Everybody's Insecure by Elk City

Elk City’s soundscapes encompass galaxies while retaining intimate and introspective thoughts and feelings, like epic adventures under the skin. Everybody’s Insecure, the group’s fifth album, was released by Bar/None Records on March 16, 2018.

Collaboration is at the core of every great band, and Elk City’s lead vocalist Renée LoBue and drummer/producer Ray Ketchem are two people ready to strap themselves into wet suits, climb into the immersion tank and get the job done. This pair is ably abetted by guitarist Sean Eden (Luna) and extraordinary keyboardist Carl Baggaley. Elk City has just welcomed guitarist Chris Robertson and bassist Richard Baluyut (Versus) into their line-up.

Throughout the album’s recording, Ketchem was building his new studio, Magic Door Recording, a gorgeous, good-vibes HQ for musical expression and experimentation in the center of Montclair, NJ’s arts community. Far from the humble beginnings of his first clammy basement studio, Ray has become a sought-after producer/engineer, working with Guided By Voices, Luna, Versus, Okkervil River and Brother JT.

While writing Everybody's Insecure, LoBue presented her songs using late-night voice recordings she’d sung in a ghostly, whispered warble. The band would listen intently, then come up with instrumentation ideas, chord structures and tempos while Ray kept the recorders rolling - driven by his goal of capturing the creative spark at its most luminous. Every track on Everybody’s Insecure is actually built upon those very first impressions. Session after session, Ray went to work using an arsenal of studio wizardry, mining and combining, stretching and condensing, manipulating and re-amplifying sounds, building sub mixes and adding new instruments until the final mastered version is a spit-shined sonic delight, ripe for the memory box.

There's the atmospheric reach-for-the-stars feel of “Souls In Space,” and a discussion with someone about the positive effect of imagining them dead: “The thought of you in the ground or maybe your ashes all over town…there’s so much sunshine in my mouth…oh there is sweet music!” Perhaps the most succinctly introspective song is the opening track “Sparrow,” in which Renée turns the lasers on herself and contemplates the desire to flee one's own personal demons by turning them into art—"I don’t know if I’ll ever be as free as a sparrow. I'll try.”

In her lyrics, Renée is able to take the stuff of everyday life and add a layer of magic to the proceedings. Her songs often take the form of a conversation, as she finds intriguing entry points into relationships much more nuanced than boy meets girl; her lyrics might observe the woman who meets the man who's having a baby with someone else or finding trust and admiration for a guy with the sense to be wearing a pair of root beer-colored shoes.

So drop the needle into the grooves and float down the mysterious rotating streets of Elk City. Let Ray, Renée and their merry bunch of music makers be your guide. It’s time to step through the Magic Door.

"Elk City’s cool and elegant sound draws on 1980s “dream pop” and bits of 1960s folk-rock."
- The New York Times 

"Elk City is one of NYC's best kept secrets; they'll appeal to fans of the Clientele, Camera Obscura and, seriously, Fleetwood Mac."
- L Magazine 

"LoBue is a firebrand - soft and gentle one minute, raising the hairs on your neck the next."
- PopMatters

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