Lethe May Not Always Be an Instrumental Band
A lot of people have trouble getting into instrumental bands on first listen. Without a vocalist to guide their attention, many people feel lost in all the layers. The psychedelic stoner outfit Lethe are a pure instrumental band, but they have worked on methods to give the illusion of a singer through their song structures.
"We try very hard to create vocals lines with a guitar melody, or a bass melody, but it's just not the same," bassist Dylan Desmond tells Noisecreep. "There is something about the human voice that people are just more drawn to.
"There is a certain structure to a lot of music that is being produced this day and age that is vocal centered," Desmond says. "Even if the vocals are sparse, the vocals are still a kind of a centerpiece, which I think it's hard for a lot of people to stray from that."
For Desmond, he's always been drawn to instrumental music. Even with classic Metallica records like 'Master of Puppets' and 'Ride the Lightning,' he's always preferred the songs with no vocals. "I was way more into 'Irion' and 'The Call of Ktulu' than the other songs on the albums. For me I was like, 'These songs sound much more cool, because it's got a different feel to it, 'cause it's got no words to it.'"
Lethe, who were just transplanted from Kansas to Seattle, haven't made a iron-clad rule that the band has to be instrumental forever. "We've been tossing the idea around since we got to Seattle," admits Desmond. "There is such a bigger well of musicians out here, which is awesome. Especially for this band, because when we were in Kansas we were doing our thing for quite some time and using different musicians for every show, because we were just borrowing from other bands.
"This band has always been about experimenting with a lot of stuff, and I think that would be a lot of fun to experiment with. Who knows? It might never happen," laughs Desmond.