"...it was over, but it's not..."
Lo Talker is based out of Athens, Georgia which I have a soft spot in my heart for. I would ping pong between Athens and Atlanta when I lived in GA (for 5 years) because they were two great cities where you could see bands and get a great bite to eat but I digress (eh).
Andrew Shepard started Lo Talker as kind of a cleansing rinse like that blue stuff the dentist gives you (my cynical words not Andrew's). As songwriter and guitarist, he had fronted Roadkill Ghost Choir for eight years (who were incredible by the way) but wanted to explore new sounds that were less moody and brooding. On "Don't Hide That Light Pt.II" there are certainly moody and brooding sensibilities but overall, the track runs from whatever heavy shit informed the track in the first place and the dynamic movement is a big part of the appeal. The tones are psychedelic with a crushing indie rock meets sort of desert rock vibe with even a patina of tropical punk affections. There are surreal synth sounds and a droning wash of dreaminess. Shepard's knack of twisting melodies that sound exuberant but feel a bit sad at the same time give the track the emotional gravitas that, I, at least, want in the art I engage in but there is also an all inclusive indie pop thing happening too. For whatever reason I flashed on a kind of musical stew of Fleetwood Mac and Kevin Morby and, especially, White Fence (with and without Ty Segall) although be assured, Lo Talker is it's own thing entirely and dives deeper in a trippy, surreal-ity (production wise).
About "Lo Talker", Shepard shares: “I wrote ‘Don’t Hide That Light’ to try and remind myself that just because the world around me has plunged into a new level of insanity, it doesn’t mean I have to follow suit. Nihilism is so easy to flirt with especially when it feels like we’re not in on the cosmic joke being told, but the thought that a better world is possible in the face of such darkness is one worth waking up for.”
Cosmic joke, I use that phrase often when I think about life in general. I don't know if, in the end, that is a good thing or not but I have a feeling that Lo Talker will be a fairly prolific part of it's soundtrack.
“Don’t Hide That Light Pt. 2,” the third song released from Lo Talker's debut album "A Comedy Of Errors", is set to be released March 19, 2021 through Arts & Crafts.
-Robb Donker Curtius
Andrew Shepard was looking for a fresh start. The Athens, Georgia-based guitarist and songwriter had been acting as the frontman for his previous band, Roadkill Ghost Choir, for eight years, playing every major festival, Late Night With David Letterman, and touring alongside Band of Horses. But Shepard was feeling constrained by the expectations placed on him in that band. He felt that their songs had to sound a certain way—dark, foreboding, and moody—and he wanted to break out of that mold and start with a clean slate. “We did a lot of cool stuff and had a great time doing it” Shepard says. “But I wanted to sonically explore stuff I hadn’t been able to really do before.” Though he didn’t know it at the time, that was when his new project, Lo Talker, was born.
Shepard is joined by his brother Zach (bass), who also played in Roadkill Ghost Choir, as well as Alec Stanley (guitar/keyboard), Rhett Fuller (guitar), and Jeremiah Johnson (drums) for A Comedy of Errors: a lush, intricate and quirky album of expansive noisy folk rock augmented by the psychedelic whirr of fractured tape loops. The album was produced, mixed, and engineered by longtime friend of the band, Kevin Ratterman, known for his work with similar southern rock inspired indie acts like Jim James, My Morning Jacket, and Strands Of Oak, at his studio in Los Angeles.
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