Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
A lot has changed for the members of Michigan quartet Charmer since their last full-length album, Ivy, came out in the Covid-marked uncertainty of spring 2020.
In those five years, two of the band’s members—vocalist/guitarist David Daignault and guitarist Neil Berg—have become fathers, joining drummer Nick Erickson in that club. (“We’re a dad band,” chuckled bassist Zack Alworden, though he himself is not one.) Daignault and Alworden have lent their talents to other projects; the former has played bass for Hot Mulligan, and the latter has played bass with Liquid Mike. And the band spent 18 months in a legal battle with their previous label to regain control of their masters.
But something else has changed since Charmer released Ivy five years ago: their music itself. The extent to which the band’s sound has evolved is evident in their new album (and third overall), Downpour, which is out today on Counter Intuitive Records.
“I just wanted to do something different, wanted to push myself more,” said Daignault, who writes the vast majority of the band’s music. “But you have to do it in the right way; you don’t want to alienate your past fan base, or depart from what brought us the little success we’ve had already. They helped us get to where we are. But there’s a happy medium that makes me personally satisfied and fulfilled.”
Charmer’s self-titled album, released in 2018, was very much a product of the emo revival landscape of the 2010s: twinkly guitars, tempo changes, and loud-soft dynamics. (Sometimes, also, horns.)
“I really liked that noodly Midwest emo stuff in 2014 and ’15 and ’16, but I grew out of it,” Daignault said. “It was kind of hard to be in a band where you were pigeonholed into that type of music. We kind of pushed it a little bit on [Ivy], but then everything kind of shut down when Covid happened.”
Bands don’t make a sacred promise to their listeners that their sound will remain within the boundaries set by their earliest records. But it is, as Daignault alludes to, a delicate balancing act to move a band known for a specific sound in a new direction. (And Midwest emo may be as specific as it gets.)
The message was clear when the first single from Downpour, “Arrowhead,” dropped in early March. The heavy rocker is an emphatic departure from Charmer’s established sound—but it’s more of a lane change than a total exit from the highway.
Second single “Blue Jay” also brings the distortion and the driving drums—but devotees of Charmer’s first two albums will recognize some of their DNA here as well, in Daignault’s vocals and the overall song structure.
“We’ve aged almost 10 years since that first album [Daignault] wrote, so of course he’s going to want to play with different sounds,” Alworden said. “There’s a lot of people who love that first album; hopefully they enjoy this one too.”
Downpour also contains some layers that are entirely new to Charmer’s repertoire. The dreamy atmosphere of “Swords Dance” recalls the Cure and even Fleetwood Mac. When taken together, this collection of songs—which represent only a fraction of what Daignault has written over the last five years—defies categorization. Or pigeonholing.
“I listen to it and it’s the first time I listen to any music that I wrote or put out that I’m like, ‘This is a good record; I can acknowledge that,’” said Daignault, whose personal tastes range from Elton John to MJ Lenderman to Title Fight. “[With earlier albums] it’s like the ideas were there, but we didn’t fully complete the idea.”
“I’ve learned a lot,” added Daignault, who didn’t pick up a musical instrument until he was 18.
One thing that hasn’t changed in the last five years? Charmer’s lineup. That’s not easy to do in the current music landscape. All four members have other jobs and other responsibilities. Downpour comes out at a time when they all were able to focus their attention on this competing but rewarding interest. To support the album, Charmer will be doing a small tour with Arm’s Length, beginning in Chicago on June 9 and culminating in an album release show in Somerville, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.
“I want to keep the healthy balance I’ve found, and I’m thankful to have such a great community of people around me that I get to do music with,” Daignault said. In the past, Charmer hired a touring drummer when Erickson was unable to join a tour. “It just didn’t feel right,” Daignault said.
“We do it because obviously we love it; I don’t think any of us is in it for the money,” said Alworden, who juggles Charmer’s touring schedule with a career as a pro snowskater, a sport through which he initially met Berg. “If we wanted to just have money we would not be doing this.”
Downpour is out now.
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Michelle Bruton | @MichelleBruton
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