Blueberry

Blueberry operated as a glamorous dance ensemble supplying Manhattan’s downtown music community with shimmering funk rhythms from the late 1990s into the following decade. At its core, however, the project amounts to songwriter and producer Gwen Snyder, a pivotal participant in an adventurous artistic network that also comprised Church of Betty, the Hand, Johnny Society, Dr. Snitch, and Mr. Forky.

After completing studies at NYU’s experimental theater department, Snyder immersed herself in New York’s downtown performance and cinema worlds, mounting original works at PS122 and the Knitting Factory while taking off-Broadway parts in an avant-garde composition by Meredith Monk and an extended run in Steven Brantley’s Distortion Taco. At the same time she produced quirky, home-built four-track versions of her material and performed both solo and within the improvisational accordion trio Box Ass. Engineer, programmer, and mixer Fernando Aponte—known for work with Deee-Lite and Towa Tei—attended one of her solo appearances and subsequently invited Snyder to contribute to a recording that led to further projects with Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Her private tapes likewise attracted the attention of Chris Rael, who soon recruited Snyder to play accordion in his Indo-pop outfit Church of Betty. In 1999 she won the open bass chair in Johnny Society, a role previously held by Rael, and joined in time to appear on the group’s third album, Clairvoyance. She remained an official member for the next three and a half years, with occasional appearances thereafter, and joined drummer Brian Geltner in touring with former Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner throughout 2002. The following year Snyder entered the band of ex-Brand New Heavies vocalist N’Dea Davenport, contributing keyboards and backing vocals while also serving as songwriter and co-producer on the singer’s second solo album, tracked at Old Soul, the studio established by Blueberry and Johnny Society’s Kenny Siegal.

Throughout this period Snyder’s central creative vehicle stayed Blueberry, whether realized as an early eight-piece ensemble complete with horn section or increasingly as a solo endeavor. With Siegal she cut an unreleased debut album, The Devil, in 1998. The next year she issued her first official release, Twilight, recorded as a trio with Geltner and Siegal; several tracks later appeared in episodes of Roswell, Felicity, and Providence. In early 2003 Snyder tracked her second album, Have Another Pillow, largely alone yet with contributions from Siegal, Geltner, Zach Alford, Adam Widoff, and Lonnie Hillyer. The project was released alongside a short film and an elaborately illustrated book, and that autumn Snyder adapted it for the stage as a mixed-media performance.