Light In August
Posted: 8/28/2008

The August to September transition is always a little bit of a downer. As you attempt to cram a whole season’s worth of procrastination into what warm weather remains – all the while praying for an Indian summer – you’ll need the perfect music selection with which to remember it by.

To that end, it would behoove you to give Light in August a more-than-serious look.

Their laid back brand of pop rock just sounds like, well, summer. With a blend of soul grooves and Brit chops, and a well appreciated knack for the hook, this Royal Oak foursome will stick with you well into coat weather.

At the helm is Alex Wand, a solo artist in his own right with years of training in classical guitar. Detroit Fashion Pages caught up with him to learn a little more about Light in August.

DFP: Give us a little background on the band.

Alex Wand: Jack (Henry), our bass player, and Stew (Max Stewart), the drummer, and I all played in bands together throughout high school. We had a band, Astral Plane, which was a progressive rock band, and Human, which was mostly metal. [Light in August] formed back in late August of last year, when I got back from Spain. Also, we just recently added a new member, Rachel Woolf, who sings and plays the flute. I know Rachel from the U of M School of Music.

DFP: How would you describe your band’s music?

AW: I don’t have many people telling us that we sound like any particular band, which is a good sign, I think. I think it’s because we all have eclectic influences. Stew and Jack used to be in a metal band; Rachel’s forte is Debussy and Stravinsky. I’ve studied classical guitar since high school. Vocally, I like singer-songwriters like Cat Stevens and Nick Drake. It’s funny, sometimes I catch myself singing with an English accent. I blame Nick Drake for that (laughs). [Light in August] definitely stick to the pop rock sound, though. We definitely have a cohesive sound.

DFP: How different or alike is the sound to your solo work?

AW: I think it’s heavily rooted in the folksy, acoustic guitar, singer-songwriter sound. Although the dynamic of that is totally changed when there’s a bass, a drum set and a flute. It’s just a lot fuller and, honestly, it’s a lot more enjoyable to play music with a band. It’s a brotherhood. My first two or three years of college I played acoustic shows and I got a little sick of it.

DFP: Discuss playing in the Detroit area.

AW: I find that the really great venues are in Ann Arbor, honestly. Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. I find the Elbow Room a great place to play because, though it’s kind of a hole in the wall, the people are great and the PA is clear and crisp – which is so important because there’s nothing worse than playing a show with a mediocre system. People go there just for the sake of listening to music, whether they know the band or not. I think that’s maybe what the music scene around here is lacking. Just stop in, have a beer and enjoy a band. We need more Elbow Room-s around.

DFP: Walk us through the writing process for Light in August.

AW: Everyone typically comes up with their own parts. I’ll bring in a song I wrote, if the band likes it – if I see a sparkle in their eyes – then we’ll turn it into a song. As far as lyric writing goes, it can be quite arduous for me. I try to write when I wake up and before I go to bed because they say you’re the most creative at those two moments of the day. But it takes a lot of time to follow something I really like. It’s kind of like the poet Dylan Thomas. He used to spend weeks working on five or six lines. That’s kind of how I feel, however, I have these splashes of inspiration where I’ll write a whole song in a short time. “Headline News” (to be featured on their upcoming EP) was kind of like that. We wrote it in about ten minutes.

You can catch Light in August this Friday at the Belmont in Hamtramck or on September 20 at Rock N Roll Summer, a fundraiser for the Abreact Performance Space. The band is also in the process of finishing some recorded material due out in the fall. Check them out at www.lightinaugustmusic.com.

-Nick Degel
Nick@detroitfashionpages.com

 

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