Down Time
Down Time is a Denver/LA based indie rock band that has created a diverse body of material ranging from low key bedroom ballads to dense psychedelic grooves. At the core are timeless rock songs guided by the imaginative and soul bearing lyrics of front woman, Alyssa Maunders. The songs are close and intimate while also producing thorns. They capture the complexities of the human spirit, the best and worst of our kind.
The band splits their time between Los Angeles and Denver, but the Front Range is where they developed their sound and released their debut full length, Hurts Being Alive, which was produced by Denver sweethearts, Pat Riley and Alaina Moore of Tennis. On the eve of the album being released the band played a sold out hometown show to a room full of rowdy fans. One week later they had to cancel their West Coast tour due to fears of the spread of a new virus. It’s a common story from the last couple of years. Everyone’s got a hard luck Covid story and this is theirs; seeing their baby fade into the depths of Corona-obscurity. Naming their debut album Hurts Being Alive turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
They decided their time was better spent writing and recording rather than watching the terrifying loop of dark news stories, they escaped to a remote house in Pagosa Springs, CO where they recorded a group of songs to tape that would later become Spirit. From start to finish it was written, performed and produced by the band in a small room with blankets stapled to the walls. Some songs capture the flame of loss while others hold the solitude of a quiet meadow. That is the beauty of Maunders’ lyrics; they are somehow specific and poetically adaptable at the same time, creating an effect that is deeply relatable, all with a vocal delivery akin to Adrianne Lenker. The vocals float on top of solid grooves provided by the band’s secret weapon, David B. Weaver (drums/bass) and melodic flourishes from Justin Camilli (guitar/keys) which take it to another sonic plane. In an age where rehearsal space is prohibitively expensive and laptop-pop reigns supreme, Down Time is succeeding at keeping the band together.