Photo Credit: Slater Goodson
Written by: Oliver Heffron
Nashville indie-pop act Arlie's long-awaited debut album BREAK THE CURSE is an exuberant synthesis of their lo-fi roots and mainstream potential with its saturated guitar riffs, groundbreaking production, and catchy yet compelling songwriting, centralizing a struggle against mental limitations. The album balances nostalgic melodies with innovative modern songcraft, leading the listener on what feels like a digital, psychological adventure through the group's musical influences and past experiences.
Throughout Break the Curse, lyrical themes of karma, causality, isolation, and a desire for relief paint a compelling illustration of a mental struggle between contradicting complexities and impulsivities. The project expresses the anxiety of overthinking the overwhelming butterfly effect of consequences and shifted realities left in the wake of any action or idea, even when they spring up as unconsciously as a rubber mallet hitting your kneecap, making certainty and knowing oneself a painfully elusive dream.
The opening track "sickk" powerfully states: "I'm gonna rewrite over the hard drive / I'm gonna pull out all the cords / I'm gonna forget all about my 'self' / That I don't need anymore / 'Cause I'm so sick or fight or flight / All the time."
The standout track "karma" builds verses of romantic insecurity and regret before exploding into sun-drenched, driving guitar riffs and Banks' distorted chorus lamenting, "You know the truth is loving you was not a mistake / But that's a lotta bad karma." The titular "break the curse" nestles dreamy synth chords with a sensitive, melodic vocal performance, while "landline" presents an incredibly catchy ode to permanently logging off the playground of negativity called "the internet." BREAK THE CURSE pairs Arlie's warm, pop-friendly melodies and lo-fi production with a remarkable psychological narrative, creating the most unique project the group has put out thus far and one worth the wait.
Lead singer and creator of Arlie, Nathaniel Banks, sat down with Nuance to talk about the production of Break the Curse, his musical origins, and how his music reflects his struggles with mental health.
Photo Credit: Slater Goodson
Growing up in Nashville, Nathaniel describes his musical upbringing as "sheltered." his parents only allowed Christian music to play throughout the house, with few exceptions for The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and James Taylor. However, playing saxophone through his formative years opened him up to the world of Jazz. As he got older, the compositional complexities of indie groups like Vampire Weekend began to color his world more and more, eventually influencing Arlie's sound:
"When I got to Vampire weekend, that completely changed my approach to songwriting and production and what music could be. When I really started to dig into their music, it showed me that you could be this type of artist or band that draws on a richly informed palette of influences, creating something fresh that's enjoyable to listen to on the surface without paying attention a lot to the details. But then, when you pay attention to the details when it comes to the music because they like compositional choices, sonic choices, and especially the lyric choices, you can find more and more layers of meaning to get out of it and add more layers of depth. So the more I paid attention, I could enjoy that music on so many different levels, and I realized that I wanted to be that type of artist."
Arlie started as a solo, bedroom-pop endeavor out of a Vanderbilt dorm room for lead singer Nathaniel Banks in 2015, eventually evolving into a full band with members–Adam Lochemes, Carson Lystad, and Ryan Savage–and growing a local following. Capitalizing on their growing buzz, the fully-formed band dropped their debut EP Wait in 2018. With its creative production and irresistible summertime vibe, Wait ascended Arlie into indie-pop stardom with hit singles "didya think" and "big fat mouth" while performing on tours with Coin and Mt. Joy.
With the band shooting up the indie-pop charts in 2018, Banks began recording demos for the band's sophomore project, Break the Curse, before experiencing a mental health crisis that put his career indefinitely on hold. Banks depicts his struggles to find inner peace throughout Break the Curse, like on "sickk:"
Photo Credit: Slater Goodson
"In the song "sickk," I am speaking and expressing the desire to start from scratch in my brain. It's coming from a place of having realized that my brain is not dysfunctional in its natural state. I don't believe that I, or a lot of people I know who struggle with mental health, even though we may be diagnosed with one disorder or another, think it's due to a genetic defect as much as it is due to our experiences, or experiences growing up that have conditioned us to be the way that we are. So, in that song, I am lamenting the sort of damage that has been done. Whether you had experienced trauma in a capital T trauma sort of way or what you would call lowercase trauma, which is something like not having your needs met in all of the ways that you needed to as a child, and the ways that we adopt to get our needs met or get some aspect met, it all shape us into what we know as our personality. So, that song expressed this desire for a reset; what if I could literally reset my brain.."
Returning to music and the songs on those demos, Banks struggled to find a happy medium between his lo-fi roots and expanding sound; trying to retain the initial magic of the demos while expanding the tracks to radio-ready songs:
"Six or seven of them had a similar struggle where it was: I made a lo-fi demo, and it was working as this lo-fi thing…But then we want to transform it into something that works in a more Hi-Fi way, and you try re-cutting certain elements in a more professionally engineered sound recording environment. And a lot of times, it doesn't have that same magic as a Lo-Fi demo. And then it's like, do we go back to the lo-fi things? Or do we make different decisions that made it work in a different way? And it was a lot of that throughout the entire process of making this record."
Traveling across the country to work with producers and artists, Banks learned a lot but realized the importance of owning every aspect of your album:
"I did a decent bit of that traveling around, going to LA in New York to work with people there. I learned a lot from all the people I worked with. At the same time, I realized that the album will not feel like an Arlie record if I don't have a hand in every aspect of the production."
Banks' journey took him right back to where Arlie started, deciding to head back to Nashville to finish the album with original members and longtime friends Adam Lochemes and Ryan Savage:
Photo Credit: Slater Goodson
"I wound up getting all the sessions and all the stems and brought them back went to Adams House, who's been a longtime member of my band and a great audio engineer. And we–just me and Adam and Ryan, who's also been in the band a bit in the past–the three of us worked together just to finish the recordings and give them all of the love and care and attention that they needed to get to the finish line."
Determined to get his debut album just right, Banks remembers the vocal marathon he endured to produce the hypnotizing vocal track on "poppin," which ironically may be the most carefree song on the tracklist. Struggling to match his voice to the melody he heard in his head, Banks set himself on a monthlong, march-madness style tournament against himself–recording 10 takes a day and ranking them against eachother until they finally arrived at a perfect four:
"I decided I'm just going to do vocal warm-ups every day and sing 10 New takes a day for the next month. So I did that for a whole month, and then I did a bracket-style tournament, auditioning different takes against the other ones in the same folder, and then the best in there would fight against the one from the next day. And then those two days would see if they beat the one from the other two days…it was insane, totally insane. I would never do it, but I definitely discovered a lot of like different characteristics in my voice."
Since being forced to step away from music, Banks has reorganized his life to prioritize being a part of the mental health conversation but is wary of preaching too much about such a complex issue: "I'm not here to tell anyone what to do. But I do want to continue to be part of the conversation, as we all sort of figure out how to relate to mental health, mental illness, and how to relate to each other and our culture."
With such an evident, consuming love of music, it's invigorating to see Banks overcome his struggles and shine on Break the Curse, a triumphant return of Arlie's sound.