The High Plains Drifters Talk Making Music and New Single ‘The One the Got Away’
On the brink of releasing their second album, The High Plains Drifters continue to defy expectations. Yes, their name begs a conjuring of tumbleweed and campfires, but the plains they traverse are musical. Their drifting is expressed in music that has repeatedly been called “genre-bending”. The make-up of this seasoned band obliges such a range. The roots of frontman Larry Studnicky found fertile soil when, in his last two years of college, Elvis Costello released “My Aim Is True” and then the Rolling Stones released “Some Girls”.
Since then, he has honed a unique storytelling style, voiced with influences ranging from the Punk and New Wave movements to an amalgam of icons like The Travelling Wilburys. Behind him, producer Greg Cohen, guitarist John Macom, keyboardist Charles Czarnecki, guitarist Mike DoCampo, drummer Kyle Cassel, and bassist Dave Richards stand ready to infuse Studnicky’s lovelorn tales with electro-pop synths, bossa-nova vibes, and more. Let go of anything you thought they might be, and allow yourself to drift on a more elevated plane of musicality.
The group’s latest single, “The One the Got Away,” will not get away from your eardrums anytime soon. Roaring out the longing lyrics, Studnicky tees up a simple situation loaded with emotion: a love losing itself to time. Somehow the band takes their frontman’s genuine despair and stretches it like a rubber band over driving rhythmic riffs, through shocks of zipping synths, and ties it off around a classic house kick-pah beat. The sum effect teleports us to the no-man’s-land-no-more between Daft Punk and Nick Cave, where HPD is throwing a Tron-inspired Burning Man festival… ya dig? Listen to it, and see for yourself.
In case you missed it, the official music video for “The One that Got Away” (directed by Lars Skaland) featured a relatively wholesome jaunt through Trondheim, Norway with captivating girl-next-door Julie Louise Bjelke. The lyric video, however, holds memories of a different “one that got away,” starring Marit Holan Brattås.
In this erotic dreamscape, the group evokes pure nocturnal lust. Amidst manikin legs and sensuous paintings, a luscious fantasy woman teases and turns over what’s probably your childhood bunk bed. Neons from the red-light district flash before your eyes, and you’re tossed into a dizzying cityscape where you last parted paths with this impossible beauty. Viewers might miss the lyrics amidst the funky, gotta-dance tune and the enthralling visuals. But, hey, if you’re enjoying yourself, HPD’s feeling pretty alright with that.
How did you come up with the name The High Plains Drifters?
Larry Studnicky: We like to consider ourselves a collective of musicians, as most of us have had life-long careers as artists. I don’t remember what triggered us to go with the title of the movie, but the idea of a bunch of Clint Eastwood cowboy types, who’ve seen a bit of life and the world, riding into town to do our thing felt right. Also, I think the lyrical content of many of our songs makes that clear.
How has your environment influenced the type of music you put out?
Larry: I am not sure what’s meant by “environment”. If it means my surroundings, that I can say that I’ve long used my experiences derived from living in and roaming around Manhattan as inspiration for the lyrics to many of my compositions. It’s a crazy and maddening and inspiring place to live. I used to head out sometimes for hours-long, aimless strolls around the City just to see what new song ideas the walk would trigger – things I’d see, fragments of conversations I’d overhear, women I’d pass. Things like that.
What is the most difficult aspect of the music producing process? What is your favorite?
Larry: I’m turning this answer over to our producer, Greg Cohen.
Greg: I wouldn’t say there’s a difficult aspect, unless we hit a creative “wall” during the arrangement process. Besides that, selecting and editing individual takes can be time consuming. Normally, we end up with so much good material, it becomes a challenge to choose which parts serve the song best. The best part is during the mixing process, when you hear the results of your work come together, actually for the first time. Those moments are like magic for us.
Tell us about “The One That Got Away”? Do you have any personal stories of your own “one that got away”?
Larry: “The One That Got Away” was not written by me about any specific woman that I had met and lost. It was written more to express a feeling that I think is shared by many people who’ve spent more than handful of years being single. Usually, there’s “somebody” who you met at the wrong time or where you just blew it with that person. But you suspected then, or maybe you realized in retrospect, that he or she was likely a pretty good match for you. And then you find yourself perhaps in between relationships, maybe after a few too many drinks, and you start wondering “what if” and “where is she know and who is she with”. You obsess a bit over that loss. That’s what led to the writing of this song.
What is the inspiration behind the visuals of the lyric video?
Larry: Ummm . . . the guys in The High Plains Drifters are fans of scantily clad Scandinavian women? Seriously – even if we were all 20 years younger and total studs, we’d never think first to put ourselves in one of our videos. Watching a band play and sing a song does not make for a scintillating experience for the viewer. So, we work with our marketing and video people to try to come up with visuals that keep most viewers watching beyond the first verse and chorus.
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About the Author
Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.
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