We Are the West will perform at the Prospector on Thursday. Photos courtesy of We Are the West
Writing music in a shipping container on a sheep farm and in a barn led We Are the West to create soft, melodic indie folk sounds, which the duo will be bringing to the Prospector next week.
“We Are The West began to take shape one spring in the Dutch countryside a few years ago,” said the LA-based band’s vocalist and guitarist, Brett Hool. “John (Kibler, bassist and vocalist) was living in The Netherlands at the time and we rented a shipping container on a sheep farm, which we used as a studio. It was cold and rainy, but also beautiful and isolated out there, and some new songs began to emerge based on us playing as a duo. That summer we kept working up the tunes in a barn in Western New York, and would drive down to Brooklyn to put on shows in this abandoned convent and in a local tow lot.”
Hool said the band’s name pays homage to their native California, and the music is reminiscent of the state.
“I guess we kind of felt like a California band out of our element, and the music we played, to us, had a sound that reminded us of where it all started. I think that’s the feeling it evokes for us,” Kibler said.
Few percussions in the duo’s music allows a soothing acoustic sound, almost similar to the sounds of songwriters like Damien Rice or Jeff Buckley.
Kibler said he used to play in a punk rock band in high school, but music was something that was always in his life. His mom is an organist, and he played trombone in the school band. While playing the upright bass in the school orchestra, Kibler said that’s when he knew music was what he was destined to do.
However, the band is realistic that music may not pay the bills, so they said it is not something they do full time.
“That notion of freedom to do it for ourselves, that’s how we treat the band,” Hool said. “We’re not relying on it or necessarily expecting it to be our livelihood. That might put the wrong kind of pressure on it, and the original spark could get compromised and squeezed out. Of course, we’d love to be in a position where we could devote all our work time to the project, and luckily things have naturally been building so that we’re able to continue to step up the amount we’re playing, the places we play, the people we’re playing for. The best thing of the past year or so, though, has been the discovery and evolution of a really great kind of extended family of the band. Like on this tour, we’re super happy to be playing with our friend Elizabeth Goodfellow on drums. We met about a year ago and have been playing together since, and she’s been a real shot of sunshine.”
Hool said this will be We Are the West’s first time playing Long Beach, and he’s excited for the show.
“I think what we do is special,” he said. “These days when you go to see a band play more often than not, you’re watching a band present a show they’ve prepared ahead of time, maybe they play with pre-recorded tracks or video or something. They have a thing they are bringing to you to witness. Our performance, the songs we choose to play, the sound of the space, the other bands we play with, all creates the where and when. We play within the setting, it happens in the moment and it’s not just something that we do, it’s something we all experience together. It’s always different.”
We Are the West will perform at the Prospector, located at 2400 E. 7th Street, on December 18 at 10PM.
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