There’s a moment on Rituals, Watchhouse’s new full-length record, when the Chapel Hill band slips out of its comfortable modern folk lane and into a darker gear. An instrumental breakdown closes “Endless Highway (Pt.1)” and segues seamlessly into “Sway/Endless Highway (Pt. 2).”
Emily Frantz’s mournful fiddle and gentle harmonies lock in with bandmate Andrew Marlin’s warm tenor guitar and trademark high-pitched voice: “So go find your kinship in all kinds / Be free in how you move / When the earth calls back she’s absolute / Her loving arms wait for you.”
It’s vintage Watchhouse: serene instrumentation and intimate songwriting combining into a rootsy, modern take on bluegrass and Americana. But the married duo, who adopted the Watchhouse moniker in 2021 after operating as Mandolin Orange for the previous decade, say that the surface-level warmth of Rituals belies the album’s spirit of experimentation and boundary-pushing creativity.
“Recording this album, it really felt like the only way to finish was to push through,” Frantz tells the INDY during a recent afternoon Zoom call. “We’re glad the sound comes across as warm and cozy, even if the process didn’t feel that way to us.”
“I wanted to reach for a new sound with this record,” Marlin adds. “But I couldn’t describe it very well to Emily and the guys in the band, so I struggled some early on.”
Marlin cites jazz icons like John Coltrane and Gil Evans—particularly the latter’s 1964 deep cut The Individualism of Gil Evans—as inspirations for embedding rhythm and drive into Watchhouse’s new material. He also credits Rituals producer Ryan Gustafson for urging him to strive for that goal. “When the sessions were challenging, Ryan was like, ‘If you can hear it in your head, let’s figure out how to get there.'”
While the instrumentation on Rituals expands outward into electronic territory, the lyrics remain focused on interior feeling. Lines like “I can’t help running from all of the things we share / I feel you reaching out, it’s nice to know you care” from “Firelight”—a rare lead vocal from Frantz—strike a rare balance between intensely personal and purposefully universal.
“In the Sun” is grounded in the refrain “I’m dreaming of a life with you in the sun / And I hope our time together has only just begun,” while “Glistening” is downright tactile: “I love it when we talk like this / Red velvet in our eyes / It’s the only time we seem to understand.”
Frantz says that these intimate lyrics aren’t always easy to release into the world, especially for a couple whose personal and professional lives have always been so intertwined.
“Andrew writes such personal, specific songs that sometimes it makes us feel vulnerable to put ourselves out in the world,” she admits. “But it’s always nice when an album comes out so other people have the chance to find themselves in the lyrics.”
One experience that probably resonates with nearly everyone is highlighted on “Rituals”: “I wish I remembered all my neighbors’ names / Someday I’ll knock on every door / Instead I sit here wondering at the passersby / And why no one drops in anymore unannounced.” Mulling on this loss of a golden communitarian age, Marlin drops the aching kicker: “It’s why I sing lonesome songs.”
“When I was a kid, our families just wandered down the road to our neighbors’ all the time,” Marlin says. “You just checked to see whether their car was in the driveway and showed up. That doesn’t happen as much anymore.”
Snippets of darkness seep in around other edges of Rituals. Shadows “find a way to make a fist” on the title track, while on “False Harbor,” “the calls of a friend make waves in the blood.” Meanwhile, the grief that punctuated Mandolin Orange’s final album, 2019’s Tides of a Teardrop, is subtly referenced on “Glistening”: “Across these icy plains of what it means to lose / Is the world on fire or at home in the sun?”
Yet Watchhouse carries on. Nearly 15 years into their career, the Chapel Hill duo still slip-slide seamlessly between sing-along lightness (“All Around You”) and bluegrass jams (“Patterns”). Confidence and self-assurance abound, especially with Frantz and Marlin’s embrace of eclectic instrumentation. Marlin cites the challenge of playing electric tenor guitar on nine of Rituals’ 11 songs, wrestling with the instrument’s drop octave tuning to reach new heights of sonic excellence.
Meanwhile, Frantz raves about the life-changing purchase of a vintage instrument, the year before sessions started.
“Playing that beautiful old fiddle changed my approach,” she says. “It just felt different during recording, and when I listened back to the fiddle and violin parts, they sounded really good. That made me feel more confident.”
Beyond that, bouzouki, harmonium, mellotron, pump organ, and mandola pepper the album’s liner notes. Frantz and Marlin both sing the praises of contributions from band members Josh Oliver, Clint Mullican, Jamie Dick, Nat Smith, Matt Smith, and Gustafson. Rounding out the local lineup is Alli Rogers, who engineered Rituals at Sylvan Esso’s local studio, Betty’s; D. James Goodwin mixed and mastered it back in Marlin’s home state of Virginia.
The album’s heartfelt examination of family, identity, and growth might be best personified on the cover, however. A paper cut design by Durham artist Zoe Van Buren features coffee pots, mixing bowls, and linens drying on a clothesline—the perfect frame for the album’s reflection of domestic life and artistic evolution.
“It’s always hard to visually represent a collection of songs,” Frantz says. “But Zoe’s design has very specific details that are really important to us.”
In her day job, Van Buren serves as North Carolina’s state folklorist, and her work documenting fiber arts and knitting resonated with Frantz and Marlin’s growing interest in the rituals that bridge their family life at home with two children and their sold-out run of summer tour dates ahead.
“Rituals for us look different at home and on the road,” Marlin says. “At home, we’re a little more grounded with a set schedule. On the road, we’re a little more excited, a little more on the go, and a little more anxious. It can be hard to find those quiet moments when you’re racing to get on stage.”
One of the most exciting moments ahead comes on July 11th, when Watchhouse supports fellow Tar Heels The Avett Brothers at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. (Though no Triangle shows are currently on their itinerary, Frantz and Marlin promise a big 2025 announcement soon.)
“When Mandolin Orange was just starting out, we saw The Avett Brothers as an inspiration for what we could accomplish,” Frantz says. “They were making their own records, booking their own tours, and signing with a major label but staying true to themselves. It’s been an honor getting to know them.”
Marlin adds, “For me, I remember a friend in like 2007 raving about The Avett Brothers. I was still into Pearl Jam and Nirvana and those kinds of bands. I hadn’t grown up with the tradition of Americana and bluegrass, or even grown up with those instruments. So when I heard them play, I was like, ‘Oh, you can make traditional music sound like THAT.’”
Now, Watchhouse is one of those bands on par with the Avetts—revered by fans, admired by fellow artists, and leading the charge for thoughtful and successful North Carolina artistry. When asked whether Rituals provided the opportunity to overcome the dreaded sophomore slump that faces a band’s second album, Frantz and Marlin both laugh.
“Honestly, we think of it as our eighth album,” Frantz says, pointing back to the discography that includes Mandolin Orange’s work. “But now that Rituals is out in the world and people can react to it, it does feel like our identity as Watchhouse is fully coming through.”
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