LANGAN, FROST & WANE
The US trio’s mystical psych-folk turned them into a band without them realising.
THERE ARE VARIOUS geographical locations at which you might expect the influence of 1960s Donovan and Incredible String Band records to reside, but Pennsylvania wouldn’t be on the shortlist. It’s the incongruity of this three-man psychfolk tremor that makes it all the more intriguing.
The first album by Langan, Frost & Wane veers east to west and back in its roots and branches, from (Ravi) Shankar to the Strawbs, and no one is more surprised about its transcendental aura than the trio themselves. The group members had contrasting resumés when they met, both in person and remotely, initially for fun. Brian Langan was a self-described Beatles, Kinks and Hollies devotee and member of Swims and Needle Points. “Loud, power pop stuff,” as he puts it. “RJ [Gilligan, aka Frost] is also in a punk band who are fast and heavy, and Nam [Wayne, aka Wane], I think, was in a heavier band. So for the three of us to play this really slow music was interesting. Normally I sing in a higher register because I want to be Graham Nash, but I’ll never be. I’ve never collaborated this much on a project.”
What’s especially charming is the way that this notable first collaboration was so unscripted.“I’m originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania,” says Langan. “RJ is from around this area, Philly suburbs, and Nam, I think he’s from Jersey somewhere… He’s still a mystery to me,” he adds. “I just met him two years ago or something.
“Four years ago-ish, I was talking to RJ about mid60s Donovan, and I said, ‘I don’t hear too many people doing that now, we should try to write a tune like that.’ For the first year or so, it was just me and him, we’d get together and hang out, make songs. Maybe two and a half years in, he said, ‘I want to get my buddy Nam involved.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, a third person? This has been going so well.’ He said,‘Trust me, you’ll like this guy.’”
Then came the encouragement that they were creating something of real substance, which carried certain responsibilities. “Before, it was like playing this music and we might have some friends who are into it. When Goldstar signed us, we realised we needed photos and videos and stuff,” says Langan, “and we were like,‘We’re actually a band now.’”
It was a local friend and prog head who introduced Langan to some of those British ingredients.“Then I thought,‘I need more of this late 60s psychedelic stuff, because I love it.’ The fruitier, poppier, more psychedelic the better for me.”
Their self-titled album was previewed by the gently acoustic Learn The Names Of The Plants, of which Langan says with a smile: “That one’s all Nam. It’s almost better that I don’t know much about him. I just know him as my friend who comes and teaches me about plants. That one cracked me up.”
Hence the natural birth of an album on which the musical alter ego of three friends is becoming their true character. “We were doing it thinking: ‘No one’s going to like this,’” says Langan. “Then we thought, ‘The right people are going to love it.’” PS
”NORMALLY I SING IN A HIGHER REGISTER BECAUSE I WANT TO BE GRAHAM NASH, BUT I’LL NEVER BE.”