KHRUANGBIN
They’ve taken us to Thailand, and then to Persia and Spain, but what will Texas’ surf-dub funkers do next?
IN BURTON, southeast Texas (population 473) there’s a historic 19th-century barn, out of which strange and intoxicating sounds emanate. This is the WiFi-free, non-sterile recording space of choice for dub-exotica beat mysterios Khruangbin: following the acclaim for 2018’s gauzy delight Con Todo El Mundo, they returned there in May 2019 to start on its follow-up proper with regular producer Steve Christensen.
“Steve brought more equipment from his end than he did last time,” says bassist Laura
Lee. “But it’s the same situation – you’re in the natural elements, we went without very much written, and it was a fun and painful process! I mean, I cried a lot. You really, like, go in deep, you know?”
Lee says, contrary to some reports, the group don’t jam songs into creation: “We’ll jam, but not together. I’ll jam to a drum loop, Mark [Speer, guitar] will cut up what I’ve done and he’ll jam to what he’s made.” They began with a week laying down bass, guitar and drums, staying on site – the barn belongs to Speer’s family and has a house attached. R&R involved watching VHS tapes, including Die Hard, Back To The Future and Clueless. After going back on the road for the summer, they returned to Burton in September.
Speaking to MOJO on a conference call, Lee, Speer and drummer Donald ‘DJ’ Johnson are guarded about the record’s sound. “It comes up a lot – ‘oh, the first record was Thai, and on the second one you went to the Middle East and Spain’,” says Lee, who confirms the group will sing more this time. “We never really set out to travel to one particular place. I think this one sounds like a mix of a lot of things, which for us, sounds like Houston, ’cos that’s where were from and Houston’s the most diverse city in America… and it’s a fun record! Fun! But it wouldn’t be a Khruangbin record without a little bit of melancholy in there.”
Pushed for a theme, Speer adds: “There’s plenty of stuff tied into memory and nostalgia. It’s also based on how people can communicate across generations, and why.”
Currently mixing and selecting titles, they’re conspicuously unanimous in their praise for Christensen. “He’s done so much,” says Speer, who confirms that he does not wear his long stagewear super-wig in the studio, particularly in the heat of May. “The production side, arranging, editing and, like, helping us really hone and refine what we do… he’s our George Martin.”
“He’s also really skilled at knowing us now,” says Lee. “In the last couple of years as our band has become more well known, bigger producers have reached out wanting to work with us. Every time we get to say, ‘We only work with Steve Christensen.’”
Cognisant of the necessity of quality control, Johnson – who’s laudably concerned for the critical reputations of people who’ve recommended the band to their friends – admits an initial unease about what they had recorded. “We were really second guessing ourselves – like, did we record enough?” he says. “And then you get everything back and you realise, like, wow, there’s magical stuff here! You realise you have just what you needed. I will say, at this point, we are the variables, and the barn is the constant.”
“It was a fun and painful process! I cried a lot.” LAURA LEE