Spread the word

• Tweet

The Brooklyn trio is preparing to return for their 2nd appearance at SXSW.  Lead vocalist Elizabeth Harper, a former drama major from Los Angeles, describes Class Actress as “dance pop for deep thought.  Blunt, playful, lascivious…a bit denser and a bit weirder than the stuff you would hear on Top 40 radio… generally stuff that sounds interesting and a tad more adventurous.”  Harper and her collaborators Mark Richardson and Scott Rosenthal released Rapprocher (French for “to come close to”) to positive reviews last fall on Carpark Records. Elizabeth had been writing delicate, wistful songs of longing and detachment for several years when she met musician & psychoanalyst-in-training Mark Richardson in 2009 and asked him to remix one of her tracks.  Their creative chemistry was instantaneous and along with multi-instrumentalist/engineer Scott Rosenthal, the two formed Class Actress and recorded the debut EP Journal of Ardency, which was released to much acclaim by Chris Taylor’s (of Grizzly Bear) Terrible Records in 2010.

In the year since, Class Actress toured the US, Europe and South America, Mark worked towards attaining his PHD, and the band completed a new full-length record, entitled Rapprocher, which is French for “to come close to.”  The pleasure and sorrow of romantic connection are inescapably entwined in Harper’s lyrics, while the smooth, cool surfaces of Richardson’s production conjure an eternal after-hours nightlife that Harper inhabits fearlessly, displaying a provocative, wounded raw sexuality that some reviewers have compared to early Madonna.

Class Actress is: Guilty Pleasure. NSA dance music. Casual Encounters. Stalker Pop. Depeche Mode meets early Madonna, ance floors, backseat makeouts, and drama queens. Class Actress is not: Acting Class. They will also be playing the 35 Denton Fest, the week before SXSW 2012.