The new album by Oakland’s Club Night, Joy Coming Down, took shape over the past seven years. It was informed by the Covid shutdown, the death of loved ones, and the need of band members to work day jobs in order to have the time and resources to make music.
Before the band began working on the album, they pared down the original lineup to a quartet, with Devin Trainer on bass and bass synthesizer; Ian Tatum on lead guitar; Nicholas Cowman on drums and synthesizer; and Josh Bertram, the band’s lead-singer and lyricist, on rhythm guitar. Then the Covid shutdown hit.
“Even before Covid, we were approaching the songs at a much slower pace,” Bertram said. “After Covid, we decided, for safety reasons, to take a year off. There were so many unknowns and immunocompromised folks in our bubbles that we felt it best to not risk getting each other sick. I moved back to Detroit and Devin moved to Portland so we could be closer to our families. With half of the band living outside of Oakland, we had to finish writing the album whenever we could find time to be together, but we made it work—slowly but surely.”
The album is dedicated to Scott Hutchison, songwriter of the Scotch band Frightened Rabbit, and Bertram’s grandmother, Peggy Ranger. “My grandmother was a supporter of my art and music from the beginning, even if it wasn’t something she fully understood,” Bertram said. “Scott was the same. After we met, I became infatuated with him and his music.”
When Bertram and Hutchison met, Bertram was in his first band, Our Brother The Native. Hutchison suggested Bertram should focus on lyrics and incorporate pop structure into his arrangements and writing. “He said I should be more vulnerable and let my imagination run wild,” Bertram said.
“My grandmother passed peacefully,” Bertram added. “Scott took his own life. I wanted to write songs that wrestle with the frustration of having to settle for memories that drift further and further out of view as time passes. I wanted to highlight their impact on me, in song form, to create totems/altars/elegies to the people that shaped who I am.”
With the band spread out over three states, they put the album together bit by bit.
“In the beginning, we had a goal of making the songs into something that sounded like the bands we were using as our archetypes,” Bertram said. “As the band became this thing we engaged with, year after year, writing and playing became an automatic process. We have a formula we like, and made creative decisions pretty freely. We don’t have any rules, so the sound can encompass anything we’re all into. We just trust our gut and do what feels cathartic.”
After they arranged the tunes on the album, they cut the basic tracks live, in three days, at Brothers (Chinese) Recording in Oakland. “The rest of the album—vocals, mixing/ production, overdubs, keys/synths—were done in my basement studio in Detroit, with my friend Jake Spencer,” Bertram said.
As the tracks evolved, they were sent back and forth between band members. Tatum flew out to Detroit to do overdubs and add production touches. The result is a collection with distinctive stop-and-start rhythms, unusual vocal effects and phrasing that’s as rhythmic as it is melodic. They express a lot of pain and loss, as well as hope and joy.
Pensive chords from Tatum’s guitar open “Station.” The tempos accelerate to compliment Bertram’s high vocal, describing the end of a relationship, with a combination of sorrow and hope for a better future.
“Lake” has the fastest and slowest tempos on the album, shifting between plodding power chords and rapid, post-punk tempos. Bertram sings emotionally, describing his anxiety, as the memories of loved ones fade.
“Rabbit” expresses gratitude for the friends and relations who enrich our lives. Bertram starts in his high end, slipping into a mellow tone to convey his gratitude for all life has to offer “… I thank all of my friends, because I am the product of everyone I’ve ever met …”
Bertram said the band will play live later this year, to support the album. “It’s taking time to sort out, for logistical reasons, but we love spending time together and rocking out, so we’ll make it work when the opportunities come,” he said.
Tiny Engines will release Club Night’s new album, ‘Joy Coming Down,’ on May 2. clubnight.bandcamp.com/album/joy-coming-down
