The Juan MacLean‘s third album, In a Dream, due Sept. 16 on DFA, almost didn’t happen. A few months after frontman John MacLean‘s other band, pioneering electro-punk group LCD Soundsystem, broke up, he got a stern message from manager Ryan Long: ” ‘If you don’t put out a record this year, you’re not going to have a music career left,’ ” the 45-year-old recalls being told. “I got stressed out. I thought I was terrible.”
Vocalist Nancy Whang, his bandmate in both groups, fell into a similar creative crisis following LCD’s last shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2012. “‘Are you going to graduate school? Are you going to work at Starbucks?'” MacLean remembers asking her. “Bands like [LCD] become not a part of your life, they are your life. It threw a group of people’s lives into a bit of chaos.”
But MacLean sent his new instrumentals to Whang anyway, and they inspired her to start writing again. Recorded with Nick Milhauser of labelmate Holy Ghost — and copious amounts of sushi and pizza — In a Dream is more “challenging” than the group’s past work, says Whang, 37. The Juan MacLean formed shortly after LCD in 2002, when the former dropped the sinister “You Can’t Have It Both Ways.” Since then, the band has released a slew of dance bangers on 12-inch; two LPs, 2005’s Less Than Human and 2009’s The Future Will Come; and remixes for acts like Daft Punk and Franz Ferdinand, all while developing successful DJ careers on the side. But the new album moves away from that world, with a focus on song structure as opposed to house loops.
“I [worry] about how people used to the 12-inches are going to receive the record, or people who are only familiar with me or John being a DJ,” says Whang. “I think about how it will fit into the dance music sphere.”
After all, EDM has moved in the opposite, more bombastic direction — which became especially obvious during MacLean’s set at Los Angeles’ HARD Summer in August, where he DJ’d opposite acts like Tiesto. “It’s like being in some indie rock band playing onstage and Metallica is at the next stage over,” says MacLean.
MacLean is currently touring solo in Europe and will reteam with Whang for a U.S. tour in October. After that, the artists hope to rest easy, with their creative troubles behind them. “This record is weird,” says Whang, “but I am really proud of it.”