For a song like “An Iris” that so effortlessly swoops and glides, it requires a lot of work setting up to play it.
Especially for All Tiny Creatures’ leader Thomas Wincek and his elaborate rig of computers and keyboards, but every member of the band seems very in tune to the amount of detail that song casually contains. Ben Derickson’s balanced drumming charges the song but never overpowers it, Matt Skemp’s bounding bassline provides a soft place for the melody to land, and Andrew Fitzpatrick’s fluid guitar line sheds enough sparkling light to draw attention to the delicate vocals. Vocals that the band—without the help of pal Justin Vernon, who sings on the recorded version on the band’s upcoming album, Harbors—recreate nicely live in the studio at DNA Music Labs, even if they’re not all sure about the words.