“I think all of the music that I’ve ever made is mostly cathartic,” says Mike Cadoo of Vague Lanes. “I almost need to make music for that means.”

In fact, he notes, most of the songs on Divergence and Declaration, with the exception of “Exo,” are “pretty grim.” 

“We’re not exactly making pop-punk music here,” bandmate Badger McInnes agrees. 

Both Cadoo and McInnes are longtime musicians based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cadoo has released music as Bitcrush and Dryft, as well as under his own name, and was half of the duo Gridlock. McInnes previously played with After the Apex and Here We Burn. The two left-handed bassists met years ago, but convened as a band more recently when Cadoo had some songs on the “gothy” side of the musical spectrum. That was almost four years ago. Since then, Vague Lanes has released two albums. Their sophomore effort, Divergence and Declaration, was released in March of this year and followed by a record release show at the venerable San Francisco venue DNA Lounge and an L.A. Industrial-presented show at The Goldfish in Highland Park. 

Vague Lane’s darkwave is in the vein genre classics, like The Cure, The Chameleons and 4AD’s 1980s roster of bands, but with a contemporary twist. You can hear a nod to Cadoo’s drum and bass interests on “Unraveling.”

“I tried that two-step thing and I giggled,” says Cadoo, who notes that his first album as Dryft was a drum and bass one. “I’m getting away with it.”

“And nobody’s called you out on it yet?” McInnes asks. 

“No, it’s a little bit slower. It’s not as obvious,” Cadoo responds. 

Meanwhile, “Eight Winters” references garage near the end of the song. “I like the recorded version of it. I think the recorded version is better than how we play it live,” says Cadoo. “That’s got the little garage click in it and it has a pretty lush feel.”

And, on “Weight of Days,” which McInnes cites as his own favorite song on Divergence and Declaration, the duo plays with the extremes in darkwave. “Weight of Days has a real severe dichotomy to it musically, with the first part of it being this waltzy 3/4 kind of Cocteau Twins-y feel to it that’s very soft and elegant and then there’s a break and at the end it crashes into something very harsh and loud,” says McInnes. “Performing it is a blast and from a songwriting standpoint, I think we pushed ourselves in a really cool direction with that song.”

Divergence and Declarations came about in an organic way, with Cadoo and McInnes jamming portions of the songs at home and together. “We have no hard fast way of working,” says Cadoo. 

“It’s really where the inspiration strikes us,” says McInnes. “It could be at home or in the studio. We both come up with a part while we’re noodling around in the studio and Mike or myself will point to the other and go, ooh, that’s really great. Let me get out the recorder. We’ll save that and then come back to it. Sometimes, we’ll start working on it then and there. Our writing method is kind of all over the place.”

“I think that’s what makes the album a little more varied,” says Cadoo. “I know it’s using the same sound palette, but the songs are all varied and I think that it’s because they’re all written in different ways.”

Take, for example, “By Dusk.” The song sounds like a convergence of Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration and The Cure’s Disintegration. It plays for more than two minutes before the vocals come in. After two-and-a-half minutes, the beat grows faster, the song more urgent, until the tempo drops and rises again. 

“We piecemealed the whole thing together,” says Cadoo. “I couldn’t copy and paste stuff because of the weird time signature of the synth and stuff. That was an extreme example of something that took shape over a long period of time.”

“By Dusk” is an intense song. “It’s a little tough to talk about, but I had a friend who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge and that’s pretty much what it’s about,” says Cadoo. 

The band doesn’t shy away from difficult subject matter. On their debut album, “A Dying Star” addresses Cadoo’s father’s death from dementia. “I can’t just make something up and I can’t just talk about vampires and roses and things that tend to be in the goth realm,” he says. “It’s catharsis.”

“And connection, I would say,” McInnes adds. “That’s one thing that I really love about Mike’s lyrics is that they’re not so obtuse that you can’t form your own personal perspectives through them.”

Divergence and Declaration by Vague Lanes is out now. For those in and around San Francisco, the duo plays The Knockout on June 1.

Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram  or Bluesky for more updates.

Keep Reading:

Friend of a Friend Didn’t Intend to Record in a Haunted House, But That’s What Happened

Acidtrain Asks “What’s This Obsession with Cultivating Wealth?” in New Song

Flashback to 1980s L.A. with Grey Factor on Live Album, A Peak in the Signal