{"id":2442000,"date":"2019-03-21T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=302219"},"modified":"2019-03-21T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T22:00:00","slug":"devotchka-goes-back-to-its-roots-at-the-temporary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/devotchka-goes-back-to-its-roots-at-the-temporary\/","title":{"rendered":"DeVotchKa goes back to its roots at The Temporary"},"content":{"rendered":"
DeVotchKa will headline The Temporary at Willits on Friday.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The majestic sweep of DeVotchKa\u2019s<\/a> cinematic sound has landed the Denver-based rock band on the grandest of stages in recent years, including already legendary performances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Red Rocks Ampitheatre.<\/p>\n

But the four-piece\u2019s latest stop in the mountains brings DeVotchKa to the kind of tiny room where it started. The band will headline The Temporary at Willits \u2014 with a capacity of less than 300 \u2014 on Friday, March 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes us back to our roots,\u201d DeVotchKa singer and bandleader Nick Urata said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. \u201cWe spent years and years playing rooms like that, so it\u2019s kind of our thing. The band feels at home in intimate settings.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeVotchKa\u2019s first stop at the venue will also be its last. The Temporary is slated to close in early May, as its lease expires and its nonprofit operators pursue building a permanent nearby home for the Arts Center at Willits (Expect tears from Temporary staff and regulars when the band plays \u201cHow It Ends\u201d).<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s newest album, \u201cThis Night Falls Forever,\u201d was released in 2018 after more than six years of off-and-on recording and writing sessions. The long creative process was slowed by frequent creative detours to other projects like the annual Colorado Symphony performances, DeVotchKa\u2019s spin on the Sondheim classic \u201cSweeney Todd\u201d at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 2016 and a Hollywood Bowl screening\/concert performance of \u201cWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory\u201d in 2017, along with an increasing load of film score work for the band that broke out nationally with its soundtrack to \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine\u201d in 2006.<\/p>\n

These weird and wild side gigs may have kept the band from releasing a follow-up the beloved 2011 album \u201c100 Lovers,\u201d but working on these film and theater projects was, as Urata put it, \u201cthe kind of stuff that we used to dream about when we played crappy little coffee shops and parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urata and his band mates finished the new record in 2017, but then when they were delayed by a record label shuffle, they went back in and tinkered with the songs more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took too long,\u201d Urata said. \u201cBut for us it was super positive thing. We started having all these dream collaborations while we were working on the album and at the time we thought, \u2018Well, we\u2019ll just do both and it\u2019ll be fine.\u2019 But it drew out the recording process.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can hear the sonic imprint of those ambitious and theatrical undertakings on the new record, with strings and cinematic touches like the Sergio Leone\/Ennio Morricone whistling and the classic Hollywood swells of violins before the chorus on the album-closing \u201cSecond Chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned a lot and tried to bring some of the process and the grandeur of the scores we were working with onto the record,\u201d Urata said. \u201cIt\u2019s what we always aspired to be. It\u2019s the record we always aspired to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

From its humble start in the late 1990s, it was improbable that DeVotchKa would rise from Denver musical oddity to internationally known, Grammy-nominated rock star status. More improbable is that the band wouldn\u2019t compromise on its journey to the mainstream \u2013 retaining its offbeat blend of operatic drama and international sounds through the breakthrough of \u201cHow It Ends\u201d and \u201cTil the End of Time\u201d on the \u201cLittle Miss Sunshine\u201d soundtrack and in the years since.<\/p>\n

The band still considers Denver home \u2014 and all four members still have actual homes there \u2014 but they\u2019ve spent increasing amounts of time in Los Angeles in recent years to record and work on movies. Being away from Colorado and being a little homesick, Urata said, has helped fuel the band\u2019s creative fires and inform the often-wistful mood of DeVotchKa\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly in our journey we all agreed we would get into a van and try to take our show on the road, wherever it would take us,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is something about the process of leaving, seeing your home disappear in the rearview mirror, that opens you up to new creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after 22 years, 11 albums and a growing list of odd side gigs, there is still uncharted terrain for DeVotchKa. Urata said, in all sincerity, that they want to make a Christmas album: \u201cI know that sounds like a joke, but that\u2019s always been a dream of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DeVotchKa will headline The Temporary at Willits on Friday.Aspen Times file The majestic sweep of DeVotchKa\u2019s cinematic sound has landed the Denver-based rock band on the grandest of stages in recent years, including already legendary performances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at Red Rocks Ampitheatre. But the four-piece\u2019s latest stop in the mountains brings DeVotchKa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 16:29:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}