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Album of the Week: Lake Street Dive, 'Obviously'

Lake Street Dive, 'Obviously'
Lake Street Dive, 'Obviously'Courtesy of Artist

by Bill DeVille

May 03, 2021

Boston's Lake Street Dive have returned with their seventh studio record, Obviously. Bill Deville recently had the chance to catch up with Rachael Price and Akie Bermiss in a virtual session to talk tour bus memories, comedy in lyrics, how their latest record came together.

Watch the full interview and performances below.

Interview Highlight

Edited for clarity and length.

BILL DEVILLE: what have you missed most during the pandemic about the band Lake Street Dive?

RACHAEL PRICE: Wow, it's so many things. I missed live music the most. Just playing. Playing in a room with a lot of people and seeing their faces and the transformative experience of energy. You can be dead tired, and feel like you need to sleep for three days straight before you go on stage and then 90 minutes later, you walk off and you're like, "Huh! That was cool. Doing great!" So like, literally, my body has missed the chemicals of performing, whatever is created. The adrenaline and various things are completely foreign to me at this point. I'm sure that I'll be overwhelmed the first time we play a full show, and I get off and I was like, "Ah," because it's its own type of drug, I guess. But, you know what I also really miss is like midnight on the tour bus, when it's like a jar of peanut butter, weird meat snacks. Just like a complete--up to a place of absurdity. Just being like, "Where are we? Who are we? What do we do?" Because we exist nowhere. It's a bus driving into the sunset and we're like, "Where are we going tomorrow?" And like, really miss those times because this has been, funny enough it's like one of the most unexpected things that I could have imagined happening. Living through a pandemic, but then it's turned into like, the most predictable of times, it's like I know where I'm eating every night. It's my dinner table. I know where I'm going at eight o'clock, it's my couch. I definitely I miss spontaneity.

How about you Ackie?

AKIE BERMISS: It's similar for me. I haven't been home this long since I had a home that was my own home. Yeah, obviously the shows are amazing. I wish we could get back to that but something I do miss along with midnights on the bus is mornings on the bus. On the other side of like, "Where are we?" I always feel like it's that part of a sitcom where they've already done the cold open, they play the theme song and then as the action resumes, there's that little like [sings] "dingiddy dingiddy ding," right at the end. And it's like coming out of the bunk section, and Rachel's already got her coffee, and she's writing something, and I've got my coffee, and we kind of like, "So where are we?" And we look out the windows, and we're like, "What is this place?" I missed that. Which is strange to say because it always felt so disorienting.

I always remember the story that Willie Nelson sometimes sleeps in his bus when it's parked outside of his home. He's become so at home in his tour bus.

RACHAEL PRICE: Yeah, that's completely relatable.