For music and film geeks, could there be a better job out there than scoring movie scenes? With dozens of soundtracks to its credit, Explosions in the Sky would most likely say there’s not.
The band’s instrumental Post Rock music epitomizes the adjective “cinematic.” And for the first time in more than five years, the group invokes its visceral vision on a stirring full-length release under the Explosions in the Sky banner, The Wilderness, with no guidance but the musicians’ own steering them on with dramatic verve.
Hailing from Austin, Texas, EITS has been pushing the boundaries of experimental Post Rock for 17 years. You may not know the band’s name, but you’ve probably heard its evocative songs providing emotional ballast in many big- and small-screen scenes, from movies like Lone Survivor to TV shows like One Tree Hill. The group’s entry into soundtracking was with the hit 2004 film Friday Night Lights, which, along with work on the subsequent TV series based on the movie, raised the band’s profile enormously.
The Wilderness updates the group’s atmospheric blend and takes it in new directions, with shorter, more subdued songs that bloom without the typical 10-minute, sonic pyrotechnics. It’s more accessible and, for newer fans, offers a less demanding listen. Michael James, EITS’s bass player, says the different approach was more of creative challenge than an effort to break into the Pop mainstream.
“We’re still an instrumental band, so the fact that we have a shorter song — say a three-and-a-half-minute song — it’s never going to get radio play,” he says. “I guess the songs can be considered a little more accessible, but not terribly so. I think the thing for us was much more about trying something different and trying to make a complete statement in a much shorter amount of time.”
Because vocals often provide some kind of soulful warmth, a human connection that most listeners are first drawn to, EITS always tries to find new ways to expand its sonic palette. That’s less important for the group’s soundtrack contributions, since actors and the screenplay can flesh out the context of scenes, with directors steering the focus. To challenge a listener and demand their full attention without visual accompaniment takes a certain intensity.
“For an EITS record, we don’t want to make background music,” James says. “We want to make music that you want to pay attention to. You can’t do that with a soundtrack; that’s not the purpose of the music, where you need to stay in the background and be a part of the scene playing around it. So it’s a pretty different approach.”
Songwriters are often asked which comes first, the music or the lyrics, but in EITS’s case, the question pertains to the music or the song title.
“In the past, it has certainly worked both ways, where we just come up with a title and try to make a song that’s as cool as that title. Or we come up with the music and then go looking for words that capture the feeling of that,” James says. “We certainly don’t limit ourselves to doing it one way or another; it’s just whatever works.”
With The Wilderness, the album’s title, which the band had before starting work on the recording, served as creative guide.
“It’s something that was pretty evocative to us — not just the wilderness of going out into nature on a hike, but also just unexplored territory of any kind,” James says. “Outer space is very much this huge wilderness; also the human mind, which we’re just starting to understand — this tiny but seemingly infinite landscape of the human brain. Getting into these unexplored territories was very interesting to us, musically. But most of the song titles came later this time.”
The Wilderness’ second single and one of the highlights, “Logic of a Dream,” encapsulates EITS’s bold new approach. The song creeps in with a synth pulse, a gentle undertow springing into Chris Hrasky’s frenetic drumming, creating a rippling turbulence. Disembodied voices float over Munaf Rayani’s ghostly guitar arpeggios until the frail melody winds down with the distorted, internal poetry of a dream/hallucination. It may remind you of Radiohead without Thom Yorke’s overwhelming angst.
Instead of relying on its trademark symphonic guitar crescendos, EITS luxuriates in a kind of ambient Electro/Folk/Rock atmosphere for much of the record. The songs provide soothing relief more than they soar in catharsis. The title track opens with a throbbing heartbeat and synth/keyboard melody hook, creating a majestic sonic wash that prepares the listener for the Electro ebb and flow to come. “Landing Cliffs” bookends the collection in graceful reverie as the band reaches resolution in muted tonal release, all silver-grey minor chords and glacial blues. All tracks combined, EITS definitely succeeded in taking its sound someplace new. Operating with a more album-oriented mindset also helped achieve that end.
“This feels like the most unique-sounding record in our catalog to me,” James says. “I think it was a pretty deliberate choice, to try a different sonic palette. We used some sounds we haven’t used before and we wrote in a way we hadn’t before — sort of smaller pieces — creating a record as a whole instead of each song being an entire statement. We wanted the whole record to be the statement. It was something to keep us engaged, interested — as an artist, you never want to do the same thing you’ve done before.”
A true democracy in action, all four of EITS’s members collaborate and share songwriting credits, and each is equally integral to the band. It’s why the group has lasted so long, but James admits it’s not always easy.
“When we’re writing a song, everyone has to love it,” he says. “If three people like a part, but one doesn’t, we do something else. It has to be pretty universally loved for it to become one of our songs. Which is great but also really hard — and getting harder. Our musical tastes have changed a bit over the years, so getting everyone to agree can be difficult. We’ve been doing this for 17 years now. It just felt like it had to be this way in order for us to do this and get the most out of it. It has to be unanimous. I’ve been proud of this, because this is a difficult task for many bands.”
EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY performs Tuesday at Bogart’s. Tickets/more info: bogarts.com.
