting duo. Jhariah and Cole met through mutual friends at Pratt Institute, studying 2D animation and film, respectively. They quickly hit it off and before long, Jhariah’s solo project became a duo. The two of them function more like a pair of one-man-bands than two parts of a whole. Both emerging from a generation of increasingly self-sufficient independent musicians, this two-piece “band” takes that DIY attitude to heart.
