The tension of the pandemic has sparked a wave of anxiety that flows through every waking moment these past few months. Cities experience a wave of protests that are met with the fascist tactics of the current administration, businesses remain shuttered and now with unemployment benefits in limbo we’re met with what may come of a housing crisis. The news is bombarded with videos of divisive sociopolitical content that continues to proliferate the frustration between odd ends of the spectrum. Here is where this story leads, to the heartland of the midwest and the introduction of Chicago group The Knees. You can make what you will of their sound as many have attributed them to the cities vibrant post-punk scene that remains key in giving listeners a need for nervous energy, however the group doesn’t appeal to those labels.
Since their beginnings in 2016, the four piece has continued to mature with each release, offering a glimpse of their songwriting prowess that balances from early 80’s neurotic mania to shimmering waves of contemplation that you could akin to Woman. The Knees are led by guitarist / singer David Miller whose lyricism is marked with reverb and a pastel quality that suits the hum of gears on the brink of collapse attributed to the band’s frantic instrumentals. This distress is brought to life on their upcoming debut EP Posture due out August 28th via Chicago kindred’s Born Yesterday Records. Four tracks that offer a taste of melodic pop brews that mix with a cold sense of dread and melancholic tinged dreams that includes the first single from the project, “Speaking In The Backseat”.
The song is the standout on the EP as it features the sort of nostalgic dreams that overtake your head as a child, unaware of what the future holds for you but realizing their are greater memories to be made on the road that lay ahead.
You can listen to the track below and check out our conversation with Miller that offers thoughts on life within the pandemic, the band’s origins, the record’s creation, etc.
How did the band form?
Me and the bassist Ben went to middle / high school together. We were in our first band together in seventh grade and have been close for over a decade now. I moved up here, and Ben met our drummer Davis at DePaul before they started living together. We’d jam together over the years and they used to have a recording space in their attic where they’d record bands with various projects.
I had started to seek out a band to start playing some material I’d been working on and I asked them to join. We did one show with a different guitar player as The Knees before meeting Wilson through the scene at a Palm show.
Oh, I know you ended up playing with Palm!
We did a couple years after that… that was around 2016, 2017.
What was the band’s process when you first started?
We recorded four songs together then got three singles out that are just basically demos recorded from our space. The first is just Davis our drummer and I, while the other two tracks were written before The Knees were really a thing. The third track especially is a track where we all collaborated together for the first time. I don’t think they’re representative of what we sound like as much as our upcoming project. This is our first “real thing”.
Can you describe the amount of time between releases given that your last single was released in 2018.
It was a lot of prioritizing playing live as opposed to recording anything new, we have more of a one track mind. We’ve had more time working together to push things out and put things together. We began recording demos right before everything shutdown, that’s also on the back burner now too.
With the pandemic are you more eager to head out on the road, or keeping the project on the sidelines for the time being?
We’re going to put touring plans aside but for the next few weeks we’ll get back to work on those demos. These new tracks are our first songs that we’ve worked on as a group. Before that I’d bring things to the table and had already fleshed out but these are entirely collaborative with most of these being written around 2017 maybe ’18. Since then we’ve written a lot more and hopefully make a return to recording new music.
Have you been practicing at all? I know some bands have been hesitant or dependent on restrictions.
We haven’t yet, we’ve all been lazy about making the first move to get back into our practice space but I think we’ll be planning to soon. We’re looking forward to rehearsing new material instead of older tracks.
I enjoy the communal spirit of the current Chicago music scene as it really juxtaposes the competitiveness of Brooklyn.
It definitely feels that way, we’re always down to help bands out and everyone is always looking to play together in some form or another. There is definitely a lot of give and take that feels genuine.
I love the moodiness of Chicago bands mixed with the brightness of hope, what was the vibe when you were recording these tracks? Especially on “Speaking In The Backseat”, was their a story or meaning behind that track?
I’d come up with a more structured song before we met up while the other three came up from rehearsals at our space. It’s hard to say what that one is about… a lot of the things I write is moodier while the other tracks are just being weird and fun.
Are lyrics of higher importance, or do you have instrumentals set in place first?
Usually it starts with me singing a gibberish melody over a song and eventually I’ll be pressured to write lyrics cause we want to play it live so we scramble to have something fit the structure and melody that we’ve created. So, most of the time those are like a second thought almost… a lot of the times it’s just gibberish that doesn’t mean anything.
Is their a feeling or sound you want to come across when a track is finished?
It’s pretty spur of the moment, the first song “Itch” started out with just the first 30 seconds of it repeating for a while. Then one night, me and Wilson sat down… we’re all very ADD so our songs don’t sit on one part. We don’t like to repeat a part for too long so during the night we sat on acoustic guitars and were like, “oh, lets add a part to this!” and cut the track down. We have six minute versions of when we were first writing it and cut it down to two minutes.
Is it difficult in that editing process to take things away or do you know what you’re going to keep?
Usually it’s not too hard, I’m probably the one that’s most often doesn’t want to cut as much. Everyone else is usually like, “nah, we only need to play that part once”.
How’s the mood of the city been especially with other groups since the pandemic began to take shape? I know today is pretty difficult since the federal unemployment aid expires.
It’s definitely been different, their is a lot of solidarity between people especially among people I run into on the street who I know vaguely, everyone is super friendly as their is some positivity that has come out of this. I’m a bartender so I was out of work for three months before returning.
Where did you bartend?
The bar is called Lonesome Rose in Logan Square and I’ve been back working two days a week there while trying to find stuff to do the rest of my time.
Has their been a new skill you’ve developed or series you’ve been binging in quarantine?
No new skills, I’ve started playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends over the computer and it’s been really fun. I bought a synth so that has been fun to experiment with and I’ve been doing a lot of recording in my apartment on a little cassette recorder trying to figure out new things.
Do you feel more inspired to write songs at the moment?
Around March and April I was more active in recording a lot more from home. It’s sloped off recently, I think it’ll be good once we’re all able to be in a room together and practice again because I think we work best when we’re working on things together instead of piecing things together that somebody else has brought to the table.
Have you been keeping in touch by sending files or utilizing Zoom for a pseudo practice?
We haven’t done anything asides hang out a few times. We haven’t done any music talk or work really but once we’re able to be together I think it’ll flow naturally.
Have you been listening to new music recently, or going back and rediscovering old favorites?
A little of both… the new Crack Cloud album and something that clicked for me earlier in quarantine was Can. Ally my other bandmates love Can and it nver hit me but recently I’ve been really into it.
What’s your thoughts on their new album, it’s my been one of my favorites these past two weeks.
I think it’s awesome, I’ve really liked the singles they’ve put out and then when I heard the first song on there I was blown away by all the orchestration, harp and angelic choirs.
Is the group going to continue once the pandemic is under control or will you be reconfiguring what you want to do?
I think we’re all on board to continue on even if its not necessarily in a live setting for who knows how long but we have a bunch of songs that we want to record and release. I definitely want to keep playing music regardless of what happens.
What do you think of the city’s response to the current protest wave sweeping the nation and the role musicians play in this?
I think it’s great… I think the way the city has been responding has been garbage but the way people have been coming together has been really awesome. Everybody I know has been participating in some way, and I think its special that this has happened in a time where people are able to reflect and learn. I have a bunch of learning to do about all of this. We all need to hold each other accountable, I really hope that people are able to diversify who they play with when we make it back to a live setting.
Posture is out August 28th via Born Yesterday Records, check out the album artwork and tracklist below.
- Itch
- Alotta Gosh
- Ginkgo
- Speaking In The Backseat