After moving to Cincinnati from Los Angeles to take a break from composing films in order to focus on the material that would become DYANs first album, singer-songwriter Alexis Marsh found herself in Louisville, watching her former UofL classmate Dan Dorff play drums on Ray LaMontagnes latest record, Ouroboros, at La La Land Studio. Being there when that album took shape was enough to make her want to mix DYANs debut, the minimalistic-leaning synth-pop project Looking For Knives, with Kevin Ratterman and company at La La Land, which is where the three band members Marsh, Samuel Jones and Dorff worked together for the first time.
Its so unique in its vibe, Marsh said about how La La Land compares to the studios in Los Angeles. Ive never experienced a studio like that. So, when we were thinking about where we would finalize the album, La La Land just seemed right. It was a natural choice.
Marsh, who is originally from Winnipeg, met Jones while studying film composing at the University of Southern California, where they started working on each others projects because they played different instruments Marsh mostly played woodwinds and he played guitar, bass and drums and they, of course, shared the same taste in movies. For the last few years, theyve went under the name Alexis & Sam, working on scores for film and television. For Looking For Knives, Marsh wrote the material, and Jones added layers and produced, while Dorff rounded everything out on drums. A record fueled by a breakup, Marsh had a stark, direct soundscape in mind, something that she had to navigate in the studio, since it was the first time her material was being molded by this many people.
It was a little bit of an epiphany, of realizing that I have preferences and I have an idea of how I want these songs that I have written to be, Marsh said. And there are times where you kind of have to fight for what that is. When you have three other people saying thats kind of boring, or its not really going anywhere. But, having my own opinions that I like that its boring or I like that its not going anywhere. That means something to me.
DYAN plays Zanzabar on Tuesday, Nov. 29. $8.