White Lies scored big with their dark debut album, “To Lose My Life …” Although fans and critics hailed the album — which soared to No. 1 on the U.K. charts — the trio was not about to be locked into one musical mood. When the band completed touring, they took a few months off and then brought new ideas for their next album, the recently released “Ritual,” to the table.
“It was definitely a much different approach, in the way we wanted to write and record the record,” said Jack Brown, who, along with childhood friends Harry McVeigh and Charles Cave, founded White Lies. “We had the ideas of songs in our heads, and we quickly went into the studio to flesh them out.”
| ONSTAGE |
| White Lies |
| » When: 8 p.m. Friday |
| » Where: 9:30 Club, 815 V St. NW |
| » Info: $20; 800-955-5566; 9:30.com |
What came of that was an array of songs that certainly are easy to mix and match but aren’t in any way a concept album. Although some songs are arguably darker than anything on the band’s debut album, other songs are upbeat, or poppy, or otherwise sonically different.
“This album is much more personal,” said Brown. “We didn’t try to get too carried away tying the song all in early on. This is a very diverse-sounding record because we really thought about treating each song as its own ‘big thing.’ ”
Fueling the complexity of the various songs was the work of producer Allan Moulder, who has worked with Smashing Pumpkins and others.
“There is definitely a touch of Nine Inch Nails in some of these,” said Brown of the songs. “We were really, really lucky to have him.”
The group also entered the studio with the goal of creating songs that could easily be replicated onstage. That’s why two session musicians will join the tour.
“That’s purely based on the needs of this tour,” he said. “We want to offer the fullest-sounding show we can manage.”
Although the band is one of the main up-and-comers in the U.K., it isn’t as well-known in America.
“Touring America is quite a rewarding thing,” he said. “Every time you go out, you feel like you’re being discovered. You play a show to a few hundreds people and they like it and the next crowd may be larger. It’s a bit of a challenge, to be honest, but it’s exciting.”
