“I typically will put last draft lyrics on an album. I don’t like to tinker with the words too much,” says Spanish Love Songs vocalist Dylan Slocum. The band’s new record, Brave Faces Etc., out now via Pure Noise Records, is a reimagining of their beloved 2020 LP, Brave Faces Everyone, and by changing only the music, they gave new context to the preexisting lyrics.
“I think it became almost an experiment to see if we could keep the lyrics the same and change the music and see if that would create a new response, in listening to it,” says Slocum.
Because they haven’t played the songs from Brave Faces Everyone live, the recording period still felt recent, and time spent making Brave Faces Etc. felt like an extension of it.
“The cycle for (Brave Faces Everyone) was kinda robbed with everything shutting down for the pandemic,” Slocum explains. “So, the songs were still kinda fresh in our heads, in our own memories. I think it was kind of a natural choice to do some of the things we didn’t get to do in the studio the first time around, and also take these songs that we hadn’t gotten to play live, so it felt fun to tinker with them and live with them a bit longer.”
Except for a few pieces here and there, the reimagined version of the album was created almost entirely after Brave Faces Everyone was complete. In other words, it’s not just a deluxe version of the original.
“There were ideas of stuff that had been abandoned. Or different loops or parts that had been abandoned throughout the process,” Slocum says. “Some of the songs on the reimagined (version) got back to how they were originally demoed. But I think the bigger, more robust reinterpretations were done afterwards ’cause we had been sitting at home for eight months and were bored and had a bunch of toys to play with.”
Due to COVID, the band had a completely different writing process for Brave Faces Etc. With members in three different time zones, they collaborated by sending clips back and forth to one another. As opposed to the instant feedback that comes with writing in the same room, this approach forced them to take more time with each piece.
“Usually we’ll be like, ‘here’s this part I have,’ and then you play it, and there’s a reaction instantly,” Slocom says. “Versus with this, Meredith would lay down a keyboard part, and then we’d get a response from somebody a week later, but it wouldn’t be a response; it would be an edit of the keyboard part, or an entirely new part. So, this kind of building and adding and subtracting in that kind of strange way, kind of led to it all coming together.”
From the different approach to recording, to the music surrounding the lyrics, Brave Faces Etc. gives fans of Brave Faces Everyone a whole new way to experience the record. The words remain unchanged—technically, but the world surrounding the words is completely different, opening the lyrics up for new interpretations that might have previously gone unnoticed.
Watch the video for “Losers 2 (Etc Version)” here:
For more from Spanish Love Songs, find them on Facebook, Instagram, and their official website.
Photo courtesy of Nick Zimmer
