Disq shares the new single, “If Only,” from Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet, their new album out October 7th on Saddle Creek. “I would rewind and fix it all, but if I had the chance to // I I’d probably still hurt you, and you me,” songwriter Isaac deBroux-Slone confesses on “If Only” before unleashing a cathartic scream atop skittering guitars.
“This is a song to listen to when you’re confused about somebody’s intent in a relationship,” says deBroux-Slone. “It started as a sort of ‘British invasion’ vibe but I wanted to take it in a more interesting direction. The feeling of the song is longing and I thought some of the wistful chords and moods from the plethora of ‘90s and 2000’s indie I’d been listening to at the time would fit just right, so I pulled those influences in. The band and I fleshed it out into something close to its current state after I had the initial idea in the Summer of 2020 but something was still missing… It felt ‘boring’ to me so I had my friend Matthew Sanborn come over and help me figure out some new chords to insert into the middle of the song. I added the synth guitar solo over it all and what we now internally refer to as the ‘freak out’ section was born. We attempted to inject as many nostalgic moments and sonic sighs into ‘If Only’ as we could. Hopefully the results tug on your heartstrings.”
Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet reaffirms the charms of Collector, Disq’s 2020 debut album, while pushing the sound and dynamic of the band in exciting and unexpected new directions. Pushing play on Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet, it is easy to imagine that it is the year 1998, and your cool older sister has returned from her freshman year at college only to hand you the sort of mind-altering mixtape out of which lifelong rock fanatics are born. If there is a record in 2022 which squeezes more ideas into 41 minutes, then that record could surely only be the unlistenable mess that Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet avoids becoming so deftly.
Initially formed as an extension of the lifelong friendship between guitarist Isaac deBroux-Slone and bassist Raina Bock, Disq has evolved into a far more egalitarian organization, as Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet finds guitarists Logan Severson and Shannon Conor splitting singing and songwriting duties with deBroux-Slone and Bock. Producer Matt Schuessler rarely lets a verse or chorus go by without adding some new sonic sparkle, keeping the arrangements an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of textures and moods. Wrangling a melange of styles such as this is no simple task, but Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet is held together by the powerful yet nimble rhythm section of Bock and drummer Stu Manley, whose muscular and hyperactive playing alternately keeps these adventurous compositions tethered firmly to the Earth. Disq has emerged a stronger band, more daring and more defiant, ready to finish the job.
Things being how they are in the world today, the idea of finding “someplace quiet” feels like an increasingly remote possibility, and the act of imagining such a place does, indeed, feel more and more desperate. With Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet, Disq take a valiant stand against the temptation of complacency. As for that “someplace quiet?” It will have to wait… it’s about to get loud in here.
