White Denim Talk New Album, '70s Influence and the Business Casual Clown

It's not easy to take sounds from the days of classic rock and make them seem fresh, but it's something White Denim has done successfully over its entire career.  

There's a maturity and breezy authenticity to White Denim's music that doesn't seem to be going for anything in particular. The band as usual sounds new, yet familiar and pristinely ruddy.

Perhaps its the engineers' ears of guitarist James Petralli and bassist Steve Terebecki that so firmly captures the concise honesty of the band's music. Or maybe it's the conflagration of glam rock and soul influences that brought about the band's recent work. But whatever it is, judging by the sound of White Denim's new single, "Magazin," it's here to stay. 

While White Denim isn't remotely glam in its presentation, the band admits to Q104.3 New York's "Out of the Box" with Jonathan Clarke that there's a lot to learn from that particular aspect of the sound of the '70s.

"[T-Rex's] Electric Warrior is one of those records that we put on inevitably when we're mixing a record, sonically, it's kind of a gold-standard album," Petralli tells the show. "That's always been in there. Some of the equipment that we used is actually, you know, we read that [legendary producer] Tony Visconti was using it in the Berlin period, so we got really into some of those effects and sonics." 

And in a time when modern producers are constantly looking for sounds that have never been heard before, White Denim is borrowing from what they know works and remaking it.

"This is definitely kind of a nod to that glam thing, as well, from a production and writing standpoint," Petralli adds regarding "Magazin."

White Denim's new album, Performance, is due out August 24. As with any new album comes a new tour and new press photos. One in particular photo has fans searching for answers.

"It started as business casual clown," Petralli says of what led to a photo of him inexplicably wearing clown makeup in an otherwise casual shot with his bandmates. 

"Then we did a costume change, and I just went straight clown. I don't know how many pre-album photo shoots that we've done in our lives, but it's always kind of a weird thing to do; you never know how to be comfortable. I just thought that it would look really odd and be really fun to just dress up as a clown."

Get all of White Denim's tour dates here. Follow the band on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Here’s the official lyric video for “Magazin” from White Denim's forthcoming album, Performance: