MUSIC INSEPARABLE INDIE

By matt king

When we first checked in with indie-rock duo Analog Lab a year ago, Miguel Arballo (guitar/vocals) and Sean McCune (drums/vocals) were bright-eyed and excited about their new partnership.

Today, their bond is deeper than ever—and that’s apparent in their music, especially their newest EP, Anti Dove. Although the EP has only four tracks (with one being a minute-long interlude), the project packs a multi-layered punch, shifting through moments of hard rock, pop, rap, psychedelic, groove and more, often within the course of a single song. The 17 minutes of protean jams show maturity and growth since the band’s first few singles.

During a recent Zoom interview, Arballo and McCune explained how the recording process for Anti Dove differed from earlier recordings.

“We improved our rigs massively during that time, especially my guitar rig,” said Arballo. “… We actually sat down and figured out parts, seeing what fits and what doesn’t. We really worked on the tracks for several months. We tested them out live, and some of them changed.”

McCune said the act of completing the recording was “kind of a process.”

“We had a lot going on, and we actually had to set aside time to finish recording it,” he said. “During that time, I got COVID, and I was at home with the songs on (digital-audio program) Ableton. I was just doing the things I normally do on Ableton, which is fuck shit up, and I was transposing things, making them faster. ‘Anti-Dove’ really changed a lot from what it originally was. It kind of reflects the direction that we’re going in for the future—a lot faster and crazier.”

Earlier releases like “Swallow the Sun” and “Roads” were primarily developed by Arballo, while the tracks on Anti Dove came from working together.

“This EP really showcases us as an actual band, writing and truly collaborating,” Arballo said. “We let ourselves finally go in the direction that we wanted to go. It really solidified us, because now we’re finally realizing that we really like our songs, and we like our process. We like that we can be really open and communicate how we are feeling about the songs.”

Arballo and McCune said their close relationship—including a weekly bowling night—has helped them establish a creative environment that never feels stifled or stressful.

“One of the first things that made me want to start making music with Miguel is that, even though he’s quite a bit older than me,

The Analog Lab duo utilizes their close connection to create new EP ‘Anti Dove’ he’s always treated me with the same amount of respect as he would give to everybody,” McCune said. “Working with him, in my opinion, is just a really easy process, because he’s open to all my crazy ideas.

“The songwriting process has been really natural. We both are listening to similar music … and we both have a vision in mind for the band that is really similar. We’re both on the same page, so when we go and we start writing these songs, it ends up being really easy. I might come up with a part; he might come up with a part, and there are times when we write songs just because he’s playing something random. Miguel plays a lot of shit that sounds cool, and it always catches my ear.”

Added Arballo: “I think it’s really important to be able to go back and forth and be open with what you feel on the song. When we started working on the EP after he came back from having COVID, with some of the songs all sped up, he’s like, ‘Tell me what you feel.’ I listened to it for a couple of days, and I didn’t have the same feeling for myself—and I didn’t have any fear of being able to communicate that to him. … It felt easy to turn around and be like, ‘You know what, honestly, I don’t feel it,’ and go back to how it was … without having feelings hurt.”

At their recent EP-release show, the duo performed six new songs that will be featured on their first full-length album. During our interview, Arballo at one point said that new songs are “literally vomiting out of us,” so I asked how they are able to tell when a song is truly finished.

“Sometimes we don’t give songs time,” Arballo said. “For the upcoming album, we used our time very well. … We sat there with a song, and then we would upload it to our drive and listen to it, and then be like, ‘I have an idea for it.’ We wanted to get these demos done quickly, but make sure that when we’re doing our songwriting, we’re doing it correctly, instead of letting things hang. We’ve learned a lot in this past year, and that has helped us streamline our ideas.”

Arballo said they make sure to set time aside for recording. “We don’t take gigs when we’re recording, or we minimize the gigs that we take, because we want to make sure that we’re focused. Sometimes we miss out on shows, but getting things done, I think, is way more important to us.”

The theme of the Anti Dove EP is going against the grain, and the title came about from an inside joke.

(Now, consider yourself warned: Things are going to get a little … deep here.)

“We were talking about crows, and I saw a meme and said, ‘That shit’s so crow,’” McCune said. “I thought of Anti Dove, and it kind of gave me the idea that the name Anti Dove is not like a crow, and it means you’re going against what you’re supposed to be, or what people see you as, or where people think that you should be.”

Arballo also tried to explain the meanings behind track “Objectif.”

“‘Objectif’ is about music from the other side, if music was a person,” he said. “The first part of it is music, literally, not wanting to be the sole purpose for you. It doesn’t want to be there to save your life; it’s just a thing that exists. Obviously, people sometimes read a lot into music, and it does save lives, but (the song) is music talking back to people, to a person, and saying, ‘I’m not here to save your life.’ The sun may be shining, and shit might be fine around you, but just because you’re feeling the song doesn’t mean that it’s meant to save your life. The second part of the song is the person talking back: ‘I can’t tell if I need you, but I can pretend that you want me.’”

Metaphors are obviously important in Arballo’s writing.

“I can write very direct, and some of the songs are very direct, but it’s nice to write something down and take the time and analyze it, to give it a different perspective,” Arballo said. “I actually got that idea from reading Maynard James Keenan’s book. He talks about some of the songs that he writes, seeing it from the other side and giving it a different perspective, instead of it just being your emotions that are there.”

For more information, visit analoglabband. bandcamp.com.