From the earliest strains of “Through the Branches,” you can tell Blue Million Miles is up to something. The guitars are a blend of the piercing and the lurking. The drums are subtly solid, and the low-end (shared by the bass and guitars) is outright creepy.
Together the instruments creep and slide-walk, not unlike the zombies in the “Thriller” video. And then come the vocals, which sound like a man trying his best to restrain the madness within.
If you’re thinking of Joy Division’s “Lost Souls,” you’re not far off. Especially because singer Sam McNitt’s vocals have that uncontained jostle to them.
Mind you, Blue Million Miles — borrowing its name from a Captain Beefheart song title — isn’t the next Interpol. It does abide by certain aspects of the post-punk ethos: a certain amount of brevity and minimalism and careful attention to guitar tones. That said, Blue Million Miles is a rock band, a Denver four-piece releasing its debut full-length, “Of Building Walls,” with a big show Saturday at the Hi-Dive.
The Post caught up with McNitt, drummer Johnny Lundock and guitarist/bassist Jeff Shapiro — while missing guitarist/bassist Mike Picchetti, who was at work — to talk about “Of Building Walls,” those lush guitar tones and their many friends.
Q:I think your guitar tones are lovely. Is that something you spend a lot of time on in the studio?
Shapiro: Definitely. We tried to capture the nature of our live performances, while reining in a little of the uncontrollable nature of having a bunch of amps running simultaneously with different freaked-out effects rolling away. While recording, we were constantly checking ourselves and wondering how we could make something bigger, deeper and more interesting without overpowering the other instruments. Oh, and we’re big suckers for echo and delay.
Q: Arthur & Yu occupies the No. 1 spot on your MySpace profile. Why?
McNitt: Grant Olsen from Arthur & Yu is a former Denver resident and close friend of both Jeff and I. Aside from that, we love their music and wish them great fortune.
Q: Who did you record with this time around?
Shapiro: We spent a week tracking with Bryan Feuchtinger at Uneven Studios and took another couple of months mixing, as well. Things were mastered down at Airshow in Boulder.
Q:Tell us a funny (or tragic) story about the recording of “Of Building Walls.”
Shapiro:I think the whole thing is funny and tragic. Just the thought of four men (five with Bryan, of course) holed up for an extended period of time in a secluded space — fueled by lack of sleep, liquor and opinions — listening to themselves over and again . . .
Q:What do you like about playing music in Denver right now?
McNitt: That pretty much every night of the week you can go out and see a great show. That there are so many places for a band to play. That people work together instead of creating a sense of competition between each other. That there are so many great bands that it’s hard to decide where to go and who to see on any given night.
Q: The eighth-annual Denver Post Underground Music Showcase was last weekend. You guys played, and you guys were also all over the place. What was your favorite moment of the UMS this year?
Lundock:I guess instead of highlighting one band in particular (I have mad respect for them all), my favorite moment of the UMS weekend was the reinforcement of and being witness to what a great sense of community we have here musically. Whether it be a band crashing the showcase, people pulling sound equipment together from other venues just so a band could play or 25-50 people magically showing up at the last minute to catch a midday performance. All of those elements and many more were present, and that made me very excited for the future of the Denver music community.
Shapiro: The Omens killed it. I even danced. A lot. The Nicotine Fits blew me away and started off a thunderous Saturday for me.
Q: Listen to your EP. And then listen to your full-length. Are you happy with the progression there? What specifically are you psyched about, per the differences between the two records.
McNitt: I think we’re proud of both records in different ways. The EP was fun because we recorded it ourselves in Jeff’s kitchen and didn’t really know what we were doing. It was fun to hear ourselves on a recording, and I think we learned a lot with the whole process. The songwriting was new to us, and recording was new to us, and I think that comes through on the EP. It’s a fun record for me to listen to, because you can hear us experimenting and learning as we go.
The full-length is huge for us because, first of all, Johnny is playing drums, which makes us instantly better. He wasn’t in the band when we recorded the EP. Ever since he joined us, we’ve become a much tighter band and a much darker band. He and Michael bring the low-end rumble that Jeff and I truly love to hear.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com
