The members of Lake Street Dive—bassist Bridget Kearney, guitarist and trumpeter Michael "McDuck" Olson, powerhouse singer Rachael Price, and drummer Michael Calabrese—met in 2004 as students at Boston's New England Conservatory of Music. Though they were all studying jazz, their work together took an altogether different shape, informed by their love of classic pop, particularly from the '60s, when pop could mean the Beatles, the Supremes, Dusty Springfield, or the Beach Boys. They recognized the virtuosity—and timelessness—in the efforts of studio musicians like Muscle Shoals' legendary Swampers and L.A.'s Wrecking Crew. Similarly, their original repertoire combined musical sophistication with an easy going groove.
Side Pony, recorded in the winter of 2015, has an exhilarating feel from start to finish. For listeners familiar with Lake Street Dive, it's a natural evolution of the band's sound. The arrangements offer a knowing nod to the past while the lyrics tackle the pitfalls of modern romance in a manner that's often more playful than rueful. And Price's vocals have a teasing swagger to them. Neither her heart nor her hairstyle will be messed with.
Singer Price agrees: "We're the happy breakup band. We like to write about our lives and real things but we always like music that makes you dance and lifts you up. And those things don't need to be separate from one another. A sad song doesn't need to be in a minor key and slow. That's something we try to blend and do as much as possible." The album track "Spectacular Failure," she notes, is sort of a "cheerful parody" of a hapless lothario. "The story and specifics aren't true but it was inspired by a real person who we turned into this mythical, terrible character."
Side Pony is produced by the eclectic Nashville-based Dave Cobb, whose credits include Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, and the Secret Sisters. Cobb's working method was to keep the recording fast and loose, as live-in-the-studio as possible, and to embrace the unorthodox.
Price says, "We realized working in the studio this way that we each have our own strengths: Bridget is a really fantastic lyricist. She's fast and she can come up with a lot of ideas. McDuck is the same way with harmony, with changes and chords. He can come up with a lot of options in a short period of time. It was great to see, through this particular recording process, how beautifully our individual strengths complement each other."
