(Photo via Instagram @strangeluckband)
I've known Strange Luck for nearly as long as they've been playing shows, by consequence of landing a job doing sound (thanks to Sean Purcell and Peter Van Zandt Lane, the drummer and guitarist respectively,) at their home base venue: Strange Duck Brewing. Sean usually did sound there but it's a difficult thing to juggle when you're also performing, so I continue to help in that area when I can. To get to know these folks a little better, (and as part of a school project,) I joined the band in their vocal recording adventures over at the University of Georgia's Dancz Center main studio.
After helping Peter setup and watching Wes Dwyer lay down a few vocal takes for their upcoming originals, the band had all trickled in by noon and we decided to go get lunch. We headed downtown on a warm and sunny November day to The Globe, and after getting our drinks and food decided now was a good time for me to start pestering them with questions. I started by asking: where did the band name come from? Bassist and hype man Chris took the lead:
“It was a very interesting intersection for us to be able to meet each other to begin with. So the idea of Strange Luck kind of represents a little bit of that where it's just things happen when-”
However, Peter interjected with:
“You don't have to make a story out of it, it's just because it rhymes with ‘Strange Duck’.”
Chris clarified:
“It was [an] homage to a place where we met; Sean worked at Strange Duck, and I was introduced to Sean through a church that I play music at."
That was Chris' way in, in addition to already having played at Strange Duck before. Chris found Sean as he was doing sound at Strange Duck and was introduced by one of the owners, Drake Scott. However, Peter played with a different band that he found after walking around his neighborhood during the pandemic lockdown:
“One of my neighbors had put together a band, and I started playing with them and Sean was playing in that band.”
That's how Peter found Sean, but Sean was a big part of the driving force that brought the band to fruition:
“I had driven past where Strange Duck is, back in 2020, and realized there was that bus there with the stage on the top… and I was like that is the coolest thing ever: a lime green school bus with a stage on the top.
… so yeah, I played in a band with Peter and we played on top of the bus… and then I realized that I wanted… to start a band from the ground up and hand-pick the players so that there [were] no… weak links."
It's pretty apparent none of the band is inexperienced. The least experienced member might be Wes, but he was described to the rest of the band as an “amazing karaoke singer.” Sean explained that they met Wes through a mutual friend, Seamus, who was originally playing with them. In fact, their octopus mascot is named after Seamus.
I then asked the band how practices usually go, and while the initial comical answer by all four dads was “we don't,” I eventually got some elaboration out of Wes:
“We meet when we can, we all have children, so like, you know, after we get off work. It's more of a ‘after dinner’ kind of deal…. Probably more so for me… 'cause I get scared all the time."
Chris noted that Sean was “the mastermind that allows us to be able to rehearse…” and Peter also said that Sean helps guide practice and performance in a great technical capacity:
“I do think that a lot of our approach to things is very dependent around… a mixture of Sean's ability and OCD,… his abilities in the music engineering domain, and his patience for being a perfectionist about a lot of those things, even in situations of like, practice…. He convinced us all to do in-ear monitors, I never did in-ear monitors, but he was like ‘you know, it would really be a lot better,’ and now I can't not do in-ear monitors."
The in-ear monitoring the band refers to is a system in which the band is able to exclusively hear themselves and each other through headphones or ear buds, and the band is also able to adjust their own individual mix so that they can hear exactly what they want to. I do this with my band as well and it has worked wonders for an effective practice and performance. Wes confirms:
“I didn't know any better but I'd feel weird without it too."
Sean expanded on his technical prowess emphasis:
“I will say, part of my vision for creating the band was…"
Peter:
“Let's not sound crappy."
Sean:
“Exactly… I want to be in a band, we only play venues that have sound systems that sound good, that have subs… ‘cause I feel like that’s a huge part of enjoying the show is actually sounding good."
Chris added:
“Sometimes we're willing to sacrifice some more work in order to make the venue sound better if it takes us bringing extra gear than they would normally have to like, enrich the experience…. Sean and Peter both have a really good ear for quality, so we can be honest with each other and be like ‘hey this doesn’t work'… but also it creates a standard that we can work to."
Wes concluded:
“And that's what our practices are like!"
Chris came up with a question for the sound engineers here and put it forth: “Being a sound engineer yourself that plays in a band, how difficult is it going into a venue and working with other sound engineers that don't care about the things you do when you're working?”
A good question for a very sound-quality-focused band, and Sean answered:
“It makes me not want to play those venues."
Peter also offered:
“I don't have a lot of experience with live sound. Like, I have a decent amount of experience in studio work… so I'm more comfortable being deferential."
There are several translational barriers that happen in live music, similar to recorded music. The basic outline in a live environment of where sound begins and ends is from the song itself, to the performer, to the instrument, to the microphone or straight to amplification, to the front of house mixing engineer, and finally to the venue's system where it hits the audience's ears. Any one of these points can fail to catastrophic effect, but Strange Luck has an efficient and consistent system of quality up until the venue's mix engineer. So having a good sound engineer for them can be the final perfect piece to an intricate jigsaw puzzle that they have full control over.
I decided to pivot the conversation away from engineering back to some more band-centric information. Next I asked: what kind of merch do you have available right now? The band laughed and Wes had a fitting answer:
“A LOT of extra-large t-shirts… we've got shirts, we've still got some stickers, we've got air fresheners."
Everybody seemed to like the air fresheners, and Chris explained:
“The air freshener idea was, um, the idea of a sticker, but something you could keep indefinitely, and not have to move it around from place to place. Peter says his kids' rooms smelled like piña colada for like a month or something."
He then talked about the recordings we were doing today, and how those are going to be distributed in the future:
“Our goal: we're starting small, we just want to print vinyls for ourselves…. Even if we make four copies."
The merch and their ability to sell is dwarfed by the band's emphasis on just having fun, making good music, and being friends, as Chris explains:
“We've had fun and it's been productive. That's been something I feel like, majority of the time, when we get done playing a show we're always looking forward to doing it again, and I think that's kind of the, like, those are the goals you kind of need to have more than, you know, selling 200,000 copies or anything."
Wes agreed:
“I never really had a goal, I want it to be fun, and I never want it to stop being fun."
Peter seems to get more joy out of working on new originals:
“I get bored just doing covers, right? Like, I want to do originals…. and they're like, yeah lets write something together, and then I go home and write a bunch of stuff all by myself in my room because that's what I do… but it is fun, and I like the idea… that we can like, write a song and have a lot of fun when we do like, an original, and we play, and people are like ‘yeah we like that song,' and I'm like ‘yay!’… That's what tickles my fancy."
Chris agreed that he likes a mixture of originals and covers:
“I'm very much the same way. I get a lot of enjoyment playing original songs… but also it's really fun being the background noise for people's evenings… you just got to kind of retune yourself for that…"
They seem to all be in it for a good time, which is a great thing to see in any band. I firmly believe the audience responds to that and returns the ‘having fun’ energy in kind.
Most bands are short lived, but these guys seem to be having fun together for more than two years now. So I asked: what's the key to not getting pissed off at each other? It's hard to schedule gigs and practices between a group of working adults, and difficult to communicate quality standards to each other especially in the arts. Peter chimed in with a quick reply that seemed to have a backstory:
“Don't park behind each other at practices."
Excellent advice. Chris gave an answer closer to what I was expecting:
“Attitudes and expectations… we don't put unjust expectations on each other… and communication… I think we can all communicate very well with each other."
Some bands have players with egos, interpersonal drama, or other rifts going on, but this isn't the case at all with Strange Luck. Wes provided another perspective:
“It's weird though… for me it's totally different because I'm not in this world, I'm joining this world… I just take whatever they say. Whatever they want, I trust them because they're really good at everything…. I have such imposter syndrome with the band just 'cause… I'm such an outsider looking in…. but it's neat to watch these guys be good.”
Strange Luck seems to have it all figured out, so I asked: what are you focused on improving on?
Sean had a pretty clear answer here:
“I would say the quality of gigs. Just try to keep getting cool gigs where there's a built-in crowd and where we don't have to go to bed a three o' clock in the morning."
Peter emphasized:
“We're all old, and we like to get to bed early… except Wes… and Chris…. We like shows that start at 6PM and end at 9PM. We don't like shows that start at like ten o' clock but you don't actually start until 11:30…"
Totally understandable. Wes also had a different answer:
“Me personally, it's learning how to take care of myself…. I've been a little frustrated with my vocal cords… my wife would hurry me around karaoke bars, that's what we did. I would go out on the weekend and sing the song ‘cause she thought it was cool. I didn’t really have to worry about anything else. Now, you know, especially when we have like, shows on two different weekends,… (I have to) be good to myself a little more so that I have vocal cords for when we have shows."
Wes had also consumed an energy drink before tracking if I recall correctly, and someone had brought other carbonated beverages that shall remain nondescript. Not ideal for the vocal style Wes was going for, but, as we'll see on the record, it ended up giving some great takes for a few hours nonetheless.
We returned to the studio, and Wes nailed a few more takes. The sound of these new songs feels like a reinventing of the dad-rock stereotype. One can see a clear representation of the four-hour set of covers the band has pulled together, with the best parts distilled into one or two elements of vocal inflection or guitar harmonies. Yet with creative and professional musicians working on the project, they end up being much more than the sum of their parts. “Spilling Secrets” is especially bop-worthy, and I'm psyched to see all of the originals hit streaming services soon.
Before this interview, I did hear that Sean had a strange dream involving Chris pushing Athens music legend Jay Gonzalez down a set of stairs. Everyone had a good laugh about it but I had to ask for a final comment from Chris about what this could mean:
“Jay, sleep tight tonight, buddy."