lavender we're having a barn dance

Meet lavender. This winsome duo, consisting of Oskar Rice and Adam Jackson. Their output so far has been confined to a debut EP which came out right in the middle of the lockdown and another couple of singles that bring their tally so far to less than thirty minutes of music. But that’s about to change with their debut album, we’re having a barn dance, a significant step forward and brilliant distillation of all that made those first releases pop so dramatically.

we’re having a barn dance is both literally and metaphorically their one year safari of discovery, starting in a farmhouse in France through to a studio behind Lidl in Limehouse. “I think the album for me feels like a journey,” explains Adam. “I was definitely fixated on this multifaceted concept of ‘home’ throughout the writing process. It seems to start with a departure and sets in motion an attempt to try and locate, then return to, an ever-evolving sense of home. Which is interesting as I was couch-surfing for the bulk of the time we were writing the album, living across so many different homes. Oskar and I gave each other permission to use the shared project as a personal outlet. And making it was entwined with a process of self-reckoning and was helpful in a way that I hadn’t experienced from music before.”

“We had a big chat about what this all means to us,” explains Oskar, “And we boiled it down to this: it’s about love, but not necessarily romantic love. It’s about all of those competing emotions and how, if you love one thing, it might detract from loving something else.” we’re having a barn dance succeeds and surpasses the duo’s aims. It’s an album that is manifestly ambitious both in its production sound and as songwriters clearly finding greater confidence in their future pathway. As one fan commented on YouTube: “You go. You go and be great. With your lavender." Hear, hear.