From Indian Lakes have announced a new album, Head Void, due May 15. It’s their first since 2019’s Dimly Lit, and it also follows three solo albums (and other miscellaneous releases) by band leader Joe Vann. Joe made this one at his newly-finished home studio in California, and then had it mastered by Will Yip.
Joe’s solo career coincided with COVID lockdown, but when live music started coming back, he started getting the itch to play with a band again. “I started to notice that full band touring was becoming a lot safer and everything was opening back up,” he says. “I got home and started writing new FIL, and the songs were turning out to be my favorite FIL songs yet, the timing of everything just kind of worked out perfectly.”
“Once my studio was finished and I had gotten back into my drums and microphones and all of that stuff,” he continues, “I finally had a live space to get loud for the first time in a few years. So I just hit record and got loud.”
He also adds that “the biggest thing I took to new FIL from my work on Joe Vann was doing way less. I felt like I was finally capable of writing the kind of riffs and melodies that could be left with less textures to blend them with.” The first taste of the new album is “The Flow,” which is indeed a little more stripped-back than the multi-layered Dimly Lit, but still an immersive, enveloping art rock song. From its insistent rhythm to its sense of atmosphere, it’s a little like the more recent Manchester Orchestra material.
“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,” Joe says of “The Flow.” “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. I knew it would have to be the first thing people hear on the new record.” Listen and watch the video below.
From Indian Lakes have also announced a spring tour, happening a few months before they play the stacked Best Friends Forever festival in Vegas. All dates (including Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on June 14) are listed below.
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