Post-rock, by its very nature, seeks to create meaningful and unique emotional experiences for its listeners. Yet few albums reach such rarified popularity and devotion in the genre as Departure Songs by WE LOST THE SEA. Its reflection of noble sacrifices from history, alongside the personal tragedy of vocalist Chris Torpy‘s death in 2013 and a band in subsequent transition, created a brilliant alchemy that resonates among fans to this day. Ten years on, the Australian six-piece seek to commemorate the anniversary alongside the release of their fifth album, A Single Flower.
Guitarist Matt Harvey makes clear that this success was not expected – and that their first European tour in 2017 was when the band fully realised the impact on their fans. “People just wanted to share their stories with us, say how much it meant to them, how much it had helped them. For such a small band, from so far away, to come and have a massive impact on people’s lives across the world, was really special.”
Part of the appeal, beyond the music itself, was the level of detail and effort invested in the album’s narrative. Each song reflects a specific historical tragedy – the sacrifice of Captain Oates on A Gallant Gentleman, the Challenger space shuttle disaster on Challenger Part 1 and Part 2. It’s an approach now firmly embedded in the band’s DNA. “When we started to write the songs, I think that it was just a natural gravitation towards something that would make them make sense, or help us contextualise what we were going through,” says Harvey, who also creates the artwork for the band. “But I think we set that bar, and then it’s been a thing we’ve wanted to do ever since. The concepts of stories [are] now an extension of what we do as artists, as musicians, as the band.”
That approach parlayed its way into 2019’s Triumph & Disaster, whose concept was set out early by Harvey: “I was like, this is going to be about the end of the world. It’s the apocalypse.” It was a bold approach that caused some tension amongst the band, who struggled at first to lock into the concept. “Some of the guys found it quite restrictive… I was in the headspace of it and my writing style and my apocalyptic sound was already coming out and the guys were like, I’m not feeling this. Eventually they came around, and we pushed out something like [opening track] Towers, which is immense and amazing.”
The learnings from that process informed the approach to creating A Single Flower. First and foremost: a long production schedule, to accommodate families and jobs, and allow extended writing sessions for the band’s strong personalities to converge together. Also flipped was the approach to the narrative. “We experimented with doing it the opposite way… Let’s just write what we want, we’ll see what comes out. What we feel will eventually translate through our instruments.” Harvey worked closely with Mark Owen to form the themes for the album. “We sort of squash it down until it becomes something that we both want to do, we believe in, and we enjoy, but is respectful of each other’s input and makes sense as a whole.”
As such, the “elevator pitch” for A Single Flower is still a work in progress for Harvey. “What motivates life to live, to create beauty, to see beauty when there’s so much horror and bloodshed in the world, I guess? What is the cost of seeing a single flower, and is it worth the trade-off?” The title is drawn from Cormac McCarthy‘s All The Pretty Horses, one of many literary touchpoints for the album, with each of its six songs linked to a specific artist or writer’s quote. Album closer Blood Will Have Blood takes its title from Macbeth and best sums up the album’s theme of the debt we must pay. “Is there an equity that we owe the earth for the tragedy that has occurred, that we’ve caused, and when will we eventually pay the price for that?” Muses Harvey.
It’s a challenging theme that pays off with some of the band’s best work, from the pitch-perfect escalation and menace of If They Had Hearts to the emerging brightness and hope of Bloom. Single Everything Here Is Black And Blinding breaks new ground with electronic textures and an accompanying music video, a first for WE LOST THE SEA. It’s a culmination, too, of a true collaboration within the band. “There was an insistence on trying to make sure that it sounded like six people were playing and wrote it,” says Harvey. “We spent 95% of it writing in the same room together. Everybody wants to have their airtime with their bits. And I think everybody brought their A-game to this record.”
Alongside the new album comes a first-ever US tour, followed by two sets at their debut ArcTanGent Festival appearance in the UK. Both ArcTanGent and Post Festival in the US will feature Departure Songs played in full to mark its tenth anniversary. Having such a beloved record amongst fans can cast a long shadow over later work, and it’s clear that WE LOST THE SEA are keen to respect that love from the fans whilst foregrounding their newer material. “We never take it for granted. Every musician wants something like that,” admits Harvey of Departure Songs. “[But] I think after the anniversary this year we’re going to put it in the box, in the cupboard, for a while. Maybe ten years, I don’t know.” It’s a fair sentiment from a band with plenty more to say and share.
A Single Flower is out now via Dunk Records (Europe)/Bird’s Robe (Australia)/Translation Loss (USA)/New Noise (China). View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS122 here:
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