Heavy lyrics discussing death, disappointment and the qualities of a fulfilling life are common topics for indie-folk band Good Old War, but paradoxically, their music isn’t depressing.
For Dan Schwartz, band guitarist, that’s just the Pennsylvania trio’s niche.
Good Old War traveled through North Carolina and made stops in the Triangle just a week after their release of their newest album, Come Back as Rain.
According to Schwartz, the new album demonstrates the band’s refined approach to production, which has taken off since their first release in 2008. As a band still defining its sound, Schwartz said Come Back as Rain is a product of four busy years of touring and recording. This time, however, they had the luxury of producing it all at once, in what Schwartz describes as a “focused environment.”
“I think this is the first time we made a record properly,” Schwartz said. “We had time to focus on it as a project. We produced our second album by ourselves. We were completely engineering it by ourselves. For this one, we spent a month in pre-production.”
The upbeat rhythms heavy in acoustic guitar haven’t changed in the band’s folk-inspired approach to indie-rock, but this album offers a cohesive collection of songs that reflect the inspiration of the album — the human condition — according to Schwartz.
“This album caters to our talents more than ever,” Schwartz said. “They are the heaviest lyrics and upbeat. More than anything, this is describing the things that everyone goes through, either relationships, death and the mundane things that people may not be thinking about.”
This is clear in “It Hurts Every Time,” a song full of guitar riffs and impromptu rhythmical tangents. The cheerful melody carries lyrics of a breakup, however. According to Schwartz, this juxtaposition of emotions more clearly demonstrates the ambiguous and beautiful mess of life.
This album is all about the acoustics in the background, though these are the band’s deepest lyrics, Schwartz said.
“The album represents a stylistic guitar thing I’ve wanted to do,” Schwartz said. “None of us have played in a band like this before. As an acoustic guitarist, I want to put melody and rhythm into it at the same time. We’ve given each other our own moments and we’ve worked together extremely well. After four years of touring, we’ve trusted each other’s talent, and I think this album reflects that.”
