BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition February 2019

WAXAHATCHEE
AWAITING THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
GRAEME WIGGINS
HUMANS
CRAFTING A DISTRACTION WITH PROGRESSIVE SONIC EVOLUTION
JOEY LOPEZ
MUSIC
Katie Crutchfield is embarking on a west coast tour as Waxahatchee before taking some time to slow down.
It’s been a busy few years for Katie Crutchfield.
Recording under the stage name Waxahatchee,
Crutchfield dropped her debut, American
Weekend, in 2012 and has since added three
further albums and one EP to her discography.
Add to that a fairly consistent touring schedule
and it’s not hard to see why she might be a little
worn out. It may be surprising, then, to learn she’s
starting off the new year with yet another tour.
“It’s funny,” Crutchfield laughs. “I keep calling
2019 my sabbatical year. I mean obviously it’s not
because I’m going on tour, but the idea was to do
some west coast shows that were headline shows
because I haven’t done that since Out in the
Storm came out [in 2017].”
After that, however, it will be time for a break.
“I have been passively writing for a while,” she says.
“The plan is to just take it easy. I’ve burned it from
both ends for a few years now, so to get myself
excited about it again I need to go away and read
and write and not play shows.”
With that time off to write, we shouldn’t
necessarily expect a return to the quiet side of
Waxahatchee that she has seemed to tease about
wanting to return to. “It’s funny: when Ivy Tripp
came out I told everyone I was going to make a
really quiet album, and then I made Out in the
Storm, which is the opposite of that,” she says. “So
it’s hard to say. To me, Great Thunder was sort of
that, but it’s a like a diffuser of sorts – it was old
songs that I had some detachment from.”
For a songwriter who handles such personal
subject matter, her interviews in the wake of Out
in the Storm talked a lot about connection and
audience. This was partly just due to the relatable
idea surrounding the record. Her thoughts about
personal writing versus writing for an audience
tend to vary record by record.
“American Weekend, when I think about
writing that record, it was just for me,” says
Crutchfield. “I felt like I was singing into the abyss.
I made it and sat on it for a year before I even
played it for anyone.”
The more audience-focused aspect of Out in
the Storm is something she’s working against
going forward: “It’s a headspace I really want to
get out of. I really want to write lyrics about what
I’m feeling, and as your audience grows, it gets
more challenging. I’m in the process of turning
that entire thing off and getting off the grid and
focusing on my feelings at the moment.”
Out in the Storm was a roaring portrait of
overcoming a troubled relationship. It showcased
more anger, but also more hope, than her previous
work; there was a new self-confidence apparent.
However, it’s not as though her next record will be
brimming full of pure positivity.
“Positivity is interesting,” she says. “I feel like in
2019, everyone is all about positivity. When I first
started making music it was all about being super
emo. Super sad and negative and really exploring
pain. I feel like it’s out of fashion to do that. It’s not
what people want to hear, but also it’s what has
always inspired me and I have a lot to draw from.”
Until that comes about, it will be a while before
she’s here again, so we’ll have to settle for her
upcoming show.
Waxahatchee performs at the Wise Hall on
February 24.
Vancouver’s very own electronic dynamic-duo
HUMANS have just released their full-length
album Going Late, a follow-up to their EP The
Feels that dropped earlier this year. Going Late
feels like the electronic anthem of Vancouver.
Unique as a duo in their own right, Peter Ricq
and Robbie Slade find a way to still capture the
nightlife of the city they call home.
“I can only speak for myself, but we’ve been
doing this band long enough that all of this is
a product of being a Vancouverite for the past
fifteen years. With how things have changed [in
the city] and how weird it is right now… I don’t
know, it’s challenging being a Vancouverite,” says
Slade. “We were in that headspace while writing
all of this stuff. I mean, we try not to do this
because I think it’s kind of stupid to have a point
when writing lyrics. We try to write fun stuff.
‘Breakfast with Liz’ is literally about going out for
breakfast with my friend Liz.”
Everything they write comes from the source
material of their lives and from Vancouver as a
whole. Existing as a Vancouverite in its current
climate is tough and HUMANS are bringing
levity to the challenges by creating a danceable
distraction with Going Late.
“It’s kind of darker and there are a couple
movements to every song. It evolves,” says Ricq
of their sound and the sound of Going Late. “It’s
a movement and it always evolves. We call it
progressive. There’s always a progression to the
sound. There’s two parts, sometimes more, it’s
like dancing. We always try to make something
that moves you, something that’s not your typical
polished sound. We try to take on challenges
and I think every time we do an album we try
something new, something we haven’t done
before.”
With Going Late, HUMANS do something new
by breaking the conventions of what makes an
electronic album. According to Slade, it’s barely
using electronics in exchange for something
more traditional. “Everything has very loose
percussion. There’s a lot of bass, guitar, keys and
live drummers. It’s a lot more live.”
“On some of these tracks it’s Robbie and I
playing bass over three different sessions really
stacking it up and Robbie playing more guitar and
more live drums than ever before. We were trying
to experiment and have more of a band sound
without creating it with a band. We’re getting
more comfortable after doing “Noontide” and
wanted to do it before, but it didn’t feel right.
After working with our producer Nik (Kozub) we
feel like we can do whatever we want.”
With Going Late HUMANS want listeners
to be able to put the record on at anytime and
turn everything into a dance party, while being
able to chill, unwind and listen to alone. And of
course, HUMANS wants their fans to come out of
listening to Going Late with one thing most of all,
“We want them to think we should win a Juno,”
says Slade without a second of hesitation and a
laugh.
Humans perform Feb. 15 at Celebrities Nightclub.
Peter Ricq and Robbie Slade capture the sound of Vancouver’s challenging nightlife on Going Late.
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