The Explosive Release of Minefields: An Interview With The One Eighties
The One Eighties are an iconic, groundbreaking duo based out of North Carolina. They are hitting the music scene with music that is fresh and outside of the box! Their album, Minefields, was just released on August 18th. It is a mix of Americana and folk with poppy elements scattered throughout. We had a chance to sit down with Autumn and Daniel after their album release show on the 25th to talk about the album and how it felt to perform it in a live setting for the first time.
MSM:
Hello Autumn and Daniel! I just first want to start off by saying the set was lovely! I enjoyed it a lot, and I also want to say congratulations on the new release!
Autumn and Daniel:
Thank you!
MSM:
So, how does it feel to actually be performing this new material after the release?
Autumn:
Oh my gosh. I think it just feels really cool to experience what we recorded and wrote live. We wrote the music in pieces over the course of three years so, it kind of feels surreal; the songs feel like they're living. It was really cool to experience that.
Daniel:
It is a different experience connecting to the song, connecting with the music, with other people. It always is. This is really the first time we've done that in a full band setting. It was really special to us. It's like hearing the music that we made together for the first time in a sense, at least in this setting, seeing it starting to live in the public space.
MSM:
Can you describe any further emotions or anticipations about performing the material?
Autumn:
Well, I think we were both pretty nervous and were just hoping that we could emote the songs how we did on the record. But, also really excited, because playing the songs on stage I think is just a completely different feeling.
Daniel:
Yeah, I would say I was mostly nervous about the technical execution of pulling off the live show, since performing live is so much different than recording an album. The workflow is very different.
Autumn:
I would say too, I had a lot of anticipation of getting to play with the particular musicians that we had join us on stage. They're so good. We’re grateful to be playing with such amazing musicians on stage.
MSM:
Oh yeah, I was really surprised to see the use of steel guitar on stage. That was really cool!
Autumn:
Yeah, Alan’s like…
Daniel:
The secret weapon!
Autumn:
He's in every song on the record- minus two. He's definitely our secret sauce.
MSM:
He’s a really good secret sauce! As you were stepping onto the stage tonight, what thoughts were going through your head?
Autumn:
Don’t forget the words!
Daniel:
Don’t screw up!
Autumn:
But also have fun!
MSM:
Oh yeah, that’s definitely the most important part!
Daniel:
It was special. I had a lot of mixed feelings because it is, like I said, the first full band show. You can rehearse the songs forever, but a lot of that goes out the door the second you walk out on stage. So beforehand, you just have to get a lot of experience performing the songs to really get it down to where it's fully comfortable enough to perform in front of other people. You need to get to a point where you're not having to think.
MSM:
Almost like wanting to make sure you have the muscle memory down?
Autumn:
Muscle memory and beyond. You need to breathe it.
Daniel:
There's a lot of mixed feelings walking on stage, but mostly it was just altogether pretty special.
Autumn:
Yeah. There's nerves of course, but you walk up on stage and there's these musicians on stage with you who really enjoy playing the music, and I guess I was stoked to just see them all smiling on stage and happy to play with us. And then of course, seeing the crowd, some people we knew, some people we didn't, and they seemed excited and I think that was a good initial moment.
MSM:
So did the experience of creating Minefields influence the way you prepared for this concert? Were there any surprises or special events that you had planned for this specific event?
Daniel:
I think for me personally, performing live is such a different animal. The execution is just so much different, and you have to almost reimagine it. You have to reimagine how we're going to do these songs in a way that shows what is on the record. But there's no way, because some of these songs on the record, we might have a bunch of different people playing on it or a bunch of different tracks and an orchestra and that kind of stuff. We don't have an orchestra here. We don't have the luxury of having the trial and error process of recording a track and being like, “Let's try it again”. It's just so much different. You have to rearrange the music and I don't know that I can see a direct connection in how making the album formed the making of this live show other than to say that we wanted to do right by the songs.
MSM:
That's fair. That makes sense! Overall, what do you hope that your audience will take away from this concert experience, particularly in relation to the emotions and stories conveyed in the songs?
Autumn:
I just hope that people can connect, and maybe leave with something, whether it's as simple as a melody or a guitar riff or something deeper. I hope they leave having connected to the way the song sounded or the lyrics in the song, or just the feeling the song gave. I think overall, just connection.
MSM:
Yes, connection is definitely important! Were there any unexpected challenges or exciting discoveries you've discovered while translating from the recordings to live performance?
Autumn:
Well, I think because we've been listening to these songs for years, at first we really wanted to try to get it exactly like the record, because we're so used to hearing it that way. But I think kind of like you said earlier, we really had to reimagine the songs quite a bit.
Daniel:
Yeah when you start off, you feel like you're a control freak at first because you're like, we HAVE to get each part expressed properly in the songs. But once you get together in a room with other musicians, you're like, “If we just did this, we can fill it out in this section by doing something different”. And you realize we don't have to do it exactly like it was. There's an opportunity to express it in a different way. It's better, especially with these musicians. There were several instances of that during rehearsing it for sure. It was cool!
MSM:
Obviously, this concert marks a new chapter for your band. How do you see it setting the tone for future performances with this group?
Autumn:
Well, in this present moment, I'm like, “Can we just do this every night, play with these musicians and do this every night?” But, I think we're going to have many different iterations of the live sound. We're really planning on upping our game with the duo show and see if we can incorporate some more electronic aspects, or at least electric guitar that's also kind of acoustic.
MSM:
That would be great to hear! Last question: what message would you like to convey to both your longtime supporters and any new fans who experienced this new music from you guys for the first time tonight?
Daniel:
I mean, we want them to have their own interpretations of the songs and their own sort of unique experiences of the live iterations of them. It's always interesting hearing what their interpretations are because a lot of times it's stuff you didn't even think of. It's really on point too! You hear their feedback and you get more insight into what you were dealing with when you wrote it, but from the fan’s perspective.
Autumn:
It's cool to hear people's different experiences of it too. Like, “Oh, I never thought of it that way!” So yeah, I think we want people to have a personal experience with it. We’re not really wishing for any one thing on anybody. It's art. Art is just all about finding other ways to see the world, and so overall, if somebody interprets anything in a positive way or feels something from our music, then we’re happy about that. That's why we're doing this!
MSM:
That’s a really good message and desire for your fans! Thank you guys so much for meeting and talking with me tonight. This was really great, and again, I really enjoyed the performance a lot!
Autumn and Daniel:
Thank you!
The One Eighties are a lovely duo! They are definitely a group to keep an eye out for.
If you would like to check out Minefields yourself, you can do so here:
Please check out their socials in order to keep up with what they have going on!
