Kym Register and Will Hackney are back in the Triangle after a long stint on the road. The pair makes up the band, Loamlands, and they’re playing a homecoming show in Carrboro this weekend.
Register and Hackney played together for years in Midtown Dickens, a punk-folk group that utilized mandolin, clarinet and acoustic guitar. Hackney says starting a new band has allowed them to experiment with new sounds. Loamlands’ debut EP Some Kind Of Light is full of electric guitar, but still features old-time and folk-inspired tunes.
The album explores some heavy themes. Register wrote “Another Reason” for a loved one struggling with depression. “Scottsboro” was inspired by the Scottsboro Boys, a group of young African American men who were falsely imprisoned in the 1930s.
Hackney says touring was fun, but that they’re glad to be back in the Triangle, where the music scene is “energizing”. They’re both invested in the area: Register owns and manages booking for The Pinhook in Durham, and Hackney runs Trekky Records in Chapel Hill, which supports artists including Sylvan Esso and Lost in the Trees.
Loamlands will play The Cat’s Cradle Saturday with The Dead Tongues and Skylar Gudasz.
