LOCKTENDER, a concept-focused hardcore band from Cleveland, Ohio, has released their latest EP titled Sage: I on March 8, 2024. The EP is part of a series inspired by the paintings of Kay Sage, a surrealist artist whose works offer a haunting and vague narrative quality.
Each song on the EP is named after a specific painting by Sage and explores themes of desolation, abandonment, and existential contemplation.
The band’s lineup includes Andrew, Jason, Frank, and Brok, with Brok Leshman also contributing the artwork for the EP. The recording sessions took place in January 2024 under the technical expertise of Erik Anderson, while Jack Shirley at The Atomic Garden handled the mixing and mastering.
Tomorrow is Never
“Sage’s painting ‘Tomorrow is Never‘ was finished in 1955 and can be seen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It is the subject of the first song off our new EP dedicated to her works.” – explains Jason from LOCKTENDER.
“The lyrics imagine these structures being discovered after Earth has been abandoned and conjectures on their purpose. Are these the tops of buildings hovering over a civilization choked with smog and ash? Are they the remnants of silos that launched humanity in search of a new home to inhabit? Are they beacons ready to call us back to a world restored? Sage’s dreamlike paintings I find to have great narrative quality. There is an implied meaning to her structures but what that is or was or will be is vague and haunting. I think a lot about the future of our world and her works, for me, show things both bleak and beautiful, ruined yet without malice,”
“Time aches ever on
An infinite loop
What moment bright
What decade dim
Our self wrought doom has come at last
This place abandoned for the next
Our grief is etched
In monuments of dust
Idols forever reaching to veiled stars
This world dead and dark
Buried in leaden fog
Drowned in sleep
Laid with seed
Half light of a breaking day
Half-life of a world in decay”
For the Wind to Tear
The second track, “For the Wind to Tear,” is an instrumental piece inspired by another 1955 painting by Sage, housed at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Jason elaborates on the piece: “Sage’s painting ‘For the Wind to Tear’ was also finished in 1955 and can be found at the Saint Louis Art Museum. It is the subject of the second song of our EP. I found the dark on dark contrast of this small painting really striking as well as the title. I knew from the start of this project that I wanted this painting to be involved even though it wasn’t quite complicated enough to dive into lyrically. As an instrumental transition track, the droning guitars weave back and forth and whisper. The main melody comes in with lots of meandering bends and decay, the drums and bass hit like thunder. The whole piece is over quickly, and the mountain in the image, as I see it, stands towards its own erosion with indifference.”
No Passing
The final track on the EP, “No Passing,” references Sage’s 1954 painting displayed at the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC.
Jason shares his inspiration for the song: “Sage’s painting ‘No Passing’ was completed in 1954 and is hanging in the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC. It is the subject of the third and last song from Sage: I. It was also the first song we started working on for this new chapter of LOCKTENDER. In addition to the painting, I was influenced by Cixin Liu’s ‘Remembrance of Earth’s Past’ trilogy as I wrote the lyrics for this song. The books ask questions about humanity’s place in the cosmos and what it looks like to leave behind a civilization or anything that lasts not just centuries or millennia, but that could remain in millions of years. In the painting, I see great emptiness, made greater by the intention of the buildings. Emptiness in nature is without tragedy, but the works of man abandoned tell a story. Great walls built and forgotten have a history. Humans were not the first species to conquer the world and we won’t be the last, especially as our actions hasten our own end. The lyric refrain from the opening and end of the song, ‘We were meant to lose the world,’ reflects this.”
No Passing
“Bleached sun draped sheets silently adorn the dust
This emptiness is bleaker than the rest
We were meant to lose the world
City of drought houses only
The scorn of ghosts lost on brittle winds
Remorse breaks against deaf cliffs
Walls like skeletal tombstones
Standing in the unceasing sun
Letters lost to withered years
Barren plains speak loss to time
Flags sundered in futile surrender
We were meant to lose the world
We raised its bones to our memory
And left no future worthy to see”
Upcoming Tour
LOCKTENDER is hitting the road for a five-night tour starting tomorrow. Here are the details:
5/22 – Cleveland, OH @ Happy Dog
5/23 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Govt Center
5/24 – Herndon, VA @ Arts Herndon
5/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ukie Club
5/26 – NYC, NY @ Gold Sounds
Looking ahead, the band plans to record Sage: II later this year, aiming for a combined vinyl release of both EPs in 2025.
LOCKTENDER continues to blend music, art, and deep philosophical musings, providing a unique and reflective experience. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
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