You’re looking at the movie screen, a popcorn kernel at the edge of your lips, frozen in anticipation. A man and woman gaze longingly into each others twinkling, smiling eyes.

“Come on!” you think, “Just kiss!”

They lean in toward one another, and just before their lips meet—BAM! The credits roll as a wonderful surge of happy “it-all-came-together-in-the-end” music resonates throughout the theater. You sit, relieved and grinning, and soak up the story a little as the chorus of voices ring from the speakers and the credits drift by.

And, hey! There are a few more Milkduds left! All is right with the world.

“Sing, I’ll sing to your summer smile / Sing, I’ll sing to tomorrow’s plans” the voices intone. “Sing, I’ll sing everything that I feel / Sing, I’ll sing what our hearts understand.”

Some lucky movie music supervisor is going to discover Tiger Saw one day, and their tailor-made feel-good movie-ender song “Sing!” The song is made for it.

“Sing!” starts out their new album of the same name.

“I knew I wanted to name the album ‘Sing!’ before I had a song with that name,” says 30-year-old Dylan Metrano, lyricist and conductor of sorts for Newburyport’s Tiger Saw. “It’s kind of a statement of what is to come on the rest of the record—it starts off on a celebratory note.”

Tiger Saw plays dreamy, mostly slow, indie-folk numbers. There’s cello, quiet drums, beautiful piano, ambient organ and guitar work galore. Of course there’s singing, too – lots of it, and with lots of voices. The words “sing” or “singing” appear in almost all of the songs. It’s not the kind of music you put on to rock out to (save the album’s Neil Young and Crazy Horse-ish closer “The Sea”). Tiger Saw takes its time to get where they’re going, and carefully cultivates a mellow atmosphere perfect for hanging around inside with pals on a Sunday.

“When we started the band, the music was more informed, more influenced, by the slo-core movement. I was influenced to write by things that were sad, by heartache,” Metrano says of the band he started in 1999. “At this time, I’m just not feeling particularly sad. I was more inspired by a sense of community, the wonderment of love. It’s the only record I could have made at this time that would have been true.”
A community quite literally factored in to the recording too. Some 15 people contribute to “Sing!” Even though Metrano is the best known face of Tiger Saw, he acts more as a catalyst for the band’s musical ventures, not as the resident ego-driven frontman or rock star. While all the lyrics are credited to Metrano, the band as a whole is credited with creating the music.

“It’s not the ‘Dylan Metrano Band,’ it’s not ‘Tiger Saw with special guests,’” says Metrano, “This is a snapshot of what they (the other bandmembers) are living, too. It’s about this unique collaboration. That’s what this project is about.”

The band’s lineup has featured more than 40 members through the years. Metrano keeps in touch with most of them, and some former members still contribute now and again whenever they are in town or the circumstances are right. “Juliet is the only member who has been in the band the whole time,” says Metrano of cellist/vocalist Juliet Nelson, although it seems more appropriate to call the band members “friends” instead. For the “Sing!” record, and many of the recent tour dates, Metrano and Nelson are joined by pianist Casey Dienel, upright bassist Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), and drummer Gregg Porter (Unbunny, Little Wings, Hotel Alexis) and others.

“They’re all two- or three-chord songs, and I really liked the idea of having a choir on the record too,” says Metrano. “The songs intentionally have loose structures to make it easy for when people come and go.”  The results create an easy, informal feel, perfect for jumping in when you don’t quite know how the song goes (crowd included).

“Sing!” is Tiger Saw’s third full-length CD for the Ipswich, Mass., indie label Kimchee Records. “Before we were signed with them, they were the ones putting out records by the bands that I was excited about,” says Metrano of his record label. “When Suntan and (Portsmouth indie rockers) Torrez became involved, it made it even better. It’s become a mutually inspiring relationship.”

“Sing!” came into focus after Metrano’s tours in support of Tiger Saw’s last CD. The tours took him far and wide, across the United States and over to Europe.

“On my last tour with (indie folkie) Viking Moses we were put into these really weird situations,” says Metrano, “We played a lot of alternative venues. The best way for it to work we found was to make the shows sing-alongs. What we’re doing now is special because we’re interacting with the audience in a really direct and personal way.”

Keeping it simple and getting as many people on board for the fun was the plan, and it’s something Tiger Saw will continue to nurture. 

Sometimes you want your favorite musicians to be perfect, to be rock stars, larger than life. Sometimes you just want music to make you feel like you’re connected to something.  The latter is what Tiger Saw’s loose concert/singalongs are about. They want you to feel a part of it all, not apart from it.
“What I sought was a way to be creative and spend time with my friends,” says Metrano of his desires for his music, “I’m doing what it is I set out to do. I’m really happy with (Sing!), and I’m really proud of my friends.” 


Tiger Saw
w/Jason Anderson and Nat Baldwin
The Red Door, Portsmouth
Monday, Oct. 24 at 8 p.m.