When Headlights takes the stage, be sure to wear deodorant and prepare to leave with wet hair.
“We have a really good time on stage — a lot of sweating goes on in Headlights on stage,” vocalist/keyboardist Erin Fein said. “Hopefully, the audience is, too, by the end.”
Headlights looks to sweat on stage today at 9 p.m. at the Mill, 120 E. Burlington St., with openers Birth Rites and Skye Carrasco. Admission is $8.
Hailing from Champaign, Ill., Headlights formed roughly five years ago as a project for Fein, guitarist Tristan Wraight, and drummer Brad Sanderson. Since then, the group has cycled through a few other members and recorded three albums with the newest, Wildlife, dropping last week.
“I think that maybe the most important aspect of [Owen’s departure] was we needed to take a moment to re-evaluate where we were,” Fein said. “When someone who’s writing with you leaves, it changes the whole dynamic instantly. We really wanted the record to be cohesive and reflect the four of us more than anything, so we took some time to think about what we had done, and where we were, and where we wanted to go because it wasn’t finished at that point.”
She points to the unrest among the band and in her own life as a source for themes of Wildlife, which are reflected in the album’s lyrics. However, she wants people to make their own interpretations, noting that the band doesn’t print the lyrics in the CD pamphlet.
“I enjoy it when you’re listening to a song that you love but you don’t know what the lyrics are,” he said. “In a way, it’s kind of nice to just allow people to interpret the songs in whichever way they want to. I think it may be more important for people to find their own meanings in the songs than to know specifically what each song is about.”
Different from Headlights’ previous two records, Wildlife explores darker themes.
“It was a difficult time internally, losing a band member and dealing with how that affected all of us,” Fein said. “Also, there’s been some family sickness and health issues, and that’s something we all deal with at certain times in our life, and it was a particularly hard year for some of us in Headlights. We write about what we experience, so inevitably the album was darker because of that.”
However, she notes that the themes of the album aren’t necessarily intentional but instead are simply what organically happens when the band members write.
“It’s not like we sit down and say, ‘Well, some hard things have happened, so let’s write some songs,’ ” Fein said. “These things just sort of happen naturally on their own. Perhaps some of the darkness has to do with the fact that there’s some slower songs that are a bit more emotional.”
After playing the Mission Creek Music Festival earlier this year — and opening for such influences as Fruit Bats — Headlights’ members hope to enjoy their return to Iowa City.
“It’s the first stop on the tour, and we really love Iowa City,” Fein said. “It’s definitely a city we always go to on tour, and we’re excited to come back.”