Letting Up Despite Great Faults is back with Mike Lee on vocals, guitars, and programming, Kent Zambrana on bass, Annah Fisette on vocals and guitars, and Daniel Schmidt on drums. IV is the first full length in 8 years and is pouring with stories of growth, nurture, loss, and regret. With all the fuzzed and washed instruments and the album even mastered by Simon Scott of Slowdive, it’s hard not to label it shoegaze. But from deep storytelling to catchy pop melodies, it really is so much more. Letting Up Despite Great Faults shows their full maturation and patience on IV.
“Gemini” is centered around the idea of forever. Friendships and loves can generate this enormous space yet it can be such a small feeling on a day to day basis that we easily, and often, forget how almost impossible it is to find someone that fits us forever. The song immediately creates an almost chaotic world of fuzzed noise, but when the patient, whispering vocals cut through, we see our different worlds can thrive together, hopefully forever.
Tell us about the genesis of your project. How did you get to where you are now?
I (Mike, songwriter, singer) started in LA with Kent (bass) and moved to Austin where we found Daniel (drums) and Annah (guitar, vocals). As long as I’ve wanted to keep writing songs, they wanted to keep playing them so even though we’ve taken some time off, we feel like we’re picking up right where we left off.
How would you describe the highs and lows of being an artist?
I think most people experience similar highs and lows when they create anything. The slightest rejection can send you spiraling and the laziest praise can inflate your ego. I think the key to longevity is to stay in the middle as much as you can.
What’s a musical guilty pleasure of yours?
I’ve currently been trying to learn the whole rap from Snap’s “The Power” – but that song is hardly a guilty pleasure…I just feel embarrassed rapping lol
What are some sources of inspiration for you?
It was always heartbreak and unrequited love. But now I notice I think about regret, loss, and mortality A LOT. So maybe short answer is death 🙂
Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?
Naming 2 sorry…Cherry Glazerr and Japanese Breakfast. They seem to call their own shots while making incredibly successful and meaningful art.
Favorite activity to blow off some steam?
Yoga, Basketball…just kidding cmon we all know it’s Drinking.
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about
“Gemini” was something I consciously tried to make fuzzy and noisy. I wanted to make a love song but to really make it loud and almost confused because that’s what sort of happens when you’re in a relationship that is supposedly going to last forever. Crazy stuff happens, it gets overly dramatic, and kind of feels like too much to handle at times, but we thrive with it until the end. It’s all impossible and miraculous yet incredibly achievable and lasting at the same time.
