There will always be a freedom for artists that do not wish to conform to what the mainstream supposedly wants. Our recent discovery of The Low Stakes Band (the songwriting duo of Eric Colville and Ann Holbrook) shows what happens when musicians decide they’re done with polite art and sanitized songwriting. A little defiance and refusing to take themselves too seriously has resulted in a warm approach that has been connecting with fans.
Their new single “5 Days Over” is the epitome of this and a great introduction to what they are able to do. We caught up with the New Hampshire indie folk duo to get a little deeper into their music and soul. Enjoy the interview:
First we have to ask, what prompted the decision on the name The Low Stakes Band?
Well, it was that we were overthinking some minor harmony part for a show that was not exactly a big venue and we said, “well, let’s not worry too much, I mean, the stakes could not be lower….”
How would you describe your sound and also your mission?
Wait – we’re on a mission? Sound – probably about 95 decibels of sweet vocal harmony and acoustic guitar. Occasionally we’ll rattle some percussion type instrument.
Which artists have had the biggest influence on The Low Stakes Band?
I think we’re both heavily influenced by vocal harmony groups of the 60s and 70s, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac, etc
How do you hope to connect to the listener with your music?
We simply hope that the experiences brought out in the songs resonate with anyone who listens to the lyrics. The songs come from a real place with real emotions and I feel we’re honest about them. I think that always comes through.
We hear your latest single “5 Days Over” was written very quickly. What was the original spark? Was there a specific moment, story, or emotion that kicked off the writing process?
Very simply it was this:
It was a Monday, my GF was coming home on Saturday of the next week and I, greatly hoping the time would pass, counted across from Monday to Saturday (the five days over part) and then, in a moment of Cartesian mischief, decided to go straight down to the next Saturday (the one day down part), instead of back around through the week again. I just said “five days over one day down” and realized the easy song content there. I literally wrote exactly what was going on in my mind right at that moment.
Songs by The Low Stakes Band often navigate that space between humor and heartbreak. Where does “5 Days Over” land on that spectrum?
I’d say tongue-in-cheek humor. Kind of a “hey – what’s wrong with that?” idea. The “navigation” you speak of is generally because I need the comic relief of a humorous or whimsical song after writing something more serious and intense where I really had to drill down emotionally to get to the heart of the matter.
Lyrics in your music tend to feel very lived-in and honest. Were there any specific lyrics in “5 Days Over” that felt particularly vulnerable or defiant to put out there?
I literally told it like it was. OK – I did say “goddamned telephone”….(cover your ears)…. because it just felt right and it’s truly how I felt about finally getting past all that time (it was several months) and being so tantalizingly close to the end of the ‘relationship by phone’. I suppose there’s a defiance in re-writing the rules of the calendar to suit my needs at the time. Truly revolutionary, right?
Seems like you can go anywhere from here. What is next for The Low Stakes Band?
We literally have a backlog of songs ready to go so we are recording and we hope to have a more full band presentation as a possibility once we find the right people but we’ll always keep the duo or trio capability because sometimes that just feels right for certain songs. The difficult but also good thing is that many of the songs do require drums and bass and a fuller band so we want to be able to do it all. We wanted to have the vocal core sound well-established as I feel that’s what people most connect with in songs.
Keep up with more of the story and music of The Low Stakes Band on their WEBSITE.
