Milwaukee on the Move: Tour Alert – Caley Conway

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Charlotte Larkin Leave a comment

As the autumnal bliss that is Wisconsin in fall descends upon us, so too does Caley Conway with a new collection of celestial b-sides.

In honor of the new tracks, produced by Dante Fumo and accompanied by John Larkin, and Luke Rivard with vocals from D’amato, the Milwaukee based artist plans to set out on her first major Midwest tour. We were lucky enough to receive early access to the songs; take a listen and continue reading for tour details and a deep dive into the recording process with Miss Conway:

Barrels

Recorded three separate times over almost two years, what started as a simple song has morphed into a masterful amalgam of nylon stringed instruments and wistful melodies. Vocal accompaniments by D’amato.

Love Is Sex

An experimental, bare-bones track recorded at The Factory Studio in Milwaukee’s Clarke Square neighborhood. One might consider it an ambient, lustful lullaby.

Although “Barrels” is reminiscent of earlier compositions with the Lucy Cukes, “Love is Sex” borders on the transient. Paired together, they form an intoxicating amalgamation of musical styles. The artist in her own words elaborates on the recording process:

He (Dante – producer) initially approached me about recording a simple song (“Barrels”) as he had just fixed his tape machine and was looking to experiment with a music style outside of his hardcore M.O. John (Larkin) and I took our nylon stringed instruments (guitar and ukulele) to his basement, and recorded essentialy a quaint duet of the song. I really liked that version, but at the time I was struggling to know how to release it — I was working on releasing “Silk for Life” with the Lucy Cukes (another long-time-coming project), and didn’t want Barrels to compete with or get drowned out by that. So I sat on it for a good while.

Once I got my trio together (John Larkin and Luke Rivard… and me), we quickly adapted the song for our outfit. I approached Dante about adding bass and drum tracks, because now I wanted to release something relevant to what I was doing. We decided to try capturing a live take from scratch, instead. By that time, though, Dante had gotten this studio space on the south side, which was huge, totally beautiful, and he had been building it out mostly by himself, with the help of some family members. We got to set up drums in this huge sunlit chamber, and he’s currently building an isolation room that’s almost as big as the house I live in. It’s a good thing we decided to scrap that take and start over yet again, for a third time, just because I loved visiting the space so much.

Luckily we were able to knock it out, and I had some time left to record a solo song, so that’s where “Love is Sex” came from. It’s pretty new, so I haven’t worked on it with any band members or anything along those lines. I like the idea of releasing something pretty new and bare-bones. Dante mixed and mastered the track onto tape, which is something I know very little about, but I’m very proud of how it sounds. His tape machine is really cool, it’s huge and unlike most gear I’ve seen. Oh and D’amato is the other voice singing on “Barrels” with me, if you couldn’t tell… he really knocked it out.”

You can catch Caley at the following locations throughout the state (Click dates for event and venue info):

Thursday, October 19th – Bremen Cafe, Milwaukee

Event includes: Kyle John Kenowski, the Caleb Willitz Band (Chicago), and the full band (backing vocal section comprised of D’amato and Treccy MT).

Friday, October 20th – Loft Space, Chicago

Accompanied by John Larkin and Luke Rivard and joining the Caleb Willitz Band.

Sunday, October 22nd – Art In Madison

Accompanied by John Larkin and Luke Rivard and joining Sleep Now Forever (Madison)

Thursday, October 26th – 602 Club, Appleton

The rest of the shows will be solo performances:

Friday, October 10/27 – Tatterwood Gallery, Minneapolis

Event includes: MPLS locals Hazel Ra and Humbird.

Saturday, October 28th – The Lake House, Eau Claire.