Warehouse Eyes

Minneapolis’ indie pop group Warehouse Eyes are debuting their eerie music video for the track “The Same Dream” off of their 2015 Prisms EP.

“This was our first music video,” said Jennie Lawless (vox, synth). “Our concept was quite fluid. We only knew we wanted to create a dream-like atmosphere, and it ended up very different than how it started. To start, we had our friend Rya DeMulder design costumes for [me] and Christopher based on [my] ‘ancient futuristic’ concept, and we found some cool spaces at a Warehouse in St. Paul, Minnesota. A couple days of filming yielded a bunch of magical clips. Once the filming was completed, we went over the edits, felt that something was missing and decided to incorporate some public archive footage. We loved digging through hours of noir films and ‘60s commercials, and we’re really happy with the clips we ended up using. Piecing it all together was a painstaking process, but now we love the way the video makes us feel and love the spaced-out sensations added to this story of a broken love.”

Watch the exclusive premiere of “The Same Dream” above. - Paste Magazine

A prism is a transformative object that takes a steady stream of white light and refracts it into its constituent spectral colors. Like magic, the white light is scattered into the colors of the rainbow, showing us the light's inner being and true form. This transformation also occurs with music. As invisible sound waves and vibrations enter our ears, our brain acts as a prism and transforms it into music. Entering a prism is both physically and symbolically a journey that leaves you different than you were before.

As the dream-pop genre gains momentum in the indie rock circuit, the ethereal duo Warehouse Eyes stands out with their airy tones and psychedelic soundscapes. Their newest EP, Prisms, floats us through a hazy, Technicolor mirage where we emerge in a rainbow reverie. A sonic journey through innocent love, recurring dreams, hallucination, and new beginnings, Prisms is a well-rounded EP that reflects the many facets of human emotion.

Based in Minneapolis, Warehouse Eyes has been on an East Coast tour that will conclude with a final Midwestern stint. Jennie Lawless (vocals, synth) and Christopher Williams (vocals, keys, synth) find inspiration in the complexities of sound design as well as from artists such as Patti Smith, John Darnielle and Bob Dylan. Warehouse Eyes began when Lawless moved to Minneapolis in 2012 and teamed up with Williams to create musical alchemy. Their early work consisted of playing simple, original, piano pop songs and covers. As their musical chemistry began to spark, they gradually morphed into a five-piece band to keep up with the energy and complexity their songs demanded. Although they most often play as a five-piece with Kevin Scott (bass), Matt Vannelli (guitar) and Alex Young (drums), Lawless and Williams still often perform as a duo, showing their intimate and emotive roots.

Their first EP, Carvings, was released in 2014 and consisted of ethereal ballad-style tracks which put them on the musical radar. While Carvings garnered them positive feedback from the press, Prisms is truly the group's launching point as they have evolved and discovered their signature sound. With a more diverse assortment of tracks than Carvings, Prisms shows their skills in sonic design, arrangement, harmony, and lyrical depth. While love is the inspiration behind the EP, they found a way to refract the many hues of love through dreamy soundscapes and carefully curated lyrics. "Love was the light; the prisms are the songs that allow us to talk about other, less expressible things," says Jennie Lawless.

"I Think I Can Live With It," the first track and video release off of Prisms, showcases Williams' ingenuity on analog synthesizers and sequencers. Lawless' haunting vocals enchant the listener as she casts her musical spell. "I Think I Can Live With It" is a song about rejecting who you have been and accepting who you now are. The video's narrative parallels the lyrics by depicting the endless cycle of rejection and renewal that is childhood. Prisms is a mystical odyssey through a daydream, reminding us of the many ways in which love can be expressed. - Huffington Post

Local duo Warehouse Eyes have come a long way in the past year. To start, they are no longer a duo. While Christopher Williams and Jennie Lawless remain the band’s core, they have swelled to a five piece with Matt Vannelli (guitar), Kevin Scott (bass), and Alex Young (drums) all joining the roster. Where the real change seems to have taken place though is within the band’s songcraft. While their debut record Carvings was a great start, their most recent effort, Prisms EP (out Fri) shows a huge amount of progress over it in terms of songwriting. Carvings sounded like a great local band. Prisms sounds like one with national potential.

The band continues to operate under the loose canopy of dream pop, but Prisms pushes the sound further with textured electronic noise, a real drummer (and consequently more interesting beats), and sophisticated song structures. Lawless’s celestial vocals still stand out as the band’s focal point (backed up by Williams), but they are now supported by structures that are composed of richer, more nuanced fabric. The sound is best exemplified on standout single “I Think I Can Live with it,” the EP’s lead track and an gorgeously airy pop song that showcases both Lawless’s singing as well as the band’s ability to seamlessly meld complexity into something that sounds effortless. - Reviler

Off the heels of their 2014 release Carvings, Minneapolis’ Warehouse Eyes runs in a dynamic new direction with their 2015 EP, Prisms. I caught up with fronting members Jennie Lawless and Christopher Williams, to discuss Warehouse Eyes’ latest, and dig into the details of the upcoming release.

Like recent Rock the Garden performers Lucius, Lawless and Williams compliment their elegant sounds with eloquent visual style. We met in the early evening, a pleasant hazy sun lowering on the horizon. Lawless looked flawless as usual, a wide brimmed black hat matching her modest black dress, and vintage sunglasses and necklace providing a splash of contrasting elements. Williams, still adjusting to his new short locks and glasses, admits the frames are fake. But the honesty makes it all the more legitimate, as we all try on certain skins from time to time.

However, there’s nothing counterfeit about their characters, the music they make together, or their goals. This Friday, Warehouse Eyes kick off their first outside-the-Midwest tour, which is headed all the way to New York City and back. A marathon of 20 shows between now and the end of August awaits them, a feat that requires a heavy dose of ambition. Yet they are equal to the task, with momentum and motivation in their favor.

Now a full five-piece band, Warehouse Eyes welcomed Matt Vannelli (guitar), Kevin Scott (bass), and Alex Young (drums) to the process this second time around. And working with Lance Conrad at Humans Win! recording studio, it was an ideal experience.

Williams pointed out they had a session looking forward even before the release of Carvings.

“It was pretty fast actually… We were going to do a single with Lance [Conrad], that was our plan, and it sort of very gradually became an EP. We really enjoyed working with Lance, and I think we found the combo to be very fruitful, so we moved fast on that. Actually Lance is the reason that Matt joined the band… and Matt is for me the perfect guitar player. He doesn’t often play guitar-ish parts, he more plays guitar like a synthesizer.”

“I couldn’t have picked a better fit for us,” Lawless interjected. “He makes these funky sounds you wouldn’t even know were guitar.”

“We’re open to evolving naturally in the studio,” Lawless continued, and they didn’t come in with perfected songs just to record the parts. “Lance did a great job of really honing things with us, and challenging some of our decisions on arrangements, forcing us to think outside of the box.”

They both admit, there’s much more possibility when your mind isn’t set first on the budget when recording, although it’s always an important factor. Williams justified their recent process.

“There’s always moments that you want to hit in a specific way, in a song. Maybe that first time in the tune, where you’re like, oh this is what this song sounds like. And then there’s some other moment that’s the climax in the song, and you need to do whatever it takes to make those moments feel the way they’re supposed to. And whether that takes a ton of tweaking, whatever, if you need a new part, you need a new part.”

They did come in with one core concept, however, which became a foundation for all the songs. Lawless disclosed: “something that we were intentional about was making songs that people could actually move to.”

“[At] some point in the last year, we made it a point to dance as often as possible in our living room, like one time a day. It’s kind of become this weird ritual and priority in our lives, Chris and I. So there’s a little bit more playfulness in this album because of that, because you can’t be too serious when you’re dancing.”

Williams agreed, and commented on how being too into the details can detract from the live experience of music.

“It can be really easy to want live music to be the same thing as when you’re listening to something cool on your headphones, but sometimes it’s nice to have things that move you in a different way. That was our intention… to do that without sacrificing some core feeling that we get in our songs.”

Being familiar with ballads, and quite intricately composed tunes, Warehouse Eyes loosens up on Prisms, inviting in a playful nature and incorporating electronic elements with open arms – and good taste. Lawless was specific in their awareness of how sound translates into energy, both recorded and live.

“Already we’re heading in a new direction… working with so many more electronics has made us think more intentionally about dynamics… so in our live setting it’s not just a stagnant, high energy thing.”

A fantastic example of this attentiveness to dynamics and danceablilty takes hold in “I Think I Can Live With It,” accompanied by a music video, the work of director Jimmy Christenson. The starting and ending lines of “run until you’re free” hint at the theme of runaways, and Lawless was intrigued by the direction it took.

“In some ways, this video has changed the meaning behind the lyrics, they’ve become something new for us. We asked a bunch of people we knew if they had any runaway stories from when they were kids, and we got this really beautiful array of responses… [one friend] she’d never actually done it, but always had romanticized running away with a fur coat and big sunglasses…”

“We leapt on that, the idea of getting all glamoured up to run away,” Williams added.

Lawless continued, “We ended up renting a fur coat from an antique shop for one of the little girls, we put a big ol’ hat on her and had her wear sunglasses. She was such a diva, didn’t smile once in the video – it was so perfect.”

What becomes evident after time in conversation with these two is the complimentary composition of their relationship. At times their thoughts flow back and forth so seamlessly, it’s difficult to keep track of who initiated what thread of thought. In the same way that they leapt on the runaway concept for their video, they surely ran with a great idea when they paired up to create music together.

Now they spend a good deal of their time making music, and all the logistics that entails. The theme and title for Prisms came about on one of the less glamorous parts in the life of a musician, as Lawless narrated.

“We were talking through the songs together on the way back from a show out of town, just Chris and I, we were thinking about what we were going to call the album, and we realized that the songs are the prisms, and love is the light, that lets us talk about other things.”

Williams contemplated the darker side of things, and the always present question of, who cares?

“I’m always worried with a song that I’m just not going to care. Cause there’s a lot of songs that I hear where I’m like, yeah it sounds fine but I don’t know why I care about what they’re singing. And so I ask myself, we ask the same question, of our songs a lot… and I think the whole Prisms concept is, a lot of the way we get ourselves to care, is this crossing of love with something else.”

And so as love pervades their relationship, it surely invades their music, acting as the lens through which they see the world. The album art for Prisms was created in the same vein, through a love of design that Lawless harbors. It’s a mixture of graphic design, projection, and photography, and in the end a work of art.

“I’m really proud of it – I’m excited to share the actual CD with people, so they can have it… We’re giving everyone who comes to the show a free copy.”

This enthusiasm in sharing their creation pairs with Warehouse Eyes’ excitement of being part of such a vibrant music scene here in Minneapolis. Williams got a down-to-earth comparison with other cities’ scenes through preparing for their upcoming tour.

“Booking this tour… it was interesting to see these patterns, and the thing I never fully realized about Minneapolis is, despite the size, there are a lot people here who are really trying to do something special.”

Lawless chipped in, “People are pretty ambitious here, they’re serious about their art,” as Williams followed with, “That changes the way you approach everything.”

Local influences such as Low and Halloween, Alaska, as well as much larger acts like Radiohead, Phantogram, and Leonard Cohen, all contribute to the way they hear the world. But most importantly, Warehouse Eyes wants to see the world.

Lawless enthusiastically announced, “We want to GO places, we want to actually be a self-sufficient band essentially, be a full-time touring band. And so we’re basically doing whatever it takes right now to get to that point.”

With a new release ready to drop this week, a national tour ahead of them, and a full length release in mind for early 2016, there is no doubt Warehouse Eyes will be going places. The real question for these runaways is not where, but how far. - Rift Magazine

Named after a Bob Dylan lyric, what started out as a project between Jennie Lahlum and Christopher Williams has been fully realized into a five-piece. The Minneapolis group quickly churned out vocally operatic opuses that contained layers of synths and subtle percussion and electronics that weaved together softly. This could be heard in their track "Through The Glass." The four minute track exudes an airy ethereal beauty that becomes a dreamy lullaby. The track appears on their Carvings EP.

Expect to hear more from the newly formed group as they continue to write together and prepare for their debut full-length. - Prefix Magazine

I’m always wary of using the term scene, In fear of throwing artists into an inescapable bracket, but something seems to be brewing in the wind swept city of Minneapolis. From seasoned synth-poppers POLIÇA the alt-folk of Grand Courriers, there is certainly a scene collective of musicians brewing, with it’s sights firmly set beyond the icy borders of the city.

Adding to this list is the recently formed 5 piece, Warehouse Eyes. Centered around the songwriting duo of Jennie Lahlum and Christopher Williams, they create otherwordly dream pop, comprised of ethereal vocals and chiming guitars. Debut track Tokyo is obvious in its influence, with vocals reminiscent of The XX and strokes of Beach House throughout, but this does not take away from the fact that it’s a fantastically formed introduction to the band, seeping in dream poppy loveliness. - Crack in the Road

Worlds away can share uncanny resemblances, reminding us of something without knowing why. You will see how the nightlife of Tokyo (as the song suggests) and your classic carnival scene share its parallels- darkness illuminated by measly bright lights can make all the difference, saturated and blinding colours to satisfy your visual cravings, thousands rush by stuck in their own world, vehicles fight it out for dominance (think cars and bumper cars), high structures box you in as they precariously hang above, there’s this constant sense of danger yet peace of mind in a refuge…
warehouse eyes
Alternative dream-pop band Warehouse Eyes tells it like it is – their haunting beauty surrounded by a menacing atmosphere is damn right enchanting.

Warehouse Eyes is an alternative bedroom-pop/dream-pop /rock five-piece band from Minneapolis, with Jennie Lahlum ( vocals, syths), Christopher Williams (vocals, keys, synths), Kevin Scott (bass), Matthew Vannelli (guitar), and Alexander Young (drums) . Named after a Bob Dylan lyric in Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, the band released their debut track Tokyo earlier this year which was followed by their EP Carvings. Inspired by the likes of The Smiths and Bob Dylan and modern synths, you can expect a cross between The XX and Beach House – surreal ecstasy wrought by an eerie edginess that pulls people into a world of mysteriousness and uneasy calm.
The debut track off their EP, Tokyo, showcases Jennie’s vocals which carry this desirable cross between opera and pop – powerful yet contains this light purity about it. Self-described as an “opera-reject”, Jennie has found a genre that suits her well and will welcome her for what she has to offer- her opera background definitely gives her voice this unique depth. The contrast between the vocals and robust guitar and drums lines creates that two-faced identity about the song – innocence collides with unpredicted danger… prepare for the tragic conclusion to what seemed like the beginning of something special.
Warehouse Eyes’ latest release, Through the Glass, incorporates more synths, giving it that space-like fantasy quality. The downtempo instrumentals and sorrowful vocals are beautifully delicate but rather depressing (*sad face*) – the perils of love are clear and all too real.
This music video will capture all these elements of naive youth. It shows us that life goes by in this blur, and if we stop to gaze and mindlessness possess all the shiny and seemingly lucrative things around us, we can’t expect things to turn out well- seeking comfort in things that don’t reciprocate is a useless cause ( … I’m looking at you rainbow lights that give nothing in return and yet we stare at how wondrous you are).
Defining our life by the love of meaningless things and filling it with fast and adrenaline filled fixes, might just cause us to lose ourselves- in an instant it can all go haywire and we wonder what we did wrong to deserve such punishment. And just like that, the video ends with a bang! Well more like an alarming red cloud of fog…but you get the idea.

True to their name, Warehouse Eyes will see right through you and bring out your thoughts and feelings to a not so intimate ‘warehouse’ space, where everything is mechanical, confronting, cold and potentially hazardous- they only means well by you, safe guarding you from the cruel elements beyond your four walls, preparing you for what you’ve been evading for too long. Their debut EP Carvings shows a lot of promise and Happy can’t wait for their next instalment! - Happy (Vice Blog Network)

Not only is this song rock solid, it’s feeling pretty meaningful to me at the moment since my wife is currently in Tokyo for work. Music meats life. Or is it always the other way around? - yvynyl