Indie band takes a bite out of the Big Apple

By Meredith Deliso

Though based in Bloomington, IN, Brooklyn isn’t so elusive to the Early Day Miners.

“All you hear about these days is Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn,” says Dan Burton, lead singer of the Midwestern band.

Not that they’re complaining. Having played in New York at places like Cake Shop in the past, the band always looks forward to making it to the East Coast and taking in “the things that everybody likes about the New York area – the international vibe, the fact that it’s not really America, the looming chaos that can ensue at any moment,” says Burton.

When they play here September 21 at Cake Shop’s sister venue, Bruar Falls, in Williamsburg, it will be nearly two years since the band has toured outside of their home base, having holed themselves up to work on their sixth full length album, “The Treatment.”

For nearly a decade, EDM have been putting out mostly instrumental, guitar-driven music. On September 22, when they put out their latest effort, out on their hometown label Secretly Canadian, listeners will hear the band driven by melody, rather than mood, for a poppier album.

“Everyone in the band would be on tour and would be listening to pop music, Miles Davis, old goth stuff, and whenever we would play at night, we were doing cinematic, Midwestern, rural music. It was such a disconnect,” says Burton of the new direction. “It was almost like we wanted to loosen up a little bit and lighten up. We wanted to make pop music in a sense, not disregarding our catalogue.”

Change is inevitable for a band that, since forming, has had a rotating cast of characters for recordings and shows — a “music collective,” to use those words. For the past three years, though, the band has been solidly comprised of Burton on vocals and guitars, Jonathan Richardson on bass, John Dawson on guitar, and Marty Sprowles on drums, who have focused on developing the sound.

“It’s a pretty sharp left turn for our band musically. We didn’t want to do that irresponsibly,” says Burton. “We spent a lot of time working on songwriting, instrumentation, a new approach to it. You have to change or die as a band, it doesn’t become fun anymore. I don’t know how the dead did it. They’re like the coolest band with one sound.”

With their new sound and focus, “it feels like I’m joining a band again for the first time,” says Burton. “It’s sort of a brave new world for us to jump into.”

And when they celebrate in New York, who knows what chaotic adventures they’d find themselves in.

“You get this vibe that unless you make a million dollars plus a year and live in Brooklyn, the day to day life isn’t like that,” says Burton. “You got to take advantage of it if you’re there.”

Early Day Miners play Bruar Falls (245 Grand St.) September 21 with Decibully. Concert time and cost TBA. For more information, call 347-529-6610.