Three years ago,Dirty Projectorswere a very different band.
The group’s next record, four years later, included work from more than a dozen session musicians.
It would all shift again in 2018, during the touring cycle forLamp Lit Prose.
Credit: Jason Frank Rothenberg
Together, the group of five made for a serious cluster of talent.
Douglass was excited about the concept too, especially the prospect of recording it as a series of EPs.
“Im a big fan of EPs as opposed to full albums, she says.
Felicia Douglass with Dave Longstreth.Jason Frank Rothenberg
Just because people have really short attention spans.
I wasnt thinking like, Yeah, eventually well probably just write a new album.
Longstreth didnt have a master plan either.
Its fitting, then, that the working title of the series was calledLife Is What Happens!
its official name is5EPs which stems from a phrase Longstreth scribbled on the sessions hard drive.
Its improvisational connotation captures the instinctual spirit of the project.
Its more sharing a feeling, sharing an idea before you necessarily even know what it means.
Illustrations of idyllic life paired with illustrations of social injustices or inequalities, sort of like protest songs.
When we were recording, Dave kept on being like, Sing as quietly as you could.
Just really softly, Friedman says.
And I think that that really allowed for a level of intimacy.
Douglass EP,Flight Tower, is the inverse of that.
When youre collaborating theres always that element of, Well, will this resonate with me?
Dave always refers to me as a soprano, Slipp says.
There are a couple of moments [on the EP] where its like, Is that sped up?
And I was actually singing it live and I was channeling this sort of animatronic vibe.
At least thats how Longstreth seems to think of it.
