As 2016 begins, we live in a world that doesn't really make rock stars anymore, at least not in the same stadium-headlining fashion as multi-decade legacy acts like the Foo Fighters, U2 or The Rolling Stones. That doesn't faze hard-luck Midstate rock heroes The Features. Through 20 years of label difficulties, brushes with fame, marriages and births and more, they have time and again won over club and theater audiences with tuneful, danceable, thoughtful rock music, in whatever time they had to pursue it.
On their fifth full-length, Sunset Rock, The Features bring all those skills to bear while branching out to tackle new challenges. With help from the fan base the band built one show at time — whether at hole-in-wall rock dives or in arenas opening for their biggest champions, Kings of Leon — they paid for the record out of pocket (no easy feat for musicians with marriages to maintain and mouths to feed) and released limited quantities through a PledgeMusic campaign and at local record shops last fall. Despite the support, they made the album to satisfy themselves — maybe one of the most rock 'n' roll things you can do. Where they would typically work with a producer and engineer to record the whole band in the studio, they recorded Sunset Rock entirely on their own and in each other's homes, giving themselves the opportunity to reflect and experiment until everything felt right.
As frontman Matt Pelham tells the Scene, "When you're under time constraints and you're with a producer who says, 'That's really great,' it's harder to say, 'No, let's not use that. Let's totally scrap that whole thing, and go back and try it this way, because I think it should feel a little different.' We could record an entire track doing it this way and then decide, 'Oh, we don't like that,' and then not feel like there was anything lost."
The Features have never had trouble standing their ground, even when it meant they'd be on their own. Ten years ago, they let Universal Music Group scrap their deal rather than cover "All You Need Is Love" for a credit card commercial. While their Serpents and Snakes imprint was in operation, Kings of Leon championed several local bands; that included orchestrating major distribution for The Features' 2011 record Wilderness and their 2013 self-titled album. Judging by their Web presence, S&S closed up shop over a year ago, while The Features press on.
"With this record," Pelham explains, "we didn't really approach anyone about releasing the record, we just kind of recorded it and decided to put it out ourselves. A sort of similar thing to what we did with [2008's] Some Kind of Salvation, really. Just put it out ourselves locally and then kind of go from there. ... If [the record ends] up on a label, then fine, but if it doesn't, we'll just sort of release it and tour behind it, and it'll be what it is, you know?"
With Sunset Rock, drummer Rollum Haas began the recording with a four-track cassette machine, tracking his performances of arrangements sketched out with Pelham. The pair then transferred the tapes to the computer in Pelham's home studio for vocals, some keyboards, guitar and Roger Dabbs' bass parts. Songs went back and forth over email to keyboardist Mark Bond, who wrote parts on a completely revamped rig, stocked with FM synthesizers stacked with '80s pop sounds.
A freewheeling process that could spell disaster for a less-experienced group yielded an album that sounds like it's being performed by a band — and not just any band. The minimal arrangements — which, not unlike those of their heroes Elvis Costello and the Attractions, feature prominent keyboards and very little guitar — might surprise some longtime Features fans. But then they'll quickly pick up the common threads with Features songs they know and love.
There's the slight Southern lilt, coupled sometimes to half-speed disco licks and always, most importantly, nuanced takes on love, family and tradition. Haas credits the album's cohesiveness largely to Pelham's holistic writing style.
"He's one of those people that has fully formed songs," says Haas. "Sometimes people have it in their head the way that bands work. Like, say, you take The Beatles, and it'd be, 'Ringo's the drummer, he writes all the drum parts; Paul's the bass player, he writes all the bass parts.' Once you get in bands and start playing with people, you realize that a lot of times writers are very self-contained people. ... [That makes Matt] sound like a dictator, and that's not what he's like at all, but he's definitely one of those people [who] has very firm and good melodic ideas. He structures things in a pretty tight way."
Working at home also provided an opportunity to involve family. Pelham's wife contributed backing vocals to several songs, and their twin daughters, whose birth inspired tunes on the band's The Beginning EP, added clarinet and ghostly vocals to the spooky post-rock piece "Long Walk."
Pelham says the girls, now in high school, have a passion for Broadway musicals equivalent to his affinity for rock 'n' roll at their age. Asked if he thinks they might pursue performing professionally, he's not sure, but like any proud papa, he'll help them follow their bliss any way he can.
"I wouldn't personally recommend it for some reasons, but for other reasons, it's been amazing," he says. "There's a lot of things I wouldn't have experienced had it not been for doing music. There are other things that have made it a pretty big struggle up to this point. If that's what they want to do, then I'll support that."
Of course, The Features would love for this record to be the one that breaks them into the mainstream. Not only have they put in the time to hone their craft, but no label owns a piece of the rights to this record. But no matter the commercial outcome, making music together is a constant. "At this point, we're just trying to do what we can," says Pelham. "If something ever comes of it, we'll pursue it however we can, but if not, we'll just continue to do it as often as we're able to."
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