Drop Nineteens’ Greg Ackell Discusses Returning to Music and Their New Outdated Album

1991 could already be acquainted to die laborious followers, however on February 7, 2025, will probably be formally out there for buy on CD and vinyl. Shortly earlier than the discharge, frontman Greg Ackell spoke with AllMusic from a recording studio, the place the band was engaged on a brand new album. He discusses 1991, the band’s return, and ideas on the music scene right now.

Let’s soar proper into 1991. What was the method like unearthing this time capsule of an album?

“Effectively…I am beginning to simply think about it an album, only in the near past. It was not an album ever. These had been a set of songs that had been demos on the time. We recorded them on rented reel-to-reel eight tracks, and we recorded them largely in our dorm rooms.”

“After we recorded the primary demo, we did not know precisely what we had been going to do with it. I wasn’t actually attempting to get us reveals as a result of I did not even know the way to ship it to a membership. I used to be actually younger, 18, 19 years previous, and I did not have an actual sense of the Boston golf equipment or the reside scene. However what I did have had been information, and on the again of these information had been report firm names. They had been largely in England: Creation Data, 4AD, Manufacturing facility Data. I simply put these cassettes within the mail and despatched them over to London. I did not actually count on a lot again, however inside every week or so, we had been getting calls from these labels. And subsequently what occurred was that any individual—her identify was Colleen Maloney at 4AD—she despatched a kind of cassettes to Melody Maker and NME. They had been the equal of, I suppose, Pitchfork or Rolling Stone now. Individuals lived and died by them.”

“A pair weeks after, I obtained a name from our lawyer and he stated, ‘You are a single of the week in Melody Maker,’ and I did not know what the fuck he was speaking about as a result of we did not have a single. We did not have a report deal. We did not have an album. We had nothing. However Colleen Maloney had despatched that to the press, and the press obtained a maintain of it and actually thought a variety of it. They needed to make up a label identify, as a result of they weren’t imagined to evaluate demos. I feel it stated Pentatonic Data or one thing.”

“Whereas we had been determining who to signal to, we determined to go forward and make one other demo. The primary tune on that demo was ‘Daymom,’ and once we lastly signed our report deal, a couple of yr had passed by. If you’re that age, you are—we had been anyway—shifting ahead and always evolving day by day. So once we had this report deal, we had been imagined to report our first album. I went to the band and stated, ‘Let’s simply write a brand new album. Let’s depart these things behind us.’ It wasn’t that the fabric wasn’t good, it is simply that we had been already in a unique place. So that is what grew to become Delaware, our first album, and these demos simply remained frozen in time. We left them behind in subsequent years.”

“There have been cassettes on the time that went out. I bear in mind we even gave them out to children at reveals. Over time, as soon as YouTube was invented, somebody determined to add them. It obtained some consideration. We obtained so many requests, and there was a lot curiosity in it that we simply determined to revisit them—to remix them barely.”

“It’s extremely laborious to inform that we remixed something. There’s not so much to remix if you’re speaking about eight tracks. However we labored with a very good pal of the band’s referred to as Max Rose, a very good man from Seattle that was with us within the early ’90s. After we got here again, lots of people got here out from the woodwork. Individuals had been keen on serving to us out in the best way they might. Max labored laborious on these to get the constancy to a degree that the band was extra snug with releasing, and our label, Wharf Cat, was very from the very starting to launch these things. However as soon as I began accepting that we had been going to do it, it was higher. Being from up to now prior to now, it did not look like a precedence to me. However we’ve a fan base, and other people need what they need, so we’re glad to be lastly placing it on the market in some type of type that we’re snug with.”

“We referred to as it 1991 as a result of, effectively, the songs had been written and recorded in 1991. I additionally very very similar to that ’19’ and ’91’ are the mirror picture of each other. Clearly, this band has a factor for numbers; we referred to as ourselves Drop Nineteens. So I like that type of symmetry.”

That is wonderful. Had you been eager about revisiting the album earlier than?

“It took place when the band resurfaced…wanting on the band’s historical past and what there was curiosity in. However for all these years, no, there was no curiosity. I imply, I used to be conscious of issues on YouTube. Individuals would say to me, ‘Oh, I discovered this on YouTube, Greg, is that this yours?’ and I would be like, ‘Yeah,’ however I by no means preferred listening to it a lot in that setting. The audio is fairly terrible. Once more, they had been posting that from cassettes. That was the one approach. Nobody ever had ADATs or something.”

Do you bear in mind any of your artistic inspirations for 1991? Which of these nonetheless maintain true right now, and what has been inspiring you recently that did not earlier than?

“In these days, I feel there have been two albums—two bands particularly that I bear in mind. One among them was My Bloody Valentine Is not Something. Maybe that is apparent. If you happen to hearken to our music, it is definitely spinoff of it. The second was Spacemen 3‘s The Good Prescription. These two albums simply appeared very cool to me. I used to be additionally a fan of Sonic Youth‘s Daydream Nation; that is type of an in depth third. I used to be additionally a giant Cocteau Twins fan rising up.”

“I used to be speaking to Neil [Halstead] from Slowdive. I bear in mind once we met 30 years in the past, in London, we had each been conscious of one another’s bands. When he learn the evaluate in Melody Maker, he thought that it appeared like his band. And the identical goes for us.”

“What we realized was that we weren’t copying one another a lot as we had been each impressed by the identical sorts of music—the identical information, and rising up roughly the identical age. We simply had been on completely different sides of the Atlantic. It was type of humorous revisiting that with him. Slowdive, to their credit score, largely caught by their sound, whereas my band type of developed into different issues. You do not at all times know what you are going to get with Drop Nineteens. That is simply our nature. So, the 1991 materials does mirror our shoegaziest interval. It was definitely new to us, determining the way to sound like that. It was an thrilling time to be discovering the way to make these sorts of sounds.”

“However in Delaware, we moved barely away from that. It is slightly bit much less blown out, rather less ethereal. It nonetheless has what we name ‘the feels,’ nevertheless it was type of a step away from shoegaze, regardless that we hear on a regular basis that Delaware is a shoegaze album. I at all times depart it to different folks to explain what style we’re. I am proudly shoegaze, however I am not expressly a fan of it. There’s a complete trendy shoegaze scene, significantly in America, that I am nonetheless studying about after over a yr of being again.”

“All types of issues transfer me now. I like the band Deerhunter. I feel they’re actually good. There is a band referred to as Spoon that I feel is perhaps the most effective band on the planet; I’ve studied every little thing they do. I am a giant fan of LCD Soundsystem and Automotive Seat Headrest. These are the bands that I hearken to so much. I am nonetheless a fan of My Bloody Valentine. I am excited they’re coming again.”

Each My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive, like Drop Nineteens, are bands from the ’90s that had resurrections some two or three many years later. There’s additionally been an enormous resurgence within the fanbases of those ’90s bands on account of TikTok. What are your opinions on these sorts of rebirths in music? How do you view your band’s position within the scene?

“Effectively, it is solely been a service to us. After we determined to return again, I wasn’t even fairly conscious of this fan base. I am type of tuned out. I did not have Spotify on the time; I do now. I am not on social media. Nevertheless it was fortuitous, and it was a welcome factor as soon as we had been again as a result of it implies that there’s an viewers. However we might have come again and recorded Laborious Gentle whether or not there was an viewers or not. The resurgence wasn’t the explanation for doing it, however in fact it makes a distinction.”

“I wasn’t conscious of some issues. I did not know if we might have the ability to report and determine issues out and play reside. I did not know if folks would present up. The final time I performed on stage was within the early nineties. I might look out on the viewers, they usually had been all folks my age. I referred to as them children again then, ‘trigger I used to be a child, you realize, 18 to 22, 23. However the unusual factor now’s that we play reside, and I am taking a look at that very same age group. It is uncanny, actually. There are folks from that period within the viewers, however I see them extra on YouTube movies of the band, some bald heads within the again. I do know that these are the folks which might be extra our period. Everybody in Drop Nineteens nonetheless has their hair, however we’re accepting of the truth that we’re all getting older. However the children within the entrance are the sunshine.”

“I do not know what makes one thing go away, and I do not know what makes it come again. I’ve seen that the guitar sound in shoegaze has change into type of ubiquitous. It is in nearly every little thing; it is in pop music, it is in hip-hop—I imply, hearken to Earl Sweatshirt. I name it “woozy guitars.” I bear in mind Kevin Shields [of My Bloody Valentine] saying to me that since you’re detuning a chord, the ear and the mind is striving to listen to the chord that you just’re not delivering. So by definition, it is type of a romantic software since you’re promising one thing and never delivering it. I imply romantic within the literary sense: one thing misplaced, one thing not fairly achieved, one thing unrelinquished. There’s one thing about that sound that may be very seductive. And I feel that persons are lastly catching on to that, which is cool.”

1991, again when it was nonetheless often called Mayfield, was a extensively traded bootleg amongst a variety of your followers. Understanding that many listeners could have already heard a number of the tracks or are accustomed to them, what are you most hoping that listeners will take away from this album?

“Effectively, I hope that it satisfies them. It wasn’t simple for us to place this factor out. After we first began to revisit it, we printed up some vinyl ourselves and offered them on the reveals we had been taking part in. We obtained a variety of backlash for that. Individuals had been saying, ‘You may’t simply launch it and solely promote it at your reveals. What if I can not get to the present?’ However the issue is that there is a cash element right here. Printing up 5,000 albums and distributing them just isn’t one thing that I can simply whip out my pockets and pay for. It was by no means this band’s place to maintain this music from folks, however you would be shocked on the type of anger that will get on the market. So the one factor I hope 1991 does is simply make folks blissful. We recognize the love, however we’re doing our greatest, and never every little thing is kind of really easy. We get requests to play in each metropolis, and we are able to solely play the place we are able to play.

Possibly it is as a result of I am slightly bit new to social media. I am delicate to studying something unhealthy, ever, which is why I do not even have passwords to our socials. Steve, invariably, my associate on this, will find yourself sending me stuff, and I get upset. The overwhelming majority of every little thing has been very optimistic about us, however I do know that there was undoubtedly a factor about 1991 the place folks had been upset after they thought that they weren’t going to have the ability to get it. Effectively, now they will.”

“As for the music itself, I get pleasure from listening to it now too. It sounds higher than it ever did. I bear in mind after I obtained the primary copy of it, I put it on the turntable, and I used to be like, ‘Fuck, this sounds nice.’ I do not know why that is a shock to me, however each time I get a product in my hand…typically I am disenchanted. I used to be not with this. I believed it sounded actually good. So I hope folks get pleasure from it.”

After the band broke up, you had been very satisfied that you’d by no means make music once more. And after the discharge of White Costume and Nest, you stated that it may be the very last thing the band would ever launch. Each of those statements turned out to be unfaithful, and now you are making a brand new album. What else do you bear in mind for the long run? Are you again for good?

“We’re again for now. And…in the long run of this ebook that Tom Faix wrote about us, there have been two traces in there that type of simply summed up my emotions on the time. The primary one was considered one of Lana [Del Rey]‘s: ‘It was such a scene, and I felt seen.’ The second line was mine on the tune ‘Nest,’ and it goes, ‘And for the love of God, terrible, I am so glad that I seemed again.’ There’s at all times the likelihood in something that that’ll be the very last thing you do. So I do not know if the band is again for good, nevertheless it’s again for now. Paula [Kelley] simply moved again East, which is type of thrilling to us as a result of she was in L.A. all these years. We’re wanting ahead to writing and recording this subsequent album. We’re in all probability going to play a couple of festivals this yr.”

Do you suppose there’s extra stability in making music now that you just’re older? Or much less so due to the suggestions from social media coming in from each path? Is there nonetheless some stress?

“There’s at all times stress, nevertheless it is not from outdoors. The stress is from inside. Writing music is not enjoyable for me, or recording it or something. Once in a while I’ve an okay time on stage, a second the place I am like, ‘Oh, that is type of cool,’ and I can get pleasure from it, nevertheless it’s not significantly enjoyable. What it’s is rewarding. I do not imply that in a financial sense, as a result of it is really removed from that. However I do it as a result of it is a fulfilling factor to do with one’s life—to go and create one thing, to attempt to make one thing stunning. It is a luxurious, frankly, at the moment. That was true after I began, and it is true now. It is at all times a wrestle, nevertheless it’s value it.”

“Now that we’re again, it is change into a part of me once more. And I hope I am talking for the remainder of the band right here, too; there is a little bit of tumult that occurs if you depart one thing behind. Change just isn’t simple. In order tough as it’s, it is a part of me that I am not fairly able to abandon but. I do know that once we do put this down, it will be for good. I’ve had protestations earlier than, however we’re not going to attend one other 20 years to return again. That is the second run, and once we’re completed, that might be it.”

I learn in a previous interview that coming again to the band and to music after so lengthy has felt virtually dreamlike. Do you are feeling such as you’ve woken up but?

“I really feel sleepy is what I really feel [laughs]. Yeah. Nonetheless a bit within the stupor. It is like a previous life, or like waking up and remembering a dream. And the unusual factor now’s that after I get up from goals, I typically nonetheless should remind myself that I am doing this. Like, ‘Oh, we have got a present tonight. I’ve obtained to get to the studio.’ I nonetheless get up within the state of all these years the place this was not a part of my life, so I’ve to remind myself that it is not a dream, that I’ve really obtained someplace to be. I’ve obtained a observe to put down. I’ve obtained a sound test at 3 PM. All these items are my life now. Now, I am beginning to dream about my life earlier than I got here again.”

To buy 1991, go to Wharf Cat information.