If you’ve never heard a typewriter orchestra perform, and the chances are you haven’t, The Church in Sag Harbor is the place to be on Saturday at 6 p.m., when the Boston Typewriter Orchestra will bring its percussive talents to the venue. (It could be argued that “Boston” is superfluous, since it’s the only orchestra of its kind in the world.)
During a phone conversation with two of its members, James Brockman and Alex Holman, Mr. Brockman said of the group, which was founded in 2004, “The initial arc of the idea was kind of a bad joke, but the person behind that woke up the next morning and realized that the idea had enough legs that it should be brought into reality.”
The initial members were friends who were somewhat music enthusiasts and somewhat typewriter enthusiasts, Mr. Brockman said, “but basically liked the idea of the mechanical object, the pieces of metal, the linkages and levers and keys and seeing what could be done rhythmically with it.”
Early on, the group played a lot of house parties, often hosted by friends of friends, as well as at avant-garde art events such as gallery openings or performance art happenings. Mr. Brockman said that as the group has matured it has skewed a little more mainstream, appearing at museums, libraries, and book festivals, but without “abandoning our art-house avant-garde background.”
But while most of the members come from rock bands, the group doesn’t play at music festivals. “There are a million bands with guitars and a bass and a drum, and it’s hard to distinguish yourself in that kind of world,” Mr. Brockman said. “But it’s very easy in the typewriter world.”
Manual typewriters are the foundational instruments from which a range of percussive effects can be created by hitting the keys, pounding on the machines’ bodies, twirling the rollers, or slamming the returns. The orchestra also incorporates silver desk bells and, more recently, an instrument that resembles a xylophone but with bells instead of bars.
The latter helps add melody to the performances, “because getting melody out of a typewriter is intensely challenging,” Mr. Holman said. They have even invented what they call a keylinda — typewriter keys removed from the machine and set up so if you pluck them they make twangy sounds. “We built a whole song around that,” said Mr. Holman, and they plan to perform it at The Church.
The performers have no written music or transcriptions. “We know by memory what the structure of it is, what it sounds like, what everybody’s parts are. That comes mostly just from practice.”
Fifty percent of their songs also have a vocal component. “We all take turns singing and have different arrangements for different people,” Mr. Brockman said. “Some people are more good singers, and some of us are screamers.”
Comedy and satire are integral to their performances, and audio-visual elements have come into play since a performance at the MIT Museum in 2023. They were to set up in front of the second-largest television in the world. Because they didn’t want to perform in front of a huge black screen, they created video images of band members holding up typewriters toward the sky or holding matches to a machine.
“Sometimes we upstage ourselves with a video,” Mr. Brockman said. “We try to incorporate other instruments that are a little more interesting than typewriters, which are admittedly pointing toward us and not toward the audience. We’re always looking for things that look interesting to play from the audience’s perspective.”
“Nobody knows what a typewriter orchestra is supposed to sound like,” Mr. Holman said, “so that gives us a lot of leeway to experiment with different genres and different styles.” One of their pieces is a country blues song, another is a death metal cover.
Mr. Brockman noted that Santana’s “Oye Como Va” is the band’s default rhythm. “It’s like a well that keeps on giving.”
Mr. Holman acknowledged that a lot of people show up to their performances because of the “goofiness” factor. “I think we get a lot of reactions where people had no idea what to expect when they walked in the front door. But by taking the idea seriously enough and by investing the time in it and trying to be proficient at this kind of wacky thing, it sort of transforms it into being an actual first-class, legitimate thing.”
In addition to Mr. Brockman and Mr. Holman, the performance will include Derrik Albertelli, Eric Donohue, Chris Keene, Giordana Mecagni, and Brendan Quigley. Tickets are $20, $15 for members, and $10 for children under 12.
