After 10 years, Aloha’s Tony Cavallario wanted to do
something different. Not that there was much to complain about with the
band’s releases up to that point, which carved out a comfortable if not
terribly innovative niche in the post-rock realm. But Cavallario felt
compelled to combine his longstanding love for experimental pop with a
slew of stripped-down acoustic tracks he’d been working on that didn’t
quite fit the band’s existing format.
“I had 10 acoustic-based songs that I thought would be great but
there would only be room [for] two or three of them on an album before
it got bogged down. But these were the songs that I was naturally
inclined toward finishing. At some point, I said, ‘Hey guys, let’s go
back to the studio and just make an acoustic EP. We’ll have no
expectations. We’ll just go do it and see what happens.'”
The result was Light Works, a 30-minute gem of sophisticated
but melancholy pop. The arrangements allow plenty of space for the
songs to breathe while incorporating sophisticated counterpoints
between the picked guitars, subtle drumming, and sparse sonic textures.
The vocal melodies and accompanying harmonies are sung
gently—neither over-emoted nor lackadaisical—with earnest
yearning and pathos. The tempos move at a leisurely pace, giving an
overall feeling of thoughtfulness, and the lyrics are from a
second-person perspective, as if directed to specific people. For
example, on “Body Buzz,” the lyrics run, “Hello my friend, I’m so sure
it’s you again/You’ve emerged looking worse, but it’s nothing we can’t
mend/Your handshake’s so weak and your smile is a fraud, but you’ve
come to the right place, and just in time, it’s been so long.”
Cavallario’s inspiration for Light Works was the liner notes
of his parents’ record collection. And like some of the more unique
bands from the ’60s, Aloha recognizes that studio technology can serve
as another instrument.
“With bands like the Left Bank and the Beach Boys and the
Millennium, these were kids or producers using every tool at their
disposal to make music something more than what it was. And if you take
away all the production, you still have pretty good songs underneath.
But, without the production it’s not the same thing.”
As a result, Cavallario relies heavily on the band’s newest member,
multi-instrumentalist and producer T.J. Lipple. “T.J. is probably the
person that I work with most intimately with music. He’s the one who
handles all my vocals and does the mixing and stuff. I just think at
that point in my life I just had to work with somebody who had his head
on straight and was very song-oriented. That dictated the direction we
have gone in the last three-and-a-half records.”
Despite the influences, Light Works is not a retro-sounding
psychedelic album. The final product lands closer to the lush
earthiness of America or more current artists like Sam Prekop, Eric
Matthews, or Richard Davies.
“The label thought that it would be some kind of breakthrough. But I
don’t believe that breakthroughs happen to bands,” Cavallario says.
“Luckily we have a fanbase so we don’t really care.”