Oakland indie quartet Conversation's new record comes out this week

Oakland indie quartet Conversation’s new record comes out this week

(Take Care of Me album cover)

The collaboration that is Conversation began in the summer of 2013, in Fresno, when drummer Kevin Figueroa and pianist Erik Freeman met during a tour. As they fleshed out their influences and intentions for Conversation, they expanded the lineup to include guitar and bass, taking their sound in a more indie rock direction, continuing in the vein of members’ past projects (Cotillon, Sunburns, Tokyo Death March). After two years and relocations to Oakland, the group has finished recording their debut LP and is releasing it on the Portland-based label APNEICVOID .

They’ve revealed two tracks off of Take Care of Me, the jumpy, jazzy, harmony laced “Empty Lots”, and the calm, keys-centric jam “The Ether”. “Empty Lots” is my favorite of the two, as I find it really shows a band honing their own sound and I love how upbeat it is. The other track reminds me very much of the massively popular rock band Radiohead, which is not a bad thing, and I’m sure it’s cool in the context of the record. The obviously strong influence from such a progressive band has me very curious what the rest of the album sounds like. Check out a cute picture of the band below, their new music video, and if you’re in Fresno I recommend swinging by the record release this Thursday.