1991 might already be acquainted to die exhausting followers, however on February 7, 2025, it will likely be formally accessible for buy on CD and vinyl. Shortly earlier than the discharge, frontman Greg Ackell spoke with AllMusic from a recording studio, the place the band was engaged on a brand new album. He discusses 1991, the band’s return, and ideas on the music scene right now.
Let’s soar proper into 1991. What was the method like unearthing this time capsule of an album?
“Properly…I am beginning to simply contemplate it an album, only recently. It was not an album ever. These had been a set of songs that had been demos on the time. We recorded them on rented reel-to-reel eight tracks, and we recorded them largely in our dorm rooms.”
“After we recorded the primary demo, we did not know precisely what we had been going to do with it. I wasn’t actually making an attempt to get us exhibits as a result of I did not even know find out how to ship it to a membership. I used to be actually younger, 18, 19 years previous, and I did not have an actual sense of the Boston golf equipment or the dwell scene. However what I did have had been data, and on the again of these data had been report firm names. They had been largely in England: Creation Information, 4AD, Manufacturing unit Information. I simply put these cassettes within the mail and despatched them over to London. I did not actually anticipate a lot again, however inside every week or so, we had been getting calls from these labels. And subsequently what occurred was that any individual—her identify was Colleen Maloney at 4AD—she despatched a type of cassettes to Melody Maker and NME. They had been the equal of, I suppose, Pitchfork or Rolling Stone now. Folks lived and died by them.”
“A pair weeks after, I acquired a name from our lawyer and he mentioned, ‘You are a single of the week in Melody Maker,’ and I did not know what the fuck he was speaking about as a result of we did not have a single. We did not have a report deal. We did not have an album. We had nothing. However Colleen Maloney had despatched that to the press, and the press acquired a maintain of it and actually thought quite a lot of it. They needed to make up a label identify, as a result of they weren’t presupposed to overview demos. I believe it mentioned Pentatonic Information or one thing.”
“Whereas we had been determining who to signal to, we determined to go forward and make one other demo. The primary music on that demo was ‘Daymom,’ and after we lastly signed our report deal, a few yr had passed by. While you’re that age, you are—we had been anyway—shifting ahead and continuously evolving each day. So after we had this report deal, we had been presupposed to report our first album. I went to the band and mentioned, ‘Let’s simply write a brand new album. Let’s go away these things behind us.’ It wasn’t that the fabric wasn’t good, it is simply that we had been already in a unique place. So that is what grew to become Delaware, our first album, and these demos simply remained frozen in time. We left them behind in subsequent years.”
“There have been cassettes on the time that went out. I keep in mind we even gave them out to children at exhibits. Over time, as soon as YouTube was invented, somebody determined to add them. It acquired some consideration. We acquired so many requests, and there was a lot curiosity in it that we simply determined to revisit them—to remix them barely.”
“It is very exhausting to inform that we remixed something. There’s not quite a bit to remix whenever you’re speaking about eight tracks. However we labored with an excellent good friend of the band’s referred to as Max Rose, an excellent man from Seattle that was with us within the early ’90s. After we got here again, lots of people got here out from the woodwork. Folks had been involved in serving to us out in the way in which they may. Max labored exhausting on these to get the constancy to a degree that the band was extra snug with releasing, and our label, Wharf Cat, was very from the very starting to launch these things. However as soon as I began accepting that we had been going to do it, it was higher. Being from to this point up to now, it did not look like a precedence to me. However we’ve a fan base, and folks need what they need, so we’re glad to be lastly placing it on the market in some sort of type that we’re snug with.”
“We referred to as it 1991 as a result of, properly, the songs had been written and recorded in 1991. I additionally very very like that ’19’ and ’91’ are the mirror picture of each other. Clearly, this band has a factor for numbers; we referred to as ourselves Drop Nineteens. So I like that sort of symmetry.”
That is wonderful. Had you been occupied with revisiting the album earlier than?
“It happened when the band resurfaced…trying on the band’s historical past and what there was curiosity in. However for all these years, no, there was no curiosity. I imply, I used to be conscious of issues on YouTube. Folks would say to me, ‘Oh, I discovered this on YouTube, Greg, is that this yours?’ and I might be like, ‘Yeah,’ however I by no means appreciated listening to it a lot in that setting. The audio is fairly terrible. Once more, they had been posting that from cassettes. That was the one approach. Nobody ever had ADATs or something.”
Do you keep in mind any of your artistic inspirations for 1991? Which of these nonetheless maintain true right now, and what has been inspiring you latterly that did not earlier than?
“In these days, I believe there have been two albums—two bands particularly that I keep in mind. Certainly one of them was My Bloody Valentine Is not Something. Maybe that is apparent. In case you take heed to our music, it is definitely spinoff of it. The second was Spacemen 3‘s The Good Prescription. These two albums simply appeared very cool to me. I used to be additionally a fan of Sonic Youth‘s Daydream Nation; that is sort of an in depth third. I used to be additionally a giant Cocteau Twins fan rising up.”
“I used to be speaking to Neil [Halstead] from Slowdive. I keep in mind after we met 30 years in the past, in London, we had each been conscious of one another’s bands. When he learn the overview in Melody Maker, he thought that it appeared like his band. And the identical goes for us.”
“What we realized was that we weren’t copying one another a lot as we had been each impressed by the identical sorts of music—the identical data, and rising up roughly the identical age. We simply had been on totally different sides of the Atlantic. It was sort of humorous revisiting that with him. Slowdive, to their credit score, largely caught by their sound, whereas my band sort of developed into different issues. You do not at all times know what you are going to get with Drop Nineteens. That is simply our nature. So, the 1991 materials does replicate our shoegaziest interval. It was definitely new to us, determining find out how to sound like that. It was an thrilling time to be discovering find out how to make these sorts of sounds.”
“However in Delaware, we moved barely away from that. It is a bit of bit much less blown out, rather less ethereal. It nonetheless has what we name ‘the feels,’ however it was sort of a step away from shoegaze, although we hear on a regular basis that Delaware is a shoegaze album. I at all times go away it to different individuals to explain what style we’re. I am proudly shoegaze, however I am not expressly a fan of it. There’s an entire fashionable shoegaze scene, notably in America, that I am nonetheless studying about after over a yr of being again.”
“Every kind of issues transfer me now. I like the band Deerhunter. I believe they’re actually good. There is a band referred to as Spoon that I believe is possibly the most effective band on the planet; I’ve studied every little thing they do. I am a giant fan of LCD Soundsystem and Automobile Seat Headrest. These are the bands that I take heed to quite a bit. I am nonetheless a fan of My Bloody Valentine. I am excited they’re coming again.”
Each My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, like Drop Nineteens, are bands from the ’90s that had resurrections some two or three a long time later. There’s additionally been an enormous resurgence within the fanbases of those ’90s bands on account of TikTok. What are your opinions on these sorts of rebirths in music? How do you view your band’s position within the scene?
“Properly, it is solely been a service to us. After we determined to come back again, I wasn’t even fairly conscious of this fan base. I am type of tuned out. I did not have Spotify on the time; I do now. I am not on social media. However it was fortuitous, and it was a welcome factor as soon as we had been again as a result of it implies that there’s an viewers. However we’d have come again and recorded Arduous Mild whether or not there was an viewers or not. The resurgence wasn’t the rationale for doing it, however after all it makes a distinction.”
“I wasn’t conscious of some issues. I did not know if we’d be capable to report and determine issues out and play dwell. I did not know if individuals would present up. The final time I performed on stage was within the early nineties. I’d look out on the viewers, and so they had been all individuals my age. I referred to as them children again then, ‘trigger I used to be a child, you realize, 18 to 22, 23. However the unusual factor now’s that we play dwell, and I am that very same age group. It is uncanny, actually. There are individuals from that period within the viewers, however I see them extra on YouTube movies of the band, some bald heads within the again. I do know that these are the individuals which are extra our period. Everybody in Drop Nineteens nonetheless has their hair, however we’re accepting of the truth that we’re all getting older. However the children within the entrance are the sunshine.”
“I do not know what makes one thing go away, and I do not know what makes it come again. I’ve observed that the guitar sound in shoegaze has change into sort of ubiquitous. It is in nearly every little thing; it is in pop music, it is in hip-hop—I imply, take heed to Earl Sweatshirt. I name it “woozy guitars.” I keep in mind Kevin Shields [of My Bloody Valentine] saying to me that since you’re detuning a chord, the ear and the mind is striving to listen to the chord that you simply’re not delivering. So by definition, it is sort of a romantic instrument since you’re promising one thing and never delivering it. I imply romantic within the literary sense: one thing misplaced, one thing not fairly achieved, one thing unrelinquished. There’s one thing about that sound that could be very seductive. And I believe that persons are lastly catching on to that, which is cool.”
1991, again when it was nonetheless often called Mayfield, was a extensively traded bootleg amongst quite a lot of your followers. Figuring out that many listeners might have already heard a few of the tracks or are acquainted with them, what are you most hoping that listeners will take away from this album?
“Properly, I hope that it satisfies them. It wasn’t straightforward for us to place this factor out. After we first began to revisit it, we printed up some vinyl ourselves and offered them on the exhibits we had been taking part in. We acquired quite a lot of backlash for that. Folks had been saying, ‘You possibly can’t simply launch it and solely promote it at your exhibits. What if I can not get to the present?’ However the issue is that there is a cash part right here. Printing up 5,000 albums and distributing them isn’t one thing that I can simply whip out my pockets and pay for. It was by no means this band’s place to maintain this music from individuals, however you would be stunned on the sort of anger that will get on the market. So the one factor I hope 1991 does is simply make individuals glad. We admire the love, however we’re doing our greatest, and never every little thing is kind of really easy. We get requests to play in each metropolis, and we are able to solely play the place we are able to play.
Perhaps it is as a result of I am a bit of bit new to social media. I am delicate to studying something dangerous, ever, which is why I do not even have passwords to our socials. Steve, invariably, my companion on this, will find yourself sending me stuff, and I get upset. The overwhelming majority of every little thing has been very constructive about us, however I do know that there was undoubtedly a factor about 1991 the place individuals had been upset once they thought that they weren’t going to have the ability to get it. Properly, now they’ll.”
“As for the music itself, I take pleasure in listening to it now too. It sounds higher than it ever did. I keep in mind after I acquired the primary copy of it, I put it on the turntable, and I used to be like, ‘Fuck, this sounds nice.’ I do not know why that is a shock to me, however at any time when I get a product in my hand…generally I am dissatisfied. I used to be not with this. I assumed it sounded actually good. So I hope individuals take pleasure in it.”
After the band broke up, you had been very satisfied that you’d by no means make music once more. And after the discharge of White Gown and Nest, you mentioned that it could be the very last thing the band would ever launch. Each of those statements turned out to be unfaithful, and now you make a brand new album. What else do you take note of for the longer term? Are you again for good?
“We’re again for now. And…ultimately of this e-book that Tom Faix wrote about us, there have been two traces in there that sort of simply summed up my emotions on the time. The primary one was one among Lana [Del Rey]‘s: ‘It was such a scene, and I felt seen.’ The second line was mine on the music ‘Nest,’ and it goes, ‘And for the love of God, terrible, I am so glad that I appeared again.’ There’s at all times the likelihood in something that that’ll be the very last thing you do. So I do not know if the band is again for good, however it’s again for now. Paula [Kelley] simply moved again East, which is sort of thrilling to us as a result of she was in L.A. all these years. We’re trying ahead to writing and recording this subsequent album. We’re in all probability going to play just a few festivals this yr.”
Do you assume there’s extra stability in making music now that you simply’re older? Or much less so due to the suggestions from social media coming in from each route? Is there nonetheless some strain?
“There’s at all times strain, however it is not from outdoors. The strain is from inside. Writing music is not enjoyable for me, or recording it or something. Once in a while I’ve an okay time on stage, a second the place I am like, ‘Oh, that is sort of cool,’ and I can take pleasure in it, however it’s not notably enjoyable. What it’s is rewarding. I do not imply that in a financial sense, as a result of it is truly removed from that. However I do it as a result of it is a fulfilling factor to do with one’s life—to go and create one thing, to attempt to make one thing lovely. It is a luxurious, frankly, these days. That was true after I began, and it is true now. It is at all times a battle, however it’s value it.”
“Now that we’re again, it is change into a part of me once more. And I hope I am talking for the remainder of the band right here, too; there is a little bit of tumult that occurs whenever you go away one thing behind. Change isn’t straightforward. In order troublesome as it’s, it is a part of me that I am not fairly able to abandon but. I do know that after we do put this down, it’s going to be for good. I’ve had protestations earlier than, however we’re not going to attend one other 20 years to come back again. That is the second run, and after we’re accomplished, that might be it.”
I learn in a previous interview that coming again to the band and to music after so lengthy has felt virtually dreamlike. Do you are feeling such as you’ve woken up but?
“I really feel sleepy is what I really feel [laughs]. Yeah. Nonetheless a bit within the stupor. It is like a previous life, or like waking up and remembering a dream. And the unusual factor now’s that after I get up from desires, I generally nonetheless must remind myself that I am doing this. Like, ‘Oh, we have got a present tonight. I’ve acquired to get to the studio.’ I nonetheless get up within the state of all these years the place this was not a part of my life, so I’ve to remind myself that it is not a dream, that I’ve truly acquired someplace to be. I’ve acquired a observe to put down. I’ve acquired a sound verify at 3 PM. All these items are my life now. Now, I am beginning to dream about my life earlier than I got here again.”
To buy 1991, go to Wharf Cat data.
