Premiere: Detective Agency’s “Lightbulb”
By Matt Ashworth
Photo by Alex Crick
Seattle indie pop band Detective Agency are one of my current band crushes, so I’m delighted to premiere “Lightbulb,” a track from their forthcoming debut full length album due out later this year on Spanish label Discos de Kirlion.
According to the band, which features Ulrika Larsson (drums), Nate Cruz (guitar and vocals), Amy Jean (guitar, vocals and tambourine) and Katie Martin (bass), the song was “written from the perspective of a light bulb that likes to berate the owners of the house or apartment where it lives.”
Exemplifying one of the things I like most about this band’s catchy, endearing approach to guitar rock – boy/girl vocal interplay – Nate starts on out (“don’t turn me off, don’t leave me on…”) and then Amy comes in from the perspective of the owners (“there’s a place we can go, that they don’t ever ever wanna show.”)
“It sounds like it could be about a relationship, but it is in fact about an actual light bulb,” Cruz says.
As for the new album, it will combine six new songs with the band’s excellent debut EP Detectius Privats and a couple other older compositions into a 13-track full length CD, marking the first time Detective Agency has put out an actual physical release since the beginning of the band about five years ago.
Like Detectius Privats, the band recorded the new songs at BLDGs studio in Seattle with Aaron Schroeder but employed new instruments this time around, like harmonica, strings, and piano.
“The atmosphere is moodier,” Nate says. “And the mysteries are denser. It’s our darker, more experimental sophomore album, which will have critics confused, confounded and completely hypnotized.”
Detective Agency play NadaMucho.com’s #41for2015Fest Thursday, October 15 at Substation with Beatrix Sky, The No Good Hearts and Wes Sp8.