Last Saturday, local band The Drought performed an EP release show of their new album “CHROME” to a large audience of fans and newcomers alike. The venue embodied the recent trend of backyard house shows in Salt Lake City, which supplied the event with a casual and intimate vibe. Two bands opened for the band, with both of them stepping up to the plate to perform with one of the best new indie bands in the area.

The live experience

Lady and the Swordsmen and Ethyl Cat opened for The Drought at the show. Both bands put on great performances and proved that local music fans should keep an eye on any upcoming projects from the two.

After a brief soundcheck, The Drought opened with one of their new singles from the EP, titled “Desert Sleeps.” Immediately, the crowd was drawn in by Emmy Gilbert’s vocals as she sang over sparse drums and melodic guitar. Characterized by lilting high notes, well-rounded bass and smooth runs, her voice shows clear signs of mastery in jazz. However, to label The Drought’s music as jazz would be a gross oversimplification.

Although their most recent album makes itself familiar with changing time signatures, complex chords and key changes, The Drought’s discography as a whole encompasses much more. With the few unreleased tracks that were played that night, it seems that the band will continue to move in the direction of indie jazz without compromising their commitment to surprising fans with influences from other genres.

The recording process

Emmy Gilbert on vocals, Griffin Mozdy on guitar, Paulo Cubas on bass and Jackson Green on drums, The Drought is stacked with technical talent and creative drive. The chemistry between the band can be felt when they perform, and they credit this chemistry to the success of their recording process.

“Recording the album was exciting, time-consuming and very cathartic. It was amazing to watch all of our hard work come to life over the course of a few months” Mozdy said.

Gilbert mentions her commitment to the quality of the vocals on the EP, which comes naturally to her only after hours of attention to detail and a labor of love.

“The guys, they need me to sing through the song as many times as they need to get the stems, so that I can later go be with a producer and do my vocals separately. I like to be very meticulous about lyrics and layering vocals, I like to have time to be able to do that. It’s fun to do it with a producer, but it’s also fun– especially with Chrome, I got to be able to do the main melodies with a producer and then I spent days and days and days layering vocals and doing whatever I thought would sound good and deleting shit that didn’t sound good,” Gilbert said.

When asked whether or not she felt any reservations going into the recording process, Gilbert said, “I was just excited to do it. We really tried to get in a bunch of practices to make sure each song could be played through, you know, as little as possible.”

Mozdy added they felt cautious about going out-of-house to get the tracks produced, mixed, and mastered. Relying on someone who doesn’t have the experience of the band or the intimate knowledge of how the band operates always puts the vision at risk, but that doesn’t mean that the experience didn’t have some surprising benefits as well.

“I think they captured a lot of what we were trying to say, and I learned a lot about how I can be more assertive in order to preserve the genuineness of what I create,” Mozdy said.

Technical superiority can only come from a relentlessness for live performance

Although The Drought’s first EP process was impressively succinct, there would be no progress without setbacks. For Gilbert, the overwhelming feeling the band had trying to expedite the process by working on multiple tracks at once, bled into her experience as a recording artist. While talking about the process during the set Saturday night, she summarized the feeling and said, “Same band, different people.” However, for Mozdy, the stress came from the sacrifice of recording versus playing live.

“The hardest part about recording was losing that ‘live’ feeling that we thrive on as a band. We love playing live and having each show feel like a unique experience. We will do a lot differently on our next EP. We plan on keeping everything in-house to the best of our ability. This will help us stay true to our vision,” Mozdy said.

It’s worthwhile to keep The Drought on your radar for a new local band not to miss. And while their new EP is phenomenal, nothing beats listening to them live or watching their synchronicity in real time. Make sure to follow their Instagram for updates on future shows and pick up their merch if you see them.