Independent Record Label | Est. 2009
Wilmington, North Carolina

 
 

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Monday, November 1, 2021

Music Premiere: Hannah Yeun’s single “All That Matters Is The Wind” from the upcoming ‘Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors’ due out November 5


We are pleased to premiere Hannah Yeun’s single “All That Matters Is The Wind” which is part of the upcoming Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors due out November 5 on Fort Lowell Records. 100% of proceeds from this album will go to Homicide Survivors Inc., a Tucson-based nonprofit providing support and advocacy for families and individuals affected by homicide nationwide.

Yuen’s music is witchy and ’60s girl group-inspired dream pop. San Diego City Beat describes her music as “Chelsea Wolfe being backed by The Ventures…that is to say, pretty damn fun”. Yeun hails from the DC music scene but has also lived in NYC, Portland, and Tucson (home of Calexico and Linda Ronstadt). “Yeun” is her Korean middle name given to her from growing up in the Korean cult, The Unification Church (aka The Moonies). Her current lineup of backing musicians is Linus Schief on drums (LAKE, Solid Home Life), Dane Velasquez on lead guitar, Ricky Tutaan on synth (Droll), and Adam Frumhoff on bass (Wanda Junes). She has shared the stage with Joe Jack Talcum (Dead Milkmen), Sasami, Karl Blau, Jon Russell and Tyler Willia of The Head and the Heart, and more.

Your single, “All That Matters Is The Wind” is part of the upcoming Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors. How did you become involved in that project?

I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to contribute a song to this project and have my song be included amongst other artists I admire like Calexico, Dr. Dog, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, just to name a few. It almost didn’t happen. I became involved with the Luz De Vida ll Compilation because Louis of Perpetual Doom (my label) got me in touch with James, who owns Fort Lowell Records. I guess Lou had played him some of my stuff, and they both deeply felt that I needed to be a part of the compilation. The whole compilation was mostly already complete when James had reached out to me, but he really felt like I would be a great addition to the album. I’m so glad that he asked.

Please tell us a little about the new single, and the writing and recording process.

The tricky part was that the song needed to be about two minutes long (that’s the amount of time they had left on the album for another song), and the turnaround time was only a few days. Luckily, my producer and brother-in-law, Daniel, is a recording wizard, and we had figured out a streamlined way to record together throughout quarantine, despite being on different sides of the country. We recorded my first album, Heavenly Sister, in just three days, so I had no worries about us being able to meet the deadline.

I wrote this song during a falling out with a few new friends I had made, a traumatic breakup with someone who was actively involved with the music scene, and the death of a few dear friends. It was my way of grieving that loss, and because I was so new in town, I tended to not go out much and isolated myself a bit to write songs. I made sure to attend the All Souls Procession (the Tucson Dia de Los Muertos celebration) to write the names of those I had lost that year to be tossed into the urn that they light on fire as a way to honor the dead. I wrote six names that year alone.

Is there a particular part of the song or lyric that speaks to you?

Because of the time constraint, I had to cut the song down from its original form. That version included—“so you get the best gigs in town/ oh the sad dance of the clown/ thought I would stick around/ to see another fool get the crown.” It was meant to speak on the gatekeeping culture of music scenes, but I felt it wasn’t fitting and a more outdated version of the message I wanted to come across with this song, so I ended up cutting it. I may release a full version at another time, but I really like the message that the version on the compilation album embodies—sure, things may be hard, and maybe people don’t always understand you, but if we ground ourselves and just listen to something as simple as the wind, we’ll be able to understand that everything passes, including people, but even painful feelings during difficult moments eventually pass too. Like that George Harrison song—All Things Must Pass. All things must pass away.

The proceeds from this compilation album will benefit Tucson’s Homicide Survivors, Inc. What does your involvement in this project mean to you?

I was living on the East Coast during the Tucson shooting ten years ago, and it was heartbreaking to hear about. You can tell that it has left its mark on Tucson. As a Virginia resident, the pain of the Virginia Tech shooting is a lasting memory that permeates just below the surface of the culture—I remember texting friends as they were hiding under their desks. You never really forget something like that. It’s traumatic and I am so glad that Tucson Homicide Survivors exists as a way to support people who have experienced such tragedy.

When did you become involved in music and when did you decide to pursue music as a career?

I’ve truthfully been writing music for as long as I can remember. I use songwriting as a form of emotional processing, and I’m not sure I’ll ever stop. Growing up, we couldn’t afford a piano, so my mom bought a chord organ at a yard sale and it came with a songbook of hits from the ’60s. I had no context, having never heard these songs, so I’d interpret them in my own way—often slow and a little melancholy. For the longest time, I thought, “Take a Letter, Maria” was a sad ballad about a man leaving his cheating wife, but I was surprised to hear it as an up-tempo pop song with a horn section. Regardless, the “sad ’60s” style carried with me into my own songwriting. San Diego City Beat describes my music as, “Chelsea Wolfe backed by The Ventures.”

I decided to finally take my music seriously after seeing the success of an old friend and music collaborator, Jon Russell (of The Head and the Heart). We would stay up late writing songs and jamming in his living room, and you could tell there was something special about him. One day he literally woke up and had a chance opportunity to move to Seattle, with no guarantees waiting for him on the other end, and he took it.

I used that same approach when I had the opportunity to move to Portland several years later. I decided to finally get serious—so I released my first album and formed a band. We were about to tour the West Coast a bit and even sold out a show in San Francisco. It’s an incredible feeling.

What’s your go-to guitar for songwriting, and why?

I picked up my first guitar around age 14. The kid who mowed our lawn was trying to sell it, and my mom bought it from him to help him out. The strings were rusty, and the action was impossible, but I played that sad, broken guitar until my fingers were calloused and bleeding. These days my go-to for songwriting purposes is my Harmony Sovereign—which oddly enough had similar problems when I first bought it for $25. Luckily, I was able to get the neck repaired through a luthier friend in town (Brockway Strings) who made it playable again. It’s a beautiful guitar.

When I’m playing in someone else’s band, I’ll usually write songs on my Telecaster and mess around with my pedals to come up with fun little licks. Recently, my lead guitar player, Dane, and I have gotten into writing harmonizing guitar solos. Something about it just really scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. It’s been a lot of fun.

About Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors

The original Luz de Vida project began in the days after the January 8, 2011 shooting that took the lives of six people and injured 19 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and shook the Tucson community and nation. Luz de Vida – Spanish for Light of Life – is an expression of community, love, healing, grace, and hope, a positive response from Tucson musicians and national artists. More than $20,000 was raised for what was then the Tucson Together Fund to provide aid and comfort to the victims and their families.


The original Tucson Together Fund ceased in 2013 and since then, funds have been donated to Tucson’s Homicide Survivors, Inc. For the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, members of the original Luz de Vida production team (a coalition of Tucson writers, recording engineers, musicians, and artists) are partnering with Homicide Survivors and JFCS of Southern Arizona to release a second compilation record. Again, featuring Tucson and national artists and released on Fort Lowell RecordsLuz de Vida II will be released on November 5th to coincide with the All Soul’s Procession, an annual community ceremony in celebration and mourning of the lives of our loved ones and ancestors.

The original record sleeve included a quote from composer Leonard Bernstein, his November 1963 response to the assassination of President Kennedy, and Luz de Vida II continues in the same spirit: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

Homicide Survivors Inc. is a non-profit organization that’s helping meet the crisis and long-term needs of families of murder victims through support, advocacy, and assistance.

More info on Nov 5 release concert (featuring Hannah) w/ raffle and auction fundraisershttps://homicidesurvivorsinc.org/luz-de-vida/

Sunday, October 31, 2021

Premiere: Tracy Shedd Shares New Video For “Chasing Time”

[Repost from Under The Radar Magazine; by Caleb Campbell, October 25, 2021]



Featured on Luz de Vida II - A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors, Coming November 5th via Fort Lowell Records

With six albums under her belt, prolific indie rock singer/songwriter Tracy Shedd returned this month with her first new music of the year, her single, “Chasing Time.” Her new track is also featured on the upcoming benefit album, Luz de Vida II. The first record began as a benefit for the January 8, 2011 shooting that took the lives of six people and injured 19 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. For the 10th anniversary, the same team of Tucscon writers, engineers, musicians, and artists are releasing a second compilation album, this time benefiting Homicide Survivors and JFCS of Southern Arizona.

Shedd shared the track last week and today she’s back with an accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

Shedd’s offering for the benefit is a slice of sweetly melodic indie pop, colored by washes of watery synths and electronic percussion. It’s soft and reflective, yet also sports an undeniable melodic core, making for an unexpectedly heartfelt earworm. Lyrically, the track is fittingly empathetic and hopeful, searching for the good in the world in spite of all the surrounding pain一“We can give, give, give more than we receive / We can love love love / More than we hate / And we can be / It’s all inside of you.”

Shedd says of the song and project, “Music heals, and it’s an honor if I can ever have a part in that healing. I wrote this song in perspective of what a survivor might feel, being the loved one left behind.”

Check out the video below and watch for Luz de Vida II - A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors, coming November 5th via Fort Lowell Records. You can also support the fundraiser here. You can also pre-order the record or enter in an online raffle and auction with a variety of prizes, including a turntable hand-painted by Dr. Dog’s Scott McMicken.

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Happy Releasiversary to 'GROW'

One year ago today, GROW: A Compilation in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter was released. All proceeds have been, and will continue to be (indefinitely), donated to the New Hanover County NAACP, who uses the money to award students with scholarships. GROW is a curated collection of Indie Rock / Alternative music from Wilmington North Carolina, accompanied by the work of Literary + Visual Artists from the Cape Fear region, and was made possible by our sponsors. Visit our Bandcamp page now to learn more about GROW, listen to the album, as well as order your own copy of the vinyl record today. Thank you for your support!

James Tritten of Fort Lowell Records

Friday, October 29, 2021

Fort Lowell Records welcomes Citified

We've been big (big) fans of Greensboro NC band -- Citified -- since their debut album released in 2005 by former Wilmington NC based record label, Eskimo Kiss Records. Fast forward sixteen years, now Fort Lowell Records is very excited to share with you that we've been working directly with Citified's frontman -- Chris Jackson [pictured here] -- to bring you Citified's third full length album, titled Lie Like a Painter, to be released on Friday, December 10th. For now, do yourself a favor and check out Citified's music on any digital platform; we recommend the song "Weddings" (our personal favorite; below). For fans of R.E.M., The Clientele, or Real Estate.
Chris Jackson of Citified

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Live concert photographs of 'Luz de Vida II' artist, Juarez

Friday, October 22, 2021

OUT NOW: Tracy Shedd "Chasing Time" [Digital Single]

The forth single from the Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors titled "Chasing Time" by Tracy Shedd is out now and available on all digital music platforms.  Listen to the song below, and then CLICK HERE to pre-order Luz de Vida II on vinyl through Zia Records, or the Digital LP via Bandcamp and receive the first four singles today. All proceeds raised from Luz de Vida II album sales will go toward services for advocacy, support, and emergency assistance for families impacted by homicide provided by Homicide Survivors, Inc.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

KXCI Radio features 'Luz de Vida II' as Album of the Week

Tune into KXCI Radio's The Homestretch every day this week (Oct 19-22) at 3:20pm MST/PDT each day as Hannah Levin features Fort Lowell Records' new album Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors as their Album of the Week!

Hannah Levin of KXCI; Photo by Rick Wiley of AZ Daily Star

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Arizona Rockers Juarez and Others Honor Homicide Survivors 10 Years After the Tucson Gun Massacre

[Repost from Rock and Roll Globe; by Ron Hart, October 7, 2021]

The Rock & Roll Globe is proud to premiere the latest single from the forthcoming benefit album, which also includes material from Calexico, Dr. Dog, Amos Lee and more

The original Luz de Vida project began in the days after the tragic January 8, 2011 shooting that killed six people and injured 19 others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson,  Arizona.

It was the some of the first shots fired in the bloodiest, deadliest decade for domestic terrorism in American history–a direct result of Washington allowing the crucial 1994 Assault Weapons Ban to lapse, giving any moron with a gun license through ability to buy the very semiautomatics white people were so afraid of when cats like Biggie and Onyx were rhyming about them in the early-to-mid 90s.

VIDEO: Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly appeared on NBC’s Today ten years after her near-fatal shooting

And while the massacre at that Safeway plaza–which included the killing of a nine-year-old girl–no doubt shook the entire nation, it primarily] rattled the local Tucson community. Days after the tragedy, a coalition of local and national music acts came together to form the Luz de Vida project, raising over $20,000 to provide aid and comfort to the victims and their families via what was then called the Tucson Together Fund (it is currently known as Tucson’s Homicide Survivors, Inc.)

The original Tucson Together Fund ceased in 2013 and since then, funds have been donated to Tucson’s Homicide Survivors, Inc. For the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, members of the original Luz de Vida production team (a coalition of Tucson writers, recording engineers, musicians, and artists) are partnering with Homicide Survivors and JFCS of Southern Arizona to release a second compilation record. Again, featuring Tucson and national artists and released on Fort Lowell Records, Luz de Vida II will be released in November to coincide with the All Soul’s Procession, an annual community ceremony in celebration and mourning of the lives of our loved ones and ancestors.

Dig the tracklist:
  1. Calexico — “Wash (La Luz Brillante)”
  2. Tracy Shedd — “Chasing Time”
  3. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah — “Thousand Oaks (Luz de Vida)”
  4. Juarez — “Ghosts in the Room”
  5. L’Orange — “A Rich Life & Longing”
  6. Dr. Dog — “Loneliness”
  7. Gabriel Naïm Amor — “La Nuit Pour Nous Deux”
  8. Acorn Bcorn — “Scraps”
  9. XIXA — “Crystal Road (Luz de Vida)”
  10. The Resonars — “It’s the Same”
  11. Hannah Yeun — “All That Matters is the Wind”
  12. Soda Sun — “Grape Juice”
  13. Amos Lee — “El Camino (Solo Acoustic)”
Ahead of the November 5 release of Fort Lowell Records’ compilation album Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors, we are honored to premiere the new single from the album, the Crimson-esque rocker from Tucson’s own Juarez entitled “Ghosts in the Room” accompanied by its video featuring the stunning animation of Rudy Flores.

100% of proceeds from the record will go to Tucson’s Homicide Survivors Inc, a non-profit organization that’s helping meet the crisis and long-term needs of families of murder victims through support, advocacy, and assistance.

Preorder the album here.

VIDEO: Juarez “Ghosts in the Room”

Monday, October 11, 2021

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Video Premiere: Juarez – ‘Ghosts in the Room’


The latest video from Luz de Vida II – A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors, a new album from Fort Lowell Records, Juarez have released their new video for the track “Ghosts in the Room.”

The album features artists spanning a variety of genres, and all of the proceeds from the record will go to Tucson’s Homicide Survivors Inc, a nonprofit organization that works to help meet the crisis and long-term needs of families of murder victims through support, advocacy, and assistance.

The Luz de Vida project began in the days following the January 8, 2011 shooting that took six lives and injured 19 others. Luz de Vida is Spanish for “Light of Life” and acts as an expression of community, love, healing, grace, and hope, a positive response from Tucson musicians and national artists.

Juarez was founded in 2007 in a Tucson dive bar by Dana Fehr and Michael Sanger, combining their love of metal, creative songwriting, and guitar riffs and eventually rounding up the missing links: Thomas Beach and Johnnie Munger. They disbanded in 2011, though the band are currently working on mixing and mastering tracks they recorded back in 2010, including “Ghosts in the Room.”

The album will be released on November 5, coinciding with the All Soul’s Procession, an annual community ceremony in celebration and mourning of the lives of our loved ones and ancestors.

Watch the video for “Ghost in the Room” here:

Saturday, October 9, 2021

Review / 200 Words Or Less: Neon Belly - Self-Titled, Fort Lowell Records (2021)


Let’s call it like is it is. Punk rock has been too much of a boys’ club for far too long. And, since the style is rooted in blunt communication, what better way to call attention than putting the scene on alert on the first song of a band’s first EP? Neon Belly starts with a mission statement in “The Boys Are Alright,” and then backs it up with enjoyable yet meaningful tunes throughout the 5-song EP.

This is confrontational, aggressive protest punk with a home recorded, high energy vibe. While it’s indisputably angry, though, the basslines are almost playful and fun. On “D.O.I.I. (Dissemination of Intimate Images),” for example, it captures a more vibrant mood, showing that you can smile and dance without watering down the message.

Just as that song title shows, the messages are front and center here. But the message isn’t much without music to back it up. Neon Belly pulls off the right balance of politics and tone. This is upbeat, hardcore-inspired punk to shout along to with some subtle lighter moments that give needed balance.

The recording itself is effectively DIY. It sounds live and without polish: just as it would in a basement or prepping the crowd before a rally.

Friday, October 8, 2021

OUT NOW: Juarez "Ghosts in the Room" [Digital Single]

The third single from the Luz de Vida II: A Compilation to Benefit Homicide Survivors titled "Ghosts in the Room" by Juarez is out now and available on all digital music platforms.  Listen to the song below, and then CLICK HERE to pre-order Luz de Vida II on vinyl through Zia Records, or the Digital LP via Bandcamp and receive the first three singles today. All proceeds raised from Luz de Vida II album sales will go toward services for advocacy, support, and emergency assistance for families impacted by homicide provided by Homicide Survivors, Inc.

Sunday, October 3, 2021

INTERVIEW: Lauds Gets Close to a Bell

[Repost from Laid Off New York; by Andrew Burton, September 24, 2021]

Lauds are a band from Wilmington, NC centered around three friends: J. Holt Evans, Boyce Evans, and McKay Glasgow. They released their first project, a self-titled EP, in late July on Fort Lowell Records. A mix of straight-ahead indie rock songs and longer, exploratory pieces, the tracks on Lauds are united by their hazy qualities. Staccato guitar lines interlock throughout, sounding restless or ethereal but never in between. The rhythm section, depending on the moment, is either trying to keep up with the guitars or sitting happily in the pocket, providing occasional accents. Vocals drop in and out, always blurred, always airy. In just 15 minutes, Lauds hit the sweet spot between dream pop, post-punk, and shoegaze.

I had the pleasure of conducting Lauds’ first ever interview, speaking with McKay, Holt, and Boyce together over the phone. We covered a lot of territory, discussing how the band formed, their songwriting process, and how they plan on performing these songs live. Birds, beaches, and The Cure came up too

Andrew: Could you tell us about Lauds’ origin story?

Holt: My dad has a little studio where he's been recording artists in Wilmington for about 10 years. One of them was McKay’s folk band, Tumbleweed. In January 2019, I was living in Charlotte but would come back periodically to my parent’s house in Wilmington, which is when McKay and I met in passing one day at the studio.

McKay: Holt’s dad has kind of given me a music education, slowly converting me into more of a rocker. Already I was wanting to write songs that weren’t strictly folk.

Holt: I think our first convo was about Zuma by Neil Young and what a great record that is. McKay had a few songs he wanted to record that were more spacey and atmospheric that didn’t fit with Tumbleweed’s style, and I’ve been sitting on a backlog of guitar music I’ve made through the years since college. We started hanging out and writing songs together. Boyce was the natural fit to start playing drums, and then we added one of our friends to play bass. That’s how Lauds took shape. We liked the songs we were writing so much and we liked the sound we were angling toward, and it took off. We played an early show in April which people liked, and we had a really good time. We’ve been all in on this project ever since.

How does the songwriting process work? Do you each bring individual songs to the table or is it more collaborative?

McKay: Both Holt and I had a number of demos from the past. Mine were just acoustic guitar with vocals; Holt had a lot of lo-fi, reverby stuff he recorded on his phone he played me that I could tell was good. We ended up moving in more of a dream-pop/shoegaze direction than my songs, but “Sandpiper” from the EP was one of the demos I sent Holt. It was a finger-picking acoustic guitar song we turned into a spacey, very sentimental, “Cure-on-the outro” rock song.

Basically, we had a number of songs, we rearranged them because of Holt’s ideas or my ideas. Holt wrote the song “Don’t Mind” and I was like “it needs a bridge,” but basically all those riffs were already the original ones. I don’t even know how long Holt had those.

Holt: The process varies song-to-song now, which I think is a good thing. If anything, we’ve become a lot more collaborative. We’re proud of the EP because it represents different avenues for us as songwriters. “Sandpiper” was a McKay song he was sitting on for a long time, “Never Was” was a song I was sitting on since probably my senior year of college.

Who sings and plays which instruments on each song on the EP, and how are they going to come together live?

McKay: [Laughs] We’re hoping they do come together live because we have quite a few shows coming up.

Boyce: To be determined. I’ve moved to third guitar to cover some of that and we’ve recently added Ross Page [of Color Temperature and Seeking Madras] to the band to play drums.

McKay: Our good buddy, who’s probably the most overall talented artist in town…

Holt: Shoutout to Ross Page.

McKay: Yeah, Ross Page is the man. I kind of said, “I’m not going to play in a band without Ross Page.” He plays drums in Tumbleweed and now he plays drums in Lauds. We’ve got him, Boyce, and Holt’s friend Gavin Campbell on bass. That’s what our live show is: me and Holt playing interlocking riffs or me playing rhythm and Holt playing lead, and then Boyce going in between.

Holt: Regarding who is doing the majority of what, it really depends on the song and how it’s written. McKay is kinda obviously the singer and frontman of the band, but it just depends on what the song calls for. All of us can jump in and do background vocals. “Never Was” is a song I wrote that I always wanted to sing, but McKay and I actually sang that in unison in the studio to round out the timbre of the vocals. We’re fortunate too that all three of us can play guitar, bass, and sing to varying degrees, and then Boyce and I can drum. I’m sure McKay could drum if he tried to.

McKay: [Laughs] I’m staying away.

On the EP, the instrumental quality of the vocals seems more important than the lyrics. They’re smothered in reverb like the guitars. How much does it matter what you say versus how it sounds?

McKay: That’s an important question within the band itself. [All laugh]. Because I’ve played in folk bands, I always think it’s not that lyrics need to have a literal meaning, but they need to convey something. We’re all about conveying the emotion of the song. The lyrics have definitely taken a back seat to that in Lauds, but I think we all agree that’s what our music is about. I spend a lot of time writing lyrics and making sure they feel right, and I know Holt does the same. Sometimes we argue about lyrics, sometimes we don’t.

Holt: Boyce ends up being a really good third party mediator whenever McKay and I have different opinions.

McKay: Coming up with song titles is our biggest difficulty. Probably the most important lyric is the title because people aren’t necessarily going to read the lyrics. But if they do, we want to give them something good to listen to that can be congruent with the sound of the music and what the song is about.

Holt: McKay can really take a topic. “Sandpiper” is a song about McKay living in this neighborhood that has a dock that he is able to use and spend tranquil time there.
McKay: Yeah, it’s about that place. It’s about growing up on the Cape Fear River. I ended up moving back there when I was in grad school. It’s not directly about sandpipers, which are the birds that hang out on the shoreline, but it’s about that kind of place. Writing a song about a small part of a place or a relationship you’ve thought about―that’s how I think.

Holt: All my lyrics are pretty much straight-up stream of consciousness. The actual words themselves are important, too, but I’m more into the syllables and melody.

The first two singles you guys self-released—“Don’t Mind” in 2019 and “Consolation” in 2020―have a cleaner sound than the new songs. Was there a conscious decision to make this EP sound rougher?

Holt: We wanted to make it a little bit murkier. Not so much meddling with the fidelity, but on songs like “Wait Forever” you hear some guitars kind of clinging around in the background. We are big fans of bands where the production is almost like another instrument. When you listen to Closer or Unknown Pleasures, you really get this sense of atmosphere in a small place. We tried to evoke a similar space with these songs. “Don’t Mind” was bright, summery, and optimistic. To convey those emotions, we wanted to make sure everything was really crisp.

McKay: The music is very melodic, so we don’t want to make it go too far in that direction. That’s not who we are. In the scene we’re in, we look really clean cut and want to muddy the waters a bit more.

Holt: Some of my idols from a guitar-texture standpoint are bands like Iceage and PreoccupationsPornography by The Cure is one of my favorite records. I don’t think I can quite get these guys on the same page with me about that, but I’m trying. Disintegration is an album we all cherish. I think if we didn’t consciously try to break out of the confines of playing clean, melodic lines, we could end up just doing that for all our songs.

McKay: We’ve jokingly called it mid-fi. It has lo-fi production, but it has this more upbeat kind of sound. “Don’t Mind” was from a happier time, too.

Holt: Yeah, it was a really “boys of summer” type period; we had a lot of fun nights on the town. We still have a few of those, but maybe not as many, for a variety of reasons. One thing that these guys are probably so sick of me for is talking about not wanting everything to be on the nose. They’ll ask me, “well, what do you want it to sound like?” and I’ll be like “I don’t know, that’s just too on the nose for that idea.”

When you’re assembling a full record where you have forty-two minutes or so, you definitely want to establish a flow, but on an EP like this, there are only four tracks. Was there a lot of thought about how the songs worked together or which order they went in?

McKay: We had three songs―“Wasted Hours,” “Never Was,” and “Sandpiper”―and decided to start with a fast song. “Wait Forever” was the last one we finished recording for the EP. It gave us another fast, upbeat, rocky, post-punk kind of song. We decided it would make sense to throw it in the middle.

Holt: We always thought of “Sandpiper” as a show-closer or record-closer, given that…

Boyce: It’s as close to a bell as our music gets.

Holt: It has those two big parts, a spacey middle part, and a grand outro with keyboard, strings, and all that good stuff.

McKay: It definitely took the most work. The drums in the end went in so many different directions, and then we had to figure out what to do with the background vocals.

Holt: It took a lot of walks around my parents’ neighborhood―if that tells you anything―thinking about how to get it right.

Do you think everything on the EP builds up to “Sandpiper”?

Holt: 100 percent. We think it’s the perfect encapsulation of what Lauds is trying to do. We’re trying to communicate sonically through the project with the guitars, with the shifting drums, with the tape delay all over everything, but also with McKay's very intentional lyrics. We love the pop songs at the beginning of the record―that's a really crucial part of what we're trying to do as well. But we were really proud of what we were able to achieve with “Sandpiper.” We thought it melded the distinction between the more subdued and meditative energy and the more heady and upbeat energy. We’ve been calling it the New Order guitar part at the end.

When you’re assembling a full record where you have forty-two minutes or so, you definitely want to establish a flow, but on an EP like this, there are only four tracks. Was there a lot of thought about how the songs worked together or which order they went in?

McKay: We had three songs―“Wasted Hours,” “Never Was,” and “Sandpiper”―and decided to start with a fast song. “Wait Forever” was the last one we finished recording for the EP. It gave us another fast, upbeat, rocky, post-punk kind of song. We decided it would make sense to throw it in the middle.

Holt: We always thought of “Sandpiper” as a show-closer or record-closer, given that…

Boyce: It’s as close to a bell as our music gets.

Holt: It has those two big parts, a spacey middle part, and a grand outro with keyboard, strings, and all that good stuff.

McKay: It definitely took the most work. The drums in the end went in so many different directions, and then we had to figure out what to do with the background vocals.

Holt: It took a lot of walks around my parents’ neighborhood―if that tells you anything―thinking about how to get it right.

Do you think everything on the EP builds up to “Sandpiper”?

Holt: 100 percent. We think it’s the perfect encapsulation of what Lauds is trying to do. We’re trying to communicate sonically through the project with the guitars, with the shifting drums, with the tape delay all over everything, but also with McKay's very intentional lyrics. We love the pop songs at the beginning of the record―that's a really crucial part of what we're trying to do as well. But we were really proud of what we were able to achieve with “Sandpiper.” We thought it melded the distinction between the more subdued and meditative energy and the more heady and upbeat energy. We’ve been calling it the New Order guitar part at the end.