Despite having just released their last EP, Mother Mountain, less than 4 months ago, Kansas band Spirit is the Spirit are already back to crafting their next batch of songs. As seems to be the nature of bands bred in the Midwest, the members of this Lawrence based band have known each other for as far back as kindergarten, playing in various musical outfits with one another over the years until eventually the line-up shuffled to be Spirit is the Spirit. With this incarnation roughly a year in the making, the six-piece band has zeroed in on a floating, ambient kind of sound, full of lush electric guitar and a folksy easiness in their loping vocals. Mother Mountain’s opening track, “Sing/Dance/Run/Chant” is pretty literal in its title, unfurling its five minutes of bassy “oh’s” slowly with static filled shuffling before falling into a rhythmic pace that had us bobbing in our seats from the first listen. Tracks like “Oh, Speckled Bird” bring to mind bands such as As Tall As Lions and Annuals, delivering a sweet, sleepy eyed sound that felt warm and familiar. While these Kansan boys may not be reinventing the wheel in terms of indie folk, they certainly add a little air to the tires, playing soothing and smooth, their songwriting coming off as naturally as their EP’s earthly name would imply it would.
Check out Mother Mountain on Bandcamp
A few of the boys from Spirit is the Spirit amicably agreed to talk shop with us via email, where we talked about their influences, how they’ve grown as musicians and the bands they wish they had listened to earlier in life.
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