Ever since their days together in high school theater, Jack Wells and Mel Tarter have been inseparable. The pair, who co-front the indie pop quartet Those Willows, have been making music together for nine years. In 2012, the couple relocated from Detroit, Michigan to Portland, Oregon where they built a community and eventually joined forces with Mike Grippi and Josh Hertel. The group is now preparing for the release of a second full length, an eponymous album.
Co-written over the 4 years since their migration to the West Coast, Those Willows features ten songs that serve as something of a forum for the couple to talk honestly about their life together. Relationship autonomy is commendably a frequent subject, and also included are a peppering of other musings conceived through their relocation. In “Mitten State” and “A Dream I Had,” the pair observe gentrification from both ends of its spectrum, Portland and Detroit both being cultural meccas at different stages of that process.
Today Glide Magazine is presenting an exclusive sneak premiere of the new album from Those Willows. The album is infectiously poppy yet sensible, bringing to mind influences like Feist, Rilo Kiley, St. Vincent, and fellow Portlanders Unknown Mortal Orchestra. These songs are smooth and bouncy while still being thoughtful. This is the kind of feel-good music we all need right now.
Mel Tarter reflects the album:
“This album is the culmination of the past four years of our lives together. The songs generally speak to the concern of holding on to our deepest beliefs in the current climate of the country and during the time we moved from our home in the Midwest to the West Coast. Both Portland and our hometown near Detroit, Michigan are in flux in such different ways and that acted as a backdrop while writing these songs.
Jack and I recently became engaged to be married and endeavored on our first international, long-term tour. Staying autonomous through this process has been a subject we explored on the album as well.
We recorded with our long time collaborator and producer Adam Brock in SE Portland. We went about it in a somewhat traditional way, beginning with a live rhythm section and layering on top of that. We were fortunate to invite talented local musicians like Patti King (Radiation City) and Zach Banks to contribute auxiliary instruments to the tracks. The album was recorded over the course of the summer and all but one of the originally planned tracks made it on the album. We actually scrapped a song to include ‘Think For Me’ which was written in the studio. It felt too ‘of the times’ to leave it sitting.”
LISTEN:
Those Willows release their self-titled album on November 18th. For more info check out their Facebook page.
