The Forbidden Parallels

Urbana, IL USA

April 05, 2007

423 plays
13,429 views

The Forbidden Parallels are a musical collaboration between Kurt Werner, Laura Grace, and a plethora of miscellaneous ladies and gents. As of late, TFP has been a more consistent group of individuals who play and rehearse together on a regular basis.

Ostensibly pidgeonholed into the "indie rock" genere by Soundclick's system of categorization, they generally prefer the label "Alternative Folktronica."  

Kurt Werner plays the bass for the most part, but in studio he has been seen on ukulele, guitar, programs pleasant and not-so-pleasant blips and bloops, and sings (as well as a variety of other delightful noise-making activities). In addition, Kurt writes most of our music and plays with the band "World's First Flying Machine."

Laura Grace plays drums for the most part, but has also branched out to ukulele, melodica, harmonica, and gizmos on occasion.

Micah Sweeney is our guitar player (electric and acoustic) and also our lead male vocalist. He has also done some writing.

Sam Fahlberg plays a mean trumpet, dances around, and plays the bells (when we let him).

Giulia Mazza is our beautiful lead female vocalist, although sometimes we demoralize her into playing tambourine and the egg shaker. She also plays the bells sometimes. 

Laura Lynch plays the violin and is awesome. She might do some back-up singing in the future because we recently discovered that she is really good at it.

Matt Dordal plays euphonium and helps us achieve a pseudo-ska feel on some of our songs. We all wish that he would wear tight pants.


The aforementioned ladies and gents that we sometimes collaborate with include but are not limited to: Sean Hart, John Swisher, Erica Werner, Kyle Werner,  Chris Howaniac,  Steve Kuhn, Kim Burkhart, Michael Anderson, Daniella Farah, Danny Zeckhauser, and Joel Caracci

Band/artist history

You can see some of our live performances here:

http://youtube.com/user/thereminjazz

And you can join our Facebook group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2446476529

Have you performed in front of an audience?

We have been playing live at Allen Hall Coffeehouses, open mic nights, and in friend's basements for over one fifth of a decade. Our first gig in the Champaign area was the Project ChamBANDa Eco-Concert Benefit at the Canopy Club in Fall 2007.

Your musical influences

Explosions in the Sky, The Alan Parsons Project, Dream Theater, Enya, The Beatles