Starting your day off on the right foot, an art-rock/experimental band called Up Is The Down The are sharing their latest single called “Memento.” The four-piece band is from Boise, Idaho and take their influences on established artists like Andrew Bird and Them Yorke to a new level with this great-sounding track. The latest single comes from their LP entitled Pulling the Wool, which will be fully released on August 12th via Earth Libraries. I was also able to catch up with the band for a short interview about this single that takes its inspiration from the Christopher Nolan film of the same name.
What inspired the new single?
This is a song where the title and conversation surrounding the song highly influenced the direction and lyrics. We are all huge Christopher Nolan fans and what started out as a joke became the song.
Who produced “Memento,” and what was the recording experience like?
We started with a groove in 6/4 and a dissonant chord progression based on Goldlink’s “U Say.” This was a good example of all of us working together to arrange parts that have each person’s personality.
What do you want music fans to take away from the song?
It’s a hopeful song for being so dissonant. I love the synth bass in the chorus and the ending came out of improvising a transition into the next song on the record.
Was there a particular mood you were trying to capture, or a story you were trying to tell here?
The character in the song is looking at themselves (“a different pair of eyes staring back”) and talking to themselves and processing (“tables have turned” and “the more you try. The grip will tighten around you”). The end (“sooner or later you’ll find your way back to the start”) is directly referencing Nolan’s Memento.