Typsy Panthre is the recording duo Allison LaBonne and John Crozier , and their self titled debut LP is out now on Korda Records. Melodic and filled with sonic surprises, Typsy Panthre’s sound is fun and dark; like a second cousin of Nick Drake and The Smiths with electronic drums and gentle female vocals.
Typsy Panthre started with one song: Paper Winter, singer Allison LaBonne says. It wasn’t called Paper Winter–it didn’t have lyrics yet. John gave me a demo and seemed surprised that I came up with words for it within a few days.
LaBonne (who sings and writes songs with The Starfolk and The Owls) was already a fan of Crozier’s songwriting in the likes of Ninotchka, Ninian Hawick, and Muskellunge; and of his guitar work in a host of Minneapolis bands from the garage punk Wahinis, to the bossa-pop Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, to the lush, sixties-inspired Hang Ups.
That first Typsy Panthre song came together easily, at least on my end. I added some unsolicited harmonies because I thought it sounded pretty minimal. I didn’t realize how much John would transform songs after the lead vocal was added. Usually radically. He’s super adventurous in his arrangements. After Paper Winter John gave me lots of songs to sing, one at a time; some with lyrics, some without. We worked individually in our own spaces, at first trading cds back and forth and then trading files through dropbox. It was maybe a year before I actually saw John, though we lived two miles apart! We are both pretty introverted. The music was our only contact, and felt to me like a secret world, really different from anything I’d done before musically.
