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What we're doing is similar to what minor league baseball players go through: trying to make the big leagues, travelling around, playing for scouts, trying to get their average up, hitting for power, working on their base running. -Jeff Prystowsky |
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The Low Anthem isn't really a rock band, but they can and do rock. "The Horizon is a Beltway" is a surging, almost-punk romp that brings to mind the sound of Low Anthem friend Langhorne Slim or perhaps The Avett Brothers. When they choose to rock, they do it masterfully with the power of Miller's voice shifting from sailboat to steamroller. The band is versatile yet thematic on their albums and engaging onstage. Yes, the band loves folk but their show is hardly a sit-down affair.
 The Low Anthem |
Prystowsky rattles off a few of the band's influences, and also a list of the music they've been listening to on tour and, not surprisingly, the list doesn't include many buzz indie rock bands. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen top the list, joined soon after by Joe Pug, the Chicago folkie that opened shows for The Low Anthem this spring.
"[Dylan and Cohen] are the guys we've been listening to a bunch right now. I thought I was really on top of things a few months ago and we come back and our manager is talking about all these new bands and I'd never heard of them," says Prystowsky.
This unawareness of the "next big thing" doesn't seem to result from arrogance, it's just that Prystowsky and company are students of their craft and are continually studying, without getting distracted by buzz bands. Maybe that's the sort of intellectual curiosity a musician gleans from an Ivy League education, who knows. But it's also worth noting that these guys and gal have been busy this year. They went from a much-talked-about unsigned act that hit some big festival stages and opened for the likes of Ray LaMontagne to one with a wide-released album that will almost certainly end up on some "Best of 2009" lists come year's end.
"We were trying to tour and make a living, and to make a living you have to be able to play however many shows and draw enough people and sell enough merchandise that you can go home and pay your rent. We weren't really interested in a label because at the time we were making enough money," says Prystowsky of the band's time as a happily unsigned act.
 The Low Anthem |
Nonesuch Records has allowed for Charlie Darwin to reach the masses, but doesn't seem to have hampered the band's autonomy. The Low Anthem is preparing to record its next album this winter and think they just might do it in Amsterdam, a city they've visited with their tours and have fallen increasingly in love with. The out-of-the-way location is nothing new for the band - they recorded Charlie Darwin in a cabin on Block Island, RI. They might produce the new effort themselves, Prystowsky says, or they might bring on some help. They might include some friends they've met on the road to play on the album, and they might just try to tie the new record to the themes in Charlie Darwin.
"We're not planning to make an electronica record completely out of left field. It will be relevant," says Prystowsky, laughing again.
The world seems to be The Low Anthem's oyster, if you'll pardon the cliché. But such is the life of a rookie ace. (Side note: The Low Anthem wouldn't be a flamethrower, but rather a Jamie Moyer-style finesse pitcher, or maybe a knuckleballer — effective, fundamentally sound, but not flashy.) The league is chatting about you and all you can do is do things the way you know how, and in the case of The Low Anthem, it's make folk music.
Prystowsky doesn't go too crazy on the baseball analogy, but defends he and Miller's love for the game - a love that bandmate Adams, and likely some reading this, might not fully understand.
"No, it makes total sense," Prystowsky says. "We're a couple of American boys and we grew up with it and we played it all through our lives."
The Low Anthem is on tour now; dates available here.
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