Harmonic convergence
Haunted Windchimes spread their musical magic, near and far
Posted: Sunday, October 31, 2010 12:00 am
By AMY MATTHEW | amym@chieftain.com | 0 comments
It's an interesting world The Haunted Windchimes inhabit.
This five-piece Pueblo band has a sound that is perfectly suited to college radio but also sounds like it could have existed in a Southern blues joint a hundred years ago.
Their music is decidedly lo-fi — no drum kit takes up space in the band vehicle — but their marketing approach is strictly 21st century, utilizing a well-developed website, iTunes and self-recording to spread their musical word.
They've garnered strong support from audiences and critics in Denver, Colorado Springs and elsewhere. They've opened for Arlo Guthrie and played Red Rocks as part of the Monolith Festival lineup. Yet gigs here in the Steel City, their home base, are rare.
"I don't feel like Pueblo's disregarded us. We just have to work a little harder (here)," said Inaiah Lujan, the band's leader.
The band has a significant core of devoted supporters here. Last summer they made their first appearance at the Bluegrass on the River Festival, to good reviews.
However, a combination of fewer venues, a smaller audience base, a music scene that leans more toward rock and metal than the Windchimes' high harmonies (though Inaiah believes that is changing) and, yes, the band's desire to broaden its reach means they must venture outside Pueblo County. When the goal is to make a full-time living from your music, that's a given.
But here they remain: Inaiah on guitar and vocals; Desirae Garcia on ukulele and vocals; Inaiah's sister, Chela Lujan, on banjo and vocals; Sean Fanning on bass; and Mike Clark on guitar, mandolin and harmonica. They range in age from 22 to 32. Clark lives in Colorado Springs and drives down for practices at the welcoming South Side home that is shared by the Lujans and Garcia.
Maybe this out-of-town popularity actually is a benefit. Pueblo has become a respite — a quieter place to focus on the work of music.
"We stay because of the sense of community, the cost of living. Pueblo just seems simple," said Inaiah. "It's enough out of the limelight that I can get a break from it all and not have to be performing all the time. For right now, it makes the most sense."
So with roots planted here, the band continues to spread its branches toward a wider world.
Americana via punk
You could say The Haunted Windchimes — the band name was inspired by a set of chimes outside the Lujans’ parents’ house that would make sounds even when there was no wind — owes its creation to a genre of music that usually appeals to an entirely different audience.
"I come from a world of punk rock and played in a punk band here in Pueblo," said Inaiah, who moved here about nine years ago with Chela and the rest of their family. "I come from that school of thought and that world. I held on to those sort of political beliefs for a long time."
Hearing that is a surprise, given his personality. This is a man who has a clear passion for life and love, but whose demeanor veers much closer to George Harrison than Iggy Pop.
"What made me gravitate toward what I'm doing now is the simplicity," he said. "The other had gotten so complicated. This was giving back to what it's all about. The ‘three chords and the truth’ mentality became my mantra."
Around the time he was delving into this new musical direction, Inaiah met Garcia through My-Space. It was, he said, "one of those love-at-first-sight deals." They started writing songs together.
"We were writing these minor love ballads, songs for a couple," Inaiah said.
"It was totally different, all romantic and spooky," said Garcia.
As the music evolved, so did the band. Chela joined first.
"I wouldn't let them do music without me," she said.
Clark jumped on stage during one of the trio's live shows and started playing harmonica. Fanning saw the group play at The Downtown Bar in Pueblo; he had recently moved here from Wichita, Kan., and Inaiah was the first person he met.
"Inaiah may not have said yes (to Fanning joining) except he knew Sean was a pretty stellar musician," said Garcia.
Within two years The Haunted Windchimes went from a duo to a quintet. The women, who focused on singing when the band was a trio, each took up an instrument to add to the sound.
Their first show with the current lineup was a memorable one, opening for Denver-based band DeVotchKa at Armstrong Hall in Colorado Springs in 2008.
"I feel like our musical birth was in Colorado Springs," said Inaiah. "It was the first place to really get us . . . to make us feel like part of a musical community."
‘Music nerds’
One of the Windchimes' greatest accomplishments has nothing to do with their musical talents. They form an incredibly functional band, personality-wise. Anyone who's spent time around music groups understands the significance of that.
Sure, there's the brother-sister bond between the Lujans, and Inaiah and Garcia's relationship. But spend an evening with them, watch an impromptu jam session, and what envelops the room isn't just the sweet notes and energy, but the camaraderie.
"We're friends," said Garcia. "I'll see other bands (who) don't seem to like each other, and it's weird."
Everyone else in the band refers to Inaiah as the leader, but it's obviously a democratic enterprise.
"No one's value is worth more than anybody else's," said Clark.
Everyone contributes songs. Fanning, who made his living for several years as a freelance musician in Wichita, does most of the arranging.
These days, touring means everyone loads themselves into Mitch, their old-but-new RV, for some real togetherness.
"We can get five songs done going down the road," said Clark.
The group's musical tastes are far-reaching. A stack of vinyl rests on the floor of the Lujan/Garcia living room; names such as Bob Dylan, Howlin' Wolf, The Beatles, Radiohead and The Beach Boys appear on the covers.
"Long live analog," said Fanning.
Chela favors "conscious, underground hip-hop" by artists like Sage Francis. Garcia lists Velvet Underground, Pixies and Animal Collective among her favorites.
Fanning goes for jazz, with John Coltrane and James Jamerson, the uncredited bassist on many Motown classics, getting specific mention. Clark loves the blues and Led Zeppelin.
“ ‘(Bron-Yr-Aur) Stomp’ (by Zeppelin) — that could be a Windchimes song any day," Clark said.
Inaiah is a devotee of the Beatles, Wings and Neil Young, among others.
"The Beatles is a mom thing," he said. "She knew how to play her favorite Beatles songs (on guitar) and we learned to play on my parents' classical guitars."
He said his attention to the Fab Four comes in phases. According to the other band members, one of those phases has a grip on him right now.
"Inaiah has gone headfirst into the swimming pool of Beatles obsession and he's dragging everybody with him," said Garcia.
"And we love it," added Clark.
"We're all just total music nerds, basically," said Fanning.
All of those diverse ingredients find their way into the Windchimes catalog.
"I think everything in music is unconscious," Inaiah said. "You can sit down and say you're going to write a song — that's conscious — but everything after that is unconscious. It's like dreaming.
Things come out of the woodwork.
"Punk, rock, country — it's all there and all relevant in some weird way."
They've put out two full-length albums, "An Evening With: The Haunted Windchimes" and "Honey-Moonshine," as well as several EPs, and done various side projects on their own label, Blank-Tape Records. The band members said the label, founded in 2008, is another way to control their own creations and provide support to other independent artists.
Music is life
The Windchimes' ambition isn't immediately evident. They are such a genial, unpretentious group that the business side doesn't appear until they start answering questions. Once the subject comes up, it's obvious how seriously all of them take this venture.
"Every day we do something for the band," said Clark.
It might mean updating the website, fixing Mitch, working with their booking agent, practicing or writing — always writing.
"We're a really hard-working band," said Inaiah. "We got screwed over by a lot of promoters early on because we didn't know any better and we thought getting $25 and free drinks was good. Then we started to take on more of a professional (approach) and determine our value."
Now their shows are booked for them and they're playing larger venues. They played the Fox Theatre in Boulder earlier this week and will return to Armstrong Hall Thursday night, this time as the headlining act. They play to audiences comprising older people, punk fans and even children — a variety which pleases them.
For now, all of the members still have a job and/or school occupying some of their time. They know it's all part of the process.
"I feel like it's happening in a very organic fashion," said Inaiah. "What's required of us is more patience."
Next up: recording a second live CD at the Western Jubilee Warehouse in Colorado Springs, the site of their first live recording. That will take place in December. Work on a new album is ongoing and the band already has enough songs written to fill two discs.
But while the business side is necessary, the group remains, as Fanning put it, a bunch of music nerds, and Inaiah remembers the moment he completely bought into the potential of The Haunted Windchimes.
"It was our CD release show on March 20 (of this year)," he said. "It really became apparent to me. I looked out to a sold-out crowd rallying around us. Love was so imminent and so powerful I feel like it changed me forever. The planets just lined up and showed me the potential of a better world, if that makes sense."
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