With their fourth record ‘Lookout Low’ out today (13th September), we thought it was only right to get Chicago indie rockers Twin Peaks to tell us all about it! “‘Lookout Low’ is by far the most collaborative and intentional record we’ve made,” they explain. “It was a lot of fun to make, we really accepted any and every idea and took ourselves out of any boxes we had ourselves in. And despite trying a lot of things out, working with a producer for the first time, embracing different sounds, it really feels like our most natural and accurately representative record yet.” Read the track-by-track below:

CASEY’S GROOVE

This track got it’s name because the drum part (lead drums, if you ask me) was inspired by a beat our friend Casey Weissbuch posted on Instagram. It’s a song about accepting death and decay and trusting in the cyclical nature of the universe.

LAID IN GOLD

This one came together very naturally. It started as a chord progression that I initially heard Cadien playing on guitar months prior that kind of stuck in my head. I walked over to his place, asked if he had done anything with it, and kind of extrapolated on it in my own way afterwards. The song itself is about a friend of mine getting ready to move out of the city, a buddy that I’d go out on the town and party with. Wanting to let them go on and pursue their efforts in life, but not without grabbing a few drinks before his ship set sail. This song also started initially as a guitar focused track, but once we got to the studio and I got near a good piano it started calling for it, and yielded a melody to ride on top of what had already been written on the intro and outro of the tune.

BETTER THAN STONED

This was the first one we recorded. Its just a simple ol’ song. We gave it lots of space instrument-wise and let it breathe. I really like the solo Cadien played.

UNFAMILIAR SUN

"Unfamiliar Sun" is a song about struggling through bouts of depression throughout the course of a year, through the changing seasons, and reflecting on how that struggle has affected my life as a whole. It’s also about finding love within all of that and trying to embrace the bad to find the good within the struggle.

DANCE THROUGH IT

Another song that feels really defined by the rhythm section, just really embracing this environment created by the bass drums and percussion. This is the first song where I’ve had huge chunks just singing and not playing guitar. Guitars come last in the arrangement, which was a cool change for us.

LOOKOUT LOW

This is the track the album got its name from. It was never the intention for that to become the title, it became that long after we’d finished recording. We got this one in the first take. We didn’t initially want to use the first take, but we were encouraged to keep it. I think we’re all glad we did.

FERRY SONG

I wrote this song in New Orleans in May of 2018; it's about love and recognizing that it can follow you, just as you can follow it. I initially wrote this song on guitar, but this was the first song that I felt most comfortable singing lead and playing piano at the same time. Recording this tune helped shape it's potential with focus on dynamic and groove. I always heard horns joining the the song on the latter half in my head and feel it solidified the tune once they were recorded.

UNDER A SMILE

This song was inspired by Captain Beefheart’s “I’m Glad.” At first it had a very heavy organ part, but then we came up with dualing guitar leads that gave the song a lot of atmosphere. It was wonderful to hear Ohmme sing on this one, it was very beautiful.

OH MAMA

This is another track we got on the first take. It’s got its quirks, but the energy and groove was all exactly what we wanted. We did a few more takes, but all thought the first one had the juice. It was definitely one of the more fun tunes to record. This song is inspired by a moonlit mushroom walk down the beach in Byron Bay, Australia. There was a massive lighthouse that was sending light across the already moonlit water. It was quite the sight.

SUNKEN II