User:Catttte/sandbox/Sprain (band)

Sprain is an American band from Los Angeles. The band was initially formed as a duo in 2018 by lead vocalist Alex Kent and bassist April Gerloff, who have since been joined by guitarist Alex Simmons and drummer Maxwell Pretzer. They are signed to San Francisco-based record label The Flenser. They have independently released one EP, Sprain (2018), and one album on The Flenser, As Lost Through Collision (2020).

History
Sprain was started in early 2018 by Alex Kent, who recorded part of the self-titled EP in his apartment. He had recently befriended Gerloff, whom he invited to join, as he had observed her musical skills. Once they finished recording the EP, they began playing shows around Los Angeles. Eventually, they invited Alex Simmons to the band as the second guitarist, and Maxwell Pretzer to replace their first drummer. On August 3rd 2018, the band self-released their debut EP, Sprain.

In early December of 2019, Sprain was signed to record label The Flenser. The label announced "more news to come soon" in 2020, suggesting the later release of their first album. Gerloff later mentioned that The Flenser founder, Jonathan Tuite, came in contact with the band because he had repeatedly seen them play with other artists under the label, such as Drowse and Planning for Burial.

On June 23rd 2020, the band released single "Worship House", receiving a widespread acknowledgement that it differed from the musical style of the self-titled. The band commented that the record was a "conscious effort" to move from the initial style of their first EP into something "more unique", and announced the album's tracklist. On July 28th, they released "Constant Hum". On September 4th, Sprain released their debut album through The Flenser, As Lost Through Collision, which included the two earlier-released singles. The album was engineered by Josiah Mazzaschi from The Cave and mixed by Tim Green from Louder Studios.

Musical style
Sprain's self-titled EP mostly features a '90s slowcore style. Kent has commented that this gentle and quiet musical style is attributed to the fact that the EP was recorded in his apartment and neither of the members possessed the equipment necessary to record loud music at the time, so they were not able to reach the levels of volume they desired. He also mentioned that he was drawn to this genre because he felt Los Angeles was oversaturated by musicians playing the same kind of "fast garage" music, and the band members admired other bands of similar style such as Low and Duster.

Their first album, As Lost Through Collision, features a much more fast-paced, loud, and dissonant post-punk and noise rock style. However, its songs, especially "My Way Out" and "Constant Hum", still show traces of slowcore. The lead vocalist said that, with the production of this album, they tried to create a more unique and "less explored" style. Gerloff also attributes this change to the addition of Simmons and Pretzer, as some performances were not possible with only three members.

The band follows the general principle of post-rock: exploring textures and timbres over chords or riffs. They also make an extensive use of dynamics (the variation and contrast in loudness), and Kent has remarked that the classical music genre explores this significantly more than rock derivatives do; he exemplifies with classical avant-garde composers that have influenced him, like Xenakis, Penderecki, and Ligeti. With this same line of thinking, he praises bands that make use of dynamics, like Low and Slint. They have been repeatedly compared to bands such as these and Unwound,   to the point where the track "Slant" is named after Slint as a tongue-in-cheek joke.

Composition
Kent has described his use of "impressionistic thinking"; describing to his band how he wants certain parts to sound like, using non-musical terms and hypothetical or abstract scenarios, such as "this should sound like a comet blazing towards the Earth", or "I want it to sound like your car just broke down in the middle of a blizzard in rural Idaho".

Imagery
The cover art of As Lost Through Collision depicts the cross section of a building plan, designed by architect Raymond Santana-Linares. This type of graphic is very unusual in the scene of post-hardcore or noise rock. The band instructed Santana-Linares on roughly what they wanted the album's artwork to be; Kent described the album as "angular, cold and sterile", and explained how it resembled the way a building would be built, in terms of writing and composition; "we had basic parts and then we arranged all these other winding abstract parts on top until it became a specific pattern almost", and "there was some relation with how the lines would...kind of interweave in the same way that we compose the instrumental parts of our music".

Band members
Dates are approximate.