New Album called 'Dear Independence" out on Oct 31st!!! After nearly two full years on the road, banging out sweaty, sixties-steeped garage rock, the members of the Blue Van were understandably spent when they shifted their touring van into park and began writing the songs that would compose their second album, Dear Independence. So if Dear Independence sounds a bit mellow for the normally full-throttle foursome, well, it should. After a marathon tour during which the band introduced the world to its frayed, booze-driven rock & roll, the members of the Blue Van began picking up acoustic guitars and delving into less subwoofer-shredding fare: vintage folk, the Zombies, and a lot of early Motown. Quips organist Soren V. Christensen, “After being on the road for two years straight—playing garage rock every night—when you come home, you don’t start ripping out the Sonics record—you tend to go for something else.” “The Art Of Rolling,” says Westmark, “was like a compilation of everything we had ever done, and I think these songs have more guts to them—we had to dig a little deeper.” Splitting time between Denmark, and Brooklyn’s gritty Bed-Stuy neighborhood, Westmark, Christensen, bassist Allan F. Villadsen and drummer Per M. Jorgensen cut Dear Independence with Lenny Kravitz engineer Henry Hirsch producing. With Hirsch at the helm, the band poured over the sound of the new record, meticulous about mic set-up and usage, drums sounds, etc. The disc was recorded the old-fashioned way—to tape—and without the benefit of digital, fix-it-later software. “We just went for an organic sound,” says Christensen. Sons of carpenters, truck drivers and farmers, the members of the Blue Van grew up in Broenderslev, a rural area in northern Denmark some 500 kilometers from Copenhagen. They began making music while in 6th grade, jamming in one of their grandmother’s basements (Luckily, she was hard of hearing.) Each of them only about 12 years old, they began cranking out covers of vintage blues tunes. But it was not long before they were crafting their own material inspired by The Small Faces, Cream and The Pretty Things. Taking its name from the vehicle known in Denmark for collecting the mentally ill, the band’s rise began with a move to Copenhagen, which was followed by a triumphant gig at Spot 9, Denmark’s answer to South By Southwest. Their rep was further bolstered with a key performance at the annual Roskilde Festival. The band cut The Art Of Rolling in fall of 2003 in Hamburg, Germany. The session found them recording together in one room, overdubbing only the vocals. The sound of a gritty, Mandrax-fueled rock band caught on extended power-jamming—The Art of Rolling was the culmination of years of hard work and persistence. Says Westmark, “We wanted to capture the energy and feeling of us playing live. I believe we succeeded.” With Dear Independence (recorded in a studio tucked into a hotel on 47th Street), they one-upped themselves: Not only did they record it live, they further the sought of the timeless sixties and seventies classics they hold dear by working endless hours for the right sound. That said, if there were tiny flubs here or there, they kept in it, thus adding to the character of both the band and its songs. The point, the mission wasn’t perfection. It was to capture a vibe, to bottle soul. “We wanted a loose studio feeling—no bullshit,” says Christensen. “We didn’t tune the vocals, or cheat. There are a lot of mistakes here and there, but it’s perfect to us.”