"You Must Change Your Life" is Out Now!
You Must Change Your Life is out now!
This is the record I dreamed about when I first fell in love with music and imagined a future where I could one day get to make an album like this – a whole sonic world that is sensual and textured, deeply grooved and fully fleshed out, encompassing the emotional gamut of a life.
This record is our mission statement — a super-danceable amalgamation of American and Mexican music that weaves together the warm, earthy folk instruments and rhythms at the heart of this band and pushes to the outer edges. We ran the hand-carved Mexican folk instruments, Suz’s fiddle, an out-of-tune marimba, and the bass clarinet, through the wildest-sounding filters and pedals, pitch-shifted horn sections several octaves to create other-worldly soundscapes, and layered the grooves of a slamming rock band with drum machines and loops. But the beating heart of the band, the humanness and frailty of real voices and emotions never got lost in the process.
We packed in everything we love about music: the pure joy of it, the swagger and exhilaration of the British Invasion, the 6/8 syncopation and sway of the Mexican fandango, the belting piano rockers of the 70’s from Elton John and the sly ones from Harry Nilsson, paired with the experimentation of Fleetwood Mac and moody balladry of Nick Drake.
At the heart of all these songs is desire—taming it, grappling with it, coaxing it, reminiscing on it, allowing it to upend one’s life, being swept down to Mexico by it, trying to be patient with it. I sought to make a record that would be the sonic equivalent of a cubist painting of Eros – passionate and physical desire in all its forms and across the timeline of a heart.
Thank you for listening!
Endless gratitude to the artists who helped us make this record:
Production/mixing: Dan Molad ( w/ Stella Hartman on “Best Lover” and “You Must Change Your Life”)
Engineering: Adrian Olsen and assistant engineer Alex Spalding at Montrose Recording in Richmond, VA
Mastering: Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice
Musicians: Suz Slezak, Alec Spiegelman, Anthony da Costa, Danilo Henriquez, Ben Kogan, Dan Molad
Guests: Mat Davidson (Twain), Alanna Lin (Fascinoma)