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Vocalist Makes Dreams Come True
By JOHN BENSON
Ever since Kristen Ward was a 5-year-old dancing around her living room to Beck’s first single, “Loser,” two things have taken place. Not only was her love of ’90s music cemented, but she discovered the power of music. Roughly 15 years later, the Cleveland-area resident is finally — literally and figuratively — making her musical dreams come true with new band Shiny Penny.
“The name Shiny Penny came to me in a dream, which sounds really pretentious,” Ward said. “Like it’s really significant or whatever. I just really liked the ring of it. I had this dream that I was trying to start a band, and we were all about the money or something ridiculous, and we were brainstorming band names, and someone said Shiny Penny. So I woke up and remembered it.”
What’s amazing about this is the fact that not only did Ward vividly remember her dream, but her subconscious actually succeeded in recreating this common band dynamic with other suggestions bandied about. Yep, she remembers those, too.
“They’re not good,” Ward said, laughing. “One was Money Eaters. And another was Cash Flow. And then, Shiny Penny. I remember some of my dreams really well.”
Formed roughly a year ago, Shiny Penny — Ward (vocals, rhythm guitar), Jim Ward (guitar), Liz Kelly (keyboards, vocals), Rick Spitalsky (drums) and Eric Schulte (bass) — has been described as sounding like a ’90s indie rock-pop band with comparison to That Dog, Heavenly and Bliss.
“I don’t even listen to that kind of music,” Ward said. “I have one That Dog album. But it’s cool. I mean, I don’t really know what we’re doing as a band. I just have these songs and sing them, and I guess what we end up sounding like resembles those bands and is interesting. Actually, I think we sound like Sebadoh, only with girls.”
Ward began years ago with lo-fi recordings of her songs with drum loops and acoustic guitar. She’s very proud of the fact that early on she had a very small following of seven people. Every few months she’d make CDs of short songs for them. Eventually, her boyfriend, Spitalsky, talked her into starting a band with her friend Kelly, Kelly’s boyfriend Schulte and her brother Jim.
“I just want to be genuine and charming,” Ward said. “I don’t know if we’ve achieved that now as a band, but hopefully we’re getting there.”
The outfit has already finished its debut effort, “A Norange,” which is due out soon and includes the demented surfer-rock-sounding “Secret Genius Kidz” and the melodic “Sofa.” Ward said Shiny Penny will be playing those tunes, as well as a “School House Rock” cover, when it returns to The Lemon Grove in Youngstown for a Saturday show.
Entertainment columnist Guy D’Astolfo is on vacation this week.