In 2008 we were all pampered via spacey-gorgeous masterpiece "Begin Civil Twilight". The band behind said album is easily one of my favorite Shoegaze/Dream Pop/HIGHLY overlooked bands out there. If you haven't heard them yet, please get acquainted with..
Auburn Lull
Notional Atmo-gazers
Auburn Lull Bio:
Like fellow Michiganders Windy & Carl and Asha Vida, Auburn Lull create lush space-rock and ethereal, Brian Eno-inspired soundscapes. Despite the fact that the once-thriving Michigan space-rock scene has all but faded out, Auburn Lull continues to evolve their brand of technicolor sound, steadily attracting critical acclaim and an ever-growing fan base. Auburn Lull formed in Lansing, MI in 1994 by Jason Kolb (guitars), Eli Wekenmen (guitars), Sean Heenan (guitars, vocals), and Jason Weisinger (drums). The band instantly became associated with other like-minded bands from south-east MI, particularly Mahogany, with whom they released The Dual Group EP in 1997. Jason Kolb began playing guitar at live shows for Mahogany, and in 1999, Mahogany's Andrew Prinz produced Auburn Lull's debut full-length, Alone I Admire.
Hello, how are you?
Pretty okay, so-so, not great, not horrible. Ready for a nice a summer.
What are you currently listening to?
Lots of clicky/fractured stuff, like Lusine and other Ghostly things. Just discovered those Disintegration Loops by William Basinski that are really cool. Our friend Joshua from Fields of Industry just put out a "slowcoustic" solo record that is quite good. We're all sending each other a bunch of demos now too, so those are getting quite the spin.
Judging by your blissful style of music I would assume you guys to be the most chilled out mellow people around. What do you do when you're not writing/playing music, do you have day jobs?
I guess that is true for the most part, we're pretty relaxed, but we can be really NOT chill if the mood strikes. It's funny because I think that's always the assumption with bands like us, but as a bystander you might see some seriously high strung/chaotic behavior. You also might see some super-heated games of pong or Yahtzee. We all work day jobs and all have different things we get into other than music, but music is kind of our focal creative release.
What kind of music were you writing before Auburn Lull/have you always been fascinated by the "Shoegaze/Dream Pop" genre?
I think the reason we all started making music is because of Creation and 4AD. I remember hearing "De-Luxe" by Lush on the radio and that was definitely a spark for me. We were also super lucky because Sean's dad had (and has) really good taste in music and had all the Cocteau albums and other 4AD gems, so those were at Sean's disposal early on. Anyway, yeah, we've always been into "shoegaze", or at least the early incarnation of "shoegaze". Our early high school/pre-Auburn Lull days consisted of Sean, Jason W., and I playing covers that dipped heavily into Creation and 4AD's catalogs, but that was also mixed with some pretty random choices that were all over the map. Sean has tapes of us attempting to play early Cure stuff in his parent's garage at one point, which is hilarious. I'll never understand why we thought it was a good idea to cover "10:15 Saturday Night", but those days were really fun. By the time we actually made original songs, we sounded pretty much like a *really* sloppy Flying Saucer Attack attempting to cover Verve songs, or the other way around. Not so great, but you have to start somewhere.
With “Begin Civil Twilight”, my favorite Auburn Lull album, you added more vocals to the mix.. can we expect the same direction on the next Auburn Lull release? Are there any tentative titles or a release dates set for the next album?
It's hard to say what we'll end up doing vocal-wise on the new record, because we usually leave that until fairly late in the game. So far it's just a few melodies here and there. I think vocals will be key, but the presentation will be quite different. We're definitely going in a different direction, but then again, we thought BCT was a huge departure and most people seem to think it sounds just like everything else we did. The next record will have a considerably different feel though. We have a working title, but no real idea about when it will get done, which is like a running joke with us. You can pretty much tack on 6 months to 2 years to whatever we say. We have a lot of other projects keeping us busy - some collabs, remixes, and other odds and ends, some of which will be done really soon.
What’s the best show you ever played and why?
That's pretty tough, but I think we had the most fun playing in Montreal. We played during a horrible blizzard (even by Montreal's standards) and the city basically shut completely down, but it was a blast and surreal. I don't know what the best show we ever performed was, but our show in Cambridge last year had the most enthusiastic and interesting people, which is always nice.
If you could collaborate with any musician of your choice who would it be?
The totally obvious "we knew you would say that" answer is Brian Eno, just for the wild card factor. He would probably find some obscure aspect of our sound that we don't even realize and hone in on it and invert everything we do. A record with him would probably end up being like 40 minutes of dry ride cymbals with no guitars and occasional tribal outbursts or something, but it would be sweet.
You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
The answer totally depends on when I'm asked, but today the answer is Person Pitch. In this week alone, the answers could've been The Verve EP or Kiln "Holo". Man, that's a tough one.
Are you living your dream?
In some ways, definitely. As a group, I think if we were 18 again and could see our current selves, we'd be pretty happy with everything that we're accomplishing.
Pretty okay, so-so, not great, not horrible. Ready for a nice a summer.
What are you currently listening to?
Lots of clicky/fractured stuff, like Lusine and other Ghostly things. Just discovered those Disintegration Loops by William Basinski that are really cool. Our friend Joshua from Fields of Industry just put out a "slowcoustic" solo record that is quite good. We're all sending each other a bunch of demos now too, so those are getting quite the spin.
Judging by your blissful style of music I would assume you guys to be the most chilled out mellow people around. What do you do when you're not writing/playing music, do you have day jobs?
I guess that is true for the most part, we're pretty relaxed, but we can be really NOT chill if the mood strikes. It's funny because I think that's always the assumption with bands like us, but as a bystander you might see some seriously high strung/chaotic behavior. You also might see some super-heated games of pong or Yahtzee. We all work day jobs and all have different things we get into other than music, but music is kind of our focal creative release.
What kind of music were you writing before Auburn Lull/have you always been fascinated by the "Shoegaze/Dream Pop" genre?
I think the reason we all started making music is because of Creation and 4AD. I remember hearing "De-Luxe" by Lush on the radio and that was definitely a spark for me. We were also super lucky because Sean's dad had (and has) really good taste in music and had all the Cocteau albums and other 4AD gems, so those were at Sean's disposal early on. Anyway, yeah, we've always been into "shoegaze", or at least the early incarnation of "shoegaze". Our early high school/pre-Auburn Lull days consisted of Sean, Jason W., and I playing covers that dipped heavily into Creation and 4AD's catalogs, but that was also mixed with some pretty random choices that were all over the map. Sean has tapes of us attempting to play early Cure stuff in his parent's garage at one point, which is hilarious. I'll never understand why we thought it was a good idea to cover "10:15 Saturday Night", but those days were really fun. By the time we actually made original songs, we sounded pretty much like a *really* sloppy Flying Saucer Attack attempting to cover Verve songs, or the other way around. Not so great, but you have to start somewhere.
With “Begin Civil Twilight”, my favorite Auburn Lull album, you added more vocals to the mix.. can we expect the same direction on the next Auburn Lull release? Are there any tentative titles or a release dates set for the next album?
It's hard to say what we'll end up doing vocal-wise on the new record, because we usually leave that until fairly late in the game. So far it's just a few melodies here and there. I think vocals will be key, but the presentation will be quite different. We're definitely going in a different direction, but then again, we thought BCT was a huge departure and most people seem to think it sounds just like everything else we did. The next record will have a considerably different feel though. We have a working title, but no real idea about when it will get done, which is like a running joke with us. You can pretty much tack on 6 months to 2 years to whatever we say. We have a lot of other projects keeping us busy - some collabs, remixes, and other odds and ends, some of which will be done really soon.
What’s the best show you ever played and why?
That's pretty tough, but I think we had the most fun playing in Montreal. We played during a horrible blizzard (even by Montreal's standards) and the city basically shut completely down, but it was a blast and surreal. I don't know what the best show we ever performed was, but our show in Cambridge last year had the most enthusiastic and interesting people, which is always nice.
If you could collaborate with any musician of your choice who would it be?
The totally obvious "we knew you would say that" answer is Brian Eno, just for the wild card factor. He would probably find some obscure aspect of our sound that we don't even realize and hone in on it and invert everything we do. A record with him would probably end up being like 40 minutes of dry ride cymbals with no guitars and occasional tribal outbursts or something, but it would be sweet.
You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
The answer totally depends on when I'm asked, but today the answer is Person Pitch. In this week alone, the answers could've been The Verve EP or Kiln "Holo". Man, that's a tough one.
Are you living your dream?
In some ways, definitely. As a group, I think if we were 18 again and could see our current selves, we'd be pretty happy with everything that we're accomplishing.
Thanx Jason!
Auburn Lull are currently working on their follow up to "Begin Civil Twilight", they'll let you know when it's ready...
They really are an astonishing band. I wish they'd finish that follow-up already...
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