With a dreamy signature sound that draws from the compelling nature of live instrumentation and the versatility of production, Bells and Robes are one of the most unique groups to come out of the Gainesville music scene.
Composed of friends Luke Sipka and Dean Spaniol, the former UF students began making music in 2012. With similar music tastes and the drive to let their creativity run wild, Bells and Robes was born.
Since then, the two have been steadily rising, making diverse releases and bringing their sound to stages around the Southeast. No two songs sound alike, with tracks like “White Glow” combining light piano chords with slow-rolling synthesizers, and others like “Latchkey” featuring Animal Prince’s sultry vocals with plucky percussion.
Bells and Robes will make the trip back to Gainesville on Thursday for a show at High Dive. Along with local group Retrolux, the duo will open for ZOOGMA, another group that combines production and instrumentals to create a deep sound similar to Pretty Lights, an American electronic music producer.
The show will kick off at 10 p.m., and doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are available at highdivegainesville.com, Hear Again Records or High Dive’s box office for $12 in advance and $14 at the door. There will be a $3 fee at the door for those under 21.
I had the chance to talk with both members of Bells and Robes before their opening slot Thursday.
Q: Tell me a little bit about how you two came together.
Luke: We split a record player, I want to say in like 2011 or 2012 when we were at UF. We started buying some records, had pretty similar tastes in music, and I had taken piano lessons in the past and been in a few bands, and Dean had played drums. We decided — it was actually on the summer solstice of 2012 — that we wanted to make an EP collectively. And then we finished an EP and got a show offer and then kept getting show offers, and they haven’t seemed to stop, and we’ve continued to put out music, and now we’re here.
Q: Where did the name Bells and Robes come from?
Luke: It’s a Zen Koan. It was from this book that was written in the 13th century called “The Gateless Gate.” Koans are things that Zen masters would give their students to contemplate.
Dean: They don’t necessarily have a correct answer.
Luke: Yeah it’s almost like a poem, story, short thing, and there’s a line in there that said “one should see sound”…. We really connected with that line, and it was the name of our first two EPs, and that’s where it came from. We found that randomly as we were getting going, and that became the name.
Q: Some people argue that being a duo makes things easier, but I disagree. I think the ability to stay in tune with one another, especially during live performances, adds a degree of difficulty that people may not realize at first. How do you keep that balance and work together so well?
Dean: It definitely is challenging. We’ve been playing together for about four to five years now, so over time you kind of develop a sense of each other’s style and where you’re taking things in a live setting, especially when you’re doing a lot of improvisational stuff. You kind of just know each other’s tendencies and match each other’s energy level. It was also pretty natural because I’m doing most rhythmic stuff on drums and he was doing most of the melodic, so it’s also natural rhythm and melody working together.
Q: Is one of you the instrumentation guy and the other the production guy, or do you guys kind of tag team it?
Dean: We tag team it most of the time. We’ll write together a lot but oftentimes we’ll write separately and we’ll bring ideas to the table when we come up. Like “Oh, look at this, I just made this yesterday, what do you think of this?” And then we add to each other’s ideas and kind of build on them and talk them through. And again, it’s a lot of rhythm and melody. So most of the synth work is Luke.
Q: Although I’m sure you both have many influences, your sound also lies in a realm that’s really all its own. Where do you draw that originality and creativity from?
Luke: That’s a tricky question… Some people when they get an idea and it doesn’t necessarily sound like it’s in a genre don’t proceed forward with it…. It’s almost like the thing that starts happening isn’t necessarily the thing that you intended to happen, and some people when that happens refuse to go forward. If you refuse to go forward, you don’t necessarily know where that idea was going to take you, but if you kind of give in and kind of accept that you don’t know where you’re going but just react and move forward with that idea, it kind of takes you into new areas and spaces and styles that may not necessarily be acceptable and categorizable but that are new and fresh. If you’re willing to let that happen, then you can get there, but if you’re not and you shut down unconventional ideas, then they won’t happen. Kind of accepting where the creativity wants to go without limiting it and moving forward.
Q: “Pleasures Of Mind” could be your most mature, impressive release to date. Tell me about how that came together.
Dean: What we originally did was kind of pick a date and was like, all right, we want to release a project around this date. One of our methodologies when it comes to making music is quantity produces quality, so quality comes through quantity. Just writing a ton of stuff and trying to pick out the tracks that are embodying the message or theme that you want to go for with the project. It typically just starts by taking a lot of action and getting through as much quantity as possible and then whittling that down to the quality…. We’ve been able to expand our music camaraderie after the last couple years touring around and getting to know a lot of amazing musicians. It’s really fun to be able to put some of them on a project or a piece of work that you’ve conceived.
Q: What about Gainesville makes you excited to continue coming back here?
Dean: It’s like a totally different crowd every time…. Every time we go back, even if it’s just a short period of time, it seems like there’s so much new stuff popping up all over the place. So many memories flood back into your head of where you started. It’s always great to reconnect with the people that were there when we kind of birthed this project. It’s always pretty awesome to connect with the people who were there from day one. It’s also a great time to reflect of how far we’ve come and how much further we’d like to go from when we first started there.
After getting their start in Gainesville in 2012, the now Atlanta-based duo Bells and Robes returns to town this week.
