Looming Returns with New Track burnedbridgesfinal.MP3

It’s always exciting when a talented group returns after a long hiatus. In the case of indie rock band, Looming, that hiatus has lasted almost five years. Breaking that long stretch since their last release, the full-length project “Seed,” the group has released a new single, “burnedbridgesfinal.mp3,” (or just “Burned Bridges” for short).

The distinct vocal style of Jessica Knight-Carne coupled with the anthemic backups provided by Brandon Carnes, as well as the swaying rhythm of the ethereal yet weighty instrumentation make this track fit in snugly with the rest of Looming’s discography. It’s airier in tone compared to many of the tracks featured on “Seed,” but nonetheless maintains the depth of sound and lyrical excellence the group has maintained since their first release.

In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I had been told that this song came out a few months after their last release rather than a few years. Although it’s been a while since we’ve heard from them, the group clearly hasn’t been slacking. It’s a promising indication of where the band could go next and invites curiosity as to what’s been going on with them since their last record.

Fortunately, I was able to talk with bandmates and life partners, Jessica Knight Carnes and Brandon Carnes about this new single, their upcoming album, and what they’ve been up to these past few years.

It’s been a few years since your last release. What have you guys been up to since then, music-wise and/or life-wise?

Brandon: “A lot on the life-wise side of things. The two of us have gotten married and had a couple kids since the last record. Music-wise, we’ve just been doing kind of what we can with the time that we have. But it's been a little more relaxed on the music side.”

Jessica: “Honestly, the pandemic made it hard to want to write. I’m sure a lot of people feel that way. But like it made it really hard to want to talk about anything.”

Brandon: “Yeah, we’ve kind of been slowly chipping away this record. The first demo for the record was made right around the time that we tracked “Seed,” our last record. So we've just been slowly building up songs, and we write and record everything ourselves, So we’ve just kinda been taking our time with the record and just letting it happen as we’ve been able to find time to do it.”

Jessica: “We’re pretty slow at writing records anyway. We just do what we want to do when we want to do it. We’re really on our own timeline over here.”

Brandon: “We didn't have the label breathing down our neck with timelines or anything. When we were ready with the record, they were ready for us.” 

In the making of this record and “Burned Bridges,” did you use the same approach as you did for your older music, or did you try something new?

Brandon: “Yeah, I think there’s ways that we used a different approach. Like there’s a song on the record that I deliberately set out to write that didn’t have any guitars in it. The primary differences for me were timewise. Back in the day, I could get off work, come home and I could sit down and write and chill. And now it's very much like the kids go to bed and I’m demoing parts out in headphones, you know? So it was a lot more headphone-intensive I guess.” 

Jessica: “For me, it's exactly the same. Because before, we were very long-distance. Where I lived in texas, Brandon lived in Pittsburgh, and mitch lived in Springfield, Illinois. So everything was done with demos through email. Brandon would send a demo to me, and I would write vocals to it, send it back. But I feel like even though we’re in the same home and all of us are in the same city now, we still are sending demos via email. So I still was writing lyrics that way.”

Brandon: “And some of the songs on the record were from ideas Mitch had too. So this record is definitely more collaborative than ‘Seed’ was.”

Jessica: “Which is nice because we’re closer now.”

From the way I was listening to this new track, “Burned Bridges,” it seems like there are a couple of different ways you can interpret the lyrics. Where did the inspiration come from?

Jessica: “I think a lot of my frustrations. A lot of my emotions dealing with feeling disconnected from the community here, and just community in general. It just has to do with growing out of a place and growing out of the things that you are so used to and coping with change. And also that tug of wanting to feel needed, but also needing to move on at the same time. That's really what I was feeling at the time.”

At first, I thought the refrain of “do you need me now?” sounded self-conscious and doubtful, but then I was thinking it could also be a sarcastic “oh really? Now you need me?” kind of thing.

 Jessica: “Honesty, I feel like it is both. Because, genuinely, in situations like that, you go through different waves of emotions. You go through different thought processes, and that includes feeling kind of resentful. I definitely went through feeling resentful and sometimes I still do, so I don't think that’s inaccurate.”

Beyond that, how are you guys feeling about this upcoming album that you’ve been working on? Are you nervous? Are you excited? What’s going on behind the scenes?

Jessica: “I think we're just excited to get it out!”

Brandon: “Yeah, I'm proud of it and I'm stoked about it!”

Jessica: “We’ve waited long enough. And because we’ve waited, it feels good. All the songs feel good, they all feel right. So we’re just excited.”

Brandon: “I feel like, just from a production standpoint, that side of my process has come a long way. J. Robins mixed this record, who plays in Jawbox, and he did Jimmy Eat World records and Braid records and all this crazy shit. And so, we worked on him on “Seed,” and so I think he really had a good feel for what we like as a band. And I think this time it was really easy to work and communicate with him and he had a good direction for what we were doing mix-wise. So it's just really good to finally sit down and listen to it. And everything feels complete and the way we want it.”

Brandon also notes that the mix on the single is slightly different to the version of the song that’ll appear on the album, hence the distinction of the name “burningbridesfinal.mp3.” So prick up your ears to hear the differences between the two mixes of the track.

You can check out “Burned Bridges” here, and the accompanying music video here. And be sure to stay tuned for the highly-anticipated upcoming album from Looming.