Ley Line joins KGNU’s Doug Gertner in the studio for a special live session, sharing insights into their musical journey, including their deep connection to Brazil and the evolution of their sound, and discussing some of their latest music, as well as plans for some new music and recent performances. (Interview date: 1/30/2025)
Ginger Perry: And we are looking forward to having Ley Line in here, Doug Gertner, one of my fellow DJs, I’m very fond of. He’s here bringing this group of four women vocalists live into the studio. It’s Ginger here with you, the Morning Sound Alternative. We’re gonna have them play for quite a few minutes and then I’ll be back playing my own music. We got it. We are ready to hear from the Kabaret room. Doug Gertner and Ley Line. Take it away.
Doug Gertner: Thank you, Ginger. In August of 2018, our KGNU music director Indra Raj invited me to host a session in the studio with a band called Ley Line that was based in Austin and was touring Colorado, including an appearance at the Arise Music Festival. And as I dug into their music to prepare for that session, I was immediately drawn in by their world folk vibe and tight sister harmonies, and hearing the band play live that day in the studio, I just became an instant fan, following their recordings and seeing them play live along the way. It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity, and I’m just so delighted to welcome Ley Line back to the KGNU Kabaret Studio today. How about you kick us off with a tune, and then we’ll get caught up on the latest with Leyline.
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): Thanks, Doug. It’s so beautiful to be here.
[Ley Line plays The Well]
Doug Gertner: Ley Line with The Well. Live in KGNU’s Kabaret studios. Ley Line, welcome back to KGNU. Emilie, Kate, Lydia, Madeleine, it’s great to see you again. When we first met you were all based in Austin and I don’t know if you recall this, I actually made it to a show there once when I was in town. What’s that room called on the UT campus? Cactus Cafe! Classic place. That was a beautiful memory, but I’ve tried to follow you since then. And it seems like Brazil, Barcelona, New York City, Maddie’s here in Boulder now. I’ve spun some of your solo music Lyd and Maddie. And I think chocolate figures into what you’ve been up to. So if you don’t mind, could I ask you to remind us who’s here, what you’re playing and then where have you been since we saw you last?
Ley Line (Kate Robberson): I guess I’ll start. This is Kate and right now, today I’m just singing, which feels really good. And doing a little auxiliary percussion. And I’ve been in Austin. I’ve also been traveling. Yeah, chocolate was there for a little bit and we’re transitioning away from that. It’s been such a beautiful exploration to deepen into the relationship to Brazil. So Emily and I got our start as a duo in Brazil many years ago. And then our last album, We Saw Blue, was inspired by a journey that we all took there together. And I got very involved with a beautiful cacao farm in the Northeast of Brazil in Bahia. And so that was a beautiful project. And now we’re transitioning into kind of more duo stuff with me and Emily, which feels really exciting. And then some other offerings. We’ve been just focusing on what it means to be in the body, as singers, just having such a vibrational relationship to your experience. It’s been interesting to explore how that’s coming up in different ways. So cacao was a beautiful way of doing that. And now it’s more of an offering like breathwork and meditation and sound and more concerts.
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): I’m Emilie and I’m playing some guitar and singing with some of my favorite people on the planet. It’s really such a gift to be back together here and tucked away in the sacred valley where Maddie’s living, up near Gold Hill. And just to be back in Colorado, it feels like a second home. It’s a place we came to a lot to escape the heat of Texas in the summer. I’ve been in a Brazilian cacao world with Kate and working on music as her mana. And we had an incredible opportunity to go on a tour in Europe back in 2023. And yeah, it spurred some stripping back and exploring some new elements and in the electronic world with Ableton and being able to incorporate some of our folklore beats, rhythms and our own poetry, similar evolution, involving different languages, mostly Spanish and Portuguese and yeah, at the same time consistently tending to this project of Ley Line and the spiritual connection with each other and the trust of coming back together and yeah, just picking up right where we left off. So it’s been a really beautiful time nurturing this together again.
Ley Line (Lydia Froncek): Hi, I’m Lydia. I play percussion. You’re going to hear some talking drum from Senegal a little later. I moved to New York City from Austin about a year and a half ago. And I’ve been releasing solo music under my project Lydmarie, and Doug has played some of the music on KGNU, which is awesome. I’m doing a lot in New York. It’s really fun, it’s really busy. I have a collective for women and non binary producers and artists called Tone Shift Collective, and we put on monthly listening parties and are navigating how to make a more equitable music industry in this changing world. I work for a spiked coconut water company called Sunboy. That’s actually in Colorado, which is cool. It’s just not in Boulder yet, but we’re gonna get it here. Yeah, and I’m really just happy to be back with my girls playing music and hoping everyone makes it to New York soon, and happy to be back with my twin sister in Boulder.
Ley Line (Madeleine Froncek): Hey, I’m Maddie, and yeah, at the same time that Lydia was leaving Austin, I think as twins, we both felt this pull towards something else. And it’s been cool to see the parallels in the path that we’ve had, but in, going quite different directions. But I moved to Barcelona with my partner at about that same time. And while I was out there, I finished a solo album. I was in the studio with Doug about two months ago, like the week that I was moving to Boulder. I’ve been settling into my new home up in this beautiful community called Salina and just had this vision as soon as I moved out there and found out about this sweet intimate venue of having these guys come out and you know connecting again playing some new music and then being able to do an offering up at the Salina Schoolhouse and that’s this weekend.
Doug Gertner: Great. There’s a lot to unpack here, including spiked coconut water. I can’t wait for it to hit Denver. I’m on it. I’m looking. I’m after that. Yeah, I wanted to before we turn to the Salina Schoolhouse gig on Sunday and it’s selling fast so, you can find out more at leylinesound.com and if there’s tickets left grab them now. We’ll preview that in a moment. I was just noticing that maybe your last gig together in Austin June of 2023 was at a venue there called the Pershing. And just recently you dropped an album. Live from the Pershing or at least an EP talk about that. How it came together and maybe how folks can get a hold of those tracks.
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): Yeah, of course. It was a beautiful time. We actually headlined Kerrville Folk Festival, which was really sweet. So we went out on these independent journeys with a lot of love and a lot of beautiful opportunities to play the Pershing. Being an Austinite and still being based there is one of my favorite clubs, maybe aside from Antone’s, for just the way they take care of musicians. They’re a private club, but they open up this beautiful hall that they’ve poured a lot of resources into to be able to record live sets and also video them and we’re fed and it’s just an incredible place to share music. And so we released four songs, went through what was recorded and felt into what was an exciting release. So there’s four tracks there. And Agua do Mar is actually a song we’ve never released before. So that’s the unique one. That’s an interpretation of a song, a folk song from Brazil, from Bahia that was made famous by Maria Bethania, which is, just someone that I admire so deeply and just has really changed the world and Brazil through her voice and through her reverence to music as just the guiding spirit of life and the way that music can also incorporate all of these elements that help us along the way through the ups and downs.
Doug Gertner: Folks want to get a hold of Ley Line Live at the Pershing. How do they do that?
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): Oh yeah, we’re on all the platforms. And you can also Bandcamp.
Ley Line (Lydia Froncek): Let me make a note about that. The best way to support artists when you like to listen to their music and really support it is to get it on Bandcamp. Specifically Bandcamp Friday once a month. Because you can pay what you want and all the money goes to the artist. And streaming services really take a huge cut. That’s the best way.
Doug Gertner: Understood, yeah. Yeah, I think I got a hold of a track The Well, which you just opened with. And gave it a spin last time I was on the air. It’s so exciting to see you back together and I can tell that, the joy of coming together for you guys is just in the air. It’s been a while. Talk about what brings you together for this show on Saturday.
Ley Line (Madeleine Froncek): We’ve been longing to take the time to specifically just spend time together and see what flows from that, which adding a show into it was something that we definitely put a lot of thought into that because we didn’t want that to be the specific intention, but it is also so special to offer the music and I think all of us. I know that I feel like getting to share it with people is just as important as sharing it amongst ourselves. That’s why we all do it.
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): We also love a good deadline.
Ley Line (Lydia Froncek): We really wanted to offer, we wanted to come together and write new material. And be releasing new music in the springtime because we’ll be back in Austin on April 5th to play at the Paramount Theater. So we’re going to put a new song out, but we’re like, how many new songs can we write and potentially record? Or at least just get the seeds going and it’s really important for us to connect to the place where we are. So, really honoring Maddie’s move to Boulder and this valley that she’s living in. And then we started writing a song about. The valley and what it’s been through, like fires, floods, and still persevering, which I think is also a universal story that we’re all experiencing.
Doug Gertner: So a good deadline coming up for Ley Line. Ley Line is in the Kabaret studio in Boulder right now on KGNU. How about a couple more tunes before we T people up for the shows this weekend?
Ley Line (Madeleine Froncek): This is an interpretation of a folk song from Brazil called Pirulito. That’s not true.
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): Just kidding. This is an original that is actually a fusion with a really beautiful singer that we spent an afternoon with that shared this song that’s been carried along the ocean. Transition of humans and migrations and really is a symbol for us to the fresh waters of the world and also the resilience of humanity and that message can be carried through the song.
[Ley Line plays Oxum ]
Ley Line (Lydia Froncek): This is a folk song from Brazil that we’ve adapted with Texas Blues.
[Ley Line plays Pirulito]
Doug Gertner: Ley Line live at KGNU. Pirulito from 2016 album Field Notes. Do I recall that correctly? Yes! I remember the first time you played it and I learned the word “saudades” from it and so I’ve been trying to carry that spirit ever since. Before we turn to the gig talk, the song before that, Oxum, I’ve heard you play before and Lydia, it seems like your talking drum game has raised a little bit, and I think it has something to do with travels to Senegal.
Ley Line (Lydia Froncek): Yeah, I’ve been back and forth to Senegal six times since 2013, but also being in New York has been really cool. I got to meet like a mentor of mine, Masamba Diop. He’s one of the best talking drum players in the world, plays with Baba Mal, wrote and performed all of the music for Black Panther, all the drumming. And he tours around. So I got to see him play at Lincoln Center and meet him for the first time. And that has, that was really special.
Doug Gertner: This band is very special. The instrumentation, the vocals, the selections. And folks will, if you’re lucky, have a chance to see them in this area. Ley Lines plays Salina Schoolhouse, up toward Gold Hill Sunday, 7 o’clock show, and I understand you just released a few more tickets, it’s essentially sold out, but you had the liberty. Do tell.
Ley Line (Kate Robberson): Yeah, so we woke up this morning with news that the show was sold out, which is amazing. So we can’t wait to see those of you who bought tickets. We’re so excited. And we’ve opened up a few more spaces so you can check out the event page on Eventbrite and then follow our Instagram. It’s in our link tree. And then we’re flirting with the idea of doing something on Saturday. We love Boulder. We love our community here and we want to play for you guys. So if you’re interested, send us a message, but stay tuned. I think we’ll be opening up another show.
Doug Gertner: Yeah, the interest is there and I’m excited to see you and I hope others will get the chance. So again it’s an Eventbrite event. You can also get information at leylinesound.com. And keep an eye out for that both Ley Line and Salina Schoolhouse have an Instagram presence, so follow them and hopefully we’ll see you there Saturday and Sunday. This is what to expect when we see you live and we’re just excited to hear you. Thanks for coming in to KGNU today. I want to thank George, sounding so great. The engineer extraordinaire. Thank you so much. Thanks to Indra Raj, our music director for teeing this up and to DJ Ginger Perry for giving some time on her morning sound alternative for Ley Line to come on in here. What will we hear as a final tune today?
Ley Line (Kate Robberson): We’re going to hear the title track of our most recent album, not our EP, the Live at the Pershing, which you can find on the streaming platforms. But this is We Saw Blue.
Doug Gertner: Ley Line at KGNU.
Ley Line (Emilie Basez): Thank you so much, Doug. So lovely to be back here with you.
[Ley Line plays We Saw Blue]
