Splash is founded by Andrew S. Lentz. There’s a mystical air to his lyrics and a smoothing sound to the music. There’s great promise in the upcoming videos too. Check out Splash at the release for the new single (Under the Rose) on February 2 at the Phoenix Theater.
Please tell us about Splash. How did you come to playing music?
Music and performance have been a part of my life in one way or another for as long as I can remember. I grew up a dyed-in-the-wool theater kid, and had a run of professional film and theater roles in my teen years, including Les Miz at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater, and a small speaking part in the locally-filmed Coen Brothers’ movie, a serious man.
I began writing my own original music in 7th or 8th grade, and by the time I graduated high school, I was pursuing music pretty much exclusively. For about a decade I was playing and writing music for The Floating Perspectives, mostly on piano and ukulele, but during the 2020 lockdown, I found myself playing more and more guitar. These songs felt different from my previous work and didn’t really fit into the sound or style of my previous project. At first I wasn’t sure quite what to do with them, but eventually I had enough for an album, and started performing them under the moniker *Splash!*.
You’ve described Under the Rose as the thesis statement for an ode to the power of the subtle forces that shape our universe from places unseen. Nature comes up in the lyrics; how much influence does nature have those forces and your music?
Nature certainly plays a role, and is a wonderful repository of symbols and imagery, but this song is primarily about the even subtler forces at play behind the scenes of the observable world.
Much of my work in this project, and this song in particular is directly influenced by my studies and experience with mysticism and spiritual practice.
My journey has brought me to a lot of different traditions, and I consider myself to be rather syncretic, but at the moment my practice is most influenced by the Indian yogic tradition, Buddhist meditation, and western esotericism.
Tell us about the video for Under the Rose. I love the shadow puppets; it’s amazing how emotive they can be.
Yes, I am so thrilled with how it turned out! And for that, all the credit must go to Nat Allister, the director, and Becca Mellstrom, the artist who created all the puppets and scenery by hand.
Nat was already a friend of mine, and I went to see a preview of a show called Vanaheimr that he had created with his company The Fox and Beggar Theater. This show made heavy use of projection and shadow puppetry, and it occurred to me that a shadow play was a nice extension of the metaphor of this song.
I approached Nat about directing it, he brought Becca on board, and after a few brief conversations about ideas and direction, they did the rest!
From Greek poetry (To Mnemosyne) to absurdly real novelist (Kafka), literature plays highly in the music of your upcoming album. How intentional are the connections? Do you start off thinking of Kafka or have parallel thoughts and he comes to mind?
Ah, you’ve spotted the two songs on the album that I did not pen the lyrics for. To Mnemosyne is a translation of an Orphic Hymn that I was tasked to memorize at one point. To aid in that endeavor, I decided to set it to music, taking my cues from the 16th century lutenist and composer John Dowland.
Kafka on the Shore’s lyrics are from a novel by contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It’s both the title of the book, and a song within the story. When I got to the part where the lyrics were printed, I decided to take a run at arranging it and this is what happened, so I was actually inspired by Murakami and the Kafka references are his not mine. To be perfectly honest, I have yet to read any Kafka myself.
That said, I am an avid reader and a huge enjoyer of stories in all forms and mediums. I often find that fiction is able to get at certain truths about the world we live in better than non-fiction (Murakami’s work in particular is a great example of that), and I often find inspiration in the things I hear, read, or see.
Tell us about the release and upcoming show.
The release is happening at 6:30 on February 2nd at Phoenix Theater in uptown. Up to now, I’ve mostly been playing solo shows, or duo sets with Hayley of Lulu and the Shoe, who sings harmonies on the album. This show marks the first time playing live with the full crew from the album, including engineer and producer Matt Patrick on guitar, and Shannon Frid Rubin of Cloud Cult (one of my all-time favorite bands) who wrote violin arrangements for several tracks on the album.
We will be screening the video and playing the single live along with it. The evening will also feature performances from Paper Chain, a new project of virtuoso cellist Caitlin Benson (I also play piano and sing harmonies for this band), and Ben Cook-Feltz, a phenomenal local singer/songwriter.
Tickets and other details can be found at tinyurl.com/splashsingle
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