WILMINGTON — At a time when division is high and negativity seems to be infesting every corner of people’s day-to-day, Lake Street Dive, instead, chose to go down a path of positivity. That’s the mindset on “Good Together,” the quintet’s recently released eighth full-length outing.
READ MORE: In Photos: Lake Street Dive at Live Oak Bank Pavilion
As founding member Rachael Price explained in a recent interview, the seed was planted when the band decided to engage in a songwriter’s retreat at drummer Mike Calabrese’s Vermont home in early 2023.
“We came up with this general concept that we started calling ‘joyful rebellion,'” she recalled.
It arose from wanting to tackle more uplifting subject matter, rather than writing sad songs. However, Price said they wanted to steer clear of fluff, too.
“We didn’t want to shy away from the things we were feeling; we just wanted to put a lot of positivity into the songs,” she said, pointing to tracks like “Help Is On the Way,” “Twenty-Five,” and “Good Together.”
The latter centers on two people who endured “bad luck in past relationships,” she further explained. “And maybe haven’t been great people themselves, but then they find themselves having better habits when they’re together. We sort of kept taking that idea and putting that twist into the songs.”
Aiding and abetting in this concept was producer Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Fiona Apple), who also produced Lake Street Dive’s 2021 effort “Obviously.” For Price, if the band was going to change things up by working together for the first time ever in the earliest and most vulnerable stages of songwriting, then Elizondo was the person who would help it all come off successfully.
“We’ve done co-writing in the past, but have never sat down in the same room as each other and looked at each other and basically stared into the empty canvas of what a song could be and come up with ideas with each other on the spot,” Price said. “Going into this process again, we had a lot more trust that [Elizondo] would be able to hear all the demos of the songs we’d been working on and know which ones were going to make the record.”
She dubbed the producer’s confidence — and track record of never putting out “bad music” — reassuring
“When you have somebody like that saying a song is good and he knows he’s going to be able to make it sound good or that he knows how to get a great performance out of all of us, it just puts us at ease,” Price said.
What also made the recording experience more special was Price sharing it with her newborn daughter. The recording was the first professional project Price dedicated herself to after having her baby in April 2023.
“She was there with me and I had been at home with her for many, many months prior to that,” Price said. “For me, the most fun part was integrating her into that part of my life for the very first time — it was really exciting.”
The positive vibes, combined with the Elizondo/Lake Street Dive chemistry, is on full display on “Good Together”’s 11 cuts, which also showcase the band’s musical range. “Seats At the Bar” coasts along on a bouncy tropicalia vibe and “Dance With a Stranger” gets juiced by a new jack vibe and airy ‘80s-kissed synths.
Meanwhile, “Get Around” has a slinky, nasty funk that has the jam coming off like a Sly & the Family Stone outtake. Elsewhere, Lake Street Dive digs deep into the good feels with cuts like “Twenty-Five,” a piano ballad that serves as a love letter to a past relationship that didn’t work out.
The prospect of bringing the songs to a live music setting has Price and her bandmates happy to be touring. They’re stopping at Live Oak Bank Pavilion in downtown Wilmington this month, with a tour that is expressive of the band’s personality.
“And in a visual way unlike anything we’ve been able to do before,” Price said. “We’re just excited to play around with the show and the way it’s all going to come together. We also have a percussionist coming out with us for a lot of the shows. And we have a full horn section — three horn players, the Huntertones — who are on the record and are going to be playing a lot of the shows with us.”
Formed in Boston in 2004, Lake Street Dive first gained attention when a video of street corner performance of Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” was posted on YouTube in 2012 and went viral. It was at this point the band members committed to working full time as Lake Street Dive. Their widely praised third album, 2014’s “Bad Self Portraits,” served as a launchpad for future success.
The group’s profile has grown steadily since, to the point where the band is prepared to headline New York City’s Madison Square Garden in September. Yet, Price and her bandmates have kept their feet on the ground thanks to a small piece of advice from their drummer’s father. They were about to hit the stage at one of the biggest shows they had done at the time.
“We were all really nervous and Mike Calabrese gave us a quote from his dad: ‘Nothing matters and nobody cares,’” she said. “I think people understand that sort of sentiment. You just need to be yourself and to do what’s fun for you. It’s just one of those things where you need to stop thinking about yourself and just have a good time. Nothing matters and nobody cares, so just have fun.”
Lake Street Dive will perform at Riverfront Park on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 8 p.m. Tickets are available here.
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