The Wake

Duluth heroes, Low, have been offering sonic escape to land locked Midwesterners since the early 90’s. Their new album, “Drums and Guns,” is another step in a new direction as they continue to expand upon their trademark, minimalist sound. Breaking to electronic beats, their crashing, ethereal harmonies float into new and uncharted territories. I met recently with the trio in uptown at the Café Barbette to discuss their new album, their popularity in Europe, cake (the food not the band), and the great Beatles vs. Stones debate.

Wake: Your “CD release show,” [was] Saturday at First Avenue. Why there and not Duluth?

Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals): I don’t know why they’re calling it that. The CD’s been out for a while and we’ve been playing these songs live for a while now … who knows.

Wake: How did you guys end up in Duluth, and not Minneapolis?

Alan: We grew up not to far away, and (He and his wife Mimi) both went to school at UMD.

Mimi Parker (Vocals): It’s not huge, there’s always that something missing, but you’ve got almost everything you need.

Wake: Do you guys ever go and run around on those huge rocks lining Lake Superior? It’s been a highlight of many a Duluth trip for me.

Alan: (laughs) Oh yeah, all the time.

Matt Livingston (Bass): Of course

Wake: So, Low has proven to be far more popular in Europe than here in the States. What would you accredit that to?

Alan: I think it’s a couple of things. Early on, this radio DJ over there (in England) started playing us and saying great things. He gave us a lot of respect. That helped a lot. I think people generally take art more seriously over there. Here, a lot of people looks at us like, “Oh, that band from Duluth put out another album.” Over there, they seem to connect to it more.

Wake: Yeah, I would imagine it would be tough for you to get any national radio play here, considering your songs start slow, and can’t be recognized as immediately as those on the radio here.

Mimi: I think that’s probably true.

Alan: Yeah, but you’re not gonna hear any truly independent bands on the radio these days. Well, there are some semi-independent bands like The Shins or the Arcade Fire. But, we have definitely had more success with that in Europe.

Wake: On the new album, you seemed to continue away from your trend of minimalist instrumentation. On “The Great Destroyer,” things were a great deal louder and, well, just a lot more rockin’. On this new one, you employed the use of drum machines and looped effects to a great extent. Were you consciously continuing the break from the fundamental Low sound? Or did you just go in and this is what came out?

Alan: Yeah (pause), well it was a little bit [of a conscience of effort]. We did want to try some new things like we had on Destroyer. I think even though it was a little louder and nosier, it was the same basic Low concept. We’ll go in and we’ll limit ourselves to these few instruments, and just see what we make out of it. This time instead of an acoustic guitar or electric guitars, it was, ya know, a drum machine and this one loop.

Wake: Where did the name for the new album come from?

Mimi: We were driving to go record the new album, and we had this book on tape in.

Matt: Mmm hmm, and they had this old Irish drinking type song with a lyric about drums and guns.

Mimi: We thought it’d be a pretty cool name for the album. Then we actually recorded it, and it just stuck.

Wake: One of my favorite Low songs, Death of a Salesman, has a lyric that has often been disputed by a friend and me. I took you as having said, “The future is prisons and meth,” and my friend thinks its “prisms and math,” which would make a lot more sense in the context of the song, but I really think I can hear you saying, “Prisons and meth.”

Alan: Actually, you’re both off. It’s, “Prisons and math,” because yeah, in the future we’re all either gonna be, ya know, behind bars, or sitting behind a desk working some logarithms.

Wake: One of the songs on Drums and Guns, “Hatchet,” has the chorus, “Let’s bury the hatchet like the Beatles and the Stones.” Which side are you on?

Mimi: I’m Beatles

Matt: Ya know, that’s really tough. (long pause)

Wake: Take your time

Matt: I would have to say that Stones, as much as I do love the Beatles.

Alan: There was definitely that great divide in the ’70s, where you were either a Beatles guy, or you were a Stones guy. I was always a Stones guy.

Wake: So in the new video for “Breaker”, (Alan) consumes an entire cake. Where did that idea stem from? It reminded me a lot of that scene from “Matilda” where the heavy kid has to eat that entire chocolate cake in front of the whole school.

Mimi: I can’t say I’ve ever seen that.

Matt: They made that into a movie?

Alan: Yeah, I’ve never seen that either. I think someone just threw it out there and we went with it.

Wake: Was it painful?

Alan: After a while it really did just start to hurt. Your body starts saying, “Whhhhoa, hold on a second, whhhhoa, this a bad idea.” It’s mostly a mental thing though, plus that milk was rice milk, which is supposed to help.

Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces was on campus recently to take part in the Bob Dylan festivities, joining a panel of local writers and musicians to discuss Dylan’s lyrics and influence. We grabbed a table outside of Coffman Union over looking the Mississippi; talked a little U of M and discussed the two new Furnace’s albums in the works.

Wake: So I hear you drove up from Chicago this morning.

Matthew Friedberger: I did, not too bad of a drive … (His gaze drifts out over the flowing Mississippi) I really love this campus … I went to the U of Illinois, but had a couple of friends who went here … this really is a cool campus.

Wake: Yeah, it’s large, plus we’ve got downtown sittin’ right over there.

Matt: Oh, right. I suppose that’s pretty nice.

Wake; So I take it you’re a pretty big Dylan fan?

Matt: Well, yeah. I mean, I love and respect him and have gone through major Dylan phases, just, probably not to the degree that some of the other people on this panel (local writer Dylan Hicks, local singer song writer Dan Israel, and Adam Levy, chief songwriter of local group the Honeydogs, among others). Not to say I don’t like him, I’ve listened to Modern Times (Dylan’s newest) about a hundred times, but I was more into the whole classic rock thing. Pink Floyd and The Who and Led Zeppelin and all that. But I’ve spent my fair share of time pouring over Dylan’s work and lyrics. As a songwriter, you kind of have to.

Wake: I’m interested to hear your thoughts on Dylan’s lyrics as the subject matter in your own songs are some of the more varied and interesting I’ve encountered. You do write the songs right? And your sister sings them?

Matt: Yeah, that’s pretty much the set-up for all of our songs. She may have done one or two here and there, but for the most part, that’s how it works.

Wake: It’s a fairly unique set-up, but it’s seemed to have worked out quite well so far.

Matt: Yeah, I’d like to think so. It’s nice for me because I can just write whatever without having to worry about having to sing them and its fun for her because she can take them and sing without having to worry either. She can just completely get into them and not have to feel self-conscience about what she’s saying, right? She can say, “I didn’t write this weird shit.” And blame it all on me.

Wake: Yeah, definitely a successful partnership. Have you guys been touring at all lately?

Matt: No, we’re actually just finishing up work on two new albums. It’s been crazy, we’re excited though. We’re not sure when they’re coming out. Sometime this summer maybe. We’re still mixing but it should be great. I think you’ll like them.

Wake: Really? I had no idea. Good news.