Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, the duo of Sylvan Esso, discuss their newest album No Guidelines Sandy and the way they got here up with it.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Fort Adams State Park sits on the coast of Rhode Island. It seems out onto the Narragansett Bay and, by extension, the Atlantic Ocean.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SUNBURN”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) I like the ocean. I like the air. I like the sensation that I get on the market.

SUMMERS: And on a sunny Sunday afternoon in July, the band Sylvan Esso introduced to the gang gathered there for the Newport Folks Pageant that that they had a brand new album popping out. After which they proceeded to carry out it.

(CHEERING)

AMELIA MEATH: It was a excessive in contrast to another, truthfully. It was so – very not often do you get to play a brand new report from begin to end anyway, however to get to debut it that approach was so enjoyable.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MEATH: Deal with one another.

NICK SANBORN: Often when any band, I believe, is form of doing the outdated, here is a brand new one, it is at all times somewhat little bit of a crapshoot as as to whether or not individuals are going to observe you alongside on a bunch of songs that they do not already know the refrain to.

SUMMERS: Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath are Sylvan Esso. Their new album, known as “No Guidelines Sandy,” is out now.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SUNBURN”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) Sunburn blistering, the warmth below your pores and skin.

SUMMERS: Nick and Amelia are married and dwell collectively at a house studio they constructed outdoors Durham, N.C., the place in addition they run a report label. However this album was principally not made there.

MEATH: That is the quickest report we have ever comprised of begin to end. We started it on, like, January 5 after our yearly street journey from North Carolina to Los Angeles. We received to LA with – assuming that we have been going to go to the Grammys and that we have been going to do loads of writing periods. However then the omicron spike occurred. So impulsively, we have been on this rental home with a surplus of time, and day-after-day, we might simply go into our little studio, which was the lounge, and see if we may write a tune. And due to that, it is a extra frenetic and weak and open and bizarre report than we have made in a very long time.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DIDN’T CARE”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) I believed you have been good and all, however I did not maintain you in my thoughts.

SANBORN: I believe that, for us, the previous couple of years, there’s been loads of woodshedding, engaged on our craft. All of that work form of simply began to repay. It was nearly sitting down and making an attempt to shock the opposite one, the simpler it got here and the extra we trusted it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DIDN’T CARE”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) I did not know once I met you the way it might go.

SUMMERS: That concept of making an attempt to shock the opposite one as you are collaborating, as you are creating collectively, is that new for you?

MEATH: No, it is form of at all times been the idea of how we work out what we’ll do subsequent is we observe the issues that make the opposite one excited. If you’ve been working collectively for so long as Nick and I’ve, the actual pleasure is within the shock.

SUMMERS: Give us an instance of how that shock reveals up in “No Guidelines Sandy.”

MEATH: Oh, effectively, like, often every time I do a vocal take, I do melody and lyrics on the similar time, and I write them out in my pocket book. After which once I do a vocal take, it is the primary time that Nick has heard the phrases that I’ve written or the melody that I created. So to me, that is at all times current, which is definitely how we received the title for the report ‘trigger in a backup line within the tune “Your Actuality,” I say, no guidelines for me, no guidelines currently, no guidelines Sandy.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOUR REALITY”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) No guidelines currently. No guidelines Sandy. No guidelines, no guidelines.

SUMMERS: What does no guidelines Sandy – what does that imply to you? I – “Your Actuality” is one in every of my favourite songs on the album.

MEATH: Thanks. That is good to listen to you say that ‘trigger so many individuals have been – we’re in Los Angeles, so it has been loads of, like, candy, delicate guys in hats being like, yeah, that is what we heard.

SANBORN: (Laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “YOUR REALITY”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) Had been there guidelines initially, or are we studying tips on how to be surreal however free? It is your actuality.

MEATH: Maintain on. Sorry. I received distracted by making enjoyable of males, and I forgot what you have been going to – what you have been asking me.

SUMMERS: That occurs to me usually. It actually does.

(LAUGHTER)

SUMMERS: I wish to discuss to you concerning the title of the album, “No Guidelines Sandy.” What does that imply?

MEATH: It grew to become form of a mantra for us the place the entire guiding rules that we had used that have been about making a pop report, we form of threw away.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ECHO PARTY”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) There’s lots of people dancing downtown. Yeah, all of us fall down, however some keep the place they received dropped. It is an echo get together ringing throughout. Yeah, you possibly can’t play it down, however you need it to really feel proper now.

MEATH: Pop is such a research in, like, kind and sound. And we really feel like we discovered the foundations and found out tips on how to write pop songs in the best way that we write them. So we threw all these issues away and started once more.

SANBORN: On particularly our final two data, there was at all times this different – these different components within the room of, like, you understand, how is that this going to play on a stage? How is that this going to really feel at a competition? How is radio going to really feel about this? How’s so on – you understand, all of those different issues have been form of hanging there within the air. And I believe for this one, simply none of that was, you understand? I used to be – we have been really simply fascinated by, you understand, our personal and one another’s, like, delight and feeling assured in making stranger and stranger decisions. I believe after the final couple data, we felt like we mentioned what we needed to say with that. And now we’re form of in our personal unusual musical house that’s solely outlined by what the 2 of us like.

SUMMERS: As a listener, one of many songs that I used to be – I discovered myself kind of mesmerized by once I was listening to the album is “Coming Again To You” as a result of it’s so totally different than every part else on the album. It is intense, and it is timeless.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COMING BACK TO YOU”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) I am 85. I am 16. I’m a mom – a child.

SUMMERS: Inform us concerning the tune.

MEATH: I discovered tips on how to play guitar through the pandemic, like so many people did, and it was one of many first songs I wrote on the guitar, I believe – proper, Sandy? Yeah.

SANBORN: Yeah. To me, this tune is fascinating ‘trigger it is one of many solely ones that was truly written aside. Amelia wrote this and despatched it to me after we weren’t collectively. And instantly I used to be like, this must be on the subsequent report that we make. And after we have been making this, it simply felt like, you understand, there’s themes of the entire – you understand, the entire tumultuous modifications we have all handled within the final two years actually really feel obvious to me on the report. And shutting it with this second the place, you understand, she’s singing to me as we’re reuniting felt like that was the one approach it may go.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COMING BACK TO YOU”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) Coming again to you.

SUMMERS: Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, thanks a lot for speaking with us as we speak.

MEATH: Thanks.

SANBORN: Yeah, thanks a lot for having us again.

SUMMERS: That was Nick Sanborn and Amelia Meath from the band Sylvan Esso. Their new album “No Guidelines Sandy” is out now.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COMING BACK TO YOU”)

SYLVAN ESSO: (Singing) I am on a ribbon of concrete. I’m a blurred shot…

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