NICOLE LAURENNE opens up on compelling new DARTS (US) album, ‘BOOMERANG’

(Photo (c) Jesse Hudson)
NO LONGER PRIMITIVE, no longer frenetic. Now the music breathes, there’s space for everyone to be heard, space for everyone to be silent, an album devoid of cliché, an album of loves lost, of hopes, dreams, and aspirations. And relax, that trademark Farfisa sound hasn’t gone away – it’s been joined by a blissful trace of sweet soul music.
“It is interesting that you hear that, and I agree,” said band founder, lyricist and front woman, Nicole Laurenne. “I think a lot of what you are hearing is me breathing a little bit more, in my life, in my head, in my work.
“I have spent the last few years doing a lot of self-improvement and letting go of toxic things, trying to look around more and appreciate beautiful things rather than race around like I am wont to do. I feel like I am finally finding some peace in my head, and I think that probably comes out in the music.
“But also new producer Mark Rains, who I have been a fan of for a long time, tried to be kind of hands-off on this record, starting with his signature gorgeous clear signal chain for everything, and just adding little touches here and there as we requested things. It is not a very ‘produced’ record really – the band spent a lot of time together on tour last year and did some real soul-searching on a personal level. It was kind of like, you have to grow or die, right?
“So, we chose growth together, and we decided to make an album that was really just the band in the kitchen, really for the first time ever. It was part of our process of learning to listen to each other more and communicate better together. And, in all honesty, I’m more proud of this record than any so far.”
In an attempt to demystify the art of songwriting, Jimmy Webb once said, “Pour out part of your soul that no one else is willing to reveal. That’s what it takes.” Perhaps an approach taken by this songwriter on the new album?
“I do write from an autobiographical place, almost all the time. I can’t really speak for anyone else, so I tell it like I see it, like I feel it. A lot of the songs on ‘Boomerang’ are about learning to leave behind things and people who drag you down and stop your progress, about learning to listen to yourself and trusting that you know what you’re doing without all the outside influences of the noisy world. I am starting to believe that what I like and what I naturally do is really okay, and that is a new concept for me. I have always been the most self-critical, low-self-esteem, depressed person, and that curtain is finally lifting. Better late than never I suppose.
“And I am constantly writing. In the van, my laptop is open to GarageBand and I am writing. On the plane, in the doctor’s office, wherever, I am singing little voice memos into my phone and writing lyrics on my phone’s notepad. So, I grab inspiration immediately, probably because I fear it will be lost forever if I ignore those moments. Sometimes I’ll be commuting somewhere and by the time I arrive at my destination, a whole new song is mapped out, arranged in my head, and the lyrics are ninety percent done.
“I think the thing is to not necessarily feel like you have to tell your secrets, but more to just be honest and poetic about the human moments many of us share but might not realize it, we are all kind of the same inside, in so many ways. That shared unique human experience – the details you might not even notice at first – are my favourite things to write about.
“’You Disappoint Me’ is full of these examples: ‘The audience never gets to see, The minute they leave you’re asleep,’ and, ‘you pretended to be into art…,” little moments like that are the ones that stick in my head in life.”
A breathless, four song salvo opens the 13-track album, beginning with the slightly unnerving opener, ‘Hang Around,’ followed by ‘Are You Down,’ based on experiences from life on the road, previous single, ‘Pour Another,’ and ‘Your Show,’ transporting the listener back to London’s swinging ‘60s, the spirits of Petula, Lulu, and Dusty so close you’ll smell them.

“’Hang Around’ should only be unnerving for those toxic people who won’t take a hint. Everyone else – we love you, and ‘Your Show’ is for the people who have to watch as their musician-lover gets a little success and leaves them behind.”
“My journey toward letting go of toxic things started with examining what kind of messages I was telling myself, because those messages are the things that kill my willpower. When I realized I was just lying to myself all the time, justifying things that I shouldn’t, it was a lot easier to say no to those things.”
Out of the cinematic splendour of ‘Slither,’ we’re into ‘Photograph,’ back in the land of nostalgia, a place where, “Photos only show the beaches, not the luggage lost…”
“I moved a few times in the past years and every time I had to go through boxes of photos. I realized we are always smiling in them, no matter how bad the relationship really was or what was going on behind the scenes. The photos distort our memories, erasing the bad things – kind of like social media does now. Our friend Richard Romero, a great guitar player in Los Angeles, sent me the guitar riff and I wrote ‘Photograph’ from that.”
It’s easy – but ultimately lazy – to attach the one dimensional ‘garage band’ label to The Darts. They are infinitely more sophisticated. BOOMERANG is a sexy, mysterious, soundtrack to bygone eras. A black and white pre-war Paris perhaps, chic, innocent times, a hint of danger in the shadows.
“You’ve just described the world in my head, the stylish noir spy movie I am always writing music for. Even when I write in genres other than garage rock, this vibe seems to seep in somehow. I don’t know if I’ve actually ever seen the movie that I imagine in my head, but apparently, it’s alive and well in my imagination.
“From day one of The Darts, Christina (Nunez, bass, backing vocals) told me I should write whatever I want, whatever I like, just be myself, we will put out whatever we end up liking ourselves, and the focus should be on seeing the world and having fun together. I try really hard not to think about influences. In truth, I rarely listen to rock when I’m left to my own devices. Maybe it is overwhelming at some level. I am just going to let it develop wherever the muse takes me, rather than forcing her hand in any specific direction.
“The truth is, I don’t write for The Darts with really any specific label or genre in mind. The instrumentation we use takes it in a certain direction naturally, of course, into what some might loosely call ‘garage rock.’ But any classic garage rock fan would tell you we don’t fit squarely into that category at all. There is rock, there is alternative, there is punk, there is new wave, there are ballads that are somewhat psych, there’s a touch of soul, there are just a lot of different things going on. We are constantly evolving, I am constantly evolving. And I kind of like it that way to be honest.”
The album’s middle section, so often a band’s graveyard, maintains the highest of standards with ‘Hell Yeah,’ written after the band played on KEXP – “we’re making the earth shake, give ’em more than they can take” – the spellbinding nightmare soundtrack, ‘Night,’ – “curling up with myself again, revelling in the madness, love will never understand the sweet depths of sadness,” and ‘Doldrums,’ – “welcome to my doldrums, I belong to no one, hands to yourself, don’t want no one else.”
But the closing three songs are without doubt three of the finest written (so far) by Laurenne.
“Talking in our sleep is dangerous, but the dreams are maybe even more so. I wrote ‘Dreaming Crazy’ for someone who had broken up with me and who, even a year later, I was still pining over in my sleep apparently, and ‘You Disappoint Me,’ is more of the ‘toxic-people’ message coming through. I think we all get lonely and kind of accept people into our lives just to have someone around, when actually they leave us flat and maybe even more lonely in the end. It was good for me to realize this and try to surround myself with people who lift me up, and mutually vice versa, instead.”
The closer, ‘Middle of Nowhere,’ allows each member of the group, Laurenne, Nunez, Mary Rose Gonzales (drums, percussion), and Christina Nunez (bass, backing vocals) a moment in the spotlight. It’s a dark, brooding, cryptic affair, and hints at fresh adventures.
“This might be my favourite song I’ve written so far. It came to me all at once, literally just sitting in an office, and I could hear the whole thing as a finished product. And the end – that was my little Taylor-Swift-outro-chorus formula moment, where the main chorus vocal keeps going as usual, but the backing vocal goes nuts behind it. A little mimicry never hurt anyone when it’s a good idea, right? I have no desire to play this one live, as I don’t want to mess with the perfect recording Mark got of it. I’m too happy with it as it is.”
And having toured, recorded, and promoted relentlessly since 2016, very few would begrudge the foursome taking a break from their exhausting itinerary – but that doesn’t appear to be the plan.
“Why stop? The songs keep coming, I can’t stop them! We are heading back into the studio this summer in France to record two more new singles which I wrote in the van on tour. Even if one can’t jump around forever, one can always make music. It is my therapy and my best, most reliable friend. Even if, God forbid, one day I can’t perform my own music at all, I would love to write for others.
“It is my favourite thing in the world to do. It is like breathing for me.”
Welcome to the world of The Darts, swing out sisters with a ballsy, yet soulful, seductive, side. And where the hell have you been, we’re four albums in, you’ve plenty to catch up on.
‘BOOMERANG’ was recorded at Station House Studio in Los Angeles, produced Mark Rains (Hooveriii, Death Valley Girls, Hunx and His Punx)
For tour dates, and much more, click here: Link tree
(Main photo (c) Thierry Causera)