Since arriving on the scene in 2010, Widowspeak, the slowcore duo of Molly Hamilton & Robert Earl Thomas, have
Since arriving on the scene in 2010, Widowspeak, the slowcore duo of Molly Hamilton & Robert Earl Thomas, have been garnering critical acclaim and a loyal following that grow steadily year by year. The success is largely thanks to their beautiful mix of intriguing aesthetics and a mysterious sound that carefully blends together the genres of folk, shoegaze, and dream pop.
This Friday at Strange Matter, Widowspeak will come to Richmond and showcase this remarkable package to fans, but those in attendance might just be getting a little bit different package than they’re used to.
In 2013, the band released Almanac, their second album and first as a duo after two former members had left the previous year. It was hailed as a great progression from their first album and was celebrated for helping the band create a concrete identity to separate them from the pack. That identity worked for sure, but in 2015, the duo is looking to change it up a little bit. On September 4th, the band will be releasing All Yours, a ten song record that definitely changes things up for a band, but in a way that makes perfect sense when you know the backstory.
To most fans, the phrase “changing the sound” cuts like a dagger and can ruin any work before it begins, but for Widowspeak, the circumstances surrounding that change will not only give the band a pass, but also might make them more endearing to fans.
“Before we even started the record, we moved from New York City out to Saugerties,” explained singer Molly Hamilton. “It’s a little town maybe 15 minutes from Woodstock at the gateway of the Catskills.” When you hear the first songs from the new record and you take this tidbit into account, the sonic shift becomes extremely transparent, even if it’s not something the band sought out completely.
“We recorded Almanac really close to here in a place called Kingston. I think we just started to steadily spend more time upstate because we wanted a different environment than the city. It’s getting more expensive there and I think we just wanted more space to have our instruments, play in the house, and just have more flexibility.”
That flexibility allowed the duo to branch out a little past music too – Hamilton went back to school while guitarist Robert Thomas took up a job at a hotel nearby. The change in setting and ways they spent their “free” time allowed the band to grow a lot more than they were in New York and afforded them a highly desired luxury: taking their sweet time with the next record.
“After The Swamps EP came out, we started to make plans to move upstate and we wanted to write the next record right away. Originally, I had done these voice memos and was thinking about what I was going to write. We even had an album title picked out that would have explained the record, but it took a turn when we got established in the house and let that experience trickle into it. We figured we needed to take more time to let the songs come naturally from there. It wasn’t our intent to move there and make an upstate record. It just naturally came out of where we are now and the ability to just play music in our house over a long period without being rushed in the least bit.”
Despite the move away from the city being beneficial to the band. Hamilton wasn’t ready to write the city off just yet. “[New York] can be really exciting if you’re financial stable,” the Tacoma native stated bluntly. “The trick is to make sure you’re happy while you’re there. For me, being on tour a lot and coming home, I didn’t feel at home or really have a home because I was moving around a lot. That was my impression of the city unfortunately. I think it can be amazing especially for young people as long as you can find a way to afford your rent. There’s so much going on, but for me, I lost my footing and I needed a change because it ceased to by my home.”
Home is what Hamilton found in the Catskills of New York and home is what really shines through on the new record, especially on the band’s first single from the new record, Girls. It’s a down-to-earth sound that seems destined for porch listening and one that really wets your musical appetite for the rest of the record, even if it would have been completely out of place on Almanac or The Swamps EP.
“I think the songs sound homey because they were made in the home, but it’s also what was going on in our lives at the moment. We didn’t feel the need to make another concept record so the songs are a lot more straightforward. The tone is still pretty nostalgic and sometimes sad, but I didn’t feel the need to shroud the meaning this time around.”
Hamilton admits the record is a lot more in line with the band’s first record, though still a separate entity. Describing it as “coming full circle,” the aesthetic is still there, she claims, but it’s just a cohesive collection of songs that matched the mood and setting the duo had found themselves in. “I feel like songwriting and projects comes in waves and sometimes I’m really attracted to creating a mood or concrete idea, but with this record, I just wanted to write whatever I was feeling and thinking.”
What helped that feeling even more was a soundtrack made up of a record collection the band was finally able to grow and explore. “Moving upstate and being able to have more space, we were able to collect more records finally,” Hamilton described. “We had stopped buying records for a long time because you have to move them around to your various apartments. It’s a nightmare and they can get damaged real easy.” So what was the duo listening too? “Limp Bizkit,” joked Thomas from the background. No, the band was inspired by the old rock and roll sound of the very area they were in: Woodstock. The Band, The Beatles, their respective side projects, and other late 60s and early 70s music was all ringing throughout the house and helping set the stage for a much more Americana sound than the duo was known for.
All of it came together to deliver an album already being talked about as the band’s boldest and grandest work yet. We’ll have to wait to hear the end product when it comes out in September, though fans will surely be soaking up whatever teaser comes out here and there in the meantime. But it’s looking more and more like the band who practically made their name on a dark sound and image mired in a murky fog is going to really hit it big with a down-to-earth sound your grandparents will like just as much as you do. It will be a new, great identity for the band and one I’m sure they’ll flip on its head when they decide to start the next work.
Widowspeak perform at Strange Matter tomorrow night, July 24th, alongside The James Badfellows and Various Eggs. For more information on the show and where to get tickets, click here.
