There is a place where indie, shoegaze, psych, and post punk meet and it’s called Cafe Racer. With their new record Shadow Talk they are showing off their growth as lineup changes flushed out the dark, twisted guitar whirls of 2018’s killer Famous Dust into a full scale attack on the aural spectrum. We were able to speak with guitarist/vocalist Michael Santana before the release of Shadow Talk this Friday, May 8th, to talk about recording at Jamdek with the infamous Doug Malone, how their sound reshaped in the last two years, why we haven’t seen Cafe Racer on a livestream, and the tour they were in the middle of booking when the world turned upside down. 

Get your copy of Shadow Talk on Bandcamp today!

And check out their new video for single “Faces” at the end!

MS: Michael Santana

Correct us if we're wrong but your last album, Famous Dust, was kind of an end of an era for Cafe Racer, recorded as Andrew Harper joined the band, and Elise Poirier came in on drums after the record was finished. How has moving on as a band shaped your upcoming follow up Shadow Talk?

MS: It was a massive dynamic shift creatively. We found ourselves developing a new sound/style in a much more collaborative way. Internally, as we rehearsed and let ideas flow a bit more unpredictably; and externally, as we exposed our palettes to each other throughout our friendship.

You recorded with Doug Malone at Jamdek. A name we see appear on some of the best records coming out of the scene these days. How was that experience?

MS: He’s wonderful. We’ve always loved his studio space (Jamdek Studio). It used to be Minbal Studio and we recorded Famous Dust there as well. We tracked FD in two days total. We tracked the songs for Shadow Talk in batches of three over the course of about a year or so. We’d go in and track 3 songs per day session and then we’d take them to our buddy Joseph Peven’s studio (Rat City Sound) to record minimal overdubs, vocals, and to mix the songs. It allowed us to write and record more songs. We’d expand on tracks we liked or cut tracks we didn’t like. We weren’t working with a budget of any kind either so the process was lengthened by a lack of financial resources as well. (For as many shows as we play(ed), our band fund never seems to show much productivity.) Dougie is a busy man. Sometimes we’d have to wait two months to snag a session to record another batch. That showcases the value of him and his studio’s work.

The Chicago scene is no stranger to creative interplay, but is it ever difficult to balance all the projects your members are involved in? Rob McWilliams has Rezn, Adam Schubert is Ruins, Poirier has her solo project Meadow Sweet and we’re sure Harper and you play with others as well?

MS: Yes, sometimes schedules impede on one another, but I am proud and supportive of everyone's individual efforts. It breeds ingenuity and it helps to inspire one another. The goal is to continue to change and experiment. Everyone and every project grows.

Three guitar bands are becoming a more common occurrence in indie rock, and it supplies you with plenty of layers to sweep listeners up in? Was this ever a conscious decision or did it just happen that Harper fit?

MS: Not necessarily. We’ve tried, and will continue to try, different variations. Harper fits in because he plays with composure and control. We try to operate the three guitar thing with both nuance and noise. He also plays keys on some songs while Adam and I play guitar.

As far as songwriting for Cafe Racer, is it done collectively or do you each bring in songs and shape them as a band?

MS: A little bit of both. Sometimes we’ll just improv with each other in the space and find something that works. Other songs can be more premeditated. Those songs are usually led by a progression on the rhythm guitar written by one member.

Were there any tour plans you had to cancel because of the current situation?  

MS: Unfortunately, yes. We had booked a weekend of shows in Milwaukee and Minneapolis proceeding our show at Lincoln Hall in support of Deeper for their record release. We were also in the midst of booking a three week tour in June in support of Shadow Talk. The route was intended to wrap around the East Coast and mid South.

Any livestream plans in the future to celebrate the album release?

MS: We’ve been asked a couple times but we’ve chosen to play it safe until further notice. We are not trying to discourage the act of staying at home during Shelter in Place. We profoundly miss playing music together, but we can’t risk endangering each other or others. We’re all working on our own new music in the meantime.

Plenty of terms could be used for the style of music Cafe Racer embodies, but how would you describe the sound in your own words?

MS: Experimental indie rock I suppose. We try to blend a lot of genres like shoegaze, psych rock, noise pop, kraut rock, post punk, ambient music, etc; and we want to continue to embellish every idea.

What would be the dream gig Cafe Racer would play for your first show when we are all allowed to come together again?

MS: We all really want to play Thalia Hall. We’ve come close a few times leading up to the COVID outbreak. It’d be one of those milestone shows for us. We’ve been lucky to share stages with an amazing spectrum of bands across an array of genres and we just want to continue that tradition. We don’t want to be pigeonholed.