That familiar 90-minute drive down I-94,with its succession of small towns and long stretches of nothing, was a primaryinspiration for Middle West, the sophomore album from Will Phalen and the StereoAddicts.
“For this record, we were reallyexamining what it means to be from the Midwest, and the drive over the Illinois border reallysums it up in some ways,” Phalen says. “Chicagoand Milwaukeeare these urban metropolises separated for the most part by farmland and ruralcountryside. It’s just a fact of Midwestern life that, whichever city you’rein, be it Madison, Milwaukee,Chicago orMinneapolis/St. Paul, you’re never that far from the rural areas. I think thathas a lot to do with the whole essence of the Midwest.”
That fusion of the rural and the urban,and the traditional and the modern, is central to the Stereo Addicts. The groupis indebted to essentially the same ’60s and ’70s influences as almost anyother folk-rock bandNeil Young, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Byrds, BuffaloSpringfieldbut its execution is decidedly modern.
“There’s a lot of amazing music comingout of the Americana/folk-rock genre today, but a lot of it isn’t necessarilynew; it’s a rehashing of the same sounds and themes we’ve seen before,” Phalenexplains. “So we attempt to bring new sounds and perspectives to those fairlytraditional sounds. The essence of our music is revisiting the pastbecausethat’s what folk music is, music that’s old and traditionalwhile pushing thatmusic forward.
“So we incorporate a lot of newtechnologies and new sounds into our music,” Phalen continues. “We’re alwayslooking for ways to expand our sonic template. We do a lot of messing aroundwith odd instruments, lots of toy keyboards, toy glockenspiels, stuff likethat. On our latest record we have a friend who plays some analog synthesizers.That’s in addition to our banjo player, Doc Holliday, who plays banjo andviolin, which are some of the oldest instruments in American music. We’re usingthose instruments next to the electronic sound of Moog synthesizers.”
Though Middle West, which the bandreleased early this summer, is the Stereo Addicts’ second album, it’s theirfirst recorded as a true band.
“For our first album, I had a bunch ofsongs I wanted to record that I had planned to record myself before somefriends got involved, and from that, a band just sort of formed,” Phalen says.“So with that first album, we’d never performed the songs live before; we justwent into the studio and recorded the songs. To be honest, most of the bandwasn’t even in the room at the same time; there were a few members who hadnever even met each other after the album was done.
“But with Middle West, we had the luxury of performing most of the songs livefor a while, so we had a chance to let those songs grow and evolve a littlebit,” Phalen adds. “We all had the opportunity to bounce ideas off of eachother. This one was more of a collective effort.”
WillPhalen and the Stereo Addicts top a 10 p.m. bill at the Cactus Club on Friday,Oct. 2, with The Vega Star and Doc Holliday.
