Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sonic Explorations
Band finds technology can be a good thing
Indie pop/rockers Houndmouth didn’t set out to create a concept album when they were writing tracks for their third record, “Golden Age.” But when they looked back on the group of songs that would make up the album, an undeniable theme emerged by happy accident, shares bassist Zak Appleby.
“It was a really weird moment where we looked at each other and were like, ‘Did we do this on purpose?’” Appleby remembers. “All the songs were ideas about the way that we have technology kind of engulfing our whole world, and we have to live with that one way or another. And you have to be careful about how you use that because this can ruin your actual life, but then again, it’s a new life in your phone — like that kind of vibe.
“It’s vaguely a concept album, we’ll say.”
The stories in the music are all centered around ideas that are old, but concepts that are new, Appleby explains. Ideas like characters experiencing hardships in dating, love and heartache and how technology is now an integral part of so many little things in everyday life. If that explanation is giving you some “Black Mirror” vibes, Appleby acknowledges you’re not far off.
“That show is scary!” he enthuses. “Everybody’s kind of laughing [at it] under their breath, but at the same time we’re like, ‘Oh f***. This is not going to end well for us.’ We’ve got a glimpse into the future right here, and we’re chuckling at it! What are we doing?”
And though the concepts in “Golden Age” are coming from a similar place of inspiration, Appleby promises they’re not as unnerving as the Netflix show.
“Music always has to be relevant, and it’s just so easy to get caught up in singing about the ‘planes, trains and automobiles’ kind of stuff. And when you haven’t really lived through that or experienced that, there’s only so much there you can actually write about,” he says of the trio’s desire to reflect on real life. “But if you can write about things that are familiar, that you actually have a connection to, it makes the song feel really authentic and makes it easier to enjoy it.”
Besides influencing the written content, technology also played a part in the sound of the new album. With help from producers Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer) and Foxygen multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Rado, the members of Houndmouth had their eyes opened to a whole new world of instrument use and soundscape possibilities. The result is an album unlike anything they’ve released before.
“The first thing Shawn said was, ‘Anything you can hear in your head, you can dream up, we can replicate that sound here,’” Appleby shares. “That was really, really exciting for us because we’d been playing the same four [instruments] — drums, bass, guitar and keys — for years. To us, that’s all it was. And once we dove into that world, it’s like our minds exploded.”