From Indian Lakes have just returned with their first album in five years, Head Void, and like a lot of recent albums, the making of this one was heavily impacted by the pandemic. Band leader Joe Vann put out three solo albums since FIL’s 2019 LP Dimly Lit, but once full-band touring became safer and Joe finished up work on his home studio, he “finally had a live space to get loud for the first time in a few years,” he says, “So I just hit record and got loud.” As a result, Head Void makes a return to full-band rock, following the more electronic vibes of Dimly Lit. It’s got elements of shoegaze, emo, indie/alt rock, and more, and it’s a great listen. For more on the LP, Joe has given us a track-by-track breakdown and you can read on to see what he had to say.
FIL also have tour dates coming up, including West Coast/Southwest dates with King of Heck and East Coast/Midwest dates with Dirt Buyer. The run with Dirt Buyer hits Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on June 14. All dates are listed below.
Joe also has a new band with members of RX Bandits, The Velvet Teen, and more called Hard Chiller, and their their debut EP Heavy Cell comes out 6/28 via Born Losers.
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TRACK-BY-TRACK BREAKDOWN OF FROM INDIAN LAKES’ HEAD VOID BY JOE VANN
“WATER”
Process – This was the last track made for the album. It was the only one that had a specific and decisive direction, in that I really wanted the record to begin with a song that could sort of catch listeners off guard while simultaneously easing them into the rest of the songs. Once I sat with the guitar and put the riffs together, it all came together so quickly and easily. It really put the feeling of finality in the entire process for me mentally, to have something come together the way I had imagined. That doesn’t happen very often.
Meaning – It is about the feeling of infatuation, only needing a few drops of attention or intimacy to stay obsessed.
“HOLY”
Process – This was the first song written for the album, and it sort of shaped the whole vibe. I wanted to turn the gain up and just riff, and by the end of the day the song had formed in a very organic and classic guitar rock type of way. It reminded me of the bands I came up listening to, and by now I have learned that once you’ve made enough music to have a strong sense of your sound, you can continue to push towards the outer limits of what you’ve done before, and know that when it comes time to write lyrics and sing, the sound will be in that sonic space you have cultivated. When I listened back and it sounded like FIL, I was hyped and inspired to do the entire record in that space.
Meaning – It is about life and living becoming a religious experience. Love, drugs, and physical excitement can give you a feeling of spirituality.
“THE FLOW”
Process – This session began a few years back in NYC as a jam based around the synth riff that is now blended with the guitars in the final mix. I think I was messing around with the OP1. At the time I was really into it, but couldn’t really shape and vox melodies. Once I opened it again and started playing guitar over it, I started working out the vox and it instantly became one of my favorite songs FIL has ever done. It sits so perfectly in the song spaces I grew up loving and still love, but I don’t feel like it’s ripping anyone off. I knew it would have to be the first thing people hear on the new record.
Meaning – It is about being in a flow that’s unhealthy, in need of your loved ones to pull you out of it.
“THE LINES”
Process – When this song was beginning to form, it stayed in the half temp, slamming kind of space for a while but ultimately felt uninspiring. Once I sat down at the kit and doubled the tempo it was like a switch went off, which happens a lot in record shaping. After that the lyrics and vox really came easily. In fact I think there were a couple versions that I had to choose between. This was another one that I knew people needed to hear before the entire album came out.
Meaning – The song is about being scared of people, and the lines we don’t want to cross, but also the script we kind of keep in our back pocket in case our anxiety gets to us in social settings. I always have some memorized lines in my brain when I am around strangers because I struggle with social interactions otherwise.
“THE WILDERNESS”
Process – This is my favorite song on the record, as far as classic songwriting goes. Writing a song that’s short and to the point, with a traditional structure and repeatable chorus that I love listening to is a once every 15 songs type of thing. The fact that it’s a heavy rock song just takes it to a place for me that is specific to the bands I idolized growing up.
Meaning – It has sort of an abstract theme about being alone and how we all feel the same feelings of isolation and loneliness. “The Wilderness” is sort of encapsulating the different dangers of relationships and being in between them.
“HOLD ME DOWN”
Process – I wrote this song many years ago, and for some reason I wasn’t in the right headspace to finish it. I made it on a plane ride on my laptop, using the keyboard to play the synths and drum machine beats, and so I think it stayed in that kind of space until I built out my new studio and could hear it with fresh ears. Once the acoustic guitar was tracked it was like hearing the song for the first time. I really wanted the mix to keep it in the late ’80s/’90s emo/industrial kind of sound, when those songs were mainstream and on film soundtracks and such. It has that kind of nostalgic tone to it for me.
Meaning – Lyrically it is pretty straightforward. Weight of the world and all that.
“I LAY DIFFERENT”
Process – This song was part of the process of making the album feel separate from the emo/shoegaze type music that tends to get lumped into the same boxes. I wanted the guitars to be simple and sort of classic ’90s alt simplicity, and when it came time to sing I couldn’t help but feel like the vox should also channel that “who gives a fuck” type of energy. This is probably the best song I’ve ever written, but it won’t get that kind of love from most FIL listeners because it doesn’t have some kind of in your face deeper feeling. It’s simple, but that simplicity allows for a depth of layers other more complex tracks don’t have room for. I like that this one is such a vibe check in the middle of the record.
Meaning – The lyrics and themes are simple, because the song is simple. Thinking about your loved ones, and also sometimes not caring about anyone or anything even if you know you should.
“SPILLING OVER”
Process – I think people would be surprised to know that to me, this song is the biggest achievement on the record. There is something about tapping into a specific energy that is obviously not a single, not a show stopper, and doesn’t feel like filler. When you hear it you are energized in a different way. All of my favorite rock records have songs like this but there is a discipline that I think takes many songs to develop. To let a song do its thing and just be what it is without trying to make it something it isn’t. I love that it gets so loud at the end. Always fun to be loud for no good reason.
Meaning – The lyrics are about the feeling of being overwhelmed by all things in life. It touches on love and physical aching, feelings that are spilling over, being too full of emotion or anxieties.
“SHRINE”
Process – This song was finished last, and I think I was avoiding it because I knew I’d have to match the guitar melodies somehow with the vocals. That is always intimidating because it doesn’t always work and you shouldn’t force it. Once it came together though, it was the moment I realized the album was going to be something special. Hearing the guitars do their thing at the end, writing riffs that you want to hear over and over as it fades out. That doesn’t come around too often in a songwriters life.
Meaning – It is about someone wanting what you can’t give, and that sort of getting in the way of everything. Being “held down by the good times” and all that, and the chorus sort of expressing that in another life, I could do all of the things they want and it would be great, but here we are.
“KEEP ME”
Process – If life had gone in a different direction, I think this song would be a single and we would be on tour with Slowdive or something. It has that one beat, one guitar energy that is good enough in most cases, but I’m really proud of the Vox too. The chorus is almost so nice that I had to force myself not to fuck with it a little, but in these sessions I am reminded that I should sing as best as I can sometimes and let it be. i wish I had that Dylan fucked up poet vibe that I love more than anything, but its just not me.
Meaning – This song tries to get into that space we can all relate to but can’t easily explain, when you are in the space between new love and heartbeat, kind of floating with no feelings left. Your body and spirit kind of raw from the extreme back and forth of emotions, on your way over that hill to the otherside where joy and normalcy sits. When I hear it I get very emotional. It puts me in those spaces, romantic nostalgia, loss of a loved one.
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From Indian Lakes — 2024 Tour Dates
MAY
29 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo*
31 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar*
JUNE
01 – Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit Live*
04 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada*
05 – Austin, TX @ Parish*
07 – Nashville, TN @ Row 1 Stage at Cannery Hall^
08 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl^
09 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506^
11 – Washington, DC @ Songbird^
13 – Boston, MA @ Cafe 939^
14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right^
15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie^
18 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen^
19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Tuf Club^
21 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall^
22 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge^
24 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza*
25 – Portland, OR @ Holocene*
27 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar*
OCTOBER
11 – Las Vegas, NV @ Best Friends Forever Festival
* – w/ King of Heck
^ – w/ Dirt Buyer