Photo by Nina Rocio
At first glance, it might seem surprising that Night Crickets became a group. After all, their members come from quite disparate musical backgrounds: David J is known as the bassist for Bauhaus and Love and Rockets, Victor DeLorenzo was the drummer and founding member of Violent Femmes, and Darwin Meiners is a well-respected multi-instrumentalist. Another complicating factor is the fact that they all live a significant distance away from each other (David J and Meiners in Southern and Northern California, respectively, and DeLorenzo in Wisconsin). But the members not only overcame these seeming obstacles, they use them to their advantage to create mesmerizing and unpredictable alternative post-rock, as they prove on their latest album, How It Ends (?) (released on October 25 via Label 51 Recordings). It’s their second album, following their 2022 debut, A Free Society. This time around, the band draw not only on their own considerable talents, they also brought in several notable guest artists, including the actor Willem Dafoe, Jason Lytle (Grandaddy), composer Ego Plum, and DeLorenzo’s daughter, Peri. Recently, David J and Victor DeLorenzo spoke with The Big Takeover about how this band came to be, their songwriting and recording process, what they see as the future for this band, and much more.
You’ve been through a lot of album release dates with your various bands and other projects, but how do you feel about this particular one?
DAVID J: I’m not really blasé about this because we’re so proud of this record, and we’re excited about it. It actually feels very significant to finally get this one out.
How did you know it was the right time to do another album with this band?
DAVID J: We had more than enough for that first album, and we just kept going. We were on a roll, and so we thought, “We appear to be making a second album.”
How does the songwriting and recording work within this band?
VICTOR DE LORENZO: Usually what happens, say for an example, I’ll come up with an idea for a song. Maybe I will track a drum track and put some kind of a keyboard on for pitch reference, and then maybe I’ll come up with some lyrics. I’ll put that all together in my studio here in Milwaukee, and then I’ll send it to Darwin in his studio outside of San Francisco, and he’ll add some stuff, and then he’ll send it to David. And David has a friend who has a studio in L.A., and so he goes there and he adds stuff. And we keep sending things back and forth. It’s almost like a chain letter that you want to receive!
All of you come from such different backgrounds, so how did you know that your music would mesh together so well?
DAVID J: Well, we didn’t. How this whole thing happened was, Darwin and I went to see Victor play at Coachella with the Violent Femmes, and we were big fans of them anyway, and that was their reunion tour. Loved that gig. And then Darwin happened to be backstage wandering around, and he bumped into Victor and struck up a conversation with him. They hit it off and exchanged emails. Then during that correspondence, Darwin posited the idea to Victor about collaborating, and Victor was into it. He said, “If we do that, maybe David would be interested, as well.” So they asked me, and I certainly was. So the idea was, “Let’s just try and come up with a couple of tracks and see what happens.” This is in the thick of the pandemic times. That’s why we recorded remotely. I was in L.A., Darwin was in Santa Rosa [California], and Victor was in Milwaukee. We just traded files and took it in turns to add to a track, and it turned out really well. We loved what happened. It was obvious chemistry there, and we decided to carry on with it.
VICTOR DE LORENZO: I knew of David’s history with the groups that he’s been a part of. I didn’t really know that much about Darwin, other than that he seemed like a very nice person, and he was managing David. So that was our connection. But until we started sending music back and forth, none of us really knew what was going to happen. But we loved what we were doing, and we just said right away, “We’re a band, and we’re making recordings.”
Did it feel any different to do this round now that you no longer were having to be so isolated?
DAVID J: The times obviously feel different, but the process is the same, and that’s due to the fact that it worked. We consciously decided not to get into a studio together because [it was a], “If it ain’t broke” situation. So we just carried on just trading files. That was part of the joy of it, as well, not knowing what was going to come. It was just really fun, adding little bits. And we all had the same experience of being very spontaneous with this, and very instantly inspired by what the person who sent the previous file had done. So it was a very quick process.
How did you pick the album title?
DAVID J: Once we got the album finished, we stood back and looked at it objectively and assessed, “What is this thing we’ve made here?” And we all agreed that it was an overview of these times. And these times are very intense and near apocalyptic, and that’s all certainly reflected in a lot of the songs. There’s darkness there, but there’s also an abiding sense of hope. And the fact that there is a question mark at the end alludes to that hope.
VICTOR DE LORENZO: If you listen to this record, there is a lot of speaking about politics, whereas the first one didn’t have as much. But I think because of all of us were thinking about what’s at stake with this election – we certainly had that on our minds when we were putting this record together. So some of the lyric content directly goes towards politics and what’s being done in other countries, and in our country, as well.
How did you know who to ask to be a guest artist on this?
DAVID J: It really is suggested by the track: “Oh, he would be good on this, or she would be good on this.” I think it just comes from the music. Also, you might have a conversation with a musician and they could say, “I’d love to work with you one day.” So they’re in your mind, and then a track comes up and you think, “Wait a minute, I met him last week, let’s see if he’d be up for playing on it – he could really work on this track.” That’s how it goes. It’s a very natural process.
VICTOR DE LORENZO: My connection with Willem [Dafoe] is that I was in a theater company with him here in Milwaukee. But Willem was going to go out to New York to find fame and glory in the film world, and so I took over a role that he was performing with the company. Then we just stayed friends. And a couple of years ago he was here, and he was getting a citation at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where we both attended. When he was in town, I invited him over for dinner, and I said “Hey, I’ve got this idea for this song I’m working on, and would you want to be part of it?” And he goes, “Well, I can’t really sing.” I said, “You don’t really have to sing – just say this line like it’s a mantra.” And he goes, “I could definitely do that.” So I took him into my studio, and we recorded that. And then you have my daughter Peri on our song called “What Is This Love?” – she’s playing violins on that. She graduated from Indiana University with a violin degree, so she’s the real musician in the family!
Do you foresee Night Crickets becoming an ongoing thing?
VICTOR DE LORENZO: Yeah, I would hope so. We’d even talked in passing about maybe taking it out on the road and playing some live shows – I would love to do that. I think it really would be fun. But right now, it just exists as a recording. I wouldn’t be surprised if we started talking about doing some more recording in the very near future.
