“It’s over now / The flag has sunk / The world has flattened out,” sing the four members of Darlingside on the title track of their new album “Extralife.” On this album, the band’s third full-length release, bassist Dave Senft, guitarist/banjoist Don Mitchell, violinist and mandolinist Auyon Mukharji, and cellist and guitarist Harris Paseltiner look toward the future, envisioning a rather grim world, yet one with elements of hope amidst all the uncertainty.
“Extralife” is a step forward for this once-local band — their lyrics are poetic and haunting while they expand on their unique chamber folk-pop sound by further blurring the lines between genres. But amidst the sonic experimentation, which even includes the addition of some electronic sounds, the focus is on their stunning harmonies. When these four musicians merge their voices together they manage to make even a post-apocalyptic world sound beautiful, a feat that only Darlingside could pull off.
The four band members met when they were students at Williams College in Williamstown, forming the band in 2009. After graduating, they moved into a house together in Hadley and began honing their musical skills, becoming a significant part of the local music scene. Chances are you caught one of their many area shows over the years as they played everywhere from the 1794 Meetinghouse in New Salem to the Full Moon Coffeehouse in Wendell. They now call Boston home, but when they return to play the Academy of Music on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., it will be a homecoming show for the band.
Darlingside experienced a major breakthrough with their 2015 release “Birds Say,” an album that took a nostalgic look back at childhood, and now “Extralife” is poised to give their career an even bigger boost. Released in late February, the album is winning widespread critical praise and dates on their current tour are selling out.
The band is thrilled with the response that “Extralife” has received, and while it explores some dark themes, the band members never intended to write an album that was centered around one issue or idea.
“We have never been a band that sets out to write a song that talks about a specific issue,” said guitarist Mitchell, who was calling while on the band’s tour bus traveling to a show in Chico, Calif. “We kind of start writing, and since all four of us are songwriters whatever is in our collective consciousness makes its way into the music.”
The Darlingside writing process is a collaborative one, with each member bringing ideas to the group. They then work on them collectively so that each song bears the imprint of each band member. Due to their heavy touring schedule, for the first time ever, they started writing for this album while out on the road. Mitchell said it wasn’t an easy process and resulted in a lot of unfinished songs.
“All of these songs started to come together around the same time and that was November of 2016,” Mitchell said. “So we had the election and a lot of natural disasters and crazy weather patterns and just a lot of things that were pulling the country and the world in a lot of different directions, so I think all of that started to have an impact on them. Songs that … weren’t fully finished began to inform each other during the recording process. That was how the overarching narrative of the album started to take a loose and unplanned shape.”
Even before working on the album, the band started experimenting with a little synthesizer called a septovox and some of the odd noises that it creates ultimately became part of “Extralife.”
“This doesn’t come from a desire to reinvent ourselves. We used these sounds in the past but more as background textures,” he said. “But as the lyrics were coming together, and as we were thinking about the future and what that might look like, there were shades of that in that little box,” he added. “It made little blip-blip noises that were like R2-D2 or Super Mario. It sounded like the future we imagined when we were kids.”
Darlingside’s music has always been evolving, ever since they started out as just a group of friends coming together to make music. In the beginning, they had a drummer and embraced more of a rock sound. Once the drummer departed, they started singing around a condenser microphone, placing more emphasis on the vocals. Mitchell said that living in the Pioneer Valley played a critical role in the band’s development.
“Western Massachusetts was our training ground and we got to do that in some really unique places,” Mitchell said. “One of our first gigs was at the Bread Festival at Hungry Ghost in Northampton. We also got to test a lot of our material busking on the street. We loved being in Northampton, where the arts are such an integral part of the culture. That made its way into our early music and into our democratic way as a band.”
Mitchell added that the group looks forward to coming back to the area and playing these new songs.
“This will be our first time playing any of the new album in Northampton or that area,” he said.
“So far on the tour, we have played about half of the album during a live set and mixed in a bunch of favorites. It’s always a treat going back to Northampton because the community is so incredible and it’s great to be playing a room as historic and beautiful as the Academy of Music.
Tickets are $20 to $25 and are available at signaturesoundspresents.com.
The Academy of Music is located at 274 Main St. in Northampton.
Sheryl Hunter is a music writer who lives in Easthampton. Her work has appeared in various regional and national magazines. You can contact her at soundslocal@yahoo.com.