Berkeley-based group Bows talk forthcoming debut LP ‘The Days We Left’

As is often said, necessity is the mother of invention. In the case of newly minted duo Bows, their birth can be attributed to a pair of broken elbows.

Taking the lemons they were handed and making sweet, sweet synth-pop sounds, the story of the band’s debut LP, The Days We Left, extends out into the cosmos. 

Enough proverbial phrases. Check out our interview with Bows and stream their latest single, “Time To Go,” below.

 

Hi, Bows! Looking forward to The Day We Left. I know there’s a larger narrative at play on the album, but could you tell our readers about it in your own words?

Kaila McIntyre-Bader: This is the story of the end of the world, and what happens to the survivors after a radioactive Earth is no longer hospitable to humans. We experience the journey through the eyes of a young woman who is forced to leave her dying partner behind, as he is not healthy enough to make the trek to space. Our protagonist is heartbroken and terrified, but she makes her way to the new space colony the government has set up on a new planet, meant to resemble the Earth they just destroyed. She begins to hear “alien” voices, and it is unclear whether or not she is losing her mind or being contacted by other-worldly beings. She realizes she is living in a totalitarian society when they lock her up for telling the community that there are “Others” around that want to talk with them, and she becomes more and more distressed as conflict once again begins to break out while resources run low and warfare is imminent. Sadly, given a second chance, humans make the same mistakes that lead to their demise, and our heroine decides she would rather venture off to find the “aliens” than be a part of this destructive human colony.

Kaila, while you were recovering from your two broken elbows, how did you arrive at the notion to start experimenting with new sounds on your computer? Where were you drawing inspiration from and how was Luke able to translate that into synthesizers?

KMB: Haha, boredom. I’d always had Garageband on my laptop, but I never tried to use it. I gravitate towards the organic and natural, so I usually choose to go play keys and sing when I’m being creative, but I couldn’t do that for a while. I ended up just going through all the stock sounds in the program, and most of them seemed so weird and spacey to me. I already had this sci-fi story stewing in my brain, so when I heard these sounds (they’re called, like, “Martian Lounge,” “Star Sweeper,” “Constellation,” etc….) I thought, why not, let’s give it a go. I just started layering textures, writing lyrics, and making demos all at once, and then I couldn’t stop until I was finished 12 songs later. Luke was in a heavy experimenting stage with creating unique sounds on synthesizers during this time as well, so I asked him if he thought he could take what I was making in Garageband and recreate the sounds, but from scratch. I basically said, hey, can you do this, but make it way better? And he did! (I have no idea HOW he did it, I’ll let him answer that….)

Luke Bace: Basic subtractive synthesis and a bunch of effect pedals were all I used to translate the demo sounds into the sounds we used on the record. I used a Juno 106, Moog sub 37, Korg MS 20mini, all often run through pedals, a few soft synths from Logic and some atmospheric field recordings. There are two instances on the record where we kept the original Garageband tracks because I couldn’t effectively recreate them. Whoever guesses which tracks gets a prize!

How many of those experimentations are presented as they were, or as close to, initially conceived on the final product/album?

KMB: A few of the songs on the album ended up sounding pretty close to the demos I created in Garageband but much higher quality, and some of the songs became epic and huge from things Luke added that I never would have imagined. It’s been a pretty magical collaboration.

LB: Most of the demos Kaila made for “The Day We left” were fully fleshed ideas, some were just lacking the percussive elements. Kaila’s demos really established the aesthetic of the record. It was a really fun exercise in sound design to take the demos she made and try to replicate the digital synth sounds on my analog synths.  When the demos didn’t have much in terms of arrangement, such as “The Others”, she gave me instructions like “make the end of the song a crazy hippy jammer.” There was also a lot of discussion of the narrative as we went along, making sure I knew exactly what was happening in each song. But I’d say most of them are presented as they were in the demos, with a lot of layers and parts added.

You were both in a band called Big Tree for a while that achieved some success. Is that defunct and would you say Bows is now your primary project?

KMB: Big Tree was a very special group that evolved for 8 years, beginning in college with our best friends and ending up on the opposite side of the country with a couple new members. After so long, everyone started wanting to do different things, so even though our love for Big Tree is solid, we had to take a break and pursue our personal interests outside the group. The cool thing about music these days is that Big Tree still exists because of all the recordings we have (we still get new followers everyday), but we’re no longer performing live. Bows is definitely our primary project now, and we’re pretty excited about it.

LB: One of the good things about Big Tree ending is the diversity of projects we have had time to be involved with. I’ve been able to play bass with some friend-bands in the Bay, Kaila’s been singing with Brass Magic and performing solo. I’ve been writing and producing my own music as LakeCube (release forthcoming), and getting better at manipulating sound with electronics and computers. So lots of growth has happened! Bows is the one project we’ve been consistently working on together for the past year or so.

There’s a really transportive quality to your music. I know it’s very early, but would you think about working with another concept narrative for your next work? That ability to lose oneself seems at least somewhat tied towards an overarching aesthetic.

KMB: Thank you so much! Transportive is the highest compliment to me- I want to take listeners on a journey. Your question is a good one- it’s not early at all, I’m already halfway through another concept album. This one takes place in the near future, similarly post-apocalyptic, but about a terrible drought that leads a small community in search of a new place to live, but this time on Earth. I’m imagining it as a prequel to “The Day We Left,” the story of the generation before our space adventure. These songs have a much more folk/country/blues influence with more organic instrumentation, but we’re planning on incorporating all kinds of weird sounds and textures in typical Bows fashion.

Any tour plans for later in 2016?

KMB: We have our big record release party in Oakland at the Starline Social Club on Friday May 27th, but after that no plans. With Big Tree we toured constantly and booked all our own shows, but with this project we’re going to let the album simmer and see what happens. We are definitely open to invitations.

What bands are coming up in your local scene that you could turn us onto?

LB: Bells Atlas, Waterstrider, The Seshen, Meerna, Astronauts etc., Jinn Grin (forthcoming music from Doug Stuart). The East Bay is POPPIN.

KMB: So many! Also, Madeline Kenney, Makeunder, Guy Fox, Brass Magic, the list goes on and on… We’re so privileged to be a part of such a diverse and exciting local music scene.

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