lokalgrown to release third album
“Is it too much on the butt rock?” Keith Sorensen asks of his drumming after practicing a song.
“There’s never enough butt in rock,” singer and guitarist Nate Davis says in reply.
lokalgrown, a Logan based acoustic, soft rock band is preparing for their upcoming concert where they will release their third album, “Twelve,” at the Kent Concert Hall on Monday.
“What do you want to work on now?” Davis asks
“What else needs work?” Sorensen says
“Should we do Jezebella?” Davis responds.
“We could always use another rap on Jezzabella,” Sorensen says.
Without further discussion, the band begins playing its harmonious, soft-rock ballad “Jezebella.”
The band pounds out its tweaks and minor infractions at a likely location for fixing things. Bins and totes line wall-mounted-racks, containing various parts to appliances and surround the band as it works to perfect its songs at Accurate Appliance in North Logan.
Ironically, the band fine-tunes its songs amongst broken rows of washers, dryers, microwaves and refrigerators in need of the same intricate, TLC treatment.
Singer and guitarist Jake Callister says “Twelve” is a departure from the band’s previous “softer sounding” albums and “a bit experimental” for lokalgrown.
“There’s definitely degree of experimentation,” Jake said. “I think we’ve all loosened up a lot and the experimentation is partly trying to maximize the creative influence of everyone in the band. We’re not directing our creative efforts to what we think people would like, but rather, what we think is really good, and we’re confident people will enjoy it.”
Part of that experimentation includes two off-beat sing-a-long songs written by bass player Dan Callister and a whistle and guitar duet, also written by Dan, entitled “Whistle + Guitar = Love.”
Dan, whose musical influences stem from reggae to bluegrass (and anything by Phish) said he only had one of his songs on the last two albums and wanted something more on “Twelve.”
“I wasn’t trying to do anything specific to make the album different, but the kind of music I like is pretty diverse,” Dan said. “We don’t ever play the covers that I want to play, so my songs are the vehicle, for me, to play the kind of music that I like.”
Dan’s bluegrass, country tune, “Stink so Purdy” was inspired by the patchouli and cinnamon fragrance his girlfriend uses. The lyrics include the lines, “my baby stinks so purdy, stinks so purdy to me. Her awful smell makes my heart swell, she hasn’t bathed in 40 days, she stinks so purdy to me.”
“The ‘hasn’t bathed in 40 days’ part isn’t true, of course, but that stuff does make her stink purdy,” Dan said.
lokalgrown has been working on “Twelve” since Dec. 15, 2003, and independently produced it, even with a contract offer from Excel Entertainment.
“We were talking to Excel Entertainment and really thought we were going to sign with them,” Jake said. “So we started recording some of our hits from last two CDs because that’s what they wanted. But about half way through we decided we didn’t want to go that route and decided we just wanted to produce it on our own. That’s when we pulled together all our new stuff.”
“We recorded three to four months longer than we planed on,” Davis said. “But before [on previous albums] we recorded too fast and we shoved the songs through the process. This time we were playing live a lot and started figuring out new things and writing new material.”
lokalgrown consists of five members, including Davis and Jake on guitar and vocals, Sorensen on drums, Dan on Bass and Quinn Dietlin on keyboards.
Davis said all the members are close friends.
“Let me put it this way,” Davis said. “If we weren’t playing in a band together, we’d probably be hanging out.”
Sorenesen, who has played in more than a handful of different bands, said lokalgrown is by far his favorite band to play with.
“The chemistry among our band members is amazing both on stage and off,” Sorensen said. “What you see on stage is what you get off. When you can have five guys like us, who may not be the most talented people in the world, but are all on the same page, and see eye to eye and work well together, then the end result is very strong, cohesive and ultimately a lot of fun and very enjoyable. And I think it speaks to our audience on a lot of levels.”
Dietlein said the band leans toward pop, acoustic and folk rock, but has its own unique sound as well.
“We’re very vocal and kind of fit into our own mold,” Dietlein said. “I mean, we don’t want to sound like a barber shop quartet, but we’re all very strong vocally.”
“We’ve been labeled all kinds of musical styles before,” Jake said. “In fact, some girl once told me we were on her top 10 Indie band list. But with all us having such different influences and with everyone bringing something different to the table, I would call it compromise rock.”
Sorensen said lokalgrown hasn’t played in Logan for nearly five months and says the band is ready to rock the house on Monday’s show.
“Just in preparing for this show; our playing together – gelling as it were – has stepped up another notch,” Sorensen said.” We’re going to be at top of our game.”
Jake said Monday’s show will be a chance to see a different side of the band, and probably the last time to see them in Logan this year.
“We haven’t played in Logan for so long, because we’re trying to build a curiosity and to save our thunder for this show,” Jake said. “You’re going to see us venturing out a little more than we usually do musically. There’s going to be more of an electric feel. We’ve really been trying to focus on making this show something everybody can go away, remembering it as the best lokalgrown show they’ve ever seen. We want everyone to leave, having their minds blown and people who have never seen us before being stunned.”
-jrsaunders@cc.usu.edu