Amidst the sea of chillwave, home recordings swamping the blogosphere in the past few years Madison, WI duo Aaron Coyes & Indra Dunis stand above the pack. Indra & Aaron, better known as Peaking Lights, have crafted a unique brand of music that may share lo-fi, DIY, reverbed traits with their peers, however their creative employment of second hand consumer electronics and vintage analog gear from decades past is quite unique. Additionally, their ability to yield said gear is coupled with a terrific creative knack for sprawling, expansive, experimental soundscapes that ultimately bore this years’ stellar 936 album. Indra chatted with us about the album, the lifestyle her and Aaron lived during its creation and their influences.

AOT: You came together after your previous band Numbers broke up.  Can you explain how you and Aaron came together and decided to pursue this project?

ID: We started dating about a year before Numbers ended, and would jam together occasionally… Then Aaron started Rahdunes with his buddy Nate Archer and I would sit in with them sometimes on drums. After Numbers I continued to play with Rahdunes until Aaron and I left California in 2008 for the deep winter vibes of Wisconsin. When we got here, it was a major culture shock since we arrived in January in the middle of record breaking snow falls. We spent a lot of time indoors, and it was natural that we started jamming together in our little apartment that winter, quietly, because we had neighbors. We wrote these eerie psyched out pop tunes and recorded them on a crappy portable tape player. Shawn Reed released that tape, Clearvoiant, on his label Night People and that was the beginning!

AOT: There is a whole range of styles coming through in your new album 936, how did you guys reach a mutual sound? Were there particular influences you tried to recreate or styles you sought after?

ID: Our sound has evolved since we started. At first I was coming from a more pop structured song writing background, and Aaron was really into psych noise dub improv jams. So when we began playing together I learned to loosen up and improvise more, while still adding the pop and rhythmic elements that I love. Aaron makes his own modular synths, so jamming on those really broke down my ideas of what music had to sound like, and it was a cool challenge to try and write stuff integrating noisier sounds. We played around with the idea of “fucked pop” music on our first full length record, Imaginary Falcons, but it was pretty psyched out and much of it improvised. We also started getting into composing and recording rhythm and bass or keyboard back tracks, and playing live over them. That just evolved as we got obsessed with dub (the 2nd dark winter we watched “Rockers” every night for 12 days in a row!) and afro beat, and early techno and disco stuff. Aaron is a deep cuts finder, and is always scoring records at thrift stores and old record shops to dj. Lots of stuff to be inspired by. I think we are inspired by a lot of styles of music, whether we realize it or not.

AOT: You’ve certainly created a very experimental, non-linear style of music. Are you big fans Krautrock? Did Can, Amon Düül and the like play a large role in the development of your personal tastes?

ID: You nailed it – we totally love Krautrock! Kraftwerk, Can, and Amon Duul II are some of my favorite bands.

 

 

AOT: Noticed on your Fbook that your fans of Mac Dre and MF Doom, are you big hip-hop fans? If so, any chance you caught Odd Future’s ridiculous performance on Jimmy Fallon last week?

ID: We lived in the Bay Area for over a decade and of course love hip hop from there – and hip hop in general. Living in Wisconsin is weird though, because there’s no hip hop radio stations at all! Just pop stations that play the hits – so I feel like I miss a lot when we’re driving around in the car. I always used to listen to wild 94.9!

AOT: I’m trying to find out where Spring Green, CA is, seems it’s either near Sacramento or between Redding and Reno. Either way, those both seem to have limited music markets, so how did you guys work around that to earn the exposure you now have? Or am I completely wrong on the geography or perhaps you haven’t lived there in years…?

ID: Spring Green, CA is a fictional place where we live. We lived in Spring Green, WI for a couple years – which is out in the boonies. We rented an amazing Frank Lloyd Wright style house with a barn on the side of a wooded hill…it had this incredible view of prairies and trees, and we could walk to the Wisconsin River to go swimming. It was awesome and cheap because we were in the middle of nowhere. But then the winter came and the roads iced over, and the heat barely worked and the mice took over. We thought if we could move this place to California it would be perfect.

 

AOT: How is your store, The Good Style Shop, doing these days? Has increased time with the band cut back on that?

ID: Well, we just sold our shop, but it was a great experience. We started it to support our music, so that we could have a business to make money, while we had the freedom of being self employed for touring. We also had a bunch of in – store shows to bring bands and our friends in bands through Madison. And we had regular art shows too. It was a hang out place as much as a vintage clothing and record store. We passed it on to a friend who is keeping it alive in the same spirit, which is awesome. Now we’re getting ready to move to LA in August.

AOT: The set-up of machines and synths you employ is quite the marvelous arrangement, reminds me of a love child between LCD Soundsystem and Radiohead’s gear. Can you explain what you’re using and how it works into the mix?

ID: A lot of our sounds come from Aaron’s home made synths. He takes apart old electronics and creates analog modular synths. These are played straight, or used as filters for keyboards… We have a ton of old 80s keyboards and drum machines, collected from our love of thrifting. We have a hammond organ, guitars and bass and some newer keyboards too. Sometimes I play drums and we record it for a back track to play over. We use a variety of stuff – like I might like one sound on an old casio to use for one song but then use a another keyboard for piano sounds or something. At home we have a basement studio full of stuff to choose from! But when we tour we streamline and just bring our favorite synths.

AOT: I read you’ve got quite the appreciation for older technology such as cassette tapes and analog use. Did that same appreciation direct you to the aforementioned gear?

ID: Sure, a lot of what we use is old or analog – because that’s what Aaron builds. Its easy to find old cassette machines or reel to reels at thrift stores for cheap, and we love the warm quality you get from recording on tape. But I have a digital keyboard I like too – it’s compact and programmable – which is nice for touring. Also we used a combination of recorded analog tracks with pro tools in a studio to record 936. The old technology has it’s charm, but the new stuff can be rad too! We use the best of both worlds.

AOT: Now that 936 is recorded and released, are you in the process of setting up a tour? And live news we can look forward to?!

ID: Tour is temporarily postponed because we’re about to have a baby! But as soon as we can, we will. In the meantime we will keep writing!