Biography

Dream pop band Mahogany was formed in December 1995 by Allysa Massais and Andrew Prinz, who shared a love for composers such as Debussy and bands such as Section 25. In February 1996, Larry Hofmann of Burnt Hair Records saw the duo play one of its first shows in Lansing, MI, and later released a split 12" with fellow Lansing band Auburn Lull. After Prinz's sister Marissa joined on keyboards, Mahogany released the Dual-Group EP and received airplay on the John Peel show in the U.K. Over the next two years, they released recordings on Tinseltones, Liquefaction, and Clairecords, as well as the What Will Become of the Key of Reason? EP in 1998, a joint effort between Clairecords and Mahogany's own label, Disques de Simultanes (Simdisc). Later that year, the band recorded its debut full-length, The Dream of a Modern Day, co-released by Clairecords and Burnt Hair (later reissued by Darla in 2001), and included Jesse Rafferty of Asha Vida on percussion. After that record was recorded, Massais left Michigan to continue her studies in sculpture, while the Prinz siblings recorded songs under the name Mohagonny. In 1999, they changed the name back to Mahogany, while also moving to Brooklyn, NY, where they were joined by programmer Robert Pietrusko and guitarist/vocalist Lorraine Lelis, and began recording and issuing various singles and EPs, all of which were collected on the 2005 Darla release Memory Column: Early Works & Rarities 1996-2004. By this time the band's lineup had changed considerably and was now an octet, with Andrew Prinz, Pietrusko, Jason Holmes, Ryan Hancock, Jeremy Scott, Ana Breton, Roy Styles, and Katrina Rudmin all contributing to the lush, layered sound Mahogany produced. Even though the group's studio was broken into in the fall of 2005, with most of their equipment and some of their recordings stolen, they pressed on, releasing the two-disc Connectivity! (which featured some production help from Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie) the following year. ~ Kenyon Hopkin, Rovi