The first of Lewis’ shows is tonight at the Bishop Bar. Lewis has also recruited local band ALAR WAVE to play their second show since 2012.
Lewis said people should expect a lot of new material, reworked songs and high energy.
“For the show, the intention is to be much different than the way we have been,” he said.
Things have been taking shape for Lewis over the past year, he said, and he has made a lot of changes to his music since the release of his debut EP “Higher Nature” in August 2014.
“Originally it was rooted in folk music, but it’s kind of moved past that,” he said. “It’s kind of taken its own shape. It’s a little more wired, almost literally, because we’ve stretched into an electric sound.”
When Lewis released “Higher Nature,” he immediately began work on a still-untitled second EP due to be released later this year, he said. The new EP is a little more solidified and cohesive than “Higher Nature,” he said, and they have taken their time recording it in order to make a more particular and expansive record than the debut EP.
“We’ve been tracking all over the place, including a couple of homemade studios, and we’ve really been taking it on the road,” Lewis said.
He also said he’s excited to play another show with ALAR WAVE. He played with them about two and a half weeks ago at the Root Cellar for their first show since 2012.
ALAR WAVE originally formed in 2011 in Chicago, lead vocalist and bass guitarist Gerard Pannekoek said.
After a year and a half of playing together, the group disbanded, Pannekoek said, and he started to travel around. A little over a year ago he settled in Bloomington and began trying to revive the project, he said.
At the end of January, the band’s current lineup finally got together for the first time.
“It’s like a phase two,” Pannekoek said. “The songs sort of have changed a little bit, and it has a slightly different dynamic and a different feel even though there are the same core songs.”
He also said their current live set is all songs from the band’s original group, but they have been experimenting with some new ideas.
Randall Sciba, one of ALAR WAVE’s guitarists, said it has been really cool to be able to bring Pannekoek’s project to life, but also to be able to add something of their own to the final product.
“I was just really happy to have two guys that wanted to play my music,” Pannekoek said. “Also to not just play my music, but to very much contribute.”
Sciba said the band has a rock energy, but he is hesitant to just call the band’s sound rock because they do a lot of things that are different.
“We also pull a lot of influences from other places into the rock genre,” guitarist Danny Lukovic said.
Pannekoek, Sciba and Lukovic all said they’re excited to bring ALAR WAVE to the Bishop for the first time.
“I’ve only been here since the start of the year, and it was the first place I went and saw shows at in Bloomington,” Sciba said. “I don’t know if we’d even started the group yet, but I said, ‘Yeah, I think I want to play here.’”
