1991 could already be acquainted to die laborious followers, however on February 7, 2025, it will likely be formally out there 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 at this time.
Let’s soar proper into 1991. What was the method like unearthing this time capsule of an album?
“Effectively…I am beginning to simply take into account it an album, only recently. It was not an album ever. These have been a set of songs that have been demos on the time. We recorded them on rented reel-to-reel eight tracks, and we recorded them largely in our dorm rooms.”
“Once we recorded the primary demo, we did not know precisely what we have 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 tips on how to ship it to a membership. I used to be actually younger, 18, 19 years outdated, and I did not have an actual sense of the Boston golf equipment or the reside scene. However what I did have have been data, and on the again of these data have been document firm names. They have 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 per week or so, we have been getting calls from these labels. And subsequently what occurred was that any individual—her identify was Colleen Maloney at 4AD—she despatched a kind of cassettes to Melody Maker and NME. They have been the equal of, I suppose, Pitchfork or Rolling Stone now. Individuals lived and died by them.”
“A pair weeks after, I obtained 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 document deal. We did not have an album. We had nothing. However Colleen Maloney had despatched that to the press, and the press obtained a maintain of it and actually thought a variety of it. They needed to make up a label identify, as a result of they weren’t imagined to evaluate demos. I feel it mentioned Pentatonic Information or one thing.”
“Whereas we have 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 once we lastly signed our document deal, a few yr had passed by. If you’re that age, you are—we have been anyway—transferring ahead and continuously evolving on daily basis. So once we had this document deal, we have been imagined to document 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 have been already in a distinct place. So that is what turned 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 bear in mind we even gave them out to children at exhibits. Through the years, as soon as YouTube was invented, somebody determined to add them. It obtained some consideration. We obtained 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 laborious to inform that we remixed something. There’s not lots to remix once you’re speaking about eight tracks. However we labored with a great pal of the band’s referred to as Max Rose, a great man from Seattle that was with us within the early ’90s. Once we got here again, lots of people got here out from the woodwork. Individuals have been desirous about serving to us out in the way in which they may. Max labored laborious on these to get the constancy to a degree that the band was extra comfy 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 have been going to do it, it was higher. Being from to this point previously, it did not appear to be a precedence to me. However we’ve got a fan base, and folks need what they need, so we’re glad to be lastly placing it on the market in some form of type that we’re comfy with.”
“We referred to as it 1991 as a result of, nicely, the songs have 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 form of symmetry.”
That is superb. Had you been interested by 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. Individuals 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 favored listening to it a lot in that setting. The audio is fairly terrible. Once more, they have been posting that from cassettes. That was the one approach. Nobody ever had ADATs or something.”
Do you bear in mind any of your inventive inspirations for 1991? Which of these nonetheless maintain true at this time, and what has been inspiring you latterly that did not earlier than?
“In these days, I feel there have been two albums—two bands specifically that I bear in mind. Certainly one of them was My Bloody Valentine Is not Something. Maybe that is apparent. In the event you take heed to our music, it is actually spinoff of it. The second was Spacemen 3‘s The Excellent 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 form 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 bear in mind once we met 30 years in the past, in London, we had each been conscious of one another’s bands. When he learn the evaluate in Melody Maker, he thought that it gave the impression of his band. And the identical goes for us.”
“What we realized was that we weren’t copying one another a lot as we have been each impressed by the identical sorts of music—the identical data, and rising up roughly the identical age. We simply have been on completely different sides of the Atlantic. It was form of humorous revisiting that with him. Slowdive, to their credit score, largely caught by their sound, whereas my band form of advanced 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 actually new to us, determining tips on how to sound like that. It was an thrilling time to be discovering tips on how to make these sorts of sounds.”
“However in Delaware, we moved barely away from that. It is just a little bit much less blown out, rather less ethereal. It nonetheless has what we name ‘the feels,’ however it was form of a step away from shoegaze, though 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 a complete trendy shoegaze scene, notably in America, that I am nonetheless studying about after over a yr of being again.”
“All types of issues transfer me now. I like the band Deerhunter. I feel they’re actually good. There is a band referred to as Spoon that I feel is possibly the very best band on the earth; I’ve studied every part they do. I am a giant fan of LCD Soundsystem and Automotive Seat Headrest. These are the bands that I take heed to lots. 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 many years later. There’s additionally been an enormous resurgence within the fanbases of those ’90s bands resulting from TikTok. What are your opinions on these sorts of rebirths in music? How do you view your band’s position within the scene?
“Effectively, it is solely been a service to us. Once 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 have been again as a result of it signifies that there’s an viewers. However we’d have come again and recorded Laborious Gentle 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 have the ability to document and determine issues out and play reside. I did not know if individuals would present up. The final time I performed on stage was within the early nineties. I might look out on the viewers, they usually have been all individuals my age. I referred to as them children again then, ‘trigger I used to be a child, you already know, 18 to 22, 23. However the unusual factor now’s that we play reside, 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 turn out to be form of ubiquitous. It is in nearly every part; it is in pop music, it is in hip-hop—I imply, take heed to Earl Sweatshirt. I name it “woozy guitars.” I bear 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 just’re not delivering. So by definition, it is form 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 feel that persons are lastly catching on to that, which is cool.”
1991, again when it was nonetheless often known as Mayfield, was a broadly traded bootleg amongst a variety of your followers. Figuring out that many listeners could 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?
“Effectively, I hope that it satisfies them. It wasn’t straightforward for us to place this factor out. Once we first began to revisit it, we printed up some vinyl ourselves and bought them on the exhibits we have been taking part in. We obtained a variety of backlash for that. Individuals have 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 element right here. Printing up 5,000 albums and distributing them just 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 shocked on the form of anger that will get on the market. So the one factor I hope 1991 does is simply make individuals blissful. We respect the love, however we’re doing our greatest, and never every part is kind of really easy. We get requests to play in each metropolis, and we will solely play the place we will play.
Perhaps it is as a result of I am just a little bit new to social media. I am delicate to studying something unhealthy, ever, which is why I do not even have passwords to our socials. Steve, invariably, my associate on this, will find yourself sending me stuff, and I get upset. The overwhelming majority of every part has been very constructive about us, however I do know that there was positively a factor about 1991 the place individuals have been upset once they thought that they weren’t going to have the ability to get it. Effectively, 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 bear in mind after I obtained 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…typically I am upset. 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 have been very satisfied that you’d by no means make music once more. And after the discharge of White Costume and Nest, you mentioned that it is likely to 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 into account for the longer term? Are you again for good?
“We’re again for now. And…ultimately of this ebook that Tom Faix wrote about us, there have been two strains in there that form 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 chance 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 form 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 suppose there’s extra stability in making music now that you just’re older? Or much less so due to the suggestions from social media coming in from each course? 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 form 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 really 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 stunning. It is a luxurious, frankly, at the present time. 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 turn out to be 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 once you go away one thing behind. Change just isn’t straightforward. In order tough as it’s, it is a part of me that I am not fairly able to abandon but. I do know that once 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 once we’re accomplished, that shall be it.”
I learn in a previous interview that coming again to the band and to music after so lengthy has felt nearly 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 typically nonetheless must remind myself that I am doing this. Like, ‘Oh, we have got a present tonight. I’ve obtained 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 really obtained someplace to be. I’ve obtained a monitor to put down. I’ve obtained a sound examine at 3 PM. All this stuff 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.