Pandemic put new spin on Darlingside’s methods, message
Darlingside usually finishes recording its albums with all four members crowded together, working out the final vocal parts in some sort of tight space. The results can be subtle and stunning all at once — Dave Senft, Don Mitchell, Auyon Mukharji and Harris Paseltiner harmonizing over mist-in-the-trees music that finds paths between old folk traditions and modern indie rock.
But for new album “Fish Pond Fish,” released earlier this month, the Boston quartet had to wrap things up in their individual homes, each member tucked into their own personal recording space or working things out via Zoom during marathon sessions.
“It was a strange process for a band like us who often end with us huddled around one microphone singing in a room together,” Paseltiner said. “This time around we were asking questions like, ‘How do we sing the chorus to this song when we have not ever tried singing it in a room together?’”
The band needed to reinvent how it builds its sound — already a unique one considering the four generally construct songs out of a range of strings from electric guitars and basses to acoustic cello, violin and banjo. Having to piece things together by sharing files across the internet had Darlingside struggling to grab hold of the wild and lush arrangements that made previous LP, 2018’s “Extralife,” so compelling. But it turns out those limitations liberated the foursome from some expectations. The song “February/Stars,” which the members envisioned as a grand bloom, turned out wonderfully tiny and tender.
“There were plans to fill out the second half of that song, make it pretty maximalist,” Paseltiner said. “That whole section came together writing and singing harmonies one at a time and passing the parts around like a game of telephone. It came out as a very minimalist take.”
A band in love with dynamics, Darlingside played with artistic poles on “Fish Pond Fish” it may not have stumbled upon if it hadn’t been for quarantine.
“There’s maybe more of a dynamic arc up and down the songs,” Paseltiner said. “In the end, especially considering we were already experimenting with percussion and drums on this one, the recording process led to some bigger peaks and valleys than we’ve had in the past.”
“Fish Pond Fish” may have come together thanks to today’s technology, but it’s obsessed with the magic of the natural world. The subjects and song titles — “Woolgathering,” “Green + Evergreen,” “Ocean Bed,” “Mountain + Sea,” “Crystal Caving” — look at nature’s cycles, growing and death. An odd but fitting match for 2020.
“It was a strange thing to be home singing and overdubbing a line like, ‘Things will change and change again,’” Paseltiner said. “It’s almost as if the world around us was filling into certain lyrics that had been developed months or years prior.”
Despite the distance
Paseltiner has been forced to keep from his bandmates, he’s been heartened by the response to the record — first single “Ocean Bed” has become one of Darlingside’s most popular songs — and sense of community he’s felt even without being able to share the band’s intimate music with fans in person.
“I was worried (releasing music during the pandemic) would be a disconnected experience but it’s been anything but that,” he said. “If anything, I felt a flood of connection with people either messaging or writing or calling me up or just sharing the music with each other. … Putting music out at a time like this has been really important to stay tapped into real things happening in real time.”