After gaining indie success and a record label with Columbia via the success of their first single "Loud(y)" in early 2015 (were reached No. 1 on the Hype Machine), New York via Washington DC folk-rock duo Lewis Del Mar (singer and guitarist Danny Miller, and drummer and producer Max Harwood) followed up their debut EP (in January this year) with their debut self-titled album this month. (The duo named their band after their fathers - who were both named Lewis - and their favourite coastal hangout of Rockaway Beach):
"In this process of self-discovery we decided that what we really wanted to do was retain some of the rawness of the previous blues-rock band that we were in, in the sense that we wanted to have live drums and acoustic guitar on every track, while incorporating industrial, sampled sounds. When we came out to Rockaway, we were on the beach but the subway and the grit of the city was right there. It’s like the natural world meeting the industrial world, and it kind of embodied what we were going for sonically".
Max Hardwood, Billboard
Their recent single "Painting (Masterpiece)" exemplifies the simultaneous freshness of their folk-rock sonic template, which relies on bright acoustic guitars, mixed media samples, rhythmic percussion and drum work inspired by Latin America. It basically amounts to an uplifting carpe-diem anthem; Danny Miller's evocative vocals capture the heady, imaginative ambitions and the restlessness of the urban artistic set:
'The walls are boring mePaint it like you always dreamed it'd beTurquoise, neon greenPaint it like you always dreamed it'd beThrow like PollockFuck the apartmentOh, paint it like you always dreamed it'd be
(Oh, ooh)(Oh, ooh ooh)(Oh, ooh)(Oh, ooh ooh)If you want it, you can have itEvery color that you see, see, seeIf you want it, want it badBuild yourself a technicolor masterpiece, ohMasterpiece, masterpieceOh, yeahA rainbow kitchen floorYou're laughin' like you always dreamed you'd be(Come on, let's paint the door, ooh)Handprints on the ceiling where our dreams will reachSo 'John Mchale-esque'Straight lines don't existWhen you're livin' like you always dreamed it'd be'
Lyrics: Genius
A sliver of disheartening realism appears in the bridge, where Miller acknowledges that 'the masterpiece' may not stand the test of time, and may not be valued by everyone:
'And many years from nowThe landlord will kick us outHe'll cover all our sinsHe'll paint it white again(Oh, ooh)(Oh, ooh ooh)White, oh no, yeah, yeah(Oh, ooh)(Oh, ooh ooh)(Oh, ooh)(Oh, ooh ooh)'
But Miller does not seemed fazed by art's almost inevitable impermanence. To a certain extent, art exists for its own sake - Miller and Harwood were recording in the isolation of their Rockaway Beach bungalow without any certainty that their musical efforts would gain such recognition and approval. Even if the walls are eventually painted a barren white again, their technicolor masterpiece they have produced so far will certainly be remembered.
