Desolation Wilderness are a three-piece from Olympia, Washington who make dreamy ambient Americana, drenched in a ton of echo and reverb. Their new record, White Light Strobing, is perfect for the long summer nights that are hopefully ahead of us. I caught up with singer Nicolaas Zwart for a quick interview.

Vice: How did Desolation Wilderness come about?
Nicolaas Zwart: I interned at K Records and that was where the current incarnation of the band started. DW was actually a solo project of mine that started about three or four years ago, and it was really electronic and synthetic sort of ambient music, with a lot of samples. But then I started working at the K studio, and so the band became a lot less electronic and more of a live thing, with members other than myself, because I had the keys to the studio and was able to go in there whenever there wasn’t another project going on, and work on my own stuff.

That’s pretty sweet, there must be lots of great equipment in the studio as well?

Yeah, at Dub Narcotic there are a number of tape machines, old preamps/microphones. Also, lots of echo and reverb units. Pretty great place to have the keys to if you’re into it.

Though they have an ambient feel you can still hear that classic Americana sound in your music. By that I mean Neil Young and The Band, and even newer acts like Real Estate. Is that a conscious influence, is it something you listen to?

That stuff has always been in my life, either through growing up around it via my parents and radio or rediscovering it as something awesome and worthwhile later on. To be honest, I think I’m more consciously influenced by glam rock, like the Sweet, T. Rex, David Bowie, but somehow that sort of stuff doesn’t really make it into the sound of the band as much as the kind of constant background hum of old radio Americana.

So how did the other guys get involved with the band?

Well, after working at Dub Narcotic and expanding the palette of sounds and possibilities in Desolation Wilderness I really wanted to assemble a live band. So I asked a number of my friends who were in other bands to join. It ended up being a situation where, while the line-up of DW is still fluid, whoever is in the band with me will contribute parts and ideas. Basically, the other guys in the band are just friends of mine who play a lot of music in Olympia.

What other bands do they play in?

Well, Andrew, the drummer, who played a lot of guitar and keyboards on New Universe, is in a band called LAKE, also on K. Ben Kapp, who played guitar on one song on the album and is now the other live guitarist is in a band called Cool Scool, and also in a band called Outdoor Voices, the singer of which, Gordon, is going to be playing bass for us on our US tour.

What are your top five records in relation to the music you make with this band?

Hmm, that’s a hard one. For the band itself, I don’t even know. A lot of influences on our music I think are subconcious, they’re there, but they’re not on my mind when we’re working on stuff. The top five records in my life though, would probably be.

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops series

Broadcast - Haha Sound

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

T.Rex - The Slider

And a tie between: Fugazi - The Argument

and Animal Collective - Sung Tongs

Would you say there’s a good scene in Olympia with regards to venues and opportunities to play?

Yeah, it’s interesting. There is a really good but smallish house show scene. There are some bars but a lot of people in Olympia are under 21. There is a new organisation though called the Olympia All-Ages Project which bought a gallery called the Northern and has been throwing some really good all-ages shows there. They’re pretty well organised. It’s great.

OK, so what current bands aside from those you mentioned earlier are you listening to at the moment?

Hmmm, I’m really into the new Grizzly Bear album, I’ve been digging Real Estate, Stephen Steinbrink is good, Girls are cool, HEALTH are good. I really love the new Tim Hecker album. Hmm, I’m sure there’s a few that I’m missing but those are at the top of the list.

You’re coming to the UK in October, have you been before? What are your impressions of the UK? Are there things that are you particularly looking forward to seeing?

You know, I haven’t been before. I’ve been to Australia a number of times but I’d imagine that almost everything about the two places is different except for lineage, or whatever. But I’m really excited about hanging out in London and seeing some bands there, doing some record shopping maybe. It would be nice to walk down some very hip avenues and scope all the well-dressed handsome people too. Though when I think about it I realise that I have no impressions of the UK other than what music and movies I’ve seen, so I’m excited to get some of my own opinions about the place. I wish we were going to Scotland too but I don’t think that’s going to pan out.

Desolation Wilderness, “Boardwalk Theme”

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Desolation Wilderness tour the UK in late October. For dates, check their MySpace. You can buy the White Light Strobing LP from the K Records site.