GLAARE - Surrender/Control
by The
One of the best things about the current state
of underground music is just how little genre matters. In fact, it’s usually a
positive when you can’t quite pin down what you’re listening to. Los Angeles
trio GLAARE is a great example of this. Fusing post-punk, new wave, shoegaze
and hints of Cocteau Twins, GLAARE’s offerings are dark but hopeful, sporadic
yet methodical but overall very pensive.
After putting out a well received self-titled
EP, Cameron Adams, Rachel and Brandon Pierce return with, Surrender/Control, a
5 track digital release that is easily the group’s most focused effort to date.
The moodiness of vocalist Rachel Pierce carries perfectly over Adams’ delicate
riffs and Brandon’s percussion is spot on as always. Ethereal electronics add a
nice layer to each song that helps set the melancholy atmosphere of the
release. Standout tracks include the slowly infectious “Isky” and the gothic
jam, “Suffer”. The introspectiveness on the title track is evident right away
and its anthemic quality will appeal to fans across the board. While the band
is relatively new, each member has played in a whole host of other projects
ranging from doom metal to experimental electronics and this shows with their
stellar production value and richness of sound.
The Brvtalist has been fortunate to know each
member of the band and we reached out to discuss the new EP, the project’s
progression and how it’s all come together.
The Brvtalist: It turns out I knew all the band
members of Glaare, but from different places. You and Rachel through Deth Crux,
Buried at Sea, etc. but Cameron I initially connected with through underground
electronics shows. Talk about how the band came together and was it always the
idea to sort of merge two different worlds?
GLAARE (Cameron): Glaare formed out of a need to
satiate our creative impulses and transcend the mundanity of everyday life. I
had not been doing anything with music for a quite some time when I was first
introduced to Brandon and Rachael and jumped at the opportunity to play guitar
in what they described as a "dirge shoegaze" band. There has always
been talk of merging our influences in a way that would allow us to achieve our
creative goals, but of course, this is much easier said than done and
eventually we had to let the process guide itself. The reality is that it's
taken us nearly four years to become what we are and to arrive at a place where
our creative process feels natural, rewarding, and meaningful. "Surrender/Control"
is a symbol of what lay beyond the obstacles we've faced both inside and
outside of Glaare.
TB: I think one could argue that Glaare is a
little less sonically aggressive than other projects all of the members have
been in or are also pursuing. The tracks are emotional, introspective and maybe
even a little romantic. Talk about the band's approach to crafting songs and
what's it like for everyone to switch things up.
GL(Cameron): We don't have a concrete way of
doing things, but we do find it necessary to do most of the work at our
respective home studios. We're not the kind of band, technically speaking, that
can show up and play until something happens. Not anymore, anyways. Ableton
Live, Logic, and a few hardware synthesizers are essential to our process and
this setup allows us the technical freedom necessary to write what we want to
hear. Nearly every track on "Surrender/Control" was composed entirely
on a laptop at home before we'd get together to edit the arrangements and sort
out the details. Once things felt right, we'd head to our rehearsal space and
introduce ideas for drums, vocals, and guitar. I'm a firm believer in
"less is more" and insist on approaching writing in a very
minimalistic way.
TB: Talk about the idea behind
Surrender/Control. What did you guys set out to do with this EP and how does it
build on previous material?
GL(Rachel): Our previous releases had aggressive
overtones. We had a range of influences that spanned to areas more intense,
like Black Metal, so that definitely came out a lot. Sometimes completely by
accident. We would listen back, we’d hear a lot of metal, sometimes overly epic
material as well. Like “Did we intend for this?" With Surrender/Control, we really
focused on conveying anger and pain from a completely different end of the
spectrum. Almost like a repressed power that teases and taunts but never gives
you the big release. It's much more haunting that way. Our influences this time
around were further toward, shoegaze / dark wave / post punk. They always actually
were, but sometimes you get caught up whilst writing in the moment and just
keep making it bigger and louder and more grandiose. Exercising in restraint
and minimalism was really important to us. Which by the way was not easy for me
at all. I found it really challenging to pull back and nurture a voice that
didn't rely on big notes and volume.
TB: Before this interview we were talking about
how this is probably the band's most focused release. Talk a little bit about
the evolution of everything thus far.
GL(Brandon): We parted ways with 2 of the
members; one of them handled the majority of the writing duties. Now that we’re
a 3 piece, it’s definitely narrowed the vision. With a 5-piece band, it’s a
heavy undertaking to become a single-minded entity.
We do have a contributing synth player, Jeff
Smith, who hails from ohGr. He really improved our live work flow. Having made
tenure in industrial music, he’s fixed a lot of the issues we were having with
the execution. I think we’re extremely selective when it comes to electronics,
and since Cameron has a good handle on synthesis, we can only bring someone in
with more experience.
TB: What’s coming up next for GLAARE and its
members?
GL(Brandon): We have a short west coast tour
first week of November with Clay Rendering, which is pretty perfect for us.
We’re probably going to have another EP by spring of next year. Hopefully we
can convince Black Mare/ Deth Crux to do a tour with us around that time since
we overlap members. Not to mention between the 3 projects, we span a lot of
sub-genres of dark music. Cameron is
working on a solo EP under the name Jewel Thief. Glaare is also trying to get
to Iceland next year for Airwaves. We visited (Iceland) earlier this year and
we’re pretty attached now; I think it lended us some influence sonically. It’s
an amazing country.
Thank you to GLAARE for these insightful
responses.
Surrender/Control is out now and you can purchase on Bandcamp (http://glaare.bandcamp.com/releases).
For more, visit Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/glaare/?fref=ts).
Surrender/Control is out now and you can purchase on Bandcamp (http://glaare.bandcamp.com/releases).
For more, visit Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/glaare/?fref=ts).
