43
Indie rocker brings side project to Cedars
By John Benson
When The War On Drugs bassist Dave Hartley decided to do something on his own, he was adamant about approaching it from the other side of the musical spectrum than his indie-rock band day job, which often pursues shoegazing sounds influenced by classic rockers Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.
The result is side project Nightlands, which he describes as falling in the easy listening/ dream science genre. Sure, the musical style is self-coined, but wow! One listen to the group’s eclectic sound on its 2010 debut, “Forget the Mantra,” as well as the recently released follow-up, “Oak Island,” and, well, he nailed it.
“I think it’s partly self-deprecation,” Hartley, said, calling from his home in Philadelphia. “To say easy listening is a pejorative term to some people, but it’s also like I just strive to make things that sound very beautiful. I like music that’s really aggressive sometimes and maybe on the heavier side or more dissonant side. But the music I’ve always made, I’m always like, ‘How can I make this preposterously blissful or beautiful sounding?’ To me, that’s just voices of harmony. And I decided to try to pile them on one another to exponentiate the beauty of it.”
As for the notion of dream science, Hartley said it just fit the Nightlands mission, which on “Forget the Mantra” found the multi-instrumentalist purposely not playing his bass in order to further distance himself physically and stylistically from The War on Drugs.
Nightlands’ current tour includes high-profile dates in New York City, Boston, Toronto, Chicago and, um, Youngstown.
How did that happen?
“I was only vaguely aware of Youngstown’s existence, but our drummer, Anthony LaMarca, is from there,” Hartley said. “We were looking at the Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas for a show, and I said, ‘Let’s play Youngstown.’ All things being equal, I’d rather book a show through a friend’s friend, so that’s what we did. I’m looking forward to it. He speaks a lot about Youngstown.”
When Hartley pressed for more insight into what he can expect from Youngstown, it was pointed out that he won’t have to deal with the paparazzi.
“That’s good,” Hartley said, laughing. “I’ve been trying to shake them for months now.”