Last week I caught up with ON AN ON bassist Ryne Eastwig as he prepared for load-in at the opening night of a tour for their new album And the Wave Has Two Sides. It’s been two years since I last spoke to ON AN ON, and in that time they have made some geographical and musical changes that shed some light on the birth of the new album.
Eastwig recently made the move from Chicago to Minneapolis in order to work with his bandmates full time. This meant a chance to all write together in a way they never had before, and in turn a new, more instrumental sound.
I imagine you’re excited…it’s been a little bit since you all of been on the road. When you did your first tour with Give In, ON AN ON was relatively new. How does it feel going into this tour now that you have a more established fan base? Are you expecting something different?
“I think it’s just a general sense of being more relaxed or just kind of comfortable with the whole thing. Obviously the hope is for more success, but I think there’s kind of this feeling of investment into this band [and] what it is. I think ‘settled’ is the word I would use.”
Can you talk about about the new album, And the Wave Has Two Sides? What was its process and how do you think it differs from Give In?
“The other album was sort of rushed in a way, because we were in a different band [Scattered Trees] and we had this specific time slot that needed to be filled. It didn’t feel like we had a prep time for it. This time we had about six months-to-a-year to work on a lot of different demos, write together which we’ve never really gotten to do before — where someone has an idea for a guitar part or a chorus and then we all build on it together as a band. I think that was kind of an interesting and stretching thing for us to do, to just see where songs could go outside of a demo before we started officially recording in the studio.”
A difference I noticed is that the songs in Give In had a far more soundscape, almost ethereal or electronic sound to them. The new album seems to have brought things down to a more tangible level. It’s far more instrumental. Was this move a conscious decision?
“It was definitely an intentional thing. I think there’s always going to be a counter for whatever you have done in the past. Any type of art or product that you release, you end up looking at it: “Well maybe I want to get away from that?” or “Maybe I want to try something else now.” So this was us trying something else and seeing what it would sound like to kind of strip away some of the haze or washiness of the first record. We have more of a ‘poppy,’ tighter sound.”
Do you have a favorite song on the album? Or one that you think people need to listen to if there was only one?
“I think ‘Icon Love’ is kind of the center point of the record. As far as the span of the songs and how they sound, it kind of encapsulates the album. It’s the focal point, or the center, of whole thing.
“And I think my favorite is ‘All at Once,’ the last track on the record. I just think the way that one came together, it’s always had this really cool energy and I think especially the way the drum part came in on the end was pretty awesome —that happened when we were doing pre-production and Mikey [the drummer] just kind of came up with this amazing part and we told him to keep it. That was kind of a special moment.”
So it works as kind of the period at the end of the sentence that is the album?
“Yeah, yeah, that’s a good way to put it.”
Last time I spoke to [vocalist/guitarist] Nate [Eiesland], maybe two years ago, and we discussed how you guys moved around the Midwest a lot, calling all of it your home rather than one particular place. Do you feel like you have more of a home base at this point or is it still moving around a lot?
“I think we are definitely in Minneapolis now. I think that’s definitely our home base. For a while there, about two years ago, I was living in Chicago. Me and (keyboardist Alissa Ricci) both weren’t really in a particular place to call ‘home.’ The new record is a big reason why I moved up to Minneapolis, because we were going to write a lot [and] demo a lot together. If this is my career at this point, I should probably move up to where my job location is.”
Do you have an idea of what you want your fans to take away from this record? Some sort of theme?
“Yeah, I think there’s definitely a theme. The whole idea of the title of the record is basically there is always going to be two sides to every story, to every situation. I think people’s experiences in general are kind of their own and there’s really no black and white. It’s gray because there are so many situations out there that look one way to one person and then look another way to the other person and maybe that’s just a part of growing up, getting older.
“It’s really about growing up and realizing that you really don’t have anything figured out. It’s terrifying that you don’t know, but it’s relieving in a way, too. To just be like, ‘It’s OK that I don’t know.’”
So you’re going to be touring for a couple of months. What’s next? Will you take a break or jump straight back into writing and recording? Do you even know yet?
“Probably keep touring. This tour goes until Sept. 25. After that, there’s talk of Australia in 2016 and maybe we’ll go to Europe as well. And we’ll end up doing more writing and recording as well if time allows.”