Music From Every Night at 8 > Longwave
Artist: Longwave
MOVIE QUESTIONS
- MY FAVORITE MOVIE:
- The Godfather
- A MOVIE SHOULD:
- Make you believe.
- FAVORITE MOVIE SCENE:
- In Blade Runner when Daryl Hannah is attacking Harrison Ford and does her flips... her legs wrap around his neck trying to suffocate him. That was the best.
- MY FAVORITE ACTRESS:
- Faye Dunaway
- MOVIE CHARACTER I'D LOVE TO BE:
- Eduardo Roel (Luis Guzman), The Limey
- FIRST SCREEN CRUSH:
- Princess Leia. Of course.
- MY FAVORITE ACTOR:
- Samuel L. Jackson
- FAVORITE MOVIE SOUNDTRACK:
- Michael Mann's Heat
BIOGRAPHY
LONGWAVE
The Strangest Things
In the summer of 2004, Longwave drove from their small, poorly lit Brooklyn homes to a mansion in the Catskills, an estate originally built for Pittsburg industrial tycoons in the 1920's, which has a two mile driveway, a pool, tennis courts, archery, and a private staff, including a chef. There, they recorded their newest album, There's a Fire, with legendary British producer John Leckie (Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Verve, and George Harrison, among others).
The remote location created an environment conducive to both artistic focus and multiple wildlife sightings.
"One day at the studio," said guitarist Shannon Ferguson, "Steve was recording a guitar track, this crazy feedback thing. His amp was on the sun porch, which was open to the hills. I stepped outside to take a walk, and the sound of this hellish guitar was just blaring through the hillside. And there on the grass, not twenty feet from the amp, was a group of deer, grazing, They didn't even look up."
"They liked the part," said Steve Shiltz, singer and guitarist. "No, really. I just read that animals respond to music in much the same way as humans, that the low end acts as some sort of womb recreation, or something."
Before going to the mountaintop mansion, now Allaire Studios, Longwave spent the first half of 2004 promoting their EP, The Life of the Party, recorded by Pete Min (with whom they had worked on their 2001 independent debut, Endsongs), and mixed by Peter Kadis (Interpol). For this release, they made a brief tour of the states where they encountered more wildlife.
"On tour for Life of the Party, we saw a bear get hit on the highway in the mountains of North Carolina," Shiltz said. "It was pretty traumatic, and I found myself thinking about it a lot. Then, when we went to Allaire, we saw bears all the time."
"Both on that tour and at the studio this summer, we spent a lot of time in bear habitat," said Shannon.
The signature Longwave sound is a combination of dreamy British guitar work with equal parts arty New York rock, creating something reminiscent of early U2, Radiohead, Flaming Lips, and Television. Though they formed in 2000 and toured extensively for years, Longwave was first heard by most people on their 2003 RCA debut, The Strangest Things, produced by Dave Fridman (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev), an album for which they toured the world with such bands as The Strokes, The Raveonettes, The Donnas, and The Vines. The Strangest Things enjoyed extensive play on The TV and The Radio, as well as much critical acclaim.
"When we were touring for The Strangest Things," Shiltz said, "I don't remember any wildlife at all." "No," Ferguson said. "You're right. There was no wildlife on that tour."
Other differences between There's a Fire and their previous offering also arise. The new album is more dynamic than anything previously recorded by Longwave. From the sustained explosion of We're Not Gonna Crack to the orchestral and spooky Underworld Song and Down in Here, Longwave explores a wider sonic landscape here than ever before.
"The songs here really work according to their own logic. It was a very organic recording experience," Shiltz said. "Straight to tape through an old Neve board. The way Leckie used to do it at Abbey Road, I guess. And the studio was open, with no dividers between the musicians tracking and the control area."
"There were really high ceilings in the studio, and often when we were tracking, there would be bats up there," Ferguson said.
This raised the interest of drummer Nic Brown. "Bats? Oh yeah. They were always in my bedroom, too. It's easy to get them out, though. You just open a window, turn off the lights, and close the door. They figure it out."
"And the giant moth that flew in," Shiltz said. "Remember the giant moth?" "We couldn't get him out," Brown said. "No," Shiltz said. "We got him out, but then he came back in. He just wouldn't stay away, remember? He came back, then died in the rafters. I think he really liked us."
