Featuring an irresistible tension between layers of elegant, English-leaning guitar pop and core member Andrew Marr’s often melancholy (and yes, Morrissey-moping) vocals, Brooklyn band Ski Lodge is tapping into famously murky channels, but brightening them with the same breezy, surf aesthetic that powers locals peers such as Real Estate and Beach Fossils.
Recorded in Los Angeles by Marr with help from Lewis Pesacov (who also produced Best Coast’s debut), their debut “Big Heart” is heavy with classic U.K. rhythms and subtle songwriting beyond their years.
As they wrap up their national tour with a show at Mercury Lounge, amNewYork spoke with Marr.
After growing up in Connecticut, you spent a few troubled years in Florida. Was there a direct link between that time and getting more serious about music?
Yes ? once I started to come out of the blur, and the few years I spent really doing nothing except drugs and partying. Music was not in my life during that time. Florida was definitely where I became passionate about it again, and realized that was all that was important to me. … So that was an important time and [also] when I started writing some of the songs released on “Big Heart.”
Has your relationship to those songs already started to change?
The songs at this point are a little bit old in a way, but it’s cool to play them for new audiences. I’m starting to realize that [even though] I’ve been playing some of these songs for two years, someone is hearing them for the first time. I do enjoy playing them, but we’re trying to find whatever downtime we can on the road to write stuff for new releases.
There is a dissonance between your upbeat sound and your darker lyrics, which is something you often see in classic songwriting. Are there older writers you admire?
It’s definitely older bands. The Smiths and The Cure are two of my [favorites]. I think the songwriting in each is just great. The darker lyrical content is more meaningful, and usually what will move me. ? I think there’s also room for me to write just a fun song at some point that’s not necessarily about anything.
