Speaker 1: 0:43

welcome back to another super awesome mix. My name is matt. Sit home alongside, not my co-host and co-founder, sam, or we've got a special guest host this week? Okay, it is the award-winning host of the award-winning podcast. What, what are you listening to? It's our very own Jen Tully. Jen, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:02

Thanks for having me. I know I'm no Sammer, but I'm here to do my best.

Speaker 1: 1:07

Well, I feel like our guest today. Because we have a special guest today, I feel like it's kind of perfect for you and I to interview these guys, because I feel like it's a little bit more in our wheelhouse maybe than Samra's. So I think this was kind of meant to be. Is the way I see it? I think so.

Speaker 2: 1:23

I think so I think this is fate intervening.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Yes, yes. So let's get to it. Our guest today. They are two members of the three-piece indie band from Manassas, virginia, the Dusk Whales. They were featured on our July new music mix. They have a new album coming out on August 16th titled Strawflower Lane that you could pre-order right now on Bandcamp. You'll hear me say that a few more times with the show so we can get some orders in for them. But let's welcome Seth Flynn and Chris Baker to Super Awesome Mix.

Speaker 4: 1:53

Welcome, guys hello thanks for having us so much, yeah, appreciate it yeah, thanks for coming on.

Speaker 1: 1:58

we're so excited and I say this all the time to bands that are out there and they're listening where their pr people are listening. We listen to every song that somebody sends to us and we listen to you guys, and I was like I love this. And then I reached out and I was like do these guys want to come on the show? And they said yes and yes, and so here we are, so really happy. So I do encourage the PR people out there that are listening keep sending us stuff because we love it. But, guys, I got to ask first and foremost because I tried to rely on the internet for this one, but I couldn't find a definition for the term Dusk Whale, so could you guys help me understand where the name came from?

Speaker 3: 2:35

Web's is not.

Speaker 4: 2:36

Webster's is not uh put that in the most recent dictionary you gotta turn to a chat gpt for that one. No, I don't know. This is a classic question and I feel like we've had various answers over the years. There's not really a uh, a firm answer, but the long and short of it is basically we put the word dusk and whales together. We thought it sounded funny and it's just kind of stuck. I mean, there are other little side tangents. I can go on. For example, like we were all in high school at the time and there was a photocopier in the school which, unbeknownst to us, when we turned it on there was a picture of a whale it's like a setting sun and a palm tree on it, which we interpreted as a huge sign that we had, like landed on the perfect name.

Speaker 3: 3:15

So why does a printer, why does a photocopier printer even have that? That's so what, what?

Speaker 4: 3:20

relation does that have to printing. Yeah, so shout out to that photocopier.

Speaker 2: 3:28

Well, and shout out to Matt for asking the same first question that I had. I'm like I gotta know, I gotta know, I have to know about dust quails.

Speaker 3: 3:37

I can give you a different answer if you like. Oh yes, okay, take two Go. I feel like now that I've had more time to think about it, I feel like we've had a lot of people over the years, depending on what song it is, say that our music is spooky. We've been called Scooby-Doo music, been called Scooby-Doo music, so I attribute the Dusk half of the name to the sort of spooky, almost dusty, pre-nighttime element that I think is in our music. And then the whale. I think that's just kind of the, you know, the bond for life, and then also it's you know, they're global creatures, they get around, they've seen the world, and I think our music has a lot of different sounds happening in it that are both, you know, can be appreciated on a surface level, but also on a very much deeper level, depending on how far you choose to go into it.

Speaker 1: 4:32

I like it, that's good.

Speaker 3: 4:33

So just chop that out, just edit that out.

Speaker 1: 4:37

I'll see what I can come up with. Edit that out. Yeah, there you go. Hey, so have you guys? You mentioned high school. Have the three of y'all been together since high school? I mean I don't know, you guys are way younger than us, but I mean, have you guys been working together since high school? That's a deal yeah, it's been.

Speaker 4: 4:50

uh, geez, it's been since 2010, so it's been a. It's been a long time that we've been uh kicking around old Dusk Whales, can? Yeah, so? I've known Chris since I was like five probably, though yeah, Seth and I played soccer together when we were like really little, but we didn't start playing music till we were a little bit older. But yeah, it's going on almost 15 years now. It feels like so crazy, crazy stuff. How the time flies, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:17

That was another question I had. I think we'll probably get into this when we start talking about the music. But your harmonies are so rich and I was like I have to know if they're related. You know, usually you kind of only hear those. You know, like you hear blood harmonies. Whenever people are related and things like that, I'm like these guys sound so good and they harmonize so well, they either must have been singing together for a long time or they've known each other for a really long time.

Speaker 3: 5:40

Um, because I feel like that comes across when you guys are harmonizing oh no, yeah, I think people have definitely been like, oh like, are you, are you guys brothers, like at live shows before, and I'm just like, in my eyes I see no like visual similarity other than like we're just like all, all visibly, all visibly men and playing music together, uh. But I do think that, having uh sung together for a lot of time and focused on harmonies more and more as the years progressed, uh have pushed us into that like uh, like you said, uh like the brother, or like familiar harmony, harmony sounds yeah yeah, we like live together for a while.

Speaker 4: 6:20

Seth and I have worked various jobs together, same with Brian too, honestly, so there's a lot of just singing to pass the time and singing and driving to gigs that are hours away and, yeah, just trying to come up with interesting harmonies and stuff like that.

Speaker 3: 6:32

So it's a good way to stay awake and not crash the car.

Speaker 4: 6:38

Yeah, yeah, calling people and leaving strange voicemails of us singing hymns and stuff like that. So you do what you can.

Speaker 1: 6:46

I like that bit. That's a good bit.

Speaker 4: 6:48

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Especially if you could do it in harmony, that's even better, right.

Speaker 3: 6:52

Oh, it was in harmony. It was definitely in harmony, all right Well it was in harmony.

Speaker 1: 6:57

It was definitely in harmony, all right. Well, we have got. Since we got a special guest, we got a special format today. So side a, if you will, the first six songs we're going to cover. These are six songs selected by the band as inspirational to them and then the second half of the show we are actually getting again again to their music and six songs from their new album, which, again, you could pre-order at Bandcamp right now. So we'll do six songs from various artists and then six songs from the band, and so super excited to get into this. So track one here it's going to be Early to the Party by Andy Schaaf, so talk about this one. Why did you guys pick this one as kind of inspirational and why was this maybe the first one that came to mind?

Speaker 4: 7:43

yeah, you know andy schaaf is a huge influence on all of us. I think I could have really gone with any andy schaaf album or song from the past few albums, because they've all been fantastic. But I think that album, the party, specifically, was just kind of a huge shocker to us the first time we heard it. He's a good example of like someone who kind of took the reins of his music and just kind of like control every facet of it, meaning that like he self-produces it. He's like an incredible arranger again with the harmonies just harmonizing with himself and just from a songwriting perspective it's just like the story that he can like weave of, just like this guy going to a party and just like meeting all these interesting characters. I feel like he's just doing something that not a lot of people can do. So in terms of like modern artists working today, he's just like one of the best, in my opinion, so Early in the Party. Everything from that album is just fantastic.

Speaker 3: 8:35

Yeah, plus, I feel like that album came out around the time that we were living together and it was still, I feel like, very relevant. When we started recording the album, it was just always like a point of reference, like sonically and just lyrically and melodically. Honestly, that everything about that album is is flawless.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Yeah, when I heard the first few notes of this song and I wasn't familiar with it too prior, but I I immediately saw the connection to the music that you guys make, like I could really see that and I was like. I was like, oh, of course this guy would be an inspiration, like no, it made a lot of sense. But I also love lyrically when he says standing in the kitchen, stressing out the host. That one made me laugh too. I just love the description there of kind of being awkward at a party.

Speaker 1: 9:24

I was like that's really good stuff.

Speaker 3: 9:27

Yeah, his humor is like fantastic, I think on that whole album.

Speaker 2: 9:32

Yeah, he's good. And I think another similarity that I pulled out from listening to this song and you guys is that I had to look and see when it came out Right, was this from 1968? And it was ahead of its time. Was this from 2010? And I found myself experiencing that a lot with your music and you'll hear that as we go through some of your songs, like I pulled so many references from like different times and places that I was like, wow, this is like all over the board and I felt that's how I felt about this. This Andy Schaaf song is like oh, I have to look. I can't immediately tell what time frame this music is from, and I love that. I love that when a band brings me something and I can't tell you what decade it's from.

Speaker 3: 10:13

No, it's like a good disorientation.

Speaker 4: 10:16

There's definitely sort of a timeless quality to it and obviously, you know we're very predominantly influenced by like 60s and 70s groups. But being able to sort of weave in some modern elements is always kind of something that we aim for and yeah, andy Schaaf is sort of a master of that.

Speaker 2: 10:31

Yes, well, for your second track, we definitely did not have to. I mean, here we are, matt, talking about being in our wheelhouse. I think that we can definitely solidly lean on the second track that you guys picked as an influence, which is Nights on Broadway by the Bee Gees. So why this one? I mean, other than than you know, it's amazing so I think definitely you've got that.

Speaker 3: 11:01

three-part harmony, I think, has always been very inspiring. I had listened to the bgs uh, not really until I watched or like in at the extent, uh, that I am now listening to the bgs. I like heard it when I was a little kid, but it was on cassette and it sounded even higher than they actually are, so it was just like hearing chipmunks and not enjoyable. But then I watched the documentary they did on them recently how to Mend a Broken Heart and it just completely had me hooked on them and it was just so fascinating Just the different eras they went through.

Speaker 3: 11:37

I mean, they went through, you know, they were like super popular and famous, like at a very young age, then had a massive falling out and there was just like drugs and all this stuff and they were apart for a while, came back together, had to work from the bottom and like get back up to the top and then, like you know, entered like the era that I feel like everyone knows knows them by.

Speaker 3: 11:55

Like you know, entered like the era that I feel like everyone knows knows them by. Like you know, like their classic, like disco, kind of like funky, like rock sound, but this track in particular. Uh, I chose this one because I think it was the turning point where they found, like their falsetto sound, because they were like we need like, like a, like a raw scream, like in the background, like, can anyone go and do that? And they, they just like, you know, you've got that crazy sound that comes in, I think on the third chorus and I think that it's just holding out that long, because there's a couple choruses that pass without that, and then when the third one hits and it finally comes in, it's just so rewarding and I think we've tried to incorporate that sort of delayed reward in our music, or, you know, as best we can.

Speaker 4: 13:10

Only other thing I was going to say is a good example of the brotherly connection once again, the Bee Gees. I didn't realize that until I saw the documentary too, that they were all brothers and it just-.

Speaker 1: 13:18

Oh, you didn't know that.

Speaker 4: 13:20

No, I didn't even realize that they were all like actual, yeah, you thought they're all just named Gibbons. Yeah, yeah, I thought they were all named BG. Bg meaning background vocals. Background vocals yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:33

That's great. Yeah, we are huge BG's fans on this show, like we. We referenced them quite a bit and and I think they're kind of just underrated. And it's so great in that documentary how it does kind of get into the. You know, barry gibb kind of realizes he he can't even put out music himself, so he just goes and writes a bunch of songs that become these monster hits after that, you know, and just becomes this kind of underrated songwriter after that no, that's also my favorite part too, where they just like go from like because, like everyone just like got so angry.

Speaker 3: 14:04

There was like that whole like uh, disco sucks movement and so they're just like, wow, we like really can't like be out in public because people are trying to like blow up our planes and stuff. So they just started like writing for like barbara streisand and celine beyond and it's crazy, yeah, and just like they've had so many movements in their career, which is just you don't see that a lot, I feel like that might be Nickelback's next move.

Speaker 1: 14:27

I don't know.

Speaker 2: 14:29

A disco soundtrack that feels very Nickelback.

Speaker 1: 14:31

They're just so disliked. I'm just thinking maybe there's an alternate world for them. I don't know. I don't know. All right, track three you've got Any Time of Day by the Lemon Twigs. And I'm so glad you guys picked the song from the Lemon Twigs because before I got introduced to you guys, I'd come across the Lemon Twigs and I was like this is amazing. These guys sound like these bands from the 60s and 70s. And then I come across you guys and I'm like these guys sound like these bands from the 60s and 70s. And yeah, before I could even reach out to the Lemon Twigs, I reached out to you guys. So it kind of just worked out well. But yeah, talk about this one.

Speaker 4: 15:12

Yeah, I mean we've sort of been following the Lemon Twigs, for I don't know if it's been since their first album maybe Seth has but we've been tracking their career quite a bit, but I will say their past two records have been just like flawless in.

Speaker 4: 15:29

I will say their past two records have been just flawless in my opinion. So another one where we could have really chosen any song from the past two albums, but this one is specifically just like again, that last chorus just takes you to outer space and talking about background vocals, talking about falsettos and once again talking about a band that's built on the brotherly connection. It's just two brothers, which is like pretty amazing and the sound that they can achieve in the studio is like out of control. But seth and I both have seen them live too and their live band is just like so good, just covering every note and they just, yeah, they have that sort of like 60s quality but it has that modern twist to it. So I think any band that can like strike that perfect balance of just like a little bit of retro vibes but has just like a unique sort of modern twist to it, it's, yeah, lemon twigs incredible yeah, plus, honestly, I feel like both of you would appreciate their stage banter.

Speaker 3: 16:17

They are hilarious. It's like listening to like I don't know if you've seen any of like the beatles movies or like just heard any of their interviews, or like the monkeys TV show, like legitimately so funny on stage and are just like constantly doing bits at each other. It's and and jumping around instruments too, like they'll go between like bass, guitar, piano, just like at a moment's notice.

Speaker 4: 16:41

And jumping around physically a lot of leg kicks. I actually have my little lemon twigs postcard here, oh nice every time I'm on a call, I'm just staring at the lemon twigs.

Speaker 1: 16:51

No offense to you all no, I'm guessing it's probably better to watch. That's okay no, no postcards of matt and I required for the show, but we'll make one and send it to you, chris.

Speaker 4: 17:04

Then you have a different visual. I'll add it to the collection.

Speaker 2: 17:08

I loved this band. I had never heard of them and the note that I wrote from like I listened to probably three songs after this one because I was so fascinated, and roll with me here. But as you say, they're picking up instruments and things like that. They kind of reminded me, not necessarily from a vocal perspective, although the harmonies did, but like a modern day Carpenters. I was getting like major Carpenters vibes from them and I love that I mean-.

Speaker 3: 17:35

That album in particular.

Speaker 2: 17:36

Yeah, was so good in that way. So I loved that hearing you know again kind of that old school sound in a completely like new modern sensibility. It just I don't know how they mixed it so well, but they really blend the two seamlessly. I thought I loved it. I loved this one. This was probably one of my favorites of your influencer picks.

Speaker 3: 18:00

Nice, I totally agree. Yeah, Now I feel like they've honed in on a way of like making a song so appealing but not having it overloaded, which is something that I don't think we've quite figured out yet but they like because the arrangement is just so particular that like nothing is unnecessary, or just like to fill, just to fill space, it's's, it's gorgeous. So I definitely agree with the carpenter's uh remark because those arrangements are very, very similar loved it, loved it.

Speaker 2: 18:31

And then we cruise again into one of matt and i's uh, you know favorite areas and we talk about this artist, your next influence track. Track four is a song called Growing Pains by Tim Finn.

Speaker 3: 18:44

Fantastic. Yeah, gotta, gotta love some Australian rock.

Speaker 2: 18:49

Yeah, so some crowded house.

Speaker 3: 18:52

Yes, 100%. Yeah, no, I I heard this song on vacation. I think I was somewhere in North Carolina, and I was just like this is like the greatest song I've like ever heard. And I was like, oh, of course it's just like one of the Finn brothers and, uh, actually it was my, uh, my partner's family turned me on to, uh, crowded House. I'd never heard Crowded House. And then I heard them and I was just like, oh, my God, like there's just like a whole, a whole, like boatload of music that I have just been missing out on between like those two brothers.

Speaker 3: 19:25

I don't know, is there a third? I hope there isn't a third, but I think it's just the two. Uh, and yeah, just incredible discography. Um, but this song, I feel like really just the. He was able to encapsulate just the feelings of, I feel like, early adulthood into a song that somehow feels so happy and sad at the same time, which has always been an inspiration for our music, giving you like a joyful sound, but maybe the lyrics aren't, you know, the happiest thing you've ever laid eyes on.

Speaker 2: 20:02

Yes, we talk about that a lot. Happy songs with sad lyrics. And I even as we get into your picks. I referenced that a little bit in one of your tracks, so you can again those influences they're seeping in in real time listeners, yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:18

Yeah, and I think just like that. That, I think lyrically. I have a song on the album that uses, uses a similar line to growing pains. I think I say growing pangs, but uh, it was way well before I heard that song, but it just like it's just an interesting. The growing pains thing has always just been such an interesting imagery thing for me.

Speaker 4: 20:45

Really nice sort of pulse on that song too, sort of piano driven. Yeah, I feel like we kind of steal that classic little quarter note driving the song. Yeah, we use that a couple of times on the record.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Well, and I love how you reference is being in a hurry and that rhythm just kind of invokes that. Right, you don't even need necessarily the lyric of it. It's just like you're immediately kind of feeling that from the song. So yeah, really good pick, really well done oh, thank you all right track five. We've got air by inner wave, so a little bit more of a modern song this time 2021 yeah, trying to change it up.

Speaker 4: 21:21

This this one, for me, was uh, kind of the soundtrack for the early pandemic days I guess a little bit of the mid-pandemic 2021, but it was a good example of um sort of the algorithm just really algorithming and just giving me something that I didn't know I needed. But when I heard it I was like, yes, this is exactly what's been missing from my life. So it was one where I heard it and I immediately bought the album because I knew that this was just going to be on repeat for me. So every time I hear it, it kind of takes me back into that headspace of just like being locked inside and just like not knowing when the pandemic was going to end.

Speaker 4: 21:55

But yeah, sonically that album is just there's a lot of cool sort of like psychedelic stuff going on. I remember when we were working on you Only Love Me when You're High, which is one of the songs which we're going to talk about. If I can get through saying it, I kept using Interwave as a reference for Seth being like I need the vocals to sound like this or give me the full Julian Casablanca. So, yeah, I'm really glad we got this one on the on the playlist.

Speaker 1: 22:26

Yeah, and with this one I thought it was interesting because the vocals I thought were you know, there was a little bit of distortion on it, but it was like a lot deeper than than you guys normally sing too. So so I thought that was it. But music, the music around it, I could see the through line between their music and yours. But it was just interesting with that different vocal. You know tenor to it.

Speaker 4: 22:47

That's true. Yeah, Brian actually has sort of a lower baritone voice, but Seth and I tend to get up there a little bit more closer to the BG's range. But yeah, sometimes it's nice to hear something that's a little bit lower because it's just a little bit different. And yeah, mostly it's all about that sort of gritty radio effect on the vocal. I feel like that gets emulated quite a bit. I think the strokes did it. Car seat headrests are our buddy Will actually does that quite a bit guided by voices. But yeah, this is a good, good example of that too.

Speaker 3: 23:15

That just fits perfectly with with the songs, I feel like the band air also kind of does it sometimes, the French band Air.

Speaker 2: 23:24

Yeah, true, that's originally. I have to tell you that's originally what I was searching for.

Speaker 3: 23:28

I was looking for an Air song called Inner Wave instead of Vice Versa and I was like I don't remember that Air song.

Speaker 2: 23:35

And then when I finally got it all together and then I went down the rabbit hole, they have a whole. It's called like pop, ptosis, remixes or something. Yes Songs Right, which was also really cool and I've been feeling like being here in Austin like Krungbin's really popular, and so we've been talking about how there's been like a rise of more like instrumental sounding songs I think TV girls doing it a lot where, like, there are lyrics but still kind of feels instrumentally. I'm really digging that that's having a moment in music right now too.

Speaker 4: 24:09

Um, so I love that you guys pulled pulled that reference out too absolutely yeah, their, their remix album is really dope and seth and I've talked a lot about. Like you know, you might as well use everything that you can from a song. So at some point we hope to do some sort of remix version of the songs, whether they're sped up or slowed down, or just isolating some acapella moments from certain songs and just trying to highlight some of the better elements that get kind of lost in the mix. So we'll see if we can pull that off. But I do like that when bands just put out different versions of stuff, maybe not going full Taylor Swift and doing a hundred different iterations, but it is an interesting idea if it makes sense.

Speaker 2: 24:50

Yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 3: 24:51

I've currently got my screen split. I'm doing those mixes as we speak In real time, in real time folks.

Speaker 1: 24:59

We have an idea.

Speaker 2: 25:00

They're here to deliver a new album. It is happening.

Speaker 1: 25:02

In real time folks. They have an idea. They're here to deliver a new album.

Speaker 3: 25:03

It is happening. They're going to come out. We've got a pretty clear vision of the special releases of this album that we're going to do and I fully intend on seeing them through. Yes, nice.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Yes, yes. Well, I guess, to round us out here for the influences for side A of our mixtape this week, we have Way Back when, by Amy Mann.

Speaker 3: 25:27

Fantastic Love her Also. So she became a huge inspiration during the pandemic because Chris Brian and I were in like our little bubbles together recording this album and I would listen to just like I would just surf the radio stations when I was like driving to go and record with them and I would often come upon just like a radio station that was really good. But then I would hit a patch where, like the reception got really bad and I heard this like little chunk of a song. So I recorded it on my phone and then eventually was able to find that like months later it turned out it was amy man, who's also from I think she's from richmond, virginia, so like from our home state, and then just realized that she had so many songs, also some acting credits I think she's the uh girlfriend and big lebowski, um, as well as some other movies.

Speaker 3: 26:20

But yeah, she really made me turn from just thinking about the chord progressions and melody to like what are you doing with your lyrics? Because she just has a way of also, much like Andy Schaaf, telling a story, really putting you in a scene and making you see what she's actually seeing. And that song I think might be about her friend David Cross getting famous and I think her handling, handling his like newfound fame yeah, so really really inspiring. Plus the different weird arrangements that are happening in there. There's lots of weird fanfare moments and I think there's like a xylophone outro that I think is like definitely John Bryan.

Speaker 2: 27:04

Yeah, she's such an interesting artist and one that like I think that you know you can you can be introduced to her from a lot of different places, right Like from till Tuesday. If you're an eighties music fan, you know that they had a big popular hit. Um, of course, she did the Magnolia soundtrack, which had some of my favorite Amy Mann songs.

Speaker 2: 27:23

When you talk about, like lyrics and intention, I think Wise Up is such a great song where, like listening to it, you immediately feel like you understand exactly the point she's trying to get across, but it's still like beautiful poetry at the same time. So, again, I think Amy Mann is one of those artists that like kind of everybody knows who she is but nobody knows who she is. Do you know what I mean? So I love it whenever I hear of her being a big influence on people, because that to me, I'm such a lyrics person that tells me, oh, these people must really be into lyrics. Even if you can't like get behind her voice and I know some people struggle I just think lyrically she's brilliant, so strong and I know some people struggle.

Speaker 3: 28:06

I just think lyrically she's brilliant, so strong. I'd love to meet those people that aren't into her voice. I didn't realize that was a thing.

Speaker 2: 28:09

She has such a great voice. I know, I think so too. I think, you know, she was kind of a staple when I was living in LA. You could catch an Amy Mann show a lot, and so, yeah, I got to see her live. And I also got to see her live, and I also got to see a Till Tuesday reunion that she performed at, which was also crazy. But yeah, I think that I too have a hard time believing that people don't love her voice, because I think it's so beautiful.

Speaker 1: 28:37

but some people don't they'll come around, they'll figure out the right answer so if you don't like Amy Mann's voice, hit us up on social media. It's at super awesome mix. Let us know what's wrong with it. I don't know. We're all just kind of curious.

Speaker 2: 28:53

We don't understand it, okay we'll tell you that you're wrong when you hit us up, we'll have a prepared answer about why you're wrong, but we'll also thank you for listening to the show.

Speaker 1: 29:02

We'll also do that of course, we will, of course. All right, so let's flip the tape over. Now we're going to get into six songs from the new album Strawflower Lane, again coming out August 16th, available on Bandcamp for pre-order. So let's get into it. So we're so excited. We've never really done this with artists before We've gone over a song or two, but not this many songs. So this is going to be fun. Uh, track one this was the one that uh, your pr guy sent me and it was mountains separated I'm sure.

Speaker 4: 29:44

Yeah, I mean, this was probably one of the few songs on the album that we'd actually sort of worked out arrangement-wise and had performed live. I think it was. Yeah, because this was kind of during that period where we stopped really gigging a lot, so we kind of just had a bunch of songs to pull from, and this was one that we'd mostly figured out and then it kind of just took on a different life of its own. As we were recording it, as most of the songs did, we just like layered so many different things on top of it which made it sort of a beast in the mixing process. But I don't know.

Speaker 4: 30:16

Yeah, this one was really fun to work on. We we did sort of some interesting things with the vocals at the beginning of the song having this sort of choir effect which comes and goes on the album, almost as like the muses or something like that kind of just like these characters that come and go in the album. But yeah, this mountain motif we've had a few different songs about mountains over the years, so I don't know why we keep coming back to it. But it is very fitting now because physically the band is now separated by mountains, with Seth out in Seattle and Brian and I still back on the east coast. So that's not what the song is necessarily about, but it's. It's kind of an odd coincidence that it's.

Speaker 3: 30:50

It's come full circle now, so gotta blame it on. Like early Motown, they're always talking about mountains, mountains and valleys there is.

Speaker 1: 30:58

There are a lot of mountains in Motown music yeah, and that's that. Detroit, where there are no mountains.

Speaker 3: 31:03

Yeah, yeah, bold choice. Yeah, someone had access to mountains somewhere. There was, like you know, about those big things that come up out of the ground. Yeah, lyrically, we need that. Lyrically yes, what's a barrier that's so difficult to cross?

Speaker 1: 31:19

They went to the thesaurus and it was like mountain, there we go, right about a mountain. That's and it was like yeah there we go, right about the word we needed that's what we needed. Yeah, um, no, I'd. So this was the song, my introduction to you guys, and, like just from the very beginning, it reminded me of when I don't know if you guys have seen the tom hanks movie, that thing you do yeah, fantastic, yeah, great movie so you know, for those who don't know it, it's about a one hit wonder from like the 1960s and the beginning of that.

Speaker 1: 31:49

They they wrote the whole soundtrack. Him, tom hanks helped and adam schlesinger the late adam schlesinger, fountains of wayne was was a big songwriter on that one, and just from the beginning of the movie they start playing all these these songs that they wrote from it and it just immediately brought you back to that time and place, right like the 1960s. And when this one started, that's immediately what came to mind. I was like, oh my god, like this is such a great, like kind of throwback sound, uh, to that era. But then, like I love how in the chorus it gets a little bit more modern sounding, right like, and so you guys kind of referenced that earlier with the lemon twigs. But I was like that's what I thought you guys did on this track and I think that's why I just immediately took to it and I just, I don't know, I just loved it.

Speaker 3: 32:35

That's excellent. I'm glad we were able to successfully blend those two sounds. I feel like that's what we're usually trying to do, and it not easy.

Speaker 4: 32:44

I feel like a lot of the time yeah, I think there's sort of an overture element to it where it really kind of like pulls you in from that first big chord. It almost is like sort of a tommy by the who situation. Yeah, where it's, it's got this sort of like. And it's funny because I originally I never thought of that as the opening track, but now that we landed on that as track one, like oh, it couldn't have really gone any other way. So I think it works pretty well as something to just kind of hook you in. And yeah, it had to be the first single too.

Speaker 2: 33:12

Yeah well, and I feel like, lyrically, this is one of my favorite songs of yours as well. I love the um. Tell me, how did I get so far away from us? I took a wrong turn. Now mountains separate us and I love that line because maybe it's unique to me, but probably hopefully not. I love this question and idea because I feel like I can totally relate. Right, it's like the perfect song for when a convo goes from like zero to 60, right, that's immediately what.

Speaker 2: 33:43

I thought of is like you say one thing and you're like whoa, whoa, whoa, like how did this escalate so quickly beyond anywhere? I thought it was going to go, you know, and I felt like every time I listened to this song I'm like I have no idea if that's what you were trying to connotate, but I kept going back to it Like man, this escalated quickly, and so I love that about the song no, no, that's, that's definitely like a very good insight into it.

Speaker 3: 34:09

I feel like, and I feel like probably, you know, everyone can relate to that song because they've had situations or conversations, like you're saying, where it's just like gone in a completely different direction than where you thought. You know, two people were and it's just like, well, like how, how did we get so turned around and backwards, and why are we, you know so? Uh, why is there such hostility?

Speaker 3: 34:36

yeah um, you know, and it's just like you know, just makes you have a lot of uh. I think there's a lot of self-doubt in the song. You know.

Speaker 3: 34:44

I feel like by the end of the song you know, you have the all the questions I love, yeah yeah, because this was, this was a song that I, I think I had written some lyrics for, uh, and then I think once chris and I started demoing demoing it when we were living together um, because I think it was just like a guitar and guitar and bass and vocals demo. Uh, I started working on the lyrics and was just like a guitar and bass and vocals demo. I started working on the lyrics and I hit like a roadblock and I had reached out to my brother, who was a writer, and he was just like change this perspective that you're writing from, so like I just changed it to the person that felt just out of my headspace into like whoever I felt in conflict with or whoever the main character was in conflict with, and that really helped. You know, go around the roadblock of a mountain kind of for me and actually write, write the lyrics for it.

Speaker 2: 35:37

Track two is a track called calendar. Tell me what to do. Love the title of this song. Cannot wait to hear about this one.

Speaker 3: 35:49

I fall apart when I don't want to. It keeps me sweating until I'm cold. Calendar. Tell me now, what should I do? This key's too heavy for me to hold. Hold out just to see every door's open. Uh, yeah, so this is uh one I.

Speaker 3: 36:17

So mountain separate us is definitely like an older song calendar. I started writing uh fresh in the pandemic and I think it was just at a time where, like, days didn't really matter much and there was no schedule and work and income were like a very loose thing and there was no real sense of direction for days, nights or where life was going in general. So I think just trying to capture that with like it seems very straightforward at first, and then we do a really big time shift for the chorus that we then have to escape from to get back into the next verse, which I feel like is kind of what those days felt like. There was just lots of like. It felt like we were all collectively going really really fast and then we were just like something new would happen and it would just be like a massive time shift or like it would just like time would kind of freeze for a little bit, almost.

Speaker 2: 37:21

Yes, I love that and I love like leading into this song I wrote no-transcript. Like you, you're going to think that you're in for one thing, and it's not just from track to track, it's actually within a song. You get like so many different things, so many different influences, time changes, harmonies, instruments. I wasn't expecting like all kinds of cool things and so I loved that about especially this track. Like I just was surprised from beginning to end and loved it.

Speaker 3: 38:15

Nice yeah.

Speaker 4: 38:18

I think this is probably the first song we started recording for the album. It's worth noting that we didn't really know what we were doing throughout this process because we'd never really we'd never self-recorded before. So it was definitely kind of a trial by fire situation of like, oh what if we put the drum mic over here? What if we kind of like you know, we essentially built like a little cave of blankets and stuff for the drums and everything like that.

Speaker 4: 38:42

So it was. Yeah, it was really fun, kind of just like figuring it out as we went along. But yeah, it was another example of one where, like, we would discover something in the recording and be like, oh, that's really cool, why don't we just like take that and loop it, for instance, like that whole little slide guitar thing at the end of the song. It was originally only like half of that, but we were like it's such a nice little lick, why don't we just like double it, have it done twice? So there's a lot of moans in the album like that, where we just kind of like did some tweaking in the post-production side of things. So, uh, yeah, we had no clue like what we were doing, especially on that one, because it was the first song that we did. But, um, yeah, I'm glad that it was an interesting ride for you to hear for the first time yeah all right.

Speaker 1: 39:25

Well, track three and jen you just mentioned kind of them sounding like the beatles. I felt like this one really got that for me. This is the title track.

Speaker 3: 39:33

It is straw flower lane in the court of the dying king. They will make me dance and sing and the jury will be out on me whether I will be released Sure.

Speaker 4: 40:08

yeah, so this one is a Brian song, so anyone that kind of starts with the piano is kind of a trademark for Brian as the piano player.

Speaker 1: 40:17

obviously, there it is.

Speaker 4: 40:19

Yeah, it's kind of one of the slower, more ballad-esque songs on the record but at the same time it does have sort of those twists and turns that come about. So I think lyrically it's probably one of my favorites on the album. It's very much sort of a throwback almost to medieval times, kind of like this minstrel character who's finding himself having to perform in front of the king and his whole court and everything. So I don't know, I feel like we've played some gigs where we felt slightly out of place and people will have their tomatoes ready to throw at us, not literally, but sometimes, you know, depending on the stages that you find yourself, it's it's a very particular feeling of like all right, we better not screw this up. So, um, yeah, I think that sort of feeling is is captured in this song and the beatles influence is is very clear there and that's kind of where we decided to go for the name of the album too, which is obviously a nod to like Abbey road with the with the street name.

Speaker 2: 41:11

So I love that I have to. I like definitely getting the Beatles, but for this one I have to say like I definitely. And when you're talking about the medieval, I'm like, yes, I got brief candles by the zombies, brief Candles by the Zombies.

Speaker 2: 41:26

If you guys don't know that song go back and listen to that Odyssey and Oracle album because it's the same right. It's that same kind of like wandering minstrel vibe and of course everybody knows like Time of the Season off of that album or this Will Be Our Year. Those were the big ones, but Brief Candles is one of my favorite.

Speaker 3: 41:52

And this totally conjured like feelings of that for me too. So I loved this one. For that, that's a that's a very good reference, I feel like. I feel like that album to protect in particular was like very inspiring for the three of us and I I also love that song, so I I haven't thought about that one, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna back to back those two now you'll.

Speaker 4: 42:08

It's amazing I'll give a shout out to seth too, who basically spent way too many hours of his life making a claymation music video for this song, which I watched it up on youtube.

Speaker 3: 42:19

Yes, it was really good, thank you, thank you another learning experience for sure, another, another thing where I was just like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm, I've started it now that's amazing yeah, if that's your first foray, bravo I mean, yeah, good work we needed.

Speaker 2: 42:38

We needed visual content to accompany, accompany the song well, we're gonna slide on into track four here, which also is another one that lyrically is so strong. This is a song called please and thank you, bless your soul. It's the only one left. There's so much to give thanks for you.

Speaker 4: 43:13

Thanks to you. Please, let me thank you, my friend. Oh, let me thank you. Yeah, so, please, and Thank you is one of the first songs I wrote for this album. This is actually another pretty old one, dating back to like 2018.

Speaker 4: 43:31

So the origin of this song actually comes from I had a cancer diagnosis in 2017.

Speaker 4: 43:38

And throughout the fall of 2017 into early 2018, I was going through treatment, and this was the song I wrote the day that I found out I was in remission and I was totally clear from cancer. So it's like you know, the day that you find out you have cancer is obviously unforgettable and an extremely profound experience. But I think rivaling that is the day that hopefully, anyone finds out that they're clear from cancer. So I'll always remember that specific day and sitting outside and just like feeling the warmth from the sun and looking at these flowers and just feeling like I had just like gone through something unforgettable and just like having a new lease on life and everything else like that. So I was just so grateful for that and grateful to, you know, all the medical doctors and everyone else that had been so supportive of me during that time. So, yeah, I'm really glad that we got to encapsulate that experience through the song and sonically. There's a lot of interesting, fun little things going on with it.

Speaker 2: 44:31

So yeah, that choir you referenced earlier, like that, comes in in the beginning and really sort of sets this ethereal tone. I love that.

Speaker 1: 44:43

Yeah, and you guys, I know you guys list like the Doors and the Beatles as kind of influences on your website or kind of sound alike. But I was getting a little Steely Dan from this, maybe a little ELO kind of thing, I don't know. I kept thinking about those bands while I was listening to y'all.

Speaker 3: 44:59

Definitely big influences. I feel like, well, because I think the intro I was trying to think back on this the other day Was the intro a lot more sparse before we started mixing it, do you recall, chris?

Speaker 4: 45:17

No, totally. Yeah, this is another one where sort of in the mixing phase, we kind of like reshaped the song and that whole choir thing was not initially part of the beginning of the song, but I'm really glad that we did that and I feel like it transitions pretty well from straw flower into that one. Yeah and uh, yeah, the only waltz on the album. I feel like most of the time we stick to four, four. Maybe there's some tempo shifts, but, yeah, glad we got a slightly different, uh, slightly different. Um, you know, instead of four, four, so that's, that was a nice thing. And then, yeah, we also use fake drums on this song, which was a nice change of pace. So as the drummer, I got to relax a little bit.

Speaker 2: 45:50

You survived cancer. You can't do everything.

Speaker 1: 45:52

Yeah, come on.

Speaker 4: 45:53

Let the machines do it.

Speaker 1: 45:54

Come on, Jeez, you know that way. During the show, like you know, sometimes the lead singer will walk off stage on this track. You can just walk off stage, right.

Speaker 3: 46:03

Right, get a little break. There you go, yeah, yeah, I'd say you could walk off stage, but you're kind of. You got to do the guitar and the vocals I'll do it off stage have the drums do it.

Speaker 3: 46:13

Have the drums do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. But I definitely, I definitely agree with the elo one, because I remember when I started trying to mix this, uh, before I think we were mixing virtually I added in some spooky tones once again, uh, because I was just like, oh, like this needs to be like even like spookier than like it already feels like leading up and then, like you know, kind of fading away to just chris. So elo definitely. Uh, they have many a spooky song. He is, he is definitely the. He's like a weird little wizard of a british man.

Speaker 1: 46:49

I like him for sure all right, well, track five, and I'm glad my my catholic school education came in handy here because I could get the saint anthony reference. But uh, this is actually track seven on the album, but it is saint anthony St.

Speaker 3: 47:11

Anthony fantasy. Someone must have sought to destroy me. Let me to ride out, yeah. So this is another one. I'm not gonna say that it's old, but it's an older one.

Speaker 3: 47:45

But we worked on it for a while, really trying to make the different uh sections distinct, and didn't have a second verse for a very, very long time. So I think that came together in the pandemic. I was just like, okay, like I need to like finish this because, like we were each trying to bring, I think, like a song, you so we would have something to record and, yeah, just once again, a song of not really not really being able to cope with, like something that you've lost emotionally or mentally, which I feel like you know, once again became. I had a lot more inspiration to finish those lyrics during the pandemic when I think we were all at a loss for, you know, whether it be like words or just, uh, sanity, uh. So I think that, uh, that track definitely feels of that time rather than older now. It feels really solidified in that 2020, 2021 time. But, yeah, just yeah, it was a fantastic track to do, had a lot of fun. I'm trying to think if there's anything interesting, you got anything, chris.

Speaker 4: 48:57

Well, you mentioned the Catholic reference, obviously with, you know, St Anthony. But throughout our discography there are various, you know, references to different Catholic things. So we kind of met all at Catholic school so we sort of pay homage to that with different references. We have an album cover with saint therese. We did one called martha martha, so there every album has almost like a saint that's attached to it. So saint anthony is the one for for strawflower lane.

Speaker 1: 49:21

so yeah, nice that we got a new patron for that one yeah, yeah, saint anthony, the patron saint of lost things, and I just like I got to call it the writing here because you're talking about how difficult it was to find the words, but I love the economy of words here. St Anthony couldn't find all that I've lost, which I'm like that's such a great line and you know it's 10 words, it's not, but it says so much just in that one line. So I think that's that's just really well done it was probably written on a sticky note.

Speaker 3: 49:54

I was, I was writing on stick, like on like, uh, on like yellow sticky notes for a long time and then my partner was like you should, like you just keep on losing all your lyrics, like you should really just write out an iphone. So now I have all my lyrics and all those are probably gone. But I specifically remember starting writing that song on Thanksgiving. So I don't know why I had such intense feelings on Thanksgiving, but I'd stepped away to play guitar for a minute.

Speaker 1: 50:18

Well, depending on your family situation, I think a lot of people get intense feelings at Thanksgiving. That's fair.

Speaker 3: 50:24

It was a chill Thanksgiving. No reason why turkey and everything was on point.

Speaker 2: 50:31

Well, I love this song. I'm so glad it found its way on the album. And the last thing before we head into the final track on this side of the mixtape is that all of your other songs yes, I can hear like the 60s influence. You know whether it's yellow, whether it's Beatles, whether it's Carpenters or Carly Simon or the zombies or whoever. But this track I love and I think, because this one sounded firmly rooted in the 80s to me, I was getting like from the beginning I was getting like psychedelic furs a little bit, and then it kind of steered into early 90s.

Speaker 2: 51:07

Like there are parts where this like I'm gonna get all the hate mail matt here it comes here it comes I love at least the first album from this band, and anybody that wants to argue can go ahead and send in all the hate, but I was getting a little bit of like gin blossoms too, just like so okay, yeah, people like the gin blossoms no, no, I think.

Speaker 3: 51:28

Didn't we, didn't we play a? Weren't they on a festival that we played somewhere?

Speaker 4: 51:32

that sounds familiar. We might have had some interaction with them at some point.

Speaker 2: 51:36

Yeah, I mean they have a song called like allison road. That's pretty hooky you know, like that's what I mean like like it was just like that, it was grabbing me so like sonically I was getting like really great, like psychedelic furs, which I could never get enough of, and then like getting this really like hooky like part to it, that was like sucking me in, and so I loved that. I'm like oh see, again we're not living just in the sixties or seventies. Here I am living my best eighties life.

Speaker 3: 52:02

So yes get all the decades you guys have this one is a decade skipper, for sure, fans yeah, I think we're definitely trying to get that new wave like you're talking about, I think. I think the cure was a big point of reference for that one as well maybe squeeze there, she goes by the laws is another.

Speaker 2: 52:21

Oh yeah, so good, yes, yeah yeah, well to find to round us out, to finish out this episode, we're gonna end it with what ended up being my favorite overall track that you guys sent over on the new album, a song called you only love me when you're high.

Speaker 4: 53:09

Wow, yeah, I'm glad that was your favorite. That means a lot to me. This is one Wow, yeah, that's, that's great. I this is one that's grounded in the pandemic for me again, kind of when I listened to it. When I think about it, it just takes me back into that headspace. It was obviously, you know, everyone's experience with covid was was unforgettable, but I don't know, it's just something.

Speaker 4: 53:31

Something about, yeah, listening to inner wave and just trying to like feeling like a king, just like trapped in a castle. We we have a song called king of worms, which came out like in 2013, again on the martha martha ep, which I referenced about this like king, that's like losing his mind. So there are a couple of like lyrical references to that character which I feel like, with the medieval vibe of the title track, it made sense to sort of reference this king who, like gets eaten by worms, which is again sort of a biblical thing to go back to that Catholic in our roots. But yeah, this song I don't know it was one that just sort of like again trying to be a little bit more psychedelic, referencing some of the 60s groups. But yeah, we got that sort of gritty vocal that you wanted.

Speaker 4: 54:15

Inspired by the strokes. Yeah, I kept telling him to make it grittier, so hopefully it landed on the right level of grittiness, yeah.

Speaker 2: 54:23

I love it. That was my first note on this track. I love it. That was my first note on this track was the vocals on this one sounds so cool and different. I said I don't know the effect, but I love it. That's what I wrote. Like I don't know how you got that sound, but I love it neither do we, neither do I, honestly.

Speaker 3: 54:37

I'd have to go back and really look at it to be like what did we even put on this track to make it sound? Sound like that?

Speaker 1: 54:45

so that was what was so cool about I listening to the whole album and all your music. It's just like I never know what I'm going to get, and Jen kind of referenced that and it's in a good way, right, like not in a like this is going to be a bad surprise at all. It's like it's just like okay, what are they going to do on this next track? Let's see, this is interesting interesting.

Speaker 3: 55:04

So how are they gonna? How are?

Speaker 1: 55:05

they gonna top it right, that's right well and it's just.

Speaker 2: 55:09

It stays rich throughout. Like I said, whether it's thematically like you could go down a rabbit hole there with putting together all the medieval type easter eggs or royal imagery, or decades like you could go down a rabbit hole of like how many decades can we pull out of this album. Or you can go down again like, um, lyrically, in terms of meaning, and which songs were from covid and which weren't, you know, like I just think it just kept me the whole time. I was excited, I was interested, I was engaged and sometimes, you know, you just want to listen to something that's gonna just be simple. And in the background, this album, I felt like I was engaged with the whole time and I loved that about it.

Speaker 3: 55:50

That's so nice to hear. That's excellent, I will say also in terms of vocal effects. There is Chris has an excellent second verse variation where we bring in some vocoder vocals. So you've got your ELO or Styx or Daft Punk, whoever you want to choose for the vocoder vocals. So you've got your elo or sticks or daft punk, whoever, whoever you want to choose for the vocoder, that's true, a classic trick which we learned from our buddy, jim ebert, who produced a couple of our recent music.

Speaker 4: 56:17

He always, like, tried to make the second verse slightly different, so whether that was having some stuff drop out, having some new vocals come in so that happens quite a bit on the album. Yeah, for you only love me when you're high. This is another one where I was listening to a lot of tennis and faye webster. I don't know if you guys are familiar, but I feel like the major seven chord is having a moment right now where it's all over all the indie pop. A lot of clero is just like major seven, major seven. So uh, that was kind of the inspiration for the chorus there. I just feel like that is kind of encapsulated, the like modern indie sound. It just has this like rich quality to it. So if anyone's trying to write a song, major seven it's done.

Speaker 1: 56:53

That's all you need, all right? Well, there you have it, another super awesome mix for your collection, this time brought to you by the artists themselves. Okay, chris baker set Seth Flynn. Thank you guys so much for coming on the show.

Speaker 3: 57:09

Thank you, thanks for having us, thanks Jen, thanks Matt.

Speaker 1: 57:11

Yeah, absolutely. So you can check out their website. It is the dusk whalescom, Anything else. You guys want to plug any social media when? Where can people find you?

Speaker 4: 57:21

Yeah, it's just at the dusk on all the socials TikTok, instagram, facebook X. And yeah, check out the new album. It's going to be out August 16th. You can pre-order the vinyl or CD on Bandcamp or, yeah, it's going to be on Spotify and Apple Music and everything else.

Speaker 1: 57:40

Awesome. Well, we'll get that out there to everybody. Everyone out there, go check these guys out. I think you're really going to enjoy it. Jen and I and Sam sammer, we'll get to work on our next mixes. So for jen and chris and seth, we'll see you next time.