With a debut album dropping 12 November and a South Island tour to follow, Downriver’s Yann Le Dorre talks garage recordings, honest songwriting and the village behind the music.
How would you describe Downriver’s sound – and what makes you work so well together?
I’d describe our sound as somewhere between the lush acoustics of ’70s singer-songwriters like Neil Young and James Taylor, and the cathartic melancholy (laughs) of ’90s grunge. I like to think of it as the new folk for here and now – as suburban fields are all we ever had.
The first word that comes to mind when I think about our musical bond is honesty. You’ll hear people describe players as having “feel”, and everybody in the band has that. No one is a virtuoso player; we just want to service the songs. We firmly believe in substance over style and in “writing the real”.
Who helped bring the album to life, and how did Nelson shape it?
Aside from the band, there’s a variety of talents you need to make an album. First and foremost is someone behind the mixing desk. As fate would have it, an old friend from Waimea Intermediate, Quillon Sampson, followed the path of audio engineering.
Quillon is an amazing live sound engineer – you’ve probably heard him mixing at a local show, or even Guns N’ Roses. He was kind enough to lend his time and expertise to record the album. He sourced all the gear through his connections at Gravity Events and spent the better part of three days cooped up in my dusty garage in the peak of summer.
He then went on to mix the record at his home studio, spending a year’s worth of listening on our songs. That commitment was the real lifeblood of this record.
I sought out the sound of local string teacher Tamsin Leenhouwers after watching her perform with her daughter at Yaza Cafe one Sunday evening. I brought Tamsin in as a session musician because she is a spectacular violin player. Her performances on the tracks are like honey.
The cover and press photos were shot at the Matai by Mia Crockett, a budding photographer and Nelson native. The record cover and subsequent graphic design were done by Bryn Fenemor, another friend from my Waimea College days.
I also have to shout out the graces of the band’s better halves, who keep us fed and hydrated during the long recording sessions – thank you!
This album wasn’t made with money, and everybody who was involved was smiling. We all have day jobs, so these extracurricular passions truly mean the world to us. The ephemeral power of music brings us together under a common banner. There’s a certain purity in a community contributing to a work of art, and I think that has translated onto the album.
What inspires a Downriver song?
Every song starts on an acoustic guitar. Maybe it’s the same two chords you’ve been playing your whole life, but today they sound different.
The lyrics begin in an unconscious state. I’ll usually start just humming phrases over the chords, and quite often it’s the first spoken line that sticks. The rest of the song slowly follows, determined by mood and whatever images may be flashing through your mind. It’s almost like somebody struck a rock and water flowed out.
There have been a few songs where I felt like I didn’t even know what they were about until months later. Of course, there are some songs where you’ll make a conscious stab at cohesion – “this is what it’s going to be about” – but I think the best art draws you to your own conclusions.
What was the biggest surprise – good or bad – about making your first album together?
Ooohhh, for me it was how clean and rich the album ended up sounding, considering it was recorded in a dusty garage. That’s another testament to Quillon’s magic!
I remember lying on the garage floor listening back to the mixes for the first time and thinking, wow. This sounds great!
What’s next for Downriver?
Surviving the tour and hopefully selling some merch! Once the tour wraps up in December, we’ll work towards recording again. We’ve got about 14 new songs with more coming every day. Perhaps a double album?
Catch Downriver at Chercher on 21 November or Golden Bay at Roots Bar on 12 December.
