When Justin Sconza and Colin Yarck started Walter Meego about five years ago, they were playing decent but unspectacular electro-tinged indie rock. Since then, though, they’ve made a series of quantum leaps that have ratcheted up the attention level both inside and outside Chicago. Their biggest breakthrough up till now was probably the EP Romantic, released last year on the local Brilliante label, but this week they dropped Voyager, their full-length debut, and it’s poised to ride that mounting wave of interest to heights they’ve only fantasized about—it’s so buzzy it almost vibrates out of your hands. They’re in the middle of a North American tour with the Presets that will bring them back to town on Friday, and Reader contributor Jessica Hopper, who’s been staying in LA, tells me that tracks from the new album are all over the radio out there, especially the tastemaking KCRW.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The duo in fact relocated to LA in January, but when I ask whether this was a career move they mostly seem to want to talk about the pool parties they can have at their new place. “It was totally a life decision that was incorporated into the band,” Sconza says. “We don’t want to become movie stars or something. We just wanted to check out California.” If they’d been thinking strictly about positioning themselves for a big break, they probably would’ve done better to go east: their new label, Almost Gold, also home to hot indie acts like Peter Bjorn and John and the Black Kids, is based in New York.
Voyager was quite a project. Recording at home like always, Sconza and Yarck worked on it from November 2006, around the time Almost Gold approached them, till July 2007, a month after they finally signed to the label. Sconza says he and Yarck didn’t have a grand vision when they started—he credits the record’s jump in quality over their previous EPs largely to a yearlong shopping spree that started shortly before they began tracking. “We bought a lot of new gear,” he says. “We got a bunch of cool old synths on eBay and, like, a lot of fun pedals. We got on eBay and Craigslist and went to town.”
It’s surprising to hear a band whose songs get played so often in dance clubs talk about abandoning that demographic, but Yarck and Sconza seem to have a deep aversion to staying put. Voyager “wasn’t going to be all of a sudden a bluegrass album,” says Sconza, but “after this we have to continue to change in order to be interested in our own music, so it’s not boring to us. Eventually we’ll turn into something else.”
Fri 5/30, 9 PM, Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace, 773-478-4408 or 866-468-3401, $15, 18+.
