When the band got up on stage this Thursday for what’s starting to look like their annual visit to Toronto’s Garrison, it was obvious something has changed and it wasn’t just the wardrobe. Gardens & Villa appeared to be a lot more relaxed in their casual silky attire, more free with their movements previously restricted by suits and overall, in some way, more in touch with who they are.

There was only a handful of people at the club, with the core fans at the forefront of the room singing along to most of the songs. The band went through a good selection of songs from across their 3 albums playing people’s favorites like “Black Hills” and “Domino” in between the new tracks. In full disclosure, the first time I listened to Music For Dogs I struggled with the album, but seeing the show live peaked my curiosity on many levels. I will have to re-listen the album, (and I have re-listened to the album repeatedly since) but first I need to know what Chris Lynch and Adam Rasmussen have been up to these last few months.

“We’ve been living in L.A. in a warehouse” says Rasmussen, in a wildly unpopular by L.A. standards neighbourhood called Frogtown, a residential community between Griffith Park and the L.A. River. “We wrote a zine about it” he points to a newsprint with “Space Command. Frogtown” on the cover. The guy beside me had just bought all three records which Rasmussen is opening one by one to sign so I ask him which one is his favorite “The new one,” he says “it’s the kind of music we wanted to make since we were 14.” The piano parts on the album came from a “handful of upright pianos scattered around the [warehouse] that inspires impromptu jamming,” writes Lynch in the zine, “a lot of the sounds on the album also came from an organ we got in Oregon” for the mere price of ten bucks. The environment in the neighborhood and the warehouse with various artists, musicians, and other “weirdos” coming in and out day and night created a space in which Lynch and Rasmussen found a pool of creative inspiration that became Music For Dogs. 

Rasmussen goes on to list all of the things they still have to work on in the space while packing up the merch booth. It’s just a blank canvas for now and there is still a lot of work to be done, he looks ecstatic. The band is clearly putting down roots in Frogtown, in fact it’s “the only neighborhood in L.A.” I should visit Rasmussen points out with a smile. Once the tour wraps up, Gardens & Villa will return to their new home to complete the renovations and then later, who knows, they might even start their own record label. I, for one, cannot wait to see how this adventure develops.

The post An all new Gardens & Villa live in concert appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Music For Dogs begins with the disorienting “Maximize Results.” The 80’s style fade-in leads into twists and turns of warped synths. The song climaxes with frantic piano chords darting between every octave on the keyboard as Chris Lynch belts out “Everything is endless.” You’ll feel anxious and uncomfortable, but also the unstoppable urge to dance. It’s a beautiful raucous and the musical equivalent of a mad-scientist experiment run amok.

Listening to Gardens & Villa’s repertoire, it’s not hard to tell that Music For Dogs was made in 2015. There’s a big influence from 80’s pop–rock as well as the psychedelic revival of Tame Impala, especially on “Fixations.” “Fixations” begins with psychedelic synths, guitar feedback and layered vocals that The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix invented and Tame Impala has made trendy again. Like Kevin Parker, Chris Lynch sounds like he’s put his voice through the John Lennon voice changer. While “Fixations” is a blast to listen to, and will probably prove to be a popular track, it isn’t much more than a Tame Impala imitation.

In “General Research,” the lyrics tackle a tough subject, how science and curiosity can be easily corrupted by corporate interest. Listeners are pulled in with a mathematical, electric hook before industrial instrumentals create a dystopian atmosphere. The strong guitar riffs give a steady rhythm and nice depth to this alt-rock jam. If “Fixations” was influenced by the groovy ‘60’s, “General Research” has skipped over a decade and landed in the 80’s. “General Research” is where Gardens & Villa’s music and lyrics come together to produce quality sound with bold lyrics and strong beats.

Along with the modern world and technology, the lyrics address the new phoniness and disconnect in the age of social networks. Of course this gives Gardens & Villa the perfect opportunity to take shots at the selfie. Lyrics on “Everybody” lament: “Everybody wants the new you, no one cares who you are/Taking pictures of the new you, watching you from afar.” While complaining about the downfall of society in the internet-age is about as trendy as snapping a selfie for the ‘gram, the lyrics on “Everybody” do explore how social media tends to split our personality in two.

Other songs on the album that stand out include “Alone in the City,” a tenderhearted ballad that gets Chris Lynch to really stretch his pipes. And “Express” nicely blends 80’s bass groves with modern alternative guitar riffs. With poignant lyrics and creative instrumentals, Gardens & Villa show how much they can do on Music For Dogs.

Music For Dogs is out on August 21, 2015

The post Gardens & Villa “Music For Dogs” is music for people appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Both the album and the EP were reflective of the band’s experiences and collective vision embossed by the production gifts of Tim Goldsworthy (Cut Copy, DFA Records, Hercules & Love Affair) and Richard Swift (The Shins, Foxygen, Wake Owl). As a result new records are very smooth and sonic, a sound that generally flows well during a live set.

This Santa Barbara five-piece played a late show in Toronto’s Garrison on Saturday. The venue itself is one of those back room divey live performance rooms that is not know for neither good sound nor good lighting, reasons that deter many people from attending shows there. This time was not much of an exception and with a rather lengthy and abrupt performance by SANDY Alex G the night was off to a rough start, but as soon as Gardens & Villa took the stage the evening took a sharp turn to promise-land.

The stage was lit up with translucent triangle shapes which gave the venue a very refreshing new look. The room filled in just as G&V went into their first track with which we all went on a sonic journey. Shifting from foot to foot, bopping, frantically dancing or slow dancing everyone in the room was tuned into the G&V wavelength.

As expected, Garden & Villa deliver a fantastic live performance of mesmerizing ambience with sing-along lyrics delivered by Chris Lynch’s soft eccentric voice. It was hard to pin point which track stood out most but it is safe to say this intimate Toronto crowd was into the highlights of the album from “Bullet Train” all the way back to “Black Hills.”

This was the Garrison at it’s best and Garden & Villa made it happen. Whatever the weather, this show will be worth your time.

The post Gardens & Villa are back and they will make you dance appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Gardens & Villa then stepped onstage with a psych-rock ambiance that translated beautifully with the acid-washed video clips broadcasting on screens behind them. From their first song the band delivered a mixture of old and new tracks off their recent album Dunes that moved between tempos while never straying far from their trademark surrealism. Frontman Chris Lynch was spot-on with Sting-esque vocals, while the synth beats remained complementary instead of overbearing.

Laid-back and unhurried, Gardens & Villa are a band that make live shows fun. They seem to soak-up every minute on stage and find pleasure in the touring experiences that happen beyond the stage. The show was great for long-time fans, those seeking out new music (or to de-stress), or anybody just looking to ride a few multi-coloured waves of sweet beats.

The post California Dreaming: Gardens & Villa and Waterstrider live appeared first on Quip Magazine.

Laura Eley: You guys call Santa Barbara home. How would you describe it?

Chris Lynch: I guess it’s far enough from L.A. to where it’s separate from L.A. and it has a small town beach thing but it also has a little bit of a central coast vibe. It’s not necessarily purely southern California. Probably our favourite thing about it other than the friends and community is that the natural beauty is spectacular. It’s like the ocean comes right up to the mountains and Santa Barbara is right in between. Everyone in the band, we’re huge beach-goers. We surf and the beach is a big part of our lives.

LE: Do you channel this nature into your music? 

CL: Definitely. I would say for the first record it was more innocent and starry-eyed and channelling a lot of natural energy. This record still has a lot of that but there’s also more of a dystopian kind of dissatisfaction with certain things. Just after touring for two years straight and being immersed in America’s infrastructure, it definitely gave us things to sing about that weren’t just nature-driven but also culturally and architecturally driven.

LE: If you weren’t in your current environment, do you think you would create the same kind of music?

CL: I think I would. Music has always been spiritual for me and I think I’ll always make music that moves me, you know? That can come in so many different ways. I play the flute, so wherever I am I’ll go out into the trees and sit somewhere and play the flute.

LE: What was your recording process like for Dunes?

CL: It was very surreal. Obviously we went from late January in Santa Barbara which is really nice and the Sun’s down and people are jogging on the beach, and then all of the sudden we’re in Michigan in this tiny-ass town [Benton Harbor] that was built for 10 times as many people than actually live there and it was really bummed-down and depleted. You could buy houses for $3,000 there, it’s a lot like Detroit. But the studio is amazing, it had all this gear and was really affordable, and Bill and Jessica (the owners of it) became our close friends. We were isolated in the studio and rarely went outside and were told not to go out at night without the dog or we would get stabbed or shot. It was just completely different from anything we had ever experienced and we all kind of fell in love with it. We almost, when we were leaving, were like, “oh there’s this synagogue for sale for $5,000 and maybe we should all buy it.” We almost ended up moving there.

LE: Did you test out any songs on Dunes in front of a crowd before recording them?

CL: Yeah, a few of them. We actually dropped a few songs that after we played them live we were sort of like “I don’t about that one.” No one seemed to like them, it just didn’t vibe. We wrote so many songs for this record, we wrote 30 or 40  songs, and then only ending up recording 10 or 11. So there’s a lot of distilling going on but now we have enough material to write like three more records.

LE: Do you prefer recording or playing live?

CL: I like both. Being in a band is like being in a relationship and playing live is like having sexy time so you all can groove with each other and you feel this crazy collective energy. Whereas recording is actually laying something down that’s going to be permanent, so it’s more of a permanent creation. I guess they’re both really special to me. It’s cool when you mix both, when you record something live and it’s really good and it’s like “oh that’s the key, that’s the fusion.”

LE: Were you always a flute player?

CL: I went on a hitchhiking trip before the band formed and I went all the way up to Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver by myself. I was 23 and stupid and ended up in Portland and I met this guy in this park and he was playing the bansuri, a classical Indian bamboo flute, and I heard it through the trees and was like “what the fuck is that?” I ended-up sitting down with him and he played for a couple hours and I got out my guitar. And so then I just decided to buy one and I’ve just played it ever since. And when we wrote “Orange Blossom” there just happened to be a flute in the room and I played it and everyone was like “yeah that was cool,” and it just kind of developed. There wasn’t anything contrived, it wasn’t like “we got to have a flute guy.” I never wanted to be the flute guy, that wasn’t part of the plan.

LE: Did you ever see the flute man again?

CL: I got an email from him like two years ago that he moved back to Michigan. He studied bansuri for four years in India and then went back to Portland before moving back to Michigan. I’m going to definitely end up in India for awhile at some point in my life. I want to go to an ashram or something and learn from a real master for awhile.

LE: As a band, do you find it hard to establish an online presence?

CL: Yeah, it’s hard. Like a band 15 years ago didn’t have to worry about all this shit. Like 20 years ago, our favourite bands just had to drive and then play music and write some letters and do interviews. We have all this side shit to worry about. People need more and more information, it’s not as much about the music anymore. You almost have to be a multimedia company, but it’s kind of cool because it gives us an opportunity to collaborate with other artists, which we’re trying to do for this second record especially. But I’m pretty happy with our online presence. None of us really want to do the twitter. It’s sort of like “I have twitter duty? Damnit!” Instagram is the best one because it’s the easiest and you just get to post pictures.

LE: What’s on the Gardens & Villa 2014 agenda?

CL: We’re going to try and do as much touring as possible. We’re basically going to all move out of our apartments and take it on the road. That’s kind of what we did last time and we ended-up playing like 400 shows. We will be in your hood shortly.

The post Natural instincts: digging-up good vibes with Gardens & Villa appeared first on Quip Magazine.