With recent release of their hauntingly beautiful debut album, members of West Michigan’s Antrim Dells put vocals at the forefront of their engaging, poetic music. (Podcast, video)
Alluring Harmonies, Bracing Songs: Antrim Dells features, from left, Brian Voortman, Laura Hobson, Jacob Bullard and John Hanson. (Photos/Anna Sink)
Antrim Dells guitarist, singer and songwriter Jacob Bullard concedes he cranked it up for a while as a teenager in a Traverse City rock band.
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Pianist and singer Laura Hobson jokes that she absorbed some of her musical influences as a young child, curling up inside the kick drum of her father’s basement kit during hide-and-seek games in Flushing, outside of Flint.
Jacob Bullard of Antrim Dells on Local Spins Live.
Drummer Brian Voortman grew up in California listening to oldies tunes “in my parents’ car driving to the beach.”
Bassist and most recent band addition John Hanson, who also leads Grand Rapids’ folk collective Strawberry Heritage, is a Traverse City native who once played Bush covers in an alt-rock cover band.
That unlikely set of ingredients in this recipe for a laid-back, lilting indie-folk band with spellbinding harmonies gives Antrim Dells a singularly luscious slant on that whole Fleet Foxes/Bon Iver musical crusade that’s swept the nation. “We’re inspired by what they do,” Bullard says of those acts.
GETTING CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR AN ARTFUL DEBUT
The Grand Rapids band formed last year has quickly drawn attention, built a fan base and earned critical acclaim for its approach, which gets artfully spotlighted on its debut studio album, “Given Name,” recorded in Nashville.
Antrim Dells showed off its ear-pleasing harmonies and seductively soft disposition by performing “Not My Doing” in the studio for Local Spins Live this week on News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW). Bullard notes the band rarely gets a chance in noisy bars and clubs to perform the mellow, understated final track on its album, making this a true Local Spins exclusive.
“It’s hard to pull a song like that off (in bars),” Bullard said. “We can’t play the quieter stuff quite as much.” Listen to the podcast of the show here, with a video of their in-studio performance below.
Officially released in late June during a concert in Grand Rapids’ Nice Gallery on Godfrey Avenue SW, “Given Name” represents a fortuitous synthesis of Bullard’s songwriting, “a great fit” with Nashville recording engineer Chad Wahlbrink and “a natural evolution of friendships” within the band.
Hanson, an acquaintance of Bullard’s from Traverse City, joined the group after responding to “an open call for some bass frequencies” and has since embraced Antrim Dells’ fetching soundscapes.
ATTENTION TO DETAIL, EMBRACING VISUAL ART
Although the band’s three-part harmonies clearly set it apart, there’s also Antrim Dells’ “comprehensive attention to detail,” which extends to album packaging, poster artwork and band photos, says Bullard.
Antrim Dells, “Given Name”
“Any area that we’re creating something, we take that pretty seriously,” says Bullard, who attended Hope College with Hobson. “Laura studied art in college, I live in an art gallery and do creative writing. John’s a photographer and visual artist. We really appreciate visual art and having one foot in the visual world and one foot in the music world.”
In many ways, the band’s serene-yet-lush music is reflected in its name, taken from the valleys of Antrim County northeast of Traverse City.
“Growing up in northern Michigan, that’s kind of a symbol of that for me,” says Bullard. “It was a name that just seemed to sound the right way and look the right way.”
The band has a few August shows in the works, performing at 9:30 p.m. Thursday at Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, opening for Grand Rapids folk-rock ensemble The Soil & The Sun. Admission is free. The Giving Tree Band is also on the bill.
Next week, the band travels to Holland to play Lemonjello’s Coffee, 61 E. Ninth St., at 7 p.m. Aug. 9, along with Josh Mogck and Sacred Strays. Admission is $5.
Starting in late August, Antrim Dells will take some time off from performing, Bullard says, with plans for returning to the stage with a series of show dates in October.
For more information about the band and to listen to its music, visit its official website at antrimdells.com. “Given Name” also is available at Vertigo Music in Grand Rapids.
ANTRIM DELLS: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY BY ANNA SINK (JULY 31, 2013)
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
