It’s not every day that a band offers a peek behind the creative curtain, and when they do, it’s often laced with rehearsed modesty or cloaked in self-deprecating humor. Strangelight, however, has shown us a sliver of the paradox that governs many artistic endeavors: the uneasy cohabitation of camaraderie and productivity. One could argue that too much of the former tends to stifle the latter.
Strangelight, a band accustomed to embracing dichotomy, candidly speaks about how getting along too well sometimes means letting the artistic process simmer longer than intended.
“If you want to be in a band that is really efficient, the members can’t get along that well. Someone has to have the ‘let’s get this over with’ attitude,” says a member, summarizing the real tension between social harmony and creative urgency.
In this quasi-Sartrean chamber of existential questioning and sporadic music making, Julia, one of the band’s members, stumbled upon some long-forgotten Strangelight original compositions. It’s a testament to the complicated ebb and flow of creative output that some of these songs, conceived nearly two decades ago, have either been reworked or can’t even be remembered well enough to be played. It also subtly highlights the longue durée of the band’s evolution, underscored by the inclusion of one such relic in their new 7″, titled “Power, Rent, Control,” also featuring another new track called “A Three Day Weekend.”
When faced with the prospect of eternalizing a sound—especially one that is two decades in the making—the act of recording becomes an art form in itself. Strangelight opted for the path less trodden but more revealing—recording both tracks live at Embryo Studios in Oakland. No room for post-production wizardry or sonic facelifts here.
“Both songs were recorded live, no punch-ins, no upstrokes. I think knowing that there’s no option to punch-in a mistake or truly isolate any track has everyone up their game. Without getting overly sappy, there is something special about capturing what is really happening in a room live. But, there is a time and place for sitting at the mixing board tracking to a click (the time is never and the place is the garbage).” – opines the band, emphasizing the importance of a ‘live take’ to capture a moment’s raw, unscripted truth.
With vinyl pressing nightmares behind them, Strangelight is embarking on a Southwestern tour, armed with the new 7″ record, which will be released on September 21. The live shows kick off in Bakersfield, snake through Las Vegas and San Pedro, and conclude in Berkeley—each venue an acoustic thumbtack on the map of their musical journey.
“After this run of shows we’ll be hunkering down to finish writing the new album which we plan to record with Scott Evans in January. Scott recorded and mixed Adult Themes and The World Needs Laughter, and we’re looking forward to working with him again. And by “working” we mean “annoying”.
Ideally between now and then there’s enough infighting between band members for us to produce an album of Rumors-level quality. Even if it’s no rumors, we can promise it won’t be Tusk.” – comments the band.
September 21, 2023 – Bakersfield Sound Co, Bakersfield CA
September 22, 2023 – The Red Dwarf, Las Vegas NV
September 23, 2023 – The Sardine, San Pedro CA
September 24, 2023 – 924 Gilman, Berkeley CA
