This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.
The members of Lovely Colours may live in Seattle, but three of the four grew up playing music together in Juneau. That’s including their substitute drummer, who first remembers performing with the band at his 16th birthday party.
They came to town this weekend to celebrate the release of their first album, Dancing with a Ghost, with a sold-out show at the Crystal Saloon.
And they say playing in Juneau always feels like coming home, even for their bandmate who didn’t grow up here.
Listen:
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
James Rosales: In the two times the band has been here, Patrick has been to Pelmeni’s like 17 times. So he’s pretty much from Juneau at this point.
I’m Cole Paramore.
I’m Devin Damitio.
James Rosales.
Patrick May.
Yvonne Krumrey: And who are you together?
All: Lovely Colours.
James Rosales: Yeah, we are here in Juneau celebrating our new album called Dancing with a Ghost. We just released it, and we’re here to celebrate it in our hometown — well, the three of us — and we’re ready to rock.
Patrick May: I think it was more fun. Like, the crowd is more stoked to see us, and it’s just there’s so much energy in the room, last time we were here.
Cole Paramore: Facts. In Seattle, sometimes people can be kind of jaded. There’s so much music happening all the time, and I don’t know. Sometimes, you know, you throw a rock and you hit a musician, just on the street.
Patrick May: It’s like, we have a high-energy rock side, and we have kind of a softer alternative side, and trying to blend that. We’re still kind of trying to blend those two together into one sound, I think. And you hear both of those on this album, but if you go further back in our discography, you hear maybe four sounds while we’re still figuring it out.
Devin Damitio: This album feels more realized than before, and you can kind of hear elements of all the past songs in the album, but it just feels a little bit more refined. Like, yeah, we’re still kind of chipping away at it. I think it’s going to be a never-ending thing.
Patrick May: For example, Bumfuzzle, I think, is one that you really hear those two sides kind of starting to blend together.
James Rosales: We’ll be playing it front to back at our show at Crystal Saloon, as well. So that’s another kind of special thing about this show, we normally wouldn’t do that, but like Devin was saying we worked on this for two plus years, and so we want to celebrate it, and we just want to play it live front to back.
Devin Damitio: Yeah, this album is, definitely, like, the best representation of us and where we’re at now. So I’m excited that it’s out, and I’m excited to be playing it in Juneau.