Photo by Nate Burrell
Megan Rooney and Jeffrey Albert
On February 7, the song “Waves” officially debuts. It’s a track offered up by a St. Louis–based band, written during their years in Oakland and released by a label in Norway. It’s the lead cut from the band Spectator’s latest album, Charlie, Baby, which will be released in full on April 12. And it’s the first music released by songwriters Megan Rooney and Jeffrey Albert since 2015, when their first full-length album, The Last Exchange appeared, a few years after a 2012 EP introduced their folky dream-pop to the world.
That’s the album that initially caught the attention of the Scandanavian label Nordic Records and they’d help support the album, post-release. Thus, Spectator went into this recording cycle knowing that they had the support of a label that would champion their music to European audiences. The duo also decided to veer from their previous recorded work, by tracking their project at Native Sound in South St. Louis, with Kevin Bachmann in the role of producer. These new twists to their prior approaches even extended to the way that they walked into the studio with each visit. No longer would they be writing there; instead, every weekend session was focused on honing a song, maybe two, with Bachmann doubling on bass and Mike Schurk, his frequent collaborator, on drums, “a core band” as the band says.
“For us to record something in less than a year was super speedy,” Rooney says with a light laugh. “Kevin was there to suggest that a song might need something more rhythmic or melodic and (recording engineer) Ben Majchrzak did a lot of that thinking, too. It was a lot about moving forward.”
“Mike and Kevin play in a lot of bands together and have recorded a lot,” Albert says. “In talking to Kevin, it was love at first sight. He came over, we played him some demos. He had a real deep connection with Native Sound and it was really comfortable there, like the studio we’d been used to. It wasn’t a high-pressure environment and everyone there know their stuff. They look at themselves as a braintrust. They’ll look out for you, pop in with ideas, keep it comfortable, and make for a great experience.”
Albert says that the song “Waves” is one that “came together really fast for us” in the studio and that “we’ve had that happen a few times, where they spill out of us pretty quickly. It started as a pretty personal song between the two of us. We’d just moved to Oakland and were a little bit ‘out there on our own.’ We were insulated in our living space, our new apartment and it was really a little bit of a love letter to each other. Over time, as we do, we refined it and worked on lyrics. It became a little bit less specifically to us personally. It represents the push and pull of a relationship, which you hear in the lyrics.”
Unlike most cuts, which feature Rooney on lead vocals, this one’s got Albert front and center, with Rooney supplying backing vocals.
Having heard the track in their own minds for so long, Rooney says, “it’s funny,” to finally offer the track to interested fans. “It’s gotten good feedback. Our label picked this song and thought it’d work best in the European market and we trust them. It’s also gotten good response when played at the studio. We think it’s the right one to put out first and it’ll be interesting to hear the feedback.”
You can listen to the mellow, tuneful “Waves” below or via the band’s Soundcloud page here. You can find the group’s first two releases at their Bandcamp site. And can check out some additional songs and videos at their homepage.
