CLAIRE KOSTOHRYZ // This week, the Brooklyn based indie band San Fermin will be playing the beloved 9:30 Club debuting their third studio album, Belong.The band is led by Ellis Ludwig-Leone, who is originally from Massachusetts and began making music at age eight. After majoring in music composition from Yale University and playing in numerous bands throughout high school and college, he realized that producing and creating music was what he loved doing. He helped bring together the band of San Fermin and they released their full-length debut in 2013. The band really pulls to the strengths of its multiple members in creating a very unique and blended sound. After the release of their sophomore album, Jackrabbit, they have appeared at such festivals as Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, and has opened for the likes of St. Vincent, The National, Arctic Monkeys, and alt-J.
PREVIEW: San Fermin @ 9:30 Club 5/10
In their new album, Belong, Ludwig-Leone and his bandmates focus more on their personal development issues. He has found himself facing much more confrontational issues such matters as disconnection, displacement, and anxiety. “Anxiety is something I’ve dealt with since I was a kid, but on this album I talked about it more explicitly than I ever had before,” he points out. “In the past I’d usually write through characters from books or movies, as a way to try to distance myself from what I was writing about,” says Ludwig. “As I’ve become more confident as a songwriter, I decided that I could drop some of the artifice and write something more direct”.
With a sound similar to that of Kishi Bashi and Ra Ra Riot, the new album is full of infectious indie chamber-pop sure to please. Belong is masterfully mixed with a distinctly more personal tone than previous releases. “No Promises” is a track that stands out, with it’s looped vocals supporting the ethereal vocals that sing of the fear or disappointing those you love. Ludwig-Leone explained that this was the last track he wrote for the record, and that its written directly for his bandmates.
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