The Lone Bellow returns to recording after 2025 theft
Brian Elmquist, of the Lone Bellow, has come to appreciate conflict as an essential element of the creative process. It’s an ingredient he and bandmates Zach Williams and Kanene Pipken have tapped into dating back to 2011, when the trio first got together in a Brooklyn diner. The group continued tapping into it through the release of What a Time to Be Alive, their sixth studio effort.
The Lone Bellow has a loyal local following from their appearance at the BloodRoot Ramble in 2026. They return on Sept. 26 for a special appearance at the Little Saint. Tickets are already sold out.
As the Lone Bellow wrapped up their tour for their previous album, Love Songs for Losers, they wanted to see if the positive vibes of playing together and gelling onstage would carry over into the studio. Elmquist suggested decamping to Henderson, Kentucky, where their friend Peter Barbee had converted an abandoned firehouse into a recording studio. The DIY setup proved to be a fertile ground of inspiration for the batch of songs that became What a Time to Be Alive.
“When you’re doing music a lot, you get to a place where we’d just jam out with these people and hit ‘Record’ whenever we had something we thought was good …” Elmquist said. “We would get going, get a little coffee and then just jam-out into the night, late. Then we’d go to bed, do it again. Whenever we got something we liked, we’d put it on a grid and save it. At the end of the week we listened to it and I said, ‘Guys, I think we have a record,’ because we had great hooks and stuff like that.”
The journey from good vibes to a final album took an unexpected detour, however, which brought the concept of “conflict” a little too close. The week-long improvised band camp in Henderson was followed by another week down in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
The recording process proved to be fruitful, but another kind of conflict awaited: The band’s touring van full of gear, computers and hard drives containing the new recorded material was stolen during a tour stop in Chicago.
It was a devastating blow, not least because of the lost recordings which had to be replaced with studio time. At a friend’s suggestion, the Lone Bellow set up a Go Fund Me to help raise funds to replace the stolen equipment. The fan support was overwhelming, allowing the band to not only complete the current album, but deepening the group’s desire to solidify its relationship with its loyal fanbase.
“That was a bummer, but also a learning moment,” Elmquist said. “I don’t think asking for help is a bad thing, but it’s a hard place to put yourself in. We just asked for $15,000, or maybe less than that, when we started doing soundcheck. By the time we were done, it was more like $25,000. It was overwhelming. It literally helped us finish the record.
“We needed to start letting fans know what was going on,” Elmquist continued. “Not to try to get money out of them. I think the fans want to support us. It’s like a family with some of these people I see when we come around. We knew the parts, so we found the mojo again to finish everything.”
Elmquist’s own musical story began when he was a kid growing up poor in Georgia. His formative memories include playing guitar at his family’s small country church while watching his grandmother sing harmony from the second pew, and cutting his teeth at state fairs headlined by Clay Walker and Jo Dee Messina. But he was inspired to pick up a guitar when he was around 13, after seeing Slash in the Gun N’ Roses video for “November Rain.”
“For us, there really are no rules. It’s just about what it feels like, and I think that’s a really great place to be for an artist,” Elmquist said. “I think we’ll keep making music as long as we’re inspired by what’s going on around us and the music we’re making together. It’s a good time.”
Hear the Lone Bellow on Friday, Sept. 25, at Little Saint, 25 North St. Links and information at littlesainthealdsburg.com/liveatlittlesaint.
