Breaking Laces

For Breaking Laces, the prospect of recording an album in Nashville at first seemed preposterous; after all, as singer Willem Hartong says, "we're talking about Countryville USA." But this past spring, when the Brooklyn-based raucous-rock trio ventured down South, a far different Music City greeted them upon arrival: the band discovered an evolving Tennessee town where torching riffs and gunshot drums were steadily replacing time-battered twang. Acclaimed Nashvillian studio rats, like producer Paul Moak, were also eager to get down to business producing rock-steady riots - exactly the sort the Laces had already begun cooking up back home. "It was one of those moments where we were all like 'Is there even a question?'" drummer Seth Masarsky recalls of the Laces' instant connection with Moak at his Smoakstack Studios, after which they signed on and began recording Come Get Some, the band's most unencumbered, free-spirited album to date.

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Since forming in 2003, Breaking Laces have played practically every variety of venue imaginable -- from coffeehouses to summercamps, and festivals to amphitheaters. All throughout however, while traversing the peaks and valleys of the oft-unpredictable music industry, the Laces pressed onward. "We've never shied away from rolling up our sleeves, getting in the van and working," the drummer explains. "It was a slow and steady climb," Masarsky adds, describing the band's journey to Come Get Some. "A lot of bands break up; we've kept at it." Breaking Laces' fourth full-length release, Come Get Some is a statement piece: the centerpiece of a band having spent years cultivating its craft both onstage and in the studio. It's also the sound of three musicians musically undeterred -- free to amalgamate their harmonic delicacy, ripping rock sensibilities, and off-the-cuff charm into an album they can proudly stand behind. "The goal was always this record," explains Hartong, citing the trio's critically-praised 2011 effort, When You Find Out, as a "stepping stone" work. 

Bassist Rob Chojnacki says the band aimed to make an album with no pretenses, hoping to bring energy "as close as possible to a live show," into the studio. To that end, the bassist, in an effort to help Moak capture the album's aural aesthetic, sent the producer two words as directional guidance: "raw" and "balls," he recalls, laughing. The band, as Masarsky explains, had stopped worrying about strategy; instead it "just went with a vibe and a gut feeling." With a new album in the bag, Hartong finds himself itching to further refine the already highly-polished cuts onstage. "If you give us what we need we're gonna kill it," the singer says of the band's live show. For Masarsky, the drummer says his motivation still remains centered on forming emotive connections with audiences. "I would love to move as many people emotionally as possible," he says. "To know that we touched a large number of people... I would be so fulfilled."