Q&A with War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel

The War on Drugs have released four records since being on Bloomington’s Secretly Canadian label for the past four years.

But it was the one it released in August that has turned the most heads.  
“Slave Ambient,” their second full-length LP, exhibits frontman Adam Granduciel’s knack for sprawling folksongs through newer doses of lulling sonic reverb.

Tonight, the Philadelphia foursome will take the stage at The Bishop with fellow East Coasters Purling Hiss and Carter Tanton.

Granduciel recently spoke with the IDS about the positive reception of “Slave Ambient,”  and the evolution of their sound and “Law and Order.”

IDS You guys have been on Secretly Canadian for a few years now. How did you originally sign with them?

GRANDUCIEL A friend of ours was in that band Windsor for the Derby. And they were on Secretly, and he sent them the mix that our band recorded. That was one of the first records, and then they kind of contacted me, and then we sent them a bunch of stuff. But then we just decided to make the first record post-signing, you know?

IDS Let’s talk a little bit about your new album, “Slave Ambient.” I thought it had a curious name, because it’s kind of non sequitur but also kind of self-referential in that it’s more ambient sounding than anything you’ve ever done. How did it end up with the name “Slave Ambient?”

GRANDUCIEL It was actually just like a working title for the (fourth track) “The Animator.” I had all of these songs, working on them all, and I was labeling all of them “slaves” for a number of reasons. But honestly, there’s no real meaning behind the title other than at the end of the day, I liked the way those two words sounded together. Because I don’t really even consider the stuff to be ambient music at all.

IDS So “Slave Ambient” is shaping up to be your breakout effort, at least critically. Did you see this coming? And did you ever have the thought with previous War on Drugs’ efforts that one of those albums might be the one?

GRANDUCIEL Not really. I mean, it’s definitely better than the other records, but I didn’t see it coming. I didn’t really think about it too much. It took a long time to make it, and it took a long time to decide if it was something that was unique or that we were proud of it or what. So I mean, when I handed it in to the label, I knew I was proud of the record.