The most exciting thing about music in this peculiar era is the ability for musicians to cut out the fat middleman and be self-sufficient music makers. Lendway, the melodic rock quartet from Burlington, Vermont certainly fits the mold of the self-sustaining band that does their thing for the mere sake of doing it, and because the technology of the day permits such liberated musical pursuits. Their soulfully airy 11-song debut album, The Low Red End, was recorded in closets and basements, and paid for by sacrificed time and the collective effort of each band member.
“It was as guerilla as you could possibly be,” says Michael Clifford, the band’s guitarist, song writer, and lead vocalist. Yet despite being self-produced at home using “crappy mics” and “crappy interfaces”, The Low Red End is crisp and clear as though it were made in a high-end studio. As for the flow, visualize a patch of cumulus clouds calmly coasting through a bright blue sky. Throw in random bursts of lightning for the sharp guitar solos and rhythmic breaks that sporadically appear, and what you get is 11 songs of intensely melodic tunes that create the illusion of soaring.
Vocally, Lendway could drop the instruments and perform a cappella outside of coffee shops. The group harmonies are beautifully done, and the greatest evidence of their Fleet Foxian ability to harmonize their individual vocal chords is in the final track of The Low Red End, “Unstoppable.” Each voice comes on like a wave landing on shore, with a slight delay between the appearances of each, which all seamlessly flow into one.
To think, this started as a hobby for Michael (guitar/vocals), Kevin (bass), Matt (guitar/vocals), and Todd (drums), who lived together at Johnson State College in 1999, taking residence in a double-wide trailer they dubbed “The Ranch”. They have been playing music with each other for roughly a decade, and it was their landlord during college, Kevin Lendway, who was the inspiration behind the band’s name.
Like many DIY bands, they still have day jobs, with the band earning “fun” money on the side. Kevin works a night shift doing manufacturing work, which might explain his deep affinity for the complete product that is a vinyl record. Matt is a screen printer for Select Designs LTD. Todd manages a pool for Sports and Fitness Edge in addition to giving drum lessons. And Mike earns his money at the Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar, Sakura.
But even though it’s a hobby—and a form of release—the guys approach their music with a genuine sense of purpose. To Lendway, the fun comes from the act of creating new songs and the process of refining what they produce.
As Michael notes, “We’re all just really interested in song craft. If you’re writing good songs, it will be fun. If you’re not writing good songs, it will be exhausting.”
When they’re working out the subtleties of a song in their cramped-but-functional basement practice space at Nectars, sometimes they’ll just stop and have everyone sing a part note by note—and if it just isn’t their night they have no problem stepping back.
“It’s really good to take little breaks…just come back and there’s this fresh sense of energy,” said Matt Hagen, the band’s other guitar player and song writer.
This trial and error approach might seem tedious and exhausting, but it’s necessary, and as long as they’re enjoying the final product then it’s work disguised as a good time. And for a band that exists for the sole purpose of self-satisfaction, it’s their music-first approach and their use of the internet that has garnered fans from different states without Lendway ever having to hop in a van and tour the country. Even more impressive was their music’s ability to affect Grace Potter enough to get Lendway to open for her at Higher Ground the day after Christmas. She even put their set list out on stage, using a hat to disguise herself from the crowd that came to see her.
Matt explained that opportunities kind of began to present themselves once they finished The Low Red End.
“We never set out to book gigs or do any of this and we just started getting contacted, and we had friends that wanted to help us out, and then it just led up to the Grace Potter thing,” he says. “What we were trying to do was release the album, and when we released that it was an amazing accomplishment. It was like ‘Wow, you know, we did something that we wanted to do.’ It was like BOOM, up a level.”
All the positive feedback has served as a source of motivation as the band plays around with new material for Lendway’s second album. While they recently released an E.P. that they consider “the b-sides from the first album”, they are in no rush to push out the second album until every little part of each song is pristine and in its place. As Mike described, Lendway is a band focused on production and recreating the recorded experience live. Unlike many Burlington-based bands, jamming isn’t something they try to do.
“We keep it tight. We just tend to flourish things—maybe just one part—but it’s not a matter of extending it, we’re just trying to make it better,” said Matt.
But what the band finds most enjoyable about their experience is how enjoyable it has been. Every Monday at 7:30 they meet at Nectars, grab some beers, chill out and joke around before heading to the basement to get down to business. After all, Lendway is a band having a good time doing their thing, and while they might not have set out to impress people their music has certainly done it enough to turn a pleasurable hobby into something that is more like a fun side-job.
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Today, April, 18th, 2009, marks the 2nd annual national Record Store Day. The event was started in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a day to celebrate local and independent record stores, places where rare and treasured musical finds are common and fairly priced–none of the $21.99 plus tax nonsense that is the norm for most big chains. Record Store Day is an event that takes place on the 3rd Saturday in April, which is meant to remind people that there are other, and often better, options than the Best Buys and FYEs when it comes to supporting the music you love. 
