This article was originally published in the June 2017 Trenton Downtowner.
‘We don’t pigeonhole ourselves to any one genre,” says bassist and Trenton resident Lori Johansson of the Molly Rhythm. “It’s more like active creativity. We stand by the music wholeheartedly, but we’re also really creative with our performances.”
Molly Rhythm is just one of the 50 or 60 Trenton-area bands, musicians, and singers performing as part of the annual Arts All Night Festival on Saturday and Sunday, June 17 and 18.
And while the group provides a preview of the free mega-event attracting thousands of visitors to the Capital City to hear music and see visual art, the Molly Rhythm spirit also reflects Trenton’s burgeoning creative community —emerging as one of the city’s newest and hottest products.
“We have a lot of energy and really enjoy what we’re doing, which helps a lot when you’re performing,” says Johansson. “It’s important to have fun, but we also want the people watching us to have fun” — which they do during their area appearances at Championship Bar (where they have an informal home) and the Mill Hill Saloon basement. They also play in other states and performed internationally at the Pouzzafest in Montreal.
In addition to Johansson on bass, Molly Rhythm has two charismatic female vocalists: Nikki Nalbone and Elissa Janelle Velveteen. Not too long ago the band had nine members including a trumpet and trombone player, but Johansson says Molly Rhythm has a tendency to “morph.” The band’s current lineup is now rounded out by Jon Rossi on guitar, Jeff Sward on saxophone, and drummer Collin (no last name, please), and trombonist Erin (ditto on the last name).
The history of Molly Rhythm isn’t as succinct as, say, how the Beatles and the Rolling Stones came together. Johansson muses that they all knew each other from the Trenton and Philadelphia punk/indie music scenes. About five years ago the two lead singers, Nalbone and Velveteen, invited Johansson to play with them, then encouraged Sward to dust off his sax and join in, and the others fell in after. Molly Rhythm really materialized in 2011, and since then has played in some notable places, especially in Philadelphia.
Johansson says being in Molly Rhythm is like having a full-time job. They practice often, and they’ve also been busy writing and recording. The members have day jobs as well. Johannsson has, among other things, managed the Greenwood Avenue Farmers Market, and Nalbone has been Championship Bar’s manager and involved in putting on events there.
“Nikki has thrown a lot of the events at the bar, such as block parties, hip hop shows, and in my opinion, she is one of the biggest parts of what makes Championship Bar what it is today, along with the general manager Drew Glenn,” Johansson says. “They both have worked hard on making the bar a safe location as well as being proactive with cleaning outside the bar and parts of the neighborhood to have a positive effect on the Trenton community, and supporting the music and art scene that is established in the area.”
Johansson’s other passion in life is visual art, and as a multi-media artist, she does wood burning, painting, jewelry making, and sculpture. She might get her talent from her Danish-born mother, a painter. Her father is a technology engineer.
Growing up in Lawrence, she heard all kinds of music, thanks to her parents’ vinyl collection, “Benny Goodman to Blondie to the Sex Pistols to the Beatles,” Johansson says. “They also had Mozart and some other classical music. Plus, I have an older sister who introduced me to the Smashing Pumpkins and other elements of 1990s grunge.”
A 2004 graduate of Lawrence High School, Johansson was involved in musical theater and choral activities there (she took tap, jazz, and ballet in her middle school years). In 2008 she graduated from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, with a bachelor’s degree in studio art.
“I was involved in chorus and madrigal (singers) in high school, but playing an instrument is kind of a new thing for me,” Johansson says. “I got a bass and an amp when I was 18. I would play every once in a while, pick it up here and there. But when Nikki and Elissa asked me to play, I got serious and fell in love with it.”
She hesitates to name any one musical influence. “For me, there are so many influences, I like so much music, and my style draws from so many different elements,” Johansson says. “The rest of the band is the same way as far as influences — it’s anything and everything.”
Connecting with other aspects of the creative scene in Trenton is important to Molly Rhythm — which, by the way, is a play on the musical term, “polyrhythm.”
Johansson shares her love of visual art by presenting “Art Chill Night” every Monday at the Championship, from 8 to midnight.
“I put out a bunch of paper, pencils, and crayons, and we invite everyone to come and draw,” she says. “I try to come up with a theme every week. Artists from the city come out and sometimes they bring their paintings. We see other people who don’t know how to draw, but instead of being on their cell phones, they’re playing with drawing.”
Art All Night Trenton 2017, Historic Roebling Wire Works, 675 South Clinton Avenue, Trenton. Saturday, June 17, 3 p.m., through Sunday, June 18, 3 p.m. Free. For a full schedule: www.artallnighttrenton.org. For more on Molly Rhythm: www.mollyrhythm.com.
The Molly Rhythm will perform at Art All Night.,
