With their producer in London, Warpaint took their time putting the finishing touches on Radiate Like This remotely – or, as Wayman puts it, “on different moon cycles”. If and when this all starts back up again, what can we learn to make it an even better, more successful experience?” It was really nice to slow down and hear my own thoughts again. And we’re either on tour or making albums. “For 10 years, we’ve been doing this thing together. “I didn’t realise how badly I needed to slow down,” she says. Lindberg had moved to Salt Lake City for what was meant to be a short break. I was like: ‘This is insane.’” Meanwhile, Kokal had given birth only days before. “Friends and family were calling me from Australia saying they’re about to close the borders. “I couldn’t come back to my house in Joshua Tree because I don’t have a green card,” she says. Mozgawa, who was in Reykjavík recording with Le Bon at the time, immediately left for Australia. When Covid arrived in early 2020, the timeline, as it did for most artists, got pushed back. The front lineup … Warpaint on stage in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2017. You can do it.’ It’s been like that for some years. “If someone said: ‘I can’t do this any more,’ we’d rally and be like: ‘Yes, you can. “I think everybody took turns,” Lindberg says. From there, the group wrote music for the Motherhacker podcast, and some of those ideas made their way on to the new album. It began to take form when they recorded Melting, a slow-burning ballad that, in pure Warpaint fashion, builds a soundscape both soothing and dissonant. The media buzz centres on the fact that this is their first album in six years, but the band are quick to point out that the album has been in the works since 2018. Now, Warpaint are readying their fourth album, Radiate Like This. Lindberg worked on solo material (her second album arrives later this year) Mozgawa collaborated on albums with Courtney Barnett, Cate Le Bon, Sharon Van Etten and Phantogram Kokal had a baby and worked with Grammy-nominated composer Suzanne Ciani and Wayman has been scoring films and released her first solo album, LoveLaws, in 2018. After releasing Heads Up, which took them on tour with Harry Styles, MGMT and Depeche Mode, the quartet embarked on a series of individual projects. Perhaps the breakup narrative set in because Warpaint, who are nearing their 20th anniversary as a band, have spent the past couple of years scattered across different hemispheres, partly due to the pandemic and partly due to natural life events. “Manifest vibe,” Wayman agrees, and suddenly everyone’s chanting, “Manifest vibe! Manifest vibe!” Across two more albums – 2014’s Warpaint and 2016’s Heads Up – the band cemented their reputation for moody dreampop that could just as easily sprawl into improvised psychedelia or atmospheric post-rock. Clearly, Warpaint are and have always been a family affair.įormed in 2004, Warpaint released their critically acclaimed debut LP, The Fool, in 2010 and shared stages with everyone from the xx and TV on the Radio to Panda Bear and Arctic Monkeys. Also with us is Wayman’s teenage son, Sirius, whom she jokingly introduces as Warpaint’s bassist. “My daughter is really into Elmo,” smiles Kokal, who lives nearby, and later points out her partner, producer j.franxis, walking on a nearby footpath with their daughter Frances in a stroller. Behind us is an Elmo-themed birthday party, with red and white balloons strung up to form a cheery rainbow-shaped archway. It is early-ish on a Sunday morning, and the entire band are gathered at a picnic table in Elysian Park, a sprawling grassy knoll in LA’s Echo Park neighbourhood. A clean break … (from left) Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa, Jenny Lee Lindberg, Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |