{"id":2446494,"date":"2019-07-18T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309509"},"modified":"2019-07-18T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T22:00:00","slug":"devotchka-back-at-belly-up-aspen-on-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/devotchka-back-at-belly-up-aspen-on-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"DeVotchKa back at Belly Up Aspen on Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DeVotchKa will headline Belly Up Aspen on Sunday.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DeVotchKa\u2019s \u201cThis Night Falls Forever\u201d took seemingly forever to make.<\/p>\n

The Denver-based band\u2019s latest full-length record 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 who 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 to the beloved 2011 album \u201c100 Lovers,\u201d but working on these film and theater projects was, as DeVotchKa singer and bandleader Nick 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 bandmates \u2014 who will headline Belly Up Aspen on Sunday \u2014 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 before a local show in March. \u201cBut for us it was a 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 \u2014 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 Belly Up Aspen on Sunday.Aspen Times file DeVotchKa\u2019s \u201cThis Night Falls Forever\u201d took seemingly forever to make. The Denver-based band\u2019s latest full-length record 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 […]<\/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-2446494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 13:31:17","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\/2446494","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=2446494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}