Wichita quartet FRACTVRED will release its new album, “Songs To Die To,” on Thursday. As the dark, emotive 13-song release arrives on digital streaming platforms, the group is also preparing for its release in physical form on vinyl and CD.
To celebrate the collection’s arrival, FRACTVRED will perform at The Brickyard on Thursday alongside fellow acts Atria, Wabash & Lake, and Madi Laughlin.
The all-ages concert begins at 8 p.m.
The band’s Victoria Rigel (vocals), Jay Piggman (guitar), Naythan Smith (bass) and Aaron Schauf (drums) recently spoke about the making of the album (which they recorded with Wichita’s Jason Catlett) and touched on some of sounds and themes that unite the LP’s tracks.
The following interview has been edited for length and for clarity.
Were the songs that are on the album things that you’d played live over a period of time, or do these represent things you’d developed specifically for the record?
Victoria Rigel: We knew we were ready to do an album, we knew we wanted to do an album and we knew what we would have to fill in one or two gaps, but we knew we had the material and were confident that we could [finish writing it] in time to get into the studio. Once we believed in it as a concept and a collection of songs, we said, “OK, we’ve got this, let’s start.” We stretched out recording over several months to tie up the loose ends on the remaining songs. We just believed in it.
We played all of the songs live except for one, which we’ll be playing live for the first time at the album release show. All of them are “road tested” in a sense. [Laughs.] We’ve been able to get a sense of what people respond to and how, which has been really cool.
Jay Pigmann: It was an interesting process recording and being able to really flesh out the songs and do things that you’re just not able to do live. I’m not able to grow an extra set of arms and grab a sitar [in the live set]. The harmonization, the full compositions, that’s all been exciting to [explore] with these songs that we’ve been playing live for quite a while now.
The sequence of the album is great. I know some people see that process as painstaking and difficult. What was it like for you?
JP: I feel like everything we do, just because we’re all very creative but everything about the band, including the album, is very eclectic. Every decision takes a while because we all want to come to a group consensus on it. As far as laying out the album, we had all the [song titles] on a whiteboard and the order and I think maybe only two or three different tweaks. Even though it’s very eclectic, it has a tendency to have a nice flow to it. It never really felt like a labor, trying to jam the pieces in.
VR: I think playing the songs live, in different orders and in different sets, informed a lot of that for me, just knowing what the energy in the room feels like when we play certain things in a certain order or what might be unexpectedly high energy when you think it would feel low energy to a listener. Playing it live probably informed that decision and it probably informed the interstitials, too, once we had the order.
Aaron Schauf: Getting the songs back after we’d recorded them was a big [moment]. We could put the songs together in different orders and feel the energy from that. Once we had all the songs recorded, we could finally lay it all out.
VR: Taking the time to sit back and listen to what we had made was a crazy experience, because you’re just in it so much. You’ve heard every single version of the song. I get sick of listening to my songs. [Laughs.] I think everybody can relate to that on some level. But you can take a step away from it for a little bit, come back and listen to it and say, “Wow, I’m so proud of everybody and I’m so proud of how it turned out.”
It’s an emotional experience. You built this thing as a team and to hear it come to life and the things you imagined come to life, is just really exciting.
There are these wonderful segues between the songs that crop up. It gives us a sense that this is all of one piece.
AS: “Desiderium” was all Naythan. There’s a lot of crazy different things that he added in there. Just a great way to start the album off. The blend before “Threnody,” that song, the context of it, it felt like it needed something slow and somber as we brought it in.
Naythan Smith: We really wanted to get back to a whole album experience, so we have some interstitials to facilitate a full listen, front-to-back, but then also releasing the album on CD, vinyl, cassette, eventually 8-track, maybe wax cylinder, trying to get back to the heyday when an album was an event and an experience and attempting to cultivate something that facilitates that.
We did a six panel CD so all of the artwork is somewhat unique and re-arranged for the specific format. A live music performance is fleeting, ephemeral, but physical. You can feel the sound. You’re out there with people. Giving something special for people [so that they have] a physical manifestation of that experience, being able to hold it in their hands and being able to attach those memories to something that would otherwise be fleeting.
I have a friend who did release a single on wax cylinder. Didn’t sell many of them.
VR: [Laughs.]
NS: I assume it will be a novelty at the merch table. We’ve also talked about a music box.
VR: Music box! Yes! Player piano rolls. Yes!
JP: I think no matter how you choose to listen to it, whether you choose to stream it or get it on CD, cassette or vinyl, it’s really something that we’re excited to bring out. The concept of the album itself is kind of a dark joke, that’s kind of the vibe that we bring. We created our own subgenre, we call it bummer core. I think that even though it’s called “Songs To Die To,” it’s really about the experience of life. I think Bruce Lee said that the art of living well and the art of dying well are the same.
You’re pretty much dying every day. The album gets into a lot of things about loss, about identity, it’s about picking yourself back up and finding ways to reinvent yourself. It’s also about falling back down again and creative struggles. I think it really fits the mood that’s out in the zeitgeist right now.
