Article that originally appeared in Standard Times,
March 16, 2003

CRAFTING "PERFECTLY GOOD SONGS"'

By James Reed

Musician Jaime (rhymes with "time") d'Almeida would like you to think he ruins perfectly good songs.

But he is wrong.

The 31-year-old summer SouthCoast resident manages to make music that owes its vitality as much to '80s indie pop as it does to bluesy roots rock. The result is the best of everything: He sings like early Sting, arranges music like Beck and rocks like Jonathan Richman.

"That's interesting that you say that," Mr. d'Almeida said in a recent phone interview. "I'm a fan of all those musicians."

Mr. d'Almeida is the heart of the Boston-based alternative pop/rock ensemble the Timbre Project, whose latest release is "Ruining Perfectly Good Songs." In just four years, he has built a steady following who come to his shows ready for a rotating cast of top Boston musicians and Mr. d'Almeida's revelatory tunes.

"I try to write about my own experiences, but I wouldn't say it's 100 percent autobiographical," he said. "I use my own life as an artistic idea and then develop it from there."

Mr. d'Almeida was born in Boston, but spent his childhood in New Jersey, New York and Portugal. He admits that Boston's music scene is crowded and fierce, but with the Timbre Project he culls from all of the local talent, including musicians from other bands.

Even though Mr. d'Almeida spent summers in Wareham and Marion, he has never played the SouthCoast, "but I would like to because that area is really important to me." His mother and other relatives still live in Marion.
That said, he does have SouthCoast fans who come to his shows in Boston. He frequently plays at the Kendall Cafe, the Lizard Lounge and Toad. You can catch him tomorrow night at T.T. the Bear's in Cambridge. The show starts at 8:30 p.m.

Mr. d'Almeida has been a musician since he was a kid who tinkered on the piano and violin. As a young adult, he started playing in bands. First, there was Jimmy's Rosefarm, a group he formed with guys he worked with at a California Pizza Kitchen.

The next incarnation, Five Dollar Milkshake, was the band that started getting noticed, though. They played for more than five years and yet never hit the big time.

In 1999, Mr. d'Almeida disbanded the group and released his first solo project, "Free Souvenirs," under the moniker the Timbre Project. The album was widely acclaimed, but with his latest release, "Ruining Perfectly Good Songs," Mr. d'Almeida has come full circle in terms of artistic merit and commercial popularity.

Windjam Records, a respected indie record label in Boston, signed him earlier this year, a venture that undoubtedly will propel him to wider exposure and success.

"Being signed by a label really takes off the pressure of releasing an album on your own," he said. "When you release it on your own, there's no indication that anyone liked it, but when a label backs it, there's some credibility."

Sonically, "Ruining Perfectly Good Songs" is at once a varied blend of infectious melodies and hooks that beautifully toe the line between pop and soft electronica. It's an album fraught with interludes that balance out the folk-minded songwriting with dense guitar accompaniment.

As a songwriter, Mr. d'Almeida follows the golden rule: Write about what you know.

Take, for instance, "A Case Against Cloning," which was originally titled "She Loves Cheese." Arguably the best song on the album, it is a humorous piano-heavy ballad that salutes Mr. d'Almeida's fiancee, Lisa. "There's only one of her, and I wouldn't want it any other way," he sings.

Packaged between the verses is a breezy interlude that's a wonderful nod to The Smiths; you wish it would never end.

From there we jump to "Cranky Pants," a droll rocker that sounds an awful lot like Iggy Pop's punkish "Tight Pants" meets rockabilly. Mr. d'Almeida warns his lover: "Come home from work and you don't want to talk/I said, 'Baby, take your cranky pants off.'"

And like any good local performer, Mr. d'Almeida's appeal has fanned outside of New England. School kids in New York took a liking to "Cranky Pants," he said.

"I guess someone had a copy of the album and played it, and the kids liked 'Cranky Pants' so much that they wanted to make it their school song," Mr. d'Almeida said. "I'm glad people are liking the songs."

For more information about Jaime d'Almeida, including upcoming performances and how to purchase his albums, visit www.timbreproject.com