LOCAL
BEAT
“WHAT I STRUGGLED MOST WITH THIS TIME AROUND WAS NOT OVERTHINKING EVERYTHING.”
{BY JULIA COOK}
LIVE FROM AUSTIN You could say South by Southwest is the perfect place to be for a band like The Winter Brave. After achieving a respectable number of plays for its EP, Metaphors, the band earned a spot in the top 100 of the Jansport Sonicbids Battle of the Bands competition, even breaking the top 10 before losing out to fellow Pittsburgh rock band White Like Fire. The band, composed of two brothers (Jake and Sam Scarpino) and a best friend (Chris Beaulieu), have come a long way from meeting in the junior-high lunch line in Upper St. Clair. Their hard yet melodic sound is akin to early Fall Out Boy and Foo Fighters, whom they cite as influences. By the time the band was accepted as a SXSW showcasing artist, it had been praised by the likes of Dave Grohl himself, in a Reddit AMA session last year. But as much as SXSW is now focused on apps and communication, at its core, personal interaction is most important, and The Winter Brave attended the festival with that in mind. “We’re trying to build more of a physical following, instead of an Internet following,” says bassist Beaulieu. Guitarist Jake Scarpino agrees. “Being in a band and playing music was something that we all kind of wanted to do, as a living, but [the SXSW showcase] gave us the confidence to go ahead and do it. It was a golden opportunity; you can’t just let that go to waste.” Jake is a power crooner — maybe as well suited to a disco club as a rock band — and at the festival showcase, his voice reached pitches likely only known to SXSW. One audience member from Australia said the band sounded like the rockers back home, “a lot of sound for just being a three-piece.” The Winter Brave played music from its EP as well as new material, filling the Irish pub with classic ’90s-style grunge pop. Jake, Chris and Sam, all in their early twenties, now pursue music full time, and hope to provide an inspiration to teenagers playing in suburban basements everywhere. From the bar you could see, just outside of the open windows, a growing crowd of underage Austinites snapping pictures and bobbing their heads.
UNDER PRESSURE
“IT WAS A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY; YOU CAN’T JUST LET THAT GO TO WASTE.”
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More on The Winter Brave: www.facebook.com/thewinterbrave
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{BY IAN THOMAS}
F
OR ADAM Granduciel, mastermind of Philadelphia rock outfit The War on Drugs, the challenge in compiling m at e r i a l f o r h i s t h i rd a l b u m wa s convincing himself that the quality of his output matched the loftiness of his intentions. With two critically acclaimed albums (2008’s Wagonwheel Blues and 2011’s Slave Ambient) under his belt, and a fervent fan base, each subsequent War on Drugs album is released to higher expectations and increased scrutiny. “What I struggled most with this time around was just letting it happen and not overthinking everything,” Granduciel says. “Getting there was just a journey … I wanted to make something as good as I could for the fans, and for the canon of contemporary music. I also was constantly second-guessing whether the decisions I was making were bad decisions.” Given the stakes, his concern is legitimate. Lost in the Dream was brought to light under different conditions than his debut and sophomore efforts. Finding the courage to change a successful formula
PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 03.19/03.26.2014
{PHOTO COURTESY OF DUSDIN CONDREN}
Timeless but pragmatic: The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel
can be intimidating. While it took multiple years to compile material for both Wagonwheel Blues and Slave Ambient, Lost in the Dream’s gestation period was markedly shorter, coming together in just over a year. For all his self-doubt, Granduciel’s third effort under the War on Drugs flag stands as proof that the experience he acquired in the past decade has given him greater control, if not mastery, of his creative process. Tightening his timeline has had the effect of bringing Granduciel’s vision into tighter focus.
THE WAR ON DRUGS WITH WHITE LACES
7:30 p.m. Sat., March 22. Altar Bar, 1620 Penn Ave., Strip District. $13-15. All ages. 412-206-9719 or www.thealtarbar.com
Lost in the Dream stands with the best of the War on Drugs discography, taking the characteristically urgent and expansive sound and adding lyrical elements that offer greater insight into Granduciel’s
worldview. Where previous releases featured stream-of-consciousness snippets of poetry, here his ideas are more fully formed. While they may not amount to a specific narrative, they speak to the process of coming to terms with the intractable and the unknowable. Recent interviews with Granduciel allude to struggles with depression, as well as coping with loneliness after returning from a long time out on the road with his band. “You were raised on a promise / But found that over time / You better come around to the new way / Or watch as it all breaks down,” he sings on album opener “Under the Pressure.” Given the free-wheeling expansiveness, the out-to-the-edges fullness, of the War on Drugs sound, it is hard to imagine the songs arriving into the world anything other than fully formed. This sense of immediacy is actually the result of careful deliberation, scrutiny and patience. It may ruin a little bit of the band’s magic to learn, but The War on Drugs’ characteristic fullness is pieced together like all art is pieced together: bit by grueling bit. CONTINUES ON PG. 34