When the pandemic first hit, Billy Brandt, Elaine Schoendorf, Kerry Gluckman and Raquel Salaysay unexpectedly found a silver lining during a dark time.

The two couples and musical collaborators experienced a burst of creativity and formed Voxanna, a new acoustic folk-rock band from Metro Detroit.

“It’s something amazingly positive to do,” said Brandt, one of the band’s vocalists and a guitarist, banjoist and autoharpist.

“It started with Kerry, Raquel and me—though I had met Elaine right before the pandemic. We trusted each other, and for some reason, we had an instinctual feeling that we’d be OK if we gathered to play music, so we did.”

At the outset, Brandt gathered with Gluckman (percussion) and Salaysay (bass, vocals) to jam outside the couple’s house and started recording their performances. 

“We videotaped everything, so everything was a performance … and that worked very well in our favor. People really enjoyed seeing us from their lockdown homes or whatever apartment they were living in,” Brandt said.

“This live music seemed to get 100, 300, 500 and 1,000 likes every time we posted, so we built a small online community that’s very different from an in-person community. We had good responses, and it kept us going.”

That momentum prompted Brandt to bring Schoendorf (tenor guitar, vocals) into the fold after the two had started singing and harmonizing together in 2019.

“We had been working our thing concurrently with Kerry, Raquel and I working out this trio—this rhythm section thing,” Brandt said. “But we were missing one thing and that was three-part harmonies, so we eventually put it all together.”

Stage to Studio

Those lush harmonies ultimately inspired the band’s moniker and now serve as the cornerstone of Voxanna’s acoustic folk-rock sound.

“I was making some suggestions of names because I was gonna throw out [ideas] to everybody,” Schoendorf said. “There were only just a few names, and Voxanna was just the one. ‘Vox’ was important because it’s representing the voice, and it’s a nod to the feminine side of the group.”

With an official name and band lineup in place, Voxanna continued to hone their sound through a series of increasing live shows at local venues. They also recorded those live shows but realized they needed studio versions of their songs to get radio airplay.

“We got hundreds of views on these videos, and [they] helped us get lots of gigs. People would go, ‘What do you sound like?’ and I’d say, ‘That’s us.’ [The videos] were demos, so we could use them as a booking tool,” Brandt said.

“The radio wouldn’t cooperate … and wanted a multitrack on an MP3 or a CD. I sent them an MP3 of the audio of these videos and that wasn’t what they wanted, so eventually we succumbed to going and making a record.”

While an album wasn’t part of Voxanna’s original plan, it allowed the band to take a dozen tracks from the stage and evolve them in the studio.

What resulted is a self-titled debut album filled with rich vocals and harmonies, acoustic neo-folk instrumentation flavored with elements of psych rock, jazz and world beats and compelling tales linked to personal and societal challenges.

“That happens organically, and it’s not like a plan. Elaine writes some very interesting tunes and some of them have a Spanish influence. Raquel has her style and then Billy has his style,” said Gluckman about the band’s album, which was released via Drum Dancer Records.

“I think a lot of the world influence is from my end. I was a traditional drum set player for many years; I vowed a few years ago I would never move a drum set ever again. I transitioned to a hybrid kit—I play cajon, but I have an electronic kick pedal. I’m trying to do a one-man percussion section kind of a thing … it’s good for the vocals.”

Time Stands Still to Killing Tree

That strong combination of seamless percussion and vocals is evident on Voxanna’s captivating pandemic-themed opener, “Time Stands Still.”

Surrounded by haunting percussion, bass and acoustic guitar, Brandt sings while Schoendorf and Salaysay harmonize: “Where’s the truth, where’s the sun / I can’t be the only one / Tell me how to break away / I’ll be here tomorrow but / I’m gone today.”

“One of the first songs we brought in as a four piece—it was a song I wrote with Elaine—is ‘Time Stands Still,’” Brandt said. “That very much was about the pandemic to me … I can’t isolate the lyrics, but I know it represented to me exactly what I was feeling during this timeless lockdown or change of life on planet Earth.”

Voxanna also shines as a four-piece on the group-penned, Latin-inspired acoustic jam, “Ticket,” which features infectious bass, cowbell and acoustic guitar and addresses the need for an immediate escape.

Salaysay sings, “Feeling / Something is wrong / Time / Time to move on / Got to / Got to be strong / Leaving the station / So long.”

“Before we started rehearsal, I went fooling around on the bass to warm up and that opening line came out. And then I thought, ‘Well, I’ll do all of it,’ and then I asked Elaine if she’d be interested in writing something with me. She wrote some lyrics to get me started … it came from there,” Salaysay said.

“Kerry had come up with this very prog-heavy break section, and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I can connect these two somehow.’ I find songwriting very hard, complicated and a lot of work, so I wanted everyone to help in this process.”

Once the three had the foundation for “Ticket” in place, Brandt added a guitar riff inspired by Paul Revere & The Raiders’ 1966 track, “Kicks.”

“I’m always helping [with] arrangements … just the order of verse and chorus and where it breaks and stuff, that’s my thing,” Brandt said. “It’s a natural rhythm for me … but I like to write the theme or lick for any song.”

Next, Voxanna trades a Latin sound on “Ticket” for a timeless jazz one on “I Like Coffee,” which celebrates life’s little pleasures while drinking a cup of java.

Backed by tranquil clarinet, acoustic guitar, bass and percussion, Schoendorf sings, “Feeling full / Feeling fine / Nothing can bring me down / I’m miles away, it’s a brand new day / Watching the sun go down.”

“That all came about at my apartment and Billy would come down. We’d have our couch videos from my couch … and Billy was just playing a lick, and I heard something,” Schoendorf said.

“It was just a stream of consciousness and Billy said, ‘Sing something,’ and I was like, ‘I like coffee.’ It just [came] from that immediate capturing of a moment … as Neil Young said, ‘It just kinda happens. Those are those magic moments that have to be captured.’”

Finally, the band captures another magical moment on “Killing Tree,” a seductive tale about an evil woman bewitching another.

Immersed in hypnotic acoustic guitar and percussion, Salaysay sings, “There was a time you thought that taking a chance / Wasn’t a crime to you or anybody else / Now you found out what betrayal was about / Now she’s not around / Well, don’t you know by now.”

“It has a very infectious sound to it, and it was recorded on the first Waka Jawaka album,” said Salaysay about the track, which was written in 1993. “I was the only singer in that band, and we brought it into this group because I thought it would benefit from having three singers on it.”

Voxanna and Beyond

To bring Voxanna to life, the band gathered six new tracks and six older ones to record with engineer-producer Brian “Roscoe” White at Roscoe’s Rec. They spent about 40-50 hours recording and finalizing the album’s dozen tracks for a July release.

“I looked at this album as sort of The Beatles with George Martin. [Roscoe] was that fifth person to bounce off to say when you’re sharp or flat … because he’s got great pitch,” Brandt said.

“Since we’re just playing acoustic, we allowed Roscoe to use … some effects units or reverb units—sophisticated ones—to take an acoustic or a vocal and give it a little echo into the back that was almost like a part.”

Along with Roscoe’s effects, the band added guitar, percussion and vocal layers to bring extra depth to their acoustic sound. They also collaborated with violinist Sarana VerLin, clarinetist Mark Kieme and trumpeter James O’Donnell on five tracks.

“I was concerned with somehow preserving exactly what we do with maybe a slight bit of embellishment, but it didn’t change the nature of what we do. There were only three instruments that [were] added very slightly,” Brandt said.

“But I wanted to keep electric guitars and electric pianos out of it; the only thing electric is the bass. It’s Raquel’s electric bass … and Kerry’s foot pedal is an electronic pedal that recreates a kick drum.”

Outside of the studio, Voxanna will celebrate their album with a Nov. 10 re-release show at Berkley Coffee & Oak Park Dry in Oak Park. They’ll also continue promoting their album while writing and performing new material.

“We’ll take it one day at a time as far as doing another album—we gotta sell this one first,” Schoendorf said. “I’ve got a lot of songs to add to the group; I’m writing and trying to develop things.”

Show details:

Voxanna Record Re-Release Show

Friday, Nov. 10 | 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Berkley Coffee & Oak Park Dry, 14661 W. 11 Mile Road, Suite 500, in Oak Park

Tickets: $10 at the door