Baltimore’s Lower Dens earned a cult following with their 2010 debut Twin-Hand Movement, but it’s their lush sophomore effort Nootropics that’s garnered the band critical praise. We spoke with bassist Geoff Graham in his native Baltimore on a break from a tour that comes to Rock and Roll Hotel tonight.
I just watched your [Sup Kittens] interview with Mason Ross, so I’m a little worried.
We might traumatize each other.
Are you wearing face paint right now?
Maybe.
You spent some time working in Antarctica. How did that happen? Did that experience of relative isolation and an alien landscape influence your creative process?
I think in terms of the traumatic idea at work in Nootropics, my understanding of technology and humanity and the notion of humans surviving due to technology was really influenced by my time in Antarctica. For us to be there, we’re completely reliant on technologically manipulating the environment in order to just be able to live there. That had an effect on my outlook in general. I found myself asking a lot of questions. What is an appropriate amount of technology for humans? What’s too much? What’s too little? What is good technology? What is bad technology? That is something I think about in terms of music, a lot of the time. We used synthesizers, we used sampled sounds, and we got into more of the techy realm of music. It sounds human, but it also sounds mechanical in a good way, and yields interesting results.
When you say, “What technology is too much?” I wonder, have you drawn any lines in the sand in your own life, in music, or in day to day life in terms of unplugging?
I think the amount of technology we have and the overall role technology can play can be a distraction. We’re already living in a situation where you could spend your whole life barely interfacing with other people in a face-to-face way or interfacing with reality. You can be completely distracted from that and lead an existence. For me, that’s not healthy, and that doesn’t work for me. It’s too much distraction, and it’s too virtual. I think my conclusion is that I’m not anti-technology, I’m not a luddite. But I’m very picky about what technology I use.
When you were down there, did you have access to the Internet?
They don’t have wireless. That have computers in the dorms, in the common areas that you can go and use, and email. The bandwidth is very limited.
So you can’t watch Netflix.
Right. You can’t download music or movies.
Twin-Hand Movement took two years to write and record. Since you’ve been touring, how did the process for Nootropics differ?
It was different because we did the initial writing phase on the road, sketching out the songs and coming up with ideas while we were traveling. The incubation phase where we all got together and were rehearsing happened in our practice space. That was condensed, time-wise. We did the same thing for Twin-Hand Movement.
When we finally got to the studio for Nootropics, we were able to book more time since we had a label that could support us financially. We had a month of working 7 days a week, living in the studio we were recording in, so we had a lot more time than we did with Twin-Hand Movement. We had such a small amount of time then, we showed up having everything exactly figured out. With Nootropics, we had time to add all these extra dimensions and it made things lusher and thicker.
If a DCist reader was going to go up to Baltimore for the day for the first time, where would you send them?
I’d go to the [American] Visionary Arts Museum. That’s where I always take out-of-towners.
That was my next question: Do you like AVAM?
It’s a pretty unique museum. I haven’t been to any other museum quite like it, and it gets you in that Baltimore frame of mind: the weird, kitschy, do-it-yourself, John Waters vibe that makes Baltimore a unique place, culturally. Hopefully there’d be a good show on the night you were here at Floristree or Soft House. Possibly, go to one of the markets and get a crab cake.
If you had to describe Lower Dens’s music to a relative who had never heard you play before, what would you say?
I try not to describe our music. I leave that to other people. But if a relative was asking, I would just tell them it was loud.
Does your family ever come see you play?
They do. I come from an extended family that’s all really into classical music. I am as well, but my parents, for example, are exclusively into classical music. All the popular music of the 1960’s passed them by. They’ll come to a show, and they’re great about it, but I can tell they don’t exactly enjoy it. I think they’d rather stay at home and enjoy listening to the record there.
Lower Dens play tonight at Rock and Roll Hotel, with No Joy and Alan Resnic. Doors open 7 pm. Tickets are $12 and available here.
