story by Justin Marciniak
photo by Daniel Gabbay
If guitarist Andrew Langer had a dollar for every time someone said
his band The Redwalls sounds like The Beatles, then, baby, he'd be
a rich man. "We've heard that plenty of times," he says.
Although Langer says being compared to The Beatles is not the worst
thing to happen to a band, he implies that the comparison is superficial.
Indeed, it robs The Redwalls of its own identity. Langer talked to
Chicago Innerview about the young Chicago band striving to play pure
rock 'n' roll with little pretense.
Meet The Redwalls, and it's easy to say the group sounds like the
Fab Four and Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground and the 1960s in
general. Because it's true. Universal Blues, the band's first record,
released in 2003, opens with an upbeat number driven by Justin Baren's
McCartney-like bass line and resembling "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."
Later, "I Just Want to Be the One" feels "Highway 61
Revisited" and even mimics Dylan's strict rhyme schemes. Logan
Baren, the other guitarist who also handles most of the lead vocals,
shouts like the John Lennon of "Twist and Shout" and blurts
the lyrics like Dylan. The band crams enough clever musical allusions
into the songs for an epic match of "Spot the Influence."
But The Redwalls is not a cover band. The group does not seem to
obsess over The Beatles half as much as Oasis. The comparison to John,
Paul, George, Ringo and their peers ignores the passion the group
puts into harnessing the essence of rock by constructing and performing
tight, energetic pop tunes.
|
LANGER'S INNER VIEW
|
|
"It would be great if our record
did well, but we're just in it pretty much to make more
records."
|
|
 |
"If people take the easy way out, and they're like, 'Yeah, this
is what you guys are. This is what you sound like,'" Langer says,
"we let them think that." In other words, la, la, how the
life goes on.
"We're not trying to be anything that we're not - trying to
be this band that tries to make music for what's hip for today, what
the new sound is," Langer says. "We just try to write songs
that sound good to us." What sounds good to this quartet of 19-
to 22-year-olds is the music of artists ranging from Chuck Berry to
The Velvet Underground.
"That music to us is just pure music," Langer says. "There's
nothing tainted about it. It is what it is, and it's straight up.
They're not trying to be complex at all or trying to be artsy or be
people that they're not. They just made music for the way they were
feeling at the time, and rock 'n' roll was the way they expressed
it."
This reverence for the roots of rock affected The Redwalls' second,
still-untitled album due in the spring. But Langer also says the band
- with new drummer Ben Greeno - "tried to put more of our own
thing on it this time."
Which could lead to a sophomore slump or a clearer identity for the
band. Either way, a Capitol Records deal - actually established before
the independent release of Universal Blues - allowed the band to add
detail with Mellotrons, Moogs, synthesizers, horn players and weeks
of studio time. Chicago Innerview sampled two new songs. The Redwalls
rely less on influences and seem more mature.
"It would be great if our record did well, but we're just in
it pretty much to make more records," Langer says. "…We'll
pretty much keep on going out on the road, traveling, meeting people,
just experiencing what it is to be a band. I'm hoping this record
goes well, but if it doesn't, we're still going to make another one."
The Redwalls :: with Keane and The Zutons :: Riviera :: February
17.