1991 might already be acquainted to die exhausting followers, however on February 7, 2025, it is going to 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 immediately.
Let’s bounce proper into 1991. What was the method like unearthing this time capsule of an album?
“Nicely…I am beginning to simply take into account it an album, only recently. It was not an album ever. These had been a group of songs that had been demos on the time. We recorded them on rented reel-to-reel eight tracks, and we recorded them largely in our dorm rooms.”
“After we recorded the primary demo, we did not know precisely what we had been going to do with it. I wasn’t actually attempting to get us reveals as a result of I did not even know methods to ship it to a membership. I used to be actually younger, 18, 19 years previous, and I did not have an actual sense of the Boston golf equipment or the dwell scene. However what I did have had been information, and on the again of these information had been report firm names. They had been largely in England: Creation Information, 4AD, Manufacturing facility Information. I simply put these cassettes within the mail and despatched them over to London. I did not actually count on a lot again, however inside every week or so, we had 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 had been the equal of, I suppose, Pitchfork or Rolling Stone now. Individuals lived and died by them.”
“A pair weeks after, I bought a name from our lawyer and he stated, ‘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 report deal. We did not have an album. We had nothing. However Colleen Maloney had despatched that to the press, and the press bought a maintain of it and actually thought numerous it. They needed to make up a label identify, as a result of they weren’t imagined to evaluate demos. I believe it stated Pentatonic Information or one thing.”
“Whereas we had been determining who to signal to, we determined to go forward and make one other demo. The primary track on that demo was ‘Daymom,’ and once we lastly signed our report deal, a couple of yr had passed by. Whenever you’re that age, you are—we had been anyway—shifting ahead and always evolving day by day. So once we had this report deal, we had been imagined to report our first album. I went to the band and stated, ‘Let’s simply write a brand new album. Let’s go away these items behind us.’ It wasn’t that the fabric wasn’t good, it is simply that we had been already in a special 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 youngsters at reveals. Through the years, as soon as YouTube was invented, somebody determined to add them. It bought some consideration. We bought so many requests, and there was a lot curiosity in it that we simply determined to revisit them—to remix them barely.”
“It’s totally exhausting to inform that we remixed something. There’s not quite a bit to remix whenever 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. After we got here again, lots of people got here out from the woodwork. Individuals had been all in favour of serving to us out in the best way they might. Max labored exhausting on these to get the constancy to a degree that the band was extra snug with releasing, and our label, Wharf Cat, was very from the very starting to launch these items. However as soon as I began accepting that we had been going to do it, it was higher. Being from thus far previously, it did not seem to be a precedence to me. However we have now 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 kind that we’re snug with.”
“We referred to as it 1991 as a result of, properly, the songs had 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 desirous about revisiting the album earlier than?
“It took place when the band resurfaced…wanting 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 would be like, ‘Yeah,’ however I by no means preferred listening to it a lot in that setting. The audio is fairly terrible. Once more, they had been posting that from cassettes. That was the one approach. Nobody ever had ADATs or something.”
Do you bear in mind any of your artistic inspirations for 1991? Which of these nonetheless maintain true immediately, and what has been inspiring you recently that did not earlier than?
“In these days, I believe there have been two albums—two bands specifically that I bear in mind. One in every of them was My Bloody Valentine Is not Something. Maybe that is apparent. For those who hearken to our music, it is actually spinoff of it. The second was Spacemen 3’s The Good 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 had been each impressed by the identical sorts of music—the identical information, and rising up roughly the identical age. We simply had been on totally 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 developed 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 methods to sound like that. It was an thrilling time to be discovering methods to make these sorts of sounds.”
“However in Delaware, we moved barely away from that. It is a bit 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, regardless that we hear on a regular basis that Delaware is a shoegaze album. I at all times go away it to different folks to explain what style we’re. I am proudly shoegaze, however I am not expressly a fan of it. There’s an entire trendy shoegaze scene, significantly in America, that I am nonetheless studying about after over a yr of being again.”
“Every kind of issues transfer me now. I like the band Deerhunter. I believe they’re actually good. There is a band referred to as Spoon that I believe is perhaps one of the best band on this planet; I’ve studied every little thing they do. I am a giant fan of LCD Soundsystem and Automobile Seat Headrest. These are the bands that I hearken to quite a bit. 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 as a consequence of TikTok. What are your opinions on these sorts of rebirths in music? How do you view your band’s position within the scene?
“Nicely, it is solely been a service to us. After we determined to return again, I wasn’t even fairly conscious of this fan base. I am form 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 had been again as a result of it implies that there’s an viewers. However we’d have come again and recorded Laborious Mild whether or not there was an viewers or not. The resurgence wasn’t the explanation 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 report and determine issues out and play dwell. I did not know if folks would present up. The final time I performed on stage was within the early nineties. I might look out on the viewers, and so they had been all folks my age. I referred to as them youngsters again then, ‘trigger I used to be a child, you understand, 18 to 22, 23. However the unusual factor now’s that we play dwell, and I am taking a look at that very same age group. It is uncanny, actually. There are folks 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 folks which can be 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 youngsters 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 little thing; it is in pop music, it is in hip-hop—I imply, hearken 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 simply’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 may be very seductive. And I believe that persons are lastly catching on to that, which is cool.”
1991, again when it was nonetheless referred to as Mayfield, was a broadly traded bootleg amongst numerous your followers. Realizing that many listeners might 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?
“Nicely, I hope that it satisfies them. It wasn’t straightforward for us to place this factor out. After we first began to revisit it, we printed up some vinyl ourselves and offered them on the reveals we had been enjoying. We bought numerous backlash for that. Individuals had been saying, ‘You’ll be able to’t simply launch it and solely promote it at your reveals. What if I can not get to the present?’ However the issue is that there is a cash part right here. Printing up 5,000 albums and distributing them 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 folks, 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 folks pleased. We recognize the love, however we’re doing our greatest, and never every little thing is kind of really easy. We get requests to play in each metropolis, and we will solely play the place we will play.
Possibly it is as a result of I am a bit bit new to social media. I am delicate to studying something dangerous, ever, which is why I do not even have passwords to our socials. Steve, invariably, my accomplice on this, will find yourself sending me stuff, and I get upset. The overwhelming majority of every little thing has been very optimistic about us, however I do know that there was undoubtedly a factor about 1991 the place folks had been upset after they thought that they weren’t going to have the ability to get it. Nicely, now they will.”
“As for the music itself, I get pleasure from listening to it now too. It sounds higher than it ever did. I bear in mind after I bought 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 disillusioned. I used to be not with this. I believed it sounded actually good. So I hope folks get pleasure from it.”
After the band broke up, you had been very satisfied that you’d by no means make music once more. And after the discharge of White Costume and Nest, you stated that it may 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 guide that Tom Faix wrote about us, there have been two traces in there that form of simply summed up my emotions on the time. The primary one was certainly one of Lana [Del Rey]’s: ‘It was such a scene, and I felt seen.’ The second line was mine on the track ‘Nest,’ and it goes, ‘And for the love of God, terrible, I am so glad that I regarded again.’ There’s at all times the likelihood 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 wanting ahead to writing and recording this subsequent album. We’re in all probability going to play a number of festivals this yr.”
Do you assume there’s extra stability in making music now that you simply’re older? Or much less so due to the suggestions from social media coming in from each route? Is there nonetheless some stress?
“There’s at all times stress, however it is not from outdoors. The stress is from inside. Writing music is not enjoyable for me, or recording it or something. From time to time I’ve an okay time on stage, a second the place I am like, ‘Oh, that is form of cool,’ and I can get pleasure from it, however it’s not significantly 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 moment. That was true after I began, and it is true now. It is at all times a wrestle, however it’s price 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 whenever you go away one thing behind. Change 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 return again. That is the second run, and once we’re completed, that shall be it.”
I learn in a previous interview that coming again to the band and to music after so lengthy has felt virtually dreamlike. Do you’re 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 goals, I typically nonetheless must remind myself that I am doing this. Like, ‘Oh, we have a present tonight. I’ve bought 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 isn’t a dream, that I’ve really bought someplace to be. I’ve bought a monitor to put down. I’ve bought a sound verify at 3 PM. All these items 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 information.
