The Late Isabel Returns with ‘Lackadaisical’
Six years since the release of their independent debut album, critically acclaimed and MTV award-winning indie band The Late Isabel returns with their new limited-edition EP ""Lackadaisical." This new release marks a departure from the band's glassy, crystalline sound (as heard in their first album, "Doll's Head") in favor of a rawer, dirtier post-punk approach.
Yahoo OMG! Philippines caught with the band members Wawi Navarroza on vocals, Allan Hernandez on guitars, Roval Bacale on bass, and JP Agcaoili on drums) during their EP launch last April 5 at B-Side in Makati.
What took them so long to come up with a new release?
"La vida (the life)," according to singer-visual artist Navarroza.
"It was a confluence of economics and time," adds Hernandez. "The idea was to release a new album two years after 'Doll's Head,' but the studio's computers broke down, taking the whole new album with it. So we had to re-record it. Then people had kids. Somebody got grants. Somebody had to take up social responsibility and fight for the environment. We found ourselves living a life outside of the process of making the album...and it took Wawi leaving (for Spain, for a one-year scholarship grant) to release this EP."
Navarroza doesn't deny that their first album became the indie success of it's time, with their MTV and NU Rock awards. "But contrary to being pressured to come up with a follow-up album, we just took our time. In that way it's more genuine because the longevity of the songs, carrying them through the years and still being happy about it...it's telling also of us as a band."
The secret to the band's new sound is that the songs are written way back in 2000 when they were just starting out under a different vocalist. According to Agcaoili, it was the band's conscious decision to limit the first album's tracks to what they could afford and what was fit for its concept. "The songs are older, and are more stripped down compared to the first album," he says.
The EP marks another marked change in the band, with Navarroza having a hand in songwriting for the "new-old" songs.
"It was refreshing," she says. "Putting my words into writing, my lyrics, working with them in the studio."
Amid the album's dirty guitar work, Hernandez notes the album's defining moment: the Orientalist "Imperial."
"The direction was to find a new avenue for inspiration. At the time I was into Wong Kar Wai films, Koreanovelas, that sort. [The song] was meant to sound like it moved in crests and throws, unlike in Western pop where you had the verse-chorus-verse structure...very delineated. "Imperial just flows and moves...like water."
Agcaoili thinks The Late Isabel is "running backwards through time."
"With some of the members' death metal influences, going back to Siouxsie and the Banshees and post-punk, and finally accessing their roots in Asian music.," he adds.
With their singer staying in Spain for a year, the band will continue in their own unique way. "The Late Isabel as a character," according to Hernandez, "is a woman who's there but not there. That's the aesthetic of the band."
Will the current changes in the musical marketing landscape affect that aesthetic?
Hernandez believes in making their music more accessible. Navarroza add that EP "is just an artifact for those who have been waiting for it for a long time. Not to be romantic, but it may be one of the last CDs ever produced. Who knows?"
Whatever the future holds, The Late Isabel will surely be there in whatever shape or form -- ever present, ever elusive, but always magical.
