The power pop/rock band from Detroit and Bay City gets candid about its fourth release, which continues to draw inspiration from music of the 1960s and ’70s. The Local Spins Artist Spotlight.
The Legal Matters: A ‘Midwestern power pop supergroup.’
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Searching for truth and closure in an uncertain world, The Legal Matters’ latest album, “Lost at Sea,” represents a cathartic journey.
“It’s definitely reflective of stuff we’ve all been through as individuals,” Andy Reed said of the Metro Detroit and Bay City band’s fourth release.
“We really took our time with the lyrics. We wrote all of the lyrics together, but we left some things undone so we could finish it as a collective and really dive deep.”
Along with bandmates Chris Richards and Keith Klingensmith, Reed navigates disillusionment, uncertainty, and heartbreak across 10 tracks filled with power-pop elements.
“I would also say the record is kind of cathartic in a sense that it’s done in our typical way,” Richards said. “It’s actually kind of a cheery record, but I think the whole ‘Lost at Sea’ aspect put us in that frame of mind.”
With contemplative songs, lush harmonies, and melodic instrumentation, the album draws sonic inspiration from bands such as The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Badfinger.
“A lot of the music that we love is certainly ’60s and ’70s pop music, which thematically is really about love and love lost,” said Reed about the band, whose name comes from “A Legal Matter” by The Who. “We still go there, but we tried to be broader with it and not as direct.”
The album’s opener, “Everybody Knows,” examines disillusionment and features wistful instrumentation. The song addresses the downside of nostalgia for power-pop music.
Richards sings, “Cause everybody knows / What goes up, one day will come back down / Imagine if a sound could take you back to the place where you came from / It means so much to me.”
“The feel of ‘What goes up, one day will come back down’ was the emotions and my excitement about a form of music that I absolutely adore, but I feel the nostalgic aspect has punched so many holes in it and deflated it,” Richards said.
LISTEN: “Everybody Knows”
A VINYL LISTENING PARTY TO CELEBRATE THE NEW ALBUM
On the track, “The Message,” the band examines rising tensions about belief systems.
Reed sings, “Locked the doors while waiting for the coming of thy neighbor / With arms held tight, it’s black and white, it’s handed down behavior / When it’s dark, you don’t sympathize.”
“We tried really hard not to make it about anti-this or anti-that,” he said. “I think we did a good job of toeing that line.”
After looking outward, The Legal Matters shift to internal struggles on “It Doesn’t Matter.” The song explores a person’s duality and the challenge of understanding that over time.
“It’s totally the Jekyll-and-Hyde thing,” Reed said. “It’s that inner conversation of having two personalities.”
The band started writing songs like “It Doesn’t Matter” and other tracks for Lost at Sea in May 2024. They took a collaborative approach and partnered with band manager Cormac Wright.
“Not having a fully written song totally took the pressure away from making a record because there is no pressure,” said Richards, who formed the band with Reed and Klingensmith in 2013.
The New Album: Loving the cover
“I didn’t have to go into it saying, ‘I have a song, it’s completely composed, it’s arranged.’ None of that applied, and that helped a lot.”
They spent two days a month workshopping the songs at Reed’s Bay City-based studio, Reed Recording Company. The Legal Matters also collaborated with drummer Donny Brown and flutist Amelia Reed.
“We’d get to Andy’s studio on a Sunday morning, and there wouldn’t be a song,” Wright said. “There would be a few ideas floating around, and then by Sunday afternoon, the skeleton and the basis of the song were in place. That whole metamorphosis of the creation was exciting.”
With the album intact, The Legal Matters began brainstorming titles and opted for “Lost at Sea.” It comes from a lyric in the song “Stuck With Me” and is inspired by The Hardy Boys.
The album’s artwork even reflects The Hardy Boys theme and implies a ’70s-inspired sound.
“The cover was done before the record was mixed,” Reed said. “And had we not done that cover, the record would sound slightly different. I loved the cover so much, and I thought, ‘I gotta make this audio sound worthy of that cover.’”
The Legal Matters also partnered with Big Stir Records, a Burbank, Calif.-based independent label, to release the album.
“I’ve got my own label, Futureman Records, and we had a sister label thing going back when they were smaller, before they took over the world,” Klingensmith said.
“We just talked about it, and we thought it was time to check and see if they had any interest. And they did, luckily. They’ve already done more work on this record than we probably did through the life of “Chapter Three.” I think it’s a good match.”
To celebrate the album’s release, the band is hosting a vinyl listening party on Friday (March 20) at the Governor’s Quarters in Bay City.
“We’re gonna have a vinyl DJ, and we’re gonna bring some old records,” Reed said. “One set will be us picking songs, and then we’ll play the record in the second set in its entirety.”
After the listening party, the band will focus on supporting the album.
“We’re certainly going to keep doing stuff, and normally after a record like this, I feel like I need a long break, but I don’t feel like that after this one,” Reed said.
LISTEN: “It Doesn’t Matter”
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