by Paisley Porter
The Backseat Lovers have made quite a name for themselves since their debut album, When We Were Friends, was released in 2019. With their song “Kilby Girl” earning about half a billion streams and a sold-out show at Stubb’s, it’s clear that these guys are rising stars. And, they just recently announced ANOTHER tour which will bring them back to Austin on May 17th, 2023 at the Moody Amphitheater – get tickets HERE!
With three years to twiddle with guitar riffs and piano arrangements, their new album has flourished into grand orchestrations. Compared to their debut, these guys got pretty exploratory with their newest album, Waiting to Spill..
The second song of their set, “Follow the Sound”, has an eclectic sound, and it’s not even the album’s most experimental track! It opens with a blaring car alarm, and later showcases the sounds of a book closing. Along with alluring tones of piano, muted guitar strums, and rhythmic drum beats, this song is the perfect balance of weird and beautiful musicality.
The album opens with “Silhouette” – debatably the most experimental song of Waiting to Spill. The band experiments with physics using the Doppler effect, the change in sound wave frequency in relation to an observer who is moving toward or away from a sound. Playing a sustained note, they blasted it out the side of a car and sped past the microphones that caught the sound. As a result, the E note smoothly transitioned to the second track, “Close Your Eyes” which is in the key of D.
This album is a storybook filled with memories of childhood homes, morning drives, lunch on a “magical” porch, band rehearsals in parent’s garages, and emotionally significant voice memos. Such a diversely engineered and meaning-filled album is bound to catch your ear!
Follow The Backseat Lovers
Set List:
Viciously Lonely
Follow the Sound
Morning in the Aves
Album: Waiting to Spill (Capitol Records)
Musicians: Joshua Harmon – vocals, guitar, piano; Jonas Swanson – guitar, vocals, piano; KJ Ward – bass; Juice Welch – drums
Credits: Producer: Deidre Gott; Audio Engineer: Jake Perlman; Rene Chavez; Audio Mix: Rene Chavez; Cameras: Renee Dominguez, Stone Clemmons, Alyssa Olvera; Edit:Alyssa Olvera; Host: Laurie Gallardo
