TLOBF Interview // Lower Dens

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It’s not that often nowadays that a record takes me by surprise. Usually, when a band releases an album as good as Lower Dens’ Twin-Hand Movement it’s swept up and obliterated in a tornado of hype that removes a large part of the excitement that comes from having something so special in your hands.

Maybe I’m being overly romantic, but when I first properly listened to Lower Dens I had no context to place them in. Yes, I’d seen the name about a few times but there was nothing to associate them with, which made the surprise of how brilliant they are all the more rewarding.

Within a week I’d pretty much told everyone I could think to tell about them, so it’s only right that you read on now and give me the pleasure of introducing you to these warmly dark wonders.

I caught up with Abe from the group while they were on their way to Salt Lake City, driving a van through Utah.

Fronted by Jana Hunter, they formed from her previous touring band. But how did the formation of Lower Dens actually happen?

Jana needed a drummer for one of her solo tours and we’ve been playing together since, for about two and a half years now. Lower Dens formed about a year ago when we added an extra guitarist, Will.

Did you guys all meet in Baltimore then, or have you sort of moved there?

I was living in North Carolina and I moved up to Baltimore. She was living in Oregon and Will was living in Houston, and Geoff was living in Baltimore, he’s the bassist..

I really love your record. How did you go about writing it? Was it songs that you worked on on the road with Jana or did you sit down and say, let’s do a project? How did the album come about?

Jana wrote the Skeleton parts of these songs and then brought them to us and we wrote our parts and discussed what the songs should have and how we should treat it. We used a lot of restraint, which is evident in the record. The tour we did, some of the songs are arranged differently so then Will came in and we rearranged them and that’s how we are now.

Where did you go and record the album?

We recorded it with out friend Chris Freeland in the county of Baltimore, sort of in a basement studio at his mum’s house. He’s really good at what he does. He’s recorded multiple other bands in Baltimore.

Jana mixed it with Chris Coady in New York. Chris Coady I guess is pretty well known. He’s done bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV on the Radio. It took us about two weeks to record it I suppose. And then once that was done it took about a week to mix.

What did you mean earlier when you said you were quite restrained in writing it?

I suppose what I mean by the restraining is there’s not a lot of showboating on the record, it’s kind of true to the songs.

I suppose the writing is restrained but the sounds and tones sound quite rich.

They spent quite a bit of time experimenting with different tones and trying to get them just right. And bass and drums…

Have you guys ever been over to the UK to play?

No we haven’t, but we are in November. November 19th we are going over there and doing some dates opening up for Beach House.

Do you know Beach House from Baltimore?

They’re from Baltimore. They’re good friends with Geoff, well, Alex Scally is. They went to school together. We’ve played some shows with them before. We’re pretty excited about it.

Have you just toured the States a lot then?

Yes. A couple of months ago we went across the country with a band called Future Islands who are from Baltimore and that was our first country tour with the band and before that we had done a couple of tours up and down the East Coast.

Where’s your favourite place to play?

We always have a good time on the West Coast. Washington’s a lot of fun. We played Ellensburgh, Washington which is pretty interesting.

Actually, we played a house show in Fredricksburg, Virginia which is a small city in Virginia and that was one of our first shows. That was before we’d recorded the album and that was a big confidence booster coz it was a bunch of kids, mostly underage, and they were just super excited to see us and it was the first time we’d ever seen anybody jumping and dancing around to our music, so it was an uplifter. It was a lot of fun.

Tell me one thing about everyone in the band, like an interesting fact.

We’ll start with Geoff the bassist. Geoff what’s something interesting about you? Oh! Geoff went to Antarctica! Just after we recorded the album Geoff went to Antarctica for four and a half months and was doing hard work in Antarctica.

Let’s see, Will. Will flew all over the country and toured with lots of other bands. He spent some time in France and Nova Scotia. Will is like a dictionary of music. He’s pretty knowledgeable about music. I learn something from him all the time. I wouldn’t call myself very knowledgeable in music but he totally is.

I think Jana’s one of the most hardworking people I’ve ever met. She’s always doing something and it’s always worthwhile.

I don’t know much about me, really. Well, I quit my job to do all this. That was kind of exciting. I was a production assistant at a news station. It was really boring so I didn’t have too much of a hard time quitting it. But this isn’t very stable. It’s just a sacrifice for something I’m really into instead of doing something that is stable and I’m really bored at. I’ve been to Nicaragua, I don’t know if that’s interesting or not.