Angela Lese of Nashville-based rock duo Lips Speak Louder has dreamt of playing the drums since seeing Taylor Hawkins performing in Alanis Morissette’s band in the ‘90s. She went to college, moved to Nashville in 2012, and started taking it seriously. Meanwhile, Rachel Brandsness started playing guitar as she was approaching her teens. After seeing Heart in concert, she was all in.
“We both had mutual friends during our time in Nashville and heard of each other’s old bands, but we didn’t meet until 2021 when our then bands shared a bill together,” Lese says. “Once we played together, we knew we wanted to keep playing music together. So, in late 2022, Rach and I floated the idea of creating a rock duo together, and we started writing for Lips Speak Louder in 2023.”
The pair say that their biggest influences are ‘90s grunge and 2000s indie bands, including the likes of Garbage, Jimmy Eat World, Hole, Pixies, Queens of the Stone Age, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. All of which can be heard on the debut Consolation Prize album, which dropped in April.
“We recorded it in Angie’s hometown of Ft. Wayne at Sweetwater Studios, and had renown guitarist/artist Emily Wolfe produce our record,” says Brandsness. “She produced her own most-recent album The Blowback and we loved the production on that, so we asked her if she wanted to produce our debut. We wanted to make a statement with our debut, with a raw, edgy energy that is hard to match, especially from just two people. Emily was really great at bringing that sound to life while also protecting the original integrity of the songs. The result is this bold, massive sound rooted in really relatable subject matter.”
The duo believes that DIY should actually be DEY (do everything yourself). “From writing the songs to creating the artwork to designing merch to booking our own shows to buying vinyl to creating content, we do it all,” says Lese. “Rach and I complement each other’s talents almost too well, and we’re able to work the band like a business pretty seamlessly.”
With the debut album released, Lips Speak Louder plan on playing out as much as possible, while expanding their fanbase. “We love being on the road touring, so ideally we can land some big tours with some of our favorite artists,” they say. “That’s always the goal with music, right? Go play music with your favorite people and help everyone forget about the stresses in life for one night.”
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