Interview: Lonely Mountain Lovers
08.20.15
When Steven Graham of Everett Music Initiative throws a new band my way, it’s likely going to be pretty good. So when he suggested I take a listen to Lonely Mountain Lovers – like the band name wasn’t enough of a hook – I listened. And when front man Zach Warnes sent me a link to a first listen of their debut self-titled album, I was smitten. The album swings from alt-country to deep down blues rock, through the indie psych-rock cosmos and back again, washed with Americana, haunted with harmonies and littered with lovelorn lyrics. And I can’t wait to hear it live. So in preparation their Tractor Tavern album release show next month, I sat down with half of the six-member band at their local watering hole for a pint and some convivial conversation about their tunes.
SMN: How did you guys meet?
Zach Warnes: I moved up here about five years ago and started coming to this bar, the Hopvine, and there were these guys who were here all the time. I found out they were musicians and I had some songs. I was invited to play a New Year’s Eve show at a gallery one year and I invited them to sit in with me. And I met Mariaugh here at an open mic.
SMN: So Zach, you do most of the writing?
ZW: Yeah, and Mariaugh writes too now.
SMN: Does your songwriting process start with lyrics or music?
ZW: It actually has to happen all at once or not at all for me. There are very few songs that I’ll start and then finish them later down the road.
Mariaugh Maestas: He gets this look on his face, where you can tell that he’s writing a song in his head.
SMN: So were the songs for the album just built up and ready to go?
ZW: We did the majority of our recording last October. We went into a studio space down in Sodo with our friend Rick Hoag who produced our record. He did all the engineering and mixing for it. We did everything as a live band except for vocals and then some of the piano that’s on the record. That took us a weekend. And then we did some overdubs at Rick’s house. The whole process of mixing and everything has taken a very long time. Mostly because our schedules have been crazy.
MM: His wife was super gracious too!
ZW: Yeah, they’d let us come in and make a lot of noise at their house.
SMN: Did you discover anything new in the recording process?
Austin Bustad: Yeah, things changed quite a bit through the recording process. Over the year we’ve started playing differently, and the recording has informed some of our decisions going forward. Rick cut out one of my guitar parts completely, and we were just like “okay, I guess we shouldn’t play that anymore.” He stripped it down completely.
ZW: Yeah, most of the instruments in that one verse, and he put a delay on it. But it’s beautiful, it sounds like a Wilco record, which is rad.
AB: And it’s something we never would have thought of.
SMN: And after you recorded you had a pretty successful Kickstarter campaign to help create vinyl.
ZW: Yeah, the records are going to be great, we’re really excited. The way that we like to listen to music is by listening to it on vinyl. So we thought “what better way to put our tunes out?” We have people that like to enjoy things the way we do, so we’ll have that for them.
SMN: The album has a lot of different sounds, alt-country segues into heavier blues. What was the intention behind the variations?
AB: There’s a lot of great records I know that start out with a punch and kind of taper off at the end. But we wanted to have the second side be kind of in your face, so that’s how we tried to shape it.
MM: We were thinking a lot about how records have these two different halves. The way that we put them all together was really purposeful.
ZW: We hardly ever play it that way live. We usually start off pretty heavy. I think the progression of my songwriting and all our equal effort together in shaping all these songs has gotten a lot more rock and roll over the last half-year or so. The country stuff is really fun, but you know, I didn’t even write these songs to be intentionally country-sounding songs, they just ended up that way. The newer stuff is less like that.
AB: Yeah, new stuff is going in quite a bit different direction.
SMN: Are we going to hear anything new at the show?
AB: Yeah, actually we’re going to be playing one song for the first time.
SMN: If you had to describe your sound in three words?
MM: Well the guys from Everett Music Initiative had us up for a show, and they described it as “American Cosmic Country” and we’re sticking with that!
SMN: And what can people expect from your live show?
All band members: Loud!
ZW: The record is meant to be listened to very loudly. And if you want to have a couple beers, then it’s even better.
SMN: Do you prefer live or recording?
MM: Recording is wonderful because you have the chance to edit, but live is more of a communication between you and the crowd. It’s one of the most gratifying things I’ve ever done in my life.
SMN: So last question – if you’re stuck on a desert island and you get one book, one movie and one album, what are they?
MM: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Empire of the Sun, and Kind of Blue by Miles Davis
ZW: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, and John Lennon’s Mind Games.
AB: House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Sigur Rós ( )
Despite some tech errors with the recording of our conversation, which the band took in good humor, I managed to wrangle the above in an effort to bring you some intriguing tidbits. But honestly, it’s the music that matters most, and this is a band that really wants to have a live conversation with all of you. A loud one. With beer in hand.
The show’s all set for September 19th at the Tractor Tavern, with The Ramblin’ Years and Edmund Wayne.
So grab a ticket here, and I’ll see you there!
Interview by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Sunny Martini
