White Life is something of a departure for Jon Ehrens, the prolific and chameleonic singer-songwriter previously best known for indie bands like the idiosyncratic Art Department and the lo-fi Repelican. For one of the first times in his career, Ehrens is sharing vocal and production duties on White Life’s self-titled debut, which was recorded with Chris and Mickey Freeland at Beat Babies, and features several lead vocal performances by his sister Emily Ehrens. But more significantly, White Life is a big stylistic left turn for Ehrens into the world of synths, drum machines and unabashedly pop vocal performances.

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When singer/guitarist Jon Ehrens first recorded an album as the Art Department in 2005, it was just one solo project of many, including Repelican and the Hypnic Jerks. Nearly five years after The Art Anthology, however, the band is a fully operational gigging trio, rounded out by drummer Mike Meno and bassist Jason Howe, who have helped Ehrens both expand and refine the Art Department’s rewardingly unusual sound and uncompromisingly narrow aesthetic boundaries.

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A few months ago we received a call from WYPR, asking us to produce a live set of Future Islands songs for our favorite local arts and culture show, The Signal. The set was to include new arrangements of songs to complement an acoustic show they would be playing at the Metro Gallery.

A couple weeks later, Future Islands packed them in at Metro Gallery and then came to Mobtown to share an incredible session with us. They were joined by Denny Bowen (Double Dagger) on drums, Kate Barutha (Soft Cat) on cello and Devlin Rice on acoustic guitar. After the session, the band was interviewed by Jon Ehrens of The Art Department for the radio piece.

Ultimately, the band and their label, Thrill Jockey, decided to release the songs from the session on 150-gram vinyl in a limited run of 1000 numbered copies. So the band returned to mix it over a period of a few days and then it was mastered by Adam Cooke at Lord Baltimore Studios.

You can listen to the final piece on The Signal here. Clips of the MP3s are available below.

Long Flight

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Little Dreamer

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At last week’s microshow our ears and minds were tweaked by the frenetic stylings of concept pop band the Art Department. They put on a cool set: two acoustic guitars (one nylon and one steel) and non-gender-bending vocals from Jon Ehrens and company. Enjoy the set!

Technical Info: Vox: U87, Acoustic Guitars: SM81, Bass Drum: Beta 52, Snare: SM57, Overhead: AT3060

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