In a 2008 interview with the weekly paper Denver Westword, Darker My Love bassist/vocalist Rob Barbato adamantly refuted the notion that his band was immersed in any sense of nostalgia.
“No, we’re not trying to do any kind of a throwback,” Barbato said. “You’re influenced by what you’re influenced by. We just make the music we make together, the five of us. We’re not trying to jump on any scene or anything, you know? If we were trying to do that, we’re like a decade late.”
That interview was conducted around the time that 2, Darker My Love's sophomore full-length, was released. Like its predecessor, the band’s 2006 self-titled debut, the album was filled with sizzling, teetering guitar atmospherics, clouding the vocals in their wake. The sounds garnered comparisons to a procession of Psychedelic and Shoegaze titans associated with decades past, including Pink Floyd, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain, as well as The Rolling Stones’ trippy 1967 record, Their Satanic Majesties Request. There's validity to the “retro” depiction; 2 is rich and beautiful but not groundbreaking enough to completely forgo a debt to its ancestors.
Darker My Love plays The Mad Hatter Wednesday with Delta Spirit. Go here to read Reyan Ali's full interview with Rob Barbato and to get ticket and club details.
