Daniel KarasekWe have made it to the other side of the pandemic where vaccines are increasingly commonplace and shows are getting booked. It may seem surreal, but we are arriving at that point, finally. Just this past weekend I went to not one, but two shows. Friday night at Smith’s Olde Bar I got to see Atlanta’s own Moses Mo play a supporting set for South Carolina rockers Seven Year Witch who now feature former Twotakes guitarist Beau Anderson in their roster. The lineup included a slew of opening acts, but the one that caught my ears was Tomi Martin and Trina Mead of Three5human. I didn’t know it at the time, but these two have been in the music business for a long while, y’all. They have toured with TLC, Toni Braxton, Outkast, and the Indigo Girls. They have worked on records for Madonna, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Stevie Nicks, and Caroline Aiken. Still, I fell in love with the duo without knowing who they actually were. Seeing them just casually slaying a set was pure magic, especially for my first real show in this new post-pandemic landscape.
But to get back on track, Saturday was a different kind of show. The Thursday prior, I was contacted by Taylor Cottrell, who handles press for Walden. They wanted me to cover their sold-out show at Sweetwater Brewery. The last time I had communicated with Cottrell was when Maggie Schneider of the up-and-coming band glimmers gave a referral for me to interview Walden. (On a side note: Big thank you to Schneider for initially introducing me to this band. Please, please, please give glimmers a listen if you haven’t already. They just released their album Worlds Apart with five music videos all part of the same story arch.)
This first interview was back in 2019. It’s when I learned that Walden had plans to move to a house in Nashville to better focus on their music. Which was, of course, before anyone could anticipate the nightmare that COVID-19 would unleash across the world. So, when I was asked to do a follow-up feature for Walden’s show at Sweetwater Brewery, I had to do it. I had to know how this small indie band, against all odds, was able to survive the pandemic, produce four singles while in isolation, and then seamlessly sell out their first show back.
To get the scoop on the band’s success, we did an interview before their set in one of the nicest green rooms I’ve ever been in. There were plush leather couches and, obviously, free refreshments. Below is our conversation where you can resolve the cliffhanger of Walden’s pandemic journey and how they decided to double down in the face of a global crisis.
Credit: Matt Conrod
How did y’all take the news of everything shutting down due to the pandemic?
Andrew Mendel (drums): We were positive about it. The toughest part was the shows we had booked. We were going to open for Band of Horses. We were supposed to play at the Tabernacle. We thought of how we could put out music and use the pandemic to our advantage. We tried to be positive.
Richard Becker (vocals/guitar): We definitely tried our best to think of the pandemic as an opportunity as opposed to an obstacle or setback. It challenged us to put out content and write more.
Eric Hangartner (vocals/piano): Sometimes your circumstances push you to do stuff. We had to think like entrepreneurs. We thought to try to record ourselves. We thought of clever ways to make money. Either take the “screw this” route or work hard. We tried to rally and find the positive. We had been playing a lot of shows and had so much going on. When the shows got wiped I realized I had time to zone in and practice. We didn’t have time while touring to practice or write songs.
I see you guys were busy last year even without touring as an option. Tell me about the four singles you released. Did it change your songwriting approach?
EH: It definitely changed. Every song and album is influenced by time and place. A lot of album sounds are influenced by what is in the studio during recording. Suddenly we could only work with the instruments we had. We just had to work within these constraints. But an interesting thing is sometimes the constraints are the most liberating part. If it feels like an open ocean I don’t know which way to go. If someone says you have this money and only this stuff at your disposal, it makes it easier. I do graphic design. If it’s a blank page you can do anything but with constraints you know what to paint.
RB: We had a lot more gear than most people because we were living together.
EH: We had all the same people in the same house. We didn’t have to worry about roommates. We were together. We thought we might as well record.
How did you guys keep your sanity throughout the pandemic?
Jamie de Lange (bass): I went biking a lot.
RB: Lots of Spike Ball.
EH: It was nice to have a change of scenery with the move to Nashville. We had new outdoor spaces to explore. We moved in April of 2020.
What advice can you give to other artists who have struggled during the pandemic? Do you have a sort of life hack you can share?
AM: Focus on what you can do. Find what can you do and go all-in with that.
RB: If you do live shows well, then do that. Find out what works. Putting out a livestream is better than not doing anything.
EH: Even though we are sitting on a sold-out show tonight, you can burn out playing in isolation. Playing for empty rooms you feel burned out. Our team took a hit. We had to part ways with some of [them]. We realized that no one will do this for you. You can’t wait for someone to swoop in with money to save the day. We were prepared to do a Kickstarter because we were broke. We were lucky and got some money out of nowhere, so we trucked forward. It’s easy to take the mindset of defeat, but that’s suicide as a musician. Find ways to stay motivated and have fun. We had an advantage because we had other guys to feed off. We were together while others were stuck alone. Collaboration made it more natural and not sitting alone in our rooms.
What are you guys looking forward to the most post-pandemic?
AM: Starting with tonight, our first show back and selling out the venue. People are still paying to come see us. We also have some big things in the works. We want to get back to New York and some other places for shows we had to cancel.
EH: For the first time in this band’s career, we have a slant or strategy of how to approach this music industry thing. We were writing music and praying to the Spotify gods. You can have a million streams and it can mean nothing. We were trying to figure out the formula and follow that. We kind of realized that makes you blend in with everyone else, so we had a mindset shift. We thought during the pandemic what would we want to do. What would a year in the life of Walden look like? This is related to the big things we have in the works.
RB: We can do another interview in a few months to follow up.
EH: We are talking in abstracts about this new idea.
Final questions. What future plans do you all have for doing shows and touring? Anything on the horizon we should look out for, aside from this mysterious big surprise?
AM: May 20th we have a virtual live show.
RB: It’s for Breathe Free Virtual Benefit Concert to fight against lung cancer. We are doing an exclusive acoustic of our single “Daydream” in it.
AM: We have some shows in Nashville coming up.
RB: We have a new song called “Relapse” that just came out. It was produced in our creaky band room. We are impressed with the quality we got from our equipment. Make sure to have a good mixing engineer.
Walden will perform on Thur., May 20 on the Breathe Free Virtual Benefit Concert alongside Sam James, Joel Crouse, Quinn Sullivan, and others. The show kicks off at 8 pm. Registration for the event is free but donations are encouraged.
More Info
Web: www.walden.band
Facebook: @bandwalden
Instagram: @waldengrams
SoundCloud: @bandwalden
Twitter: @waldentheband