Steff and the Articles

"Arizona based Steff Koeppen & The Articles is an indie pop quintet worth keeping in your sight. Along with Koeppen’s beautiful voice and piano accompaniment, Two Cities also features wonderful violin melodies and exciting drumming unlike most of standard indie pop square beats." - Always Great Music (Blog)

"Koeppen, up from Tucson, has a fluttering, melodic voice and piano style that might have erred on the side of standard were it not for the unexpected arrangements that took songs veering in other, stranger directions. And that's no dig on her voice, either -- when she let loose on 'Change Like That,' it was a stunning thing to behold." - Phoenix New Times

"The band members have backgrounds in both classical music and jazz, and both appear on this CD. Koeppen is confident with both early-European and jazzy piano lines, and the band adds accents on violin, bass, and drums in all the right places. These arrangements are immaculate. No one can accuse Steff Koeppen and the Articles of not knowing how to put a song together." - Yab Yum Music

Baeble First Play: Steff and the Articles Find Their 'Corner of the World'

[Ed. Note: We've been doing a lot of premieres the last four months, and having our ear to the ground on exciting new music is a passion here at Baeble. That said, we've been thinking of ways to rebrand our "Premiere" content, and today, we're excited to bring you the first edition of "Baeble First Play." Moving forward, we want our Baeble First Play to speak to the best of new music that is sent our way so we're limiting ourselves to one Baeble First Play a day (though they won't necessarily be daily). And Steff & the Articles' alt-piano pop was the perfect place to start.]

Tuscon natives Steff And The Articles have been making waves with their piano-pop melodies that paint a wide sonic landscape reminiscent of a more vigorous Regina Spektor. Beginning as the brainchild of Steff Koeppen in 2009, the singer songwriter collaborated with bassist Chris Pierce and drummer Tom Beech, picking up violinist Jessica Muiseke along the way. With an EP and full length already under their belts, the quartet has already seen appraisal from fans and critics alike, as well as earning a spot in mtvU's rotation of videos in the winter of 2013.

Today we're premiering their latest track, "Corner of the World", a soaring pop track that shares the individually personalized "corner" that Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo occupies. Rolling drum licks set the foundation of the track as orchestral strings supply depth, similar to what "Tonight, Tonight" achieves. The group has a round of tour dates this August on the west coast. In the meantime, check out our premiere for "Corner of the World" below:

8/6 SAN DIEGO @ Seven Grand San Diego
8/7 LOS ANGELES @ El Cid
8/8 SCOTTSDALE @ Pho Cao
8/28 TUCSON @ club congress - Baeble Music

Steff & the Articles
“Call You Mine”
PREMIERE
by MONET MAKER

A little different from the norm here, Steff & the Articles hide from the dry heat of Tucson, AZ in their coffee-house-lit track, “Call You Mine.” Vocalist and pianist Steff Koeppen maintains, forward and bright, a blend of Jenny Lewis and Nicole Miglis across the shivering lull the “Articles” (Tom Beech, Chris Pierce, and Alex Tuggle) generate. With a string of EPs and a handful of demos, Steff & the Articles have amassed a small following that you can join on their upcoming West Coast-ish tour. - Tiny Mix Taps

UA Alumna and leader of Steff and the Articles' Steff Koeppen talks history and future of the band
By Kincaid Rabb | Published 04/02/16 9:00am | Updated 04/02/16 2:53pm
On March 25, the hazy plush red booths, low leather chairs and luminescent yellows of Fourth Avenue's Flycatcher bar welcomed sweetly passionate tones of piano, drums, strings and voice of Steff and the Articles. Known for sweeping melodies and hammering, the band has masterfully combined jazz, blues and piano pop into a lovely and unique sound.

After the show, one Daily Wildcat reporter had the chance to sit down and talk to the lead singer, pianist and founder of the group, Steff Koeppen to talk about what has shaped the band and how they plan to continue making music in Tucson.

Daily Wildcat: What got you into music?

Steff Koeppen: When I was a little girl, my dad was a singer-songwriter. I took up the violin when I was 7 and hated it, but then I took up piano at 8 or 9, realized I liked singing and put them together at some point. Once I started learning pop songs that I could sing and play together, it made me want to start writing some of my own.

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DW: Did you have any previous experience working in a band?

SK: I made a band called Fouren Policy in middle school — there were four of us. Fouren Policy evolved into a few other things during high school until Idella, which was my first gigging band.

DW: You’re a graduate of the UA, right? What did you get a degree in?

SK: I was a communications major with minors in music and Spanish. I felt like I had three minors in communication, music and Spanish, because it seemed like I had to take an equal amount of courses between the three.

DW: How did Steff and the Articles come together?

SK: In 2009, I felt like I [wanted] to start a project more based on my personal songwriting. [Drummer] Tom [Beech] and I went to high school together. Chris [Pierce] found me on Myspace. [Violinist] Alex [Tuggel] went to a nearby high school and we had mutual friends, and [violinist] Jess [Muiseke] joined really recently when Alex went out of town for a year.

DW: How would you describe the genre of Steff and the Articles?

SK: That’s a hard question, but we’ve always described ourselves as progressive piano pop. It’s jazzy and indie in all the right ways.

DW: Who are some of your influences?

SK: I’m influenced by a lot of a lot of indie-pop bands like Ben Folds [Five], Rufus Wainwright, Eisley, Feist and also more vintage styles of jazz and blues like Etta James. The rest of the band has a lot of classical background and a great jazz background.

DW: Do you have any favorite venues?

SK: We mostly play Club Congress and The Flycatcher, and if we can play at The Rialto [Theatre], we love having the opportunity to put that at the top of this list.

DW: What is the creative environment of Steff and the Articles like?

SK: We rehearse at Chris’ house off Fourth [Avenue], and squish into his living room. I usually come with the skeleton of a song, and the boys help me flesh that out. More recently, I’ve been trying to jam on some more individual ideas to see what we can come up with. The girls are really good about thinking up their own additions to the skeleton that we’ve put together.

DW: That sounds a lot like the way a jazz band works.

SK: Yeah, it really is. It’s nice to have the freedom to change things up so things fit together better with the band.

DW: I saw that you sang with Decker, who was the one of the bands who opened for you. Do you do a lot of collaborations outside Steff and the Articles?

SK: Yeah, I do a lot of vocal collaborations. Over the past year I’ve been in the studio a lot, collaborating with other artists from around Arizona. I was featured on Copeland’s most recent record, and I also have done a lot work as a back up singer.

DW: What do you think of the original music scene in Arizona?

SK: I get to experience the Phoenix scene and the Tucson scene equally. Phoenix has a great pop scene, but Tucson’s more geared toward rock and Latin. It’s a unique situation for us as a pop band putting together successful bills here. There’s a lot of musical diversity in the bands in Phoenix, but that’s just because there’s a lot more people and venues there. That being said, there’s been a recent wave of electronic pop coming through Tucson.

DW: Where do you see Steff and the Articles in the next couple years?

SK: We’re working on a record, we’re trying to find a more efficient way of touring, and we’re trying to play more festivals. Playing more and having new music to release is the basic idea for what we want to do.

DW: If people wanted to connect with Steff and the Articles, how could they do it?


SK: Steff and the Articles can be found on pretty much every social media outlet out there. We’re also online. - The Daily Wildcat