LOVE INKS: “Generation-Club”

2011’s debut LP E.S.P. received praise from NME, Dazed & Confused, The Stool Pigeon, Grazia and many more for it’s sparse yet sweet hazy summer anthems. Now LOVE INKS – comprised of couple Sherry LeBlanc and Kevin Dehan, and accompanied by Derek Brown on bass – present the fuller yet equally mesmerizing Generation Club.

Blending dreamlike synths, Sherry’s distinctive caramel vocals and a brooding undertone, LOVE INKS invite you into a woozy realm of contemplation that, whilst still paying homage to the beauty of a simple melody, digs to a slightly more unsettled place.

There’s a lot of loneliness and isolation… and time is mentioned a lot. Time passing slowly is a theme for some reason. Austin is a lazy town and time goes very slowly, we love it here but people don’t really hop to it so to speak.(Sherry LeBlanc)

LOVE INKS Posters, image: facebook.com/loveinks

To get the record done, Kevin didn’t talk to anyone for a long time and just focused on recording,’ says Sherry. ‘Isolating himself really angered all of his friends, who thought he was being weird, which furthered the level of isolation… Overall it’s a positive album, but it is very reflective.

With the record’s conception pointed at their first European tour & time spent in Berlin, it makes sense that Generation Club was created with their live show in mind, this time with a focus on creating a slightly fuller sound.

LOVE INKS, image: facebook.com/loveinks

‘E.S.P. was so short and minimal, our live performances felt like we were reading poetry at a music venue,’ Sherry recounts. She continues: ‘This time we wanted to add some mid-frequency tones to help balance out the quiet on stage. The album is still minimal and sticks with what we do best. We’re always going to love drum machines more than live drums for this band, it just fits better.’

As with all of their recordings, Generation Club was then recorded on a half-inch tape machine, by the band in their hometown of Austin, but this time mixed in an analogue studio by Matt Oliver at Big Orange Studios, using methods inspired by Kraftwerk and Brian Eno.

‘It’s a labor of love when someone does that,’ Sherry muses.

It’s about their rhythm and timing and even muscle memory. It leaves very little room for error on the musicians part and adds very distinct fingerprints from the person mixing – there’s no auto tune or cutting and pasting within the tracks. (Sherry)

LOVE INKS look forward to a US tour this fall, followed by a string of European dates at the end of 2013. Details to be announced shortly. Watch a teaser video for Generation Club:

Generation Club track list:

1. ‘Solar Diary’
2. ‘Hearts Up’
3. ‘Outta Sight’
4. ‘Night Lunch’
5. ‘Time’
6. ‘Secret Tattoo’
7. ‘I’m Gone’
8. ‘Magazine Street’
9. ‘Hold Out’
10. ‘Waiting on a Plane’

LOVE INKS Links:

Facebook
Site
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LOVE INKS, image: facebook.com/loveinks

source: Stereo Sanctity, images: LOVE INKS Facebook

Speaking about the footage, Savage states:

The video tells the story of a young girl who misinterprets something she sees and inadvertently causes tragedy to ensue. We wanted the visuals to have a theatrical quality, taking place in a black void representing her view of the events, almost as though the action was taking place on an empty stage.

As a child, South African-born Cheri MacNeil spent 11 years studying at a small primary school in the north of Johannesburg, not far from what was once an isolated farm called Lilliesleaf. Growing up, she knew nothing of the nearby settlement, but it was within these grounds that, on July 11th, 1963, a dry-cleaning and flower van parked beside a thatched cottage and disgorged a squad of armed policemen. They’d received a tip off from a neighbour’s son about unusual comings and goings, their suspicions further aroused by the fact that these involved both black and white individuals. It had taken them a while to locate the place: initial reports spoke of a place called Ivon, and it was only after searching the area that they found an old, weather-beaten sign from which three letters were missing. It had once said ‘Rivonia’, the name of the suburb in which they stood.

Dear Reader, image: www.dearreadermusic.com

That day, police arrested 19 members of the African National Congress, the underground organisation run by Nelson Mandela – who had already been imprisoned – which sought to overthrow the ruling apartheid government. It was a pivotal moment in South Africa’s history. Cheri MacNeil later learned that these events had taken place around the corner from the building where she had for so long been educated.

This is the story that gives the latest DEAR READER album its name. Rivonia was released on April 8th 2013 through City Slang. Unlike other records written by white musicians and inspired by South Africa, DEAR READER’s Rivonia banishes broad, crowd-pleasing political strokes in favour of a specifically human outlook. At times troubling, at times deeply moving, Rivonia is unafraid of raising more questions than it answers, and achieves this within the context of a collection of magical, dramatic, heartfelt songs.

MacNeil explains:

That sign, with its faded lettering, makes me think about history as a whole, and how the versions we have must all have bits that have weathered away and gone missing, and how we’ll never know the whole truth about anything. There are so many different realities overlaid on top of one another, but each of us only has the version we know.

LINKS
Official Site
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Twitter

Dear Reader, image: www.dearreadermusic.com

images: Marcus Maschwitz, source: Stereo Sanctity