Looming
Looming has recently announced their second album for No Sleep Records with news that Seed will arrive September 29 & we proudly present the world premiere for the title track. Marking the latest moves & geographical distance shifts as Jessica Knight made the jump to Austin, Texas & Brandon Carnes’s Pittsburgh, PA move-the divergent new beginnings allows the group to break out of their previous Springfield, Illinois grouped comforts. The follow-up to their 2015 debut album Nailbiter. Recorded by Carnes in Braddock, PA and mixed by Jay Robbins (Lemuria, Mock Orange, Jets to Brazil), their sophomore record lyrically explores regret, longing and growth over a vast, layered and lush musical background. The band has grown, expanded musically, and remained true to the signatures that define Looming.
“Seed” rumbles with riffs that reverberate like electronic currents shaped like sharp rushes of waves ebbing & rising with the turns of lunar ordained tides. Looming exhibits an experimentation of extending the sensation of a sustained building progression where all manners of percussion, cathartic vocal releases & rhythm portions push toward something that almost never arrives but coasts out like a crash & slide landing of an audio aircraft that sails out in a heroic save of glory. Softly “Seed” sprouts out to the surface to where the band keeps a perpetual rising sensation moving in the motions of upward while still feeling totally grounded on land at the same time. From here vocal chants seek good feelings or approximations of said sensations where the vocals & chord trail onward & outward. Inceptions & inklings of phenomenons are heard sprouting like a dandelion that bloom only to have it’s feathery pedals spent floating in the arms of a windy breeze.
We had a chance to catch up with Looming’s vocalist/bassist Jessica Knight along with percussionist/vocalist Brandon Carnes in the following interview transcription:
For all of us outsiders, describe for us what’s good & unique about the Springfield, Illinois scene.
Jessica: The Springfield music scene and our little corner called South Town are what grew us. We all started there and we will forever call it our home because it means so much to us. Two of our members (Mitch and Nick)still live there. The environment is really special and the ability to do whatever you want and play whatever style of music you want to open and eager ears is what allowed us to make the music we ended up gravitating toward.
What inspires you all locally? As in local bands?
Jessica: Definitely every band any of us have ever been in, but also bands like Park and all of the Midwest emo bands that we grew up around. Jess and Mitch started this band with a shared love for the band Good Luck from Bloomington, Indiana.
From all the various bands you all have been in, Mother Leopard, Lovecow, Our Lady, Big Storm, etc; how did you all discover your own unique sound together as Looming?
Jessica: We found our sound by not trying for anything specifically so, naturally all of these bands had a hand in molding our own personal tastes and all of the bands you listed gave each of us a little piece something that we probably implement whether or not we meant to. We try to take the lessons learned from those bands and grow with them.
Tell us too what sorts of seeds of inceptions & concepts went into the making of the upcoming album Seed.
Jessica: With Seed we wanted to accentuate the things that we think are defining aspects of Looming—big choruses, layered harmonies, rhythmic construction—and really try to stretch out and explore ways to apply interesting rhythms, tonality, and dynamic range to grow the Looming sound while still honing in on our strengths. This record is really groove-centric and has a lot of ambient textures, but the addition of an actual third guitarist has allowed us to plateau in new ways dynamically, knowing we don’t have to cut any corners when we play these songs live. Overall we wanted this record to sound like a band that wants to keep growing.
Tell us the story too about the inception, inspiration & spawning of “Seed”.
Brandon: The song “Seed” was one of the first songs fully written on the record—I wrote the music after moving to Pittsburgh & taking a couple months off of writing music. I’ve always liked songs that had really simple themes & used dynamics to push the song forward, so I just wanted this one to gradually build throughout. This is one of the only songs we’ve done that doesn’t have a set chorus, but I really love the way Jess wrote really strong hooks that don’t have to repeat in a conventional way to translate as catchy. The original demo had electronic drums throughout the whole first verse & live drums faded in, but we made the decision to just go with natural drums on this one & save the programming for another spot on the record.
When Jess sent back a demo of her vocal parts I was floored—especially the last line of the song. “What’s it like to feel good again?” felt so honest & crushing. I still haven’t gotten over how fucking simple and effective that line is & even when we play it live it can still make me cry.
Other artists & activists that you all want to recognize?
Brandon: Our friends in Choir Vandals from St. Louis just put out an outstanding record called Dark Glow & you’re doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t listened to it yet. Also, Get Better Records is a good start if you want to find and support artists through a label run by good people. They just put out an amazing benefit comp featuring 100 bands that I hope everyone checks out. Other than that just don’t forget that your friends and your circles are full of people who deserve recognition and don’t always receive it.
Fall/winter hopes, advice, meditations & more?
Brandon: We’ll be touring on the record through all of October & in the beginning of 2018 a few tours will be announced, both solo and full band. We’ve got some fun covers recorded that’ll probably surface before too long & we are hoping to get back to writing more material soon.
Looming’s new album Seed will be available September 29 from No Sleep Records.
Catch them on the following tour dates:
