Album Notes

Hailing from the great northwest, in the rainy city of bridges and roses, Portland, Oregon, üai (pronounced way) thrives in the rock and roll tradition of testing the boundaries of beauty and raw energy; and, with influences ranging from Sigur Ros and The Flaming Lips to the Grateful Dead and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, üai also celebrates the totem of rock and roll which is its continual evolution and recreation through the influences of popular music of the present as well as the recent past.
The cultivation of üai began in the spring of 2003, and the product was released to the public in live form in the fall of that same year. However, the members of the band have been performing in Portland since the mid nineties, together and with separate projects, at such venues as the Satyricon, the Blackbird (both now sadly closed), the Fez Ballroom, the Medicine Hat Gallery, and the Ash Street Saloon. Beginning as an ambient psych-pop duo, üai began playing at the Jasmine Tree's Tiki Lounge, the Green Room, Club DV8, local art openings at the Gallery Co7, as well as maintaining a unique and popular weekly at Ladd's Inn for over six months. While consistently hosting local up-and-coming talent and forwarding an open and creative environment, the üai weekly also allowed the duo to truly formulate and mature its unique sound, add many adoring fans, and, in the spring of 2004, find the perfect bass player, Bianca Grace.
Reared in the cornfields of Iowa, Bianca has been deep in the rock and roll maelstrom for over fifteen years since she joined her first band at age 15. Playing in a wide variety of acts over the years, Bianca is most easily recognized for her role in Adickdid, an all girl grunge group who opened for such acts as Hole and Fugazi in the nineties while also releasing a full-length record. Bianca also has another full length album under her bass strap and continues to pulse the groove deep into the soul as she abides in the pocket with Hal, üai's driving drumming machine.
Hal was raised in the warehouses of Japan and, at a young age, imported to the United States. With his sleek look and impeccable sense of rhythm, the Korg ElectribeR Rhythm Synthesizer soon became a staple in many electronic acts before his desire to apply himself in a more organic musical environment led him into the hands of üai. He's since become the adoree of many a lusty üai fan who just can't resist the depth and girth of his clockwork beats. Now, linked up with the experience of the rock saturated Bianca on bass, this rhythm section's dependability and keen ear for the pocket lay down a wonderfully driving platform for the musings of guitarist and lead singer, Andy Bergeron.
Andy grew up in the San Francisco bay area, but has been living and playing in Portland since the late nineties. His diversity with instrumentation has led him into a variety of roles in the Portland music scene, the most dominant of which being guitarist/vocalist in SpaceBreath; a powerful rock quartet scorching the Portland area for more than three years from 1999 to 2002, while also producing a number of studio recordings and a full length album, Cloudland. His other projects have included playing bass in the hard rock trio Astrella, bass and keyboards in the more folky Mo and the Donuts, drums in the duo Loris Lane, as well as composing and producing the music for a play written and directed by Charlie Orphanides, the üai keyboardist.
Raised in coastal Connecticut, Charlie was classically trained in piano since the age of six, but not until 2001 did he switch focus to improvisational and electric music. Prior to this transition, his attention lent itself to more literary and performance art pursuits resulting in a small book of poetry, a number of short films, countless multi-media performances including film, dance, theatre, and music, many involving the music of SpaceBreath, and the culminant grand comedic fantasy, "The Birth of the Stick-Figure Battery Baby," which was performed for ten nights at the Back Door Theater in Portland in June 2002 while receiving rave reviews from the media, including a Portland Mercury 'pick of the week,' and selling out the final four performances..
With all focus dedicated to the cultivation of üai since its conception, the band has harnessed its underwaterpychedelicpoprock sound and spent much of the summer of 2004 in their basement studio recording their first LP, wee one. Now, üai is continuing to vehemently play in and around Portland and bring you steadfast brand new rock and roll music.