Following the highly accomplished 2012 album Heaven, cult American indie band The Walkmen went on hiatus. But now they have reformed. Frontman Hamilton Leithauser explains all.
In a recent interview with the band’s frontman Hamilton Leithauser, Vulture magazine referred to the now infamously long career break by The Walkmen as “a particularly noticeable void”.
I would go a lot further than that. I (and a million other fans) grieved the loss of The Walkmen, because in the indie landscape they offered something unique. The ramshackle but classic rock sound (could any band sound more analogue?). The authenticity of those songs. Hamilton Leithauser’s signature voice. Most bands have a manifesto to stand out from the rest, but The Walkmen didn’t need to say it - they were truly el differente.
Hamilton didn’t know if anyone would remember or care much but he turned out to be wrong about that of course. The Walkmen’s legend has matured nicely in the intervening 10 years that they have been away.
As Hamilton stresses, The Walkmen were a very monogamous band, up until the break. The band is made up of five Washington DC natives: Hamilton, Paul Maroon, Matt Barrick, Walter Martin and Peter Bauer. None of them did any solo projects, but dedicated themselves to the band they had formed together as young friends in their early 20s from the members of two other bands - Jonathan Fire Eater (previous mention on this show see Interpol) and The Recoys. “We were caught in this marriage we couldn’t get out of”.
Difficult Marriages don’t have to end in divorce. On this show, the idea of the hiatus as a healer of bands/marriages is not unusual. Tears For Fears were separated for 19 years. Suede for a decade - about the same as The Walkmen. James a little less. Some of those bands announced a break-up (James even did the farewell tour) but others just went their separate ways and didn’t make a song and dance about it.
But it turns out the hiatus is a good thing. Those above named bands have come back in style. Critically revered new records, sold-out tours, renewed cultural relevance and most of all, younger audiences.
But the interesting thing is that culturally, these bands never really went away. And so it is with The Walkmen. Their songs and fandom lived on through the extended break - even grew in their absence. This is perhaps the true miracle of music in the streaming era. Hamilton and the others were surprised and delighted to return to playing shows to loyal audiences both old and new, the younger fans among them singing every word of those old songs.
In the modern music biz, when the talk is of “always-on” creation, 24/7 content and acute FOMO, maybe the most valuable move a band can make is to not succumb to any of that, but to instead have the nerve and the confidence to do what’s necessary - even if that is nothing. Hamilton puts the stresses of modern day bands into perspective though:
“It’s exhausting physically and mentally - in the long run. After you’ve done a bunch of records you think “do I really wanna do another rock & roll record, no I don’t think I do”, then it becomes about what you really want to do next”.
With six albums and some older EPs to perform, there is no need - not yet - for any meaningful discussion about new material by The Walkmen. But it is reassuring and exciting to know that Hamilton and bandmates haven’t ruled it out. For now we can be happy enough that a particularly noticeable void has been filled.
The Walkmen return to London with a three night residency at Koko, a very hot ticket indeed.