Press and Radio
Ohio Free Times
Surprise Surmised : Low's "The Great Destroyer" departs from its slow core roots
Chris Rager
IN 1993, Low - a trio currently comprised of singer-guitarist Alan Sparhawk, singer-percussionist Mimi Parker and bassist Zak Sally - formed in the harsh winterlands of Duluth, Minnesota. Commonly referred to as the slowest band in the "slowcore" genre, Low's ethereal sound is often compared to other bands in the genre - acts such as Ida, Bedhead and Red House Painters. That has changed with The Great Destroyer , Low's seventh full-length, which was recently pitched by its label Sub Pop as "a welcome surprise," a peculiar phrase that evokes many questions in terms of Low's long career and the album's contents. Speaking via telephone from his Duluth studio, Zak Sally explains that The Great Destroyer was more of a reinvention of the band than a mere surprise.
"It's the same three people, and it's the same band dealing with the same things, you know, melody and writing songs and trying to present them in the way you feel is best," he says. "I think those things remain the same, but we got to a point where we got comfortable enough and we had to almost throw out everything but that we were three people, we were our songs and we have to make them right."
Sally seems relieved that Low is now at a point where it can examine its history and focus on strengthening the band's artistic integrity.
"I think we were forced into a position where we had to finally look at each record as a moment in time," Sally says. "With previous records, we had always unconsciously tried to capture everything we are in one record and with this one it was like, we have to do what we are right now. Each record for me feels like capturing a different snapshot of where the band was at that moment. You can't be angry or dislike your past. You can just look at it and say, 'that's what it was then,' and if it's honest then it still holds water. I think that was sort of our big discovery with this record: that we're a band and we make music."
However, for Low fans, an even greater discovery would be to find one of the band's many rare or out-of print singles and one-off releases. Realizing the demand for such releases, Low decided to compile a box set containing many of its singles, cover songs, basement tapes and live performances. Entitled Low: A Lifetime of Temporary Relief - 10 years of B-Sides & Rarities , the set was released on the band's own label, Chairkicker's Union Music.
"Man, we did a lot of stuff," explains Sally, sounding sort of exhausted. "And we always do that - singles here, singles there, things for comps. We recorded a lot of material outside the records. I guess we always knew that, and as things went on, we'd heard of people trying to get this stuff, and we decided that if anybody was going to try and put all this stuff together - all the b-sides, all the rarities and all that- it should be us. We knew there was a lot. First, we said two discs, and then we'd sit around in the van talking and realize that it had to be three and possibly it had to be four."
The liner notes for the Low box set are filled with short explanations of each song's origins and where it was recorded. All these details provide a glimpse into an extremely prolific band not afraid of things that seem a little odd - such as a cover of the Bee Gees' "I Started A Joke."
"I still think that the Bee Gees are [among] the greatest pop songwriters," explains Sally. "I became obsessed with that song and brought it in and said, 'You guys, we've got to cover this song,' and they said, 'Ehh,' and then we all listened to it and were like 'Yeah, absolutely.'"
Furthermore, some of Low's most coveted material is stuff it thought would never see the light of day again.
"Some of the crappy-sounding, bizarre four-track stuff on that boxed set is the stuff when we were looking back, we're like 'damn, that's fantastic,'" he says. "But you know, we did it in the basement in an hour - really great things happen when we weren't trying to rein ourselves in."
To record and create music with less restraint goes full-circle back to what Sally believes was responsible for material on The Great Destroyer . However, as with most things, that revelation took time. "I think we discovered a necessary fearlessness that took us a long time to get to," he says matter-of-factly.
For the future, Sally sees Low continuing to do what it's done all along.
"Everybody gets older and your life changes, and I think we kind of ran from that for a long time," Sally says. "Now I think we just want to keep being a band, whatever that means. If it means very few people are listening to us or whatever, we just want to keep making music together, exploring possibilities. I'd just like to keep making music with Alan and Mimi, and I know they feel the same way."
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