Listen: Holden Days - Eau Claire (ft Lofty Stills)

I'm a firm believer that bands you already like are an essential component in worthwhile music discoveries. Though mostly reliable in terms of playing with similarly enjoyable acts, occasionally an artist/band will cosign another and set you forth on discovering a new band to love. That's essentially how I stumbled upon Holden Days who not only was featured on previously featured artist Lofty Stills' EP but accompanied him to Nashville to help record and produce his debut full length album. The work of California singer/songwriter Timothy Jude Andrews, Holden Days offers music in a similar if not wholly congruent realm of Lofty Stills' folky dream pop. Or at least "Eau Claire", the first single from his upcoming full length album Cultivate, gives that impression. Aside from the single and a demo called "Here", there's not necessarily too much to go off in terms of Holden Days' cultivated sound.

But listening to "Eau Claire", it's not hard to see why Timothy Andrews and Lofty Stills' Luke Culbertson linked up. They're kindred spirits in sound and vision, downplaying little magical production moments that could be wonderfully expanded in favor of maintaining forward momentum. Culbertson's presence is deeply felt: his vocals capable of delivering emotive sweeps with seemingly little effort. Andrews is the Fred Nicolaus to Culbertson's Daniel Rossen and if the band's lineup is to be believed Holden Days' debut might feature more collaborations not just between Andrews and Culbertson but also Nashville based artist/producer Carson Cody. There's no telling what a collaboration not one but three singer/songwriters based in three different cities will sound like or how prevalent collaboration even is with Andrews project but "Eau Claire" is certainly enough to leave listeners intrigued and primed for more. Thankfully it won't be too long to wait and see as Cultivate's March 2nd release date is right around the corner.

Lofty Stills Is Recording An Album

Arguably one of my favorite new discoveries of the year so far, Seattle based singer/songwriter/producer Luke Culbertson aka Lofty Stills released a self-titled EP earlier this year. The EP's only fault, in my opinion, lay in its brevity. Culbertson songs were fully realized and masterfully arranged and his brand of twangy folk, intimate chamber pop, and atmospheric dream pop were large and lush without losing any of its personal appeal and most importantly was just damn good. The EP cruises from brilliant melodic moment to brilliant melodic moment without ever lingering on its excellent songcraft. And then it's over. The EP had a cohesive flow but like most tasty treat is over far before you'd like it to be.



The good news is that Culbertson has every intentions of following up on the taster worth of songs with a full length album. And that's essentially where you come in. A few short weeks ago Culbertson launched the official Kickstarter to aid in recording the best possible version of his debut album. That involves Culbertson going to Nashville to record the album at Joshua D. Niles' The Chapel studio along with friend/collaborator Timmy Andrews of Holden Days and coproducing the album with Carson Cody. If fully funded Culbertson will begin work on the album as soon as December which puts the album release somewhere in Spring of next year. That's an exciting turn around considering two years deep into the project Culbertson has released six songs of beguiling intricacy. Considering Culbertson plays/records/produces all of his songs by himself, the added help (including real live musicians bringing his arrangements to life) as well as going into the studio with a prepared set of songs to work with practically ensures time well spent. Despite his studio aspirations I doubt that Culbertson's songs will lose any of the bedroom pop. It's an album I want, it's an album you want. Even if you don't know it yet. So head over to the Lofty Stills Kickstarter and make sure it's an album we actually get.

If you still need some convincing, here's another taste of Lofty Stills' previous output.

Pitstop: Lofty Stills

photo by May Xiong

The Internet is strange and marvelous thing. While an effective tool for seeking out new music and following promising new leads, it's also responsible for those strange moments of happenstance that introduces me to new music writers and new acts purely based off of an mutual interest. That's essentially how I came into contact with Luke Culbertson of Lofty Stills. After sending a series of tweets out into the ether about my incredibly mixed feelings about the new Night Beds material, Culbertson casually engaged as a mutual fan of their work and we would chat intermittently about where our heads were at at different stages of our consumption of the new Night Beds record. It was some time before I even found out Luke was a musician and that's probably for the best. If Luke had actively tried to promote his material to me from the get go, I most likely wouldn't have checked it out. Only when it was offered as kind of an afterthought, was my interest piqued.

So of course it was a funny thing that I found Culbertson's project Lofty Stills to be incredibly reminiscent of early Night Beds and Winston Yellen's friends from his time in Colorado Springs Lovelier Other. But there's more to Lofty Stills than being a Night Beds soundalike - meshing a twangy sound with a smooth dream pop tapestry, Culbertson's project continues a tradition of folk oriented bedroom pop with production that belies the simplicity of its creation and that Yellen has since abandoned in favor of electronic experimentalism. Culbertson's arrangements are lush without overwhelming Culbertson's delicate emotive tenor; his vocal harmonies doing the majority of the heavy lifting. Lofty Stills' songs arrive and leave in majesty vocal flourishes flooded with raw emotive force and yet there's no doubt Culbertson crafts his songs with meticulous precision. It's production is svelte but not too polished, spotlighting the roots in folk and country over Culbertson's electronic know how. His use of samples like Connee Boswell's "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" in "How Wrong I Was" a subtle compliment instead of a jarring distraction.

Culbertson's self-titled EP is a stunning collection of songs brimming with beguiling intimacy and winsome sincerity and musicianship. In fact, the only problem I can seem to find with it, in my growing number of repeat plays, is in its brevity: Culbertson's song have almost depressingly short life cycles flowering and withering like a spring ephemeral. Here's hoping there's more from Lofty Stills to come and soon.



Lofty Stills' self-titled EP is out now and available to stream/download via his Bandcamp.