When band lineups implode, you often don’t hear from them again.
That’s why it’s all the more interesting that when Colour Revolt lost half or three-fifths of its lineup — depending on how you calculate — it seemingly went on to break out of the pack and win major kudos from rock critics, including those at Paste magazine.
“Most of the album is kind of in the shadow of that happening,” Jess Coppenbarger said of the band’s sophomore album, “The Cradle.” “Most of the writing process in 2009 was me and Sean [Kirkpatrick] with two [acoustic guitars] and a piano.”
Perhaps it was the stark instrumentation on which the first songs were written or the raw emotion of the songwriters, but “The Cradle” has won kudos for its raw, honest sound. Not that the sound is simplistic. Inside the songs you’ll find delightful melodies, stark rhythm and lilting harmonies. It’s only when you listen closely that you find something akin to grief within some of the tunes.
After all, when the band imploded, even Coppenbarger and Kirkpatrick went their separate ways — for a week.
“I called him and said I want to continue playing music but I want to continue to play it with you,” Coppenbarger said of Kirkpatrick, whom he met in junior high school and with whom he had been best friends for “years and years and years.” “He said, ‘Maybe I can pick up bass and you can pick up drums [to fill out the band’s sound].’ ”
Instead, the duo recruited Daniel Davison to play drums, Brooks Tipton to play keyboards and producer Hank Sullivan (The Whigs) to play bass, and entered Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, N.C., a month later, to keep the studio time the band has previously booked.
In January 2010, the band created its own imprint, New Fear, to release the album after Fat Possum lost interest in the band.
“It was a long, hard process,” Coppenbarger said. “We definitely went through a time when we said, ‘If these guys don’t believe in it — these people who are our best friends — how can we?’ We got in that rut … but then we said, ‘Let’s make these songs what we want to make them.’ We put it out there and gave it to believe and they did enjoy it. … The guys who quit are so glad we didn’t break up. They are happy we kept it together.”
