Categories
FEATURES

The Weather Station: A Two-Way Street

WeatherStation

The one-woman whirlwind behind the Weather Station learns to take it and dish it out

“You don’t expect to get respect. Then you do, and you’re like, ‘What does this mean?’”

Canadian singer/songwriter Tamara Lindeman, principal member and guiding light for the Weather Station, is on the phone. Loyalty, her debut for North Carolina label Paradise Of Bachelors, has been four years in the making. She is wrestling with the odd nature of indie success and the self-imposed expectations that come with being a perfectionist.

“It was this funny experience where I made this record in a basement with my friends,” says Lindeman, referring to her unexpected 2011 breakout album, All Of It Was Mine. “I didn’t think I was a good songwriter or a good anything, and I wasn’t expecting anything. People were like, ‘This is amazing,’ and I was like, ‘What?’ But then I became very intimidated by it. Why did everybody like that record? I went through the classic thing: why, why, why?”

And while the Daniel Romano-produced All Of It Was Mine was modestly successful (“It’s not like I sold a million records”), its effect on Lindeman was profound.

“I went through a silly phase where I was overthinking everything,” says Lindeman. “I felt like, ‘Ugh, I’m never gonna make another record,’ and maybe I should just stop. Then this thing fell into my lap to make a record.”

This ‘thing’ was a block of time in a mansion-turned-studio outside of Paris with Afie Jurvanen of Bahamas and Robbie Lackritz of Feist. The result, Loyalty, is one of the year’s most stirring and understated folk records, a masterful collection of humble, ethereal and introspective music.

“Really, the main challenge was putting that silliness behind me and recognizing that I just gotta do it and dive in,” says Lindeman. “Then I did it, and it was great. Totally fine.”

—Sean L. Maloney