Ancient Waves Photo credit: Molly Miles
Ancient Waves’ singer-songwriter Jarad Miles will always be a Midwest prairie guy. He grew up on a farm near Colman, South Dakota in a good family where chores and tending livestock were a part of daily living. It was an idyllic rural upbringing in many ways, but the allure of adventure beckoned Miles to Portland, Oregon, where he set out to make his name as a folk artist. In a rock bottom series of events, he entered a chapter of financial hardship, broke up with his band, and his relationship imploded. Eventually, Miles moved back to the Midwest.
There, he got a straight job and put his guitar away dead set on making money to rebuild his life. In a beautiful turn of luck, however, he met a bassist and drummer at work and was soon back to doing what he was meant to do, playing music in the band Ancient Waves. Today, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based quartet releases its debut album, Dreams I Fly In, Dreams I Die In, an emotive and evocative 11-song collection of Americana-flavored indie-rock.
Says Miles,
“Some of the songs on our album are about how I veered off this country life path and got pretty lost at times. I learned a lot by writing songs through difficult times… One thing I realized is that I couldn’t leave behind who I am, or was. And that I needed to keep writing and singing to understand myself and feel rooted in the world.”
Formed in 2019, Ancient Waves was sidelined during the pandemic and reemerged in 2021. The band’s distinctive indie-rock is grounded in the country and roots music Miles grew up hearing on South Dakota country radio in the 1990s, a “Best of the 60s” compilation he discovered as a teen, and the indie rock and alternative music he came to love. It’s an intriguing blend that includes, among many others: Elliot Smith, Nirvana, R.E.M, Modest Mouse, Cat Power,Weezer, The Walkmen, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, and the Pixies. He also cites Roy Orbison, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Elvis Perkins, Joanna Newson, Daniel Johnston, Mason Jennings, and Baltimore friend and musician St. Even as major lyrical influences. The band’s name epitomizes this crosscurrent blend. “It represents something timeless and unchanging, and yet something always changing—it’s a sort of all-encompassing view of things,” he details.
Despite growing up far from any ocean, he often returns to the vastness and mystery of the sea as a recurring motif. In the opening track, “Ancient Wave II,” Miles sings:
“It’s inevitable we have our fate
The world is full of joy and pain
I dreamed a dream an ancient wave
It came and swept me away.”
His voice moves fluidly from country twang to high-lonesome ache to indie-rock croon. A cinematic and literary songwriter, Miles uses allegory and nature as metaphors for heartbreak, reckoning, and hard-fought wisdom. As a solo artist, he has released three full-length albums, a six-song EP, and multiple singles since 2009.
Ancient Waves is a true band in every sense. Miles brings skeletal song ideas, and the intuitive chemistry among the musicians transforms them into fully realized arrangements filled with melodic synth hooks, chiming guitars, interwoven lines, and an intuitive rhythm section that offers space, support, and lyrical melodic and rhythmic counterpoint. The lineup features Miles on vocals and rhythm guitar, Andy Nail on bass, Ed Draper on drums, and Andrew Berg on lead guitar. Multi-instrumentalist Noah Klemp contributed backing vocals, synth, and keys during the recording of Dreams I Fly In, Dreams I Die In.
The album was co-produced by Miles and Jason Orris of Terrarium Studios in Minneapolis (Soul Asylum, Brian Setzer, The Jayhawks). Miles and Orris favored a live-band-in-the-studio approach with cleaned-up fidelity and minimal overdubs. “I resisted a wall-of-sound approach because I wanted to stay true to the raw sound of the band and leave space for the lyrics to be the centerpiece,” Miles says. The album features special guest singer-songwriter and musician Lucy Michelle (currently of Little Fevers and formerly Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles) singing sumptuous harmony vocals on the closing track, “Featherbed.” Together they sing what looks and feels like the spiritual center of the album: I don’t wanna go to heaven when I’m dead/No, take me to the ocean/My dreams I fly in, dreams I die in.
Dreams I Fly In, Dreams I Die In presents a personal statement of resilience. “It’s about riding through all the ups and downs and just continuing to do what you love” Miles explains. There is blood, sweat, and mystical overtones in the songs. “Devil’s In Me” brims with religious imagery with the opening lines:
“I was a heavenly son
Before the devil did come
Before the devil did come
Help me father I must
Return to you I must
Return to right from wrong.”
The track melds bluesy swagger with an almost dance-y indie-rock pulse. “ We all have some darkness in us,” Miles explains. “ “I have to remind myself that nature is equally dark and light. Writing songs has always been a way to explore shadow sides and learn from them.”
The lushly-layered “All My Love (Can’t Say Nothin’)” mines moody indie-rock ambience and strummy indie-folk. Miles’ vocals here are sweetly emotive as he laments not being able to express all the love he has inside. There is a fragile poetic nature to his lyrics. He sings:
“All my love is a little boy drumming
Out underneath your statue
I’ll do anything just to see you smile
Prayin’ you throw your rose to me.”
Another side of Miles’ romantic writing is “All My Days, All My Nights,” which is a love-story confessional. The song revisits a past relationship and the day-to-day longing of new love. Miles sings:
“Since you’ve been gone
I’ve been tryin’ to get some work done
Clean the garage, repaint the fence
And rake up the lawn
What else can I do
Finish the attic, patch the roof
What else can I do
But stand here thinkin’ bout you.”
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