This is your second single now, how do you feel the response has been so far?
Aaron: Great, actually. This music is something completely new for both of us and I really didn’t know what to expect. It’s been great to see Spotify get behind it with placements on New Indie Mix, and New Music Friday in Italy and the Netherlands. It seems like the blogs are digging it as well, “Fake It” was charting on Hype Machine in the top 20 for a few days which is a first for us. All the internet response is one thing, though, whereas shows is where you can really feel how people are responding. I’m looking forward to getting out in front of people with this music more.
Is this the music you set out to make when starting the project?
Aaron: Not really, to be honest. This music is very much the product of the work Ariel and I put in together, and there’s no way I could have foreseen it ending up where it did. It’s a super-specific and completely new thing and I love it but it’s not like some exact translation of a vision into being.
How did the new single grow in the studio?
Ariel: Aaron showed the song to me on acoustic guitar, where it was originally much more uptempo. To reimagine the song, the first thing we did was lay down the bass synth that carries most of the song. The vocal style came pretty naturally over it and we’re both fans of layering and harmonizing vocals. The drum beat we programmed moves in half time over the chords, and together we wrote a 5-bar section that became the intro, and post chorus; along with the drop measure in the middle of the chorus the half time drum beat cycles on itself throughout the song and hits differently in different places. It’s a subtle detail that help moves the song. The ending was very spontaneous, I proposed a very dancey option for an outro to Aaron and we ended up going with it. It was never the original intention but I think it’s a great and less-serious note to end the song on.
What do you want people to take from the music?
Aaron: A lot of press, particularly from Vehlingo (insert link https://vehlinggo.com/2017/04/ 27/drinker-which-way-is-south- review/) has talked about how the songs unravel on repeat listens. If they can be mysterious and compelling like that, bringing people into the world of their own, which isn’t my world, ya know, its just where this thing has ended up, I’m very happy with that.
Is there more for Drinker fans in the near future?
Ariel: We’re releasing our debut EP entitled Happy Accident on August 11, 2017 which will feature two more songs in addition to the two singles that are currently released. For fans of “Fake It” we have a remix by Elliot Moss coming out July 28th, 2017.
Aaron: We also have some exciting new tracks in the works beyond this EP. We’re excited to keep developing the sound past what the EP has to offer, but it’s a first body of work that we are proud of.
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