Search - Blue Van :: Dear Independence

After nearly two full years on the road, banging out sweaty, sixties-steeped garage rock, the members of the Blue Van were understandably spent when they shifted their touring van into park and began writing the songs that would compose their second album, DEAR INDEPENDENCE. So if DEAR INDEPENDENCE sounds a bit mellow for the normally full-throttle foursome, well, it should. After a marathon tour during which the band introduced the world to its frayed, booze-driven rock & roll, the members of the Blue Van began picking up acoustic guitars and delving into less subwoofer-shredding fare: vintage folk, the Zombies, and a lot of early Motown. Quips organist Soren V. Christensen, "After being on the road for two years straight--playing garage rock every night--when you come home, you don't start ripping out the Sonics record--you tend to go for something else." If the Danish band's 2005 debut, The Art Of Rolling, pulsed with the reckless abandon of the early Kinks and The Who, DEAR INDEPENDENCE burns with the ragged beauty of Free. In songs like the strummy, mug-raising sing-a-long "Momentarily Sane" and the magnetic, folk-informed melody of "The Poet Tree," DEAR INDEPENDENCE reveals the Blue Van in both a mellow mood, and at a time when it has begun to spread its creative wings. Splitting time between Denmark, and Brooklyn, NY's gritty Bed-Stuy neighborhood, the quartet cut DEAR INDEPENDENCE with Lenny Kravitz engineer Henry Hirsh producing. The disc was recorded the old-fashioned way--to tape--and without the benefit of digital, fix-it-later software. "We just went for an organic sound," says Christensen. "We wanted a loose studio feeling--no bullshit," says Soren. "We didn't tune the vocals, or cheat. There are a lot of mistakes here and there, but it's perfect to us."