Wild Reeds' world on the road, in LR

Mackenzie Howe of the Wild Reeds is about to head out on tour, but first there is shopping that needs to be done.

"I'm at this thrift store by my house getting a new desk chair," she said late last month from her native Los Angeles. "It's a gold velvet chair."

She won't be getting much use out of her new chair for the next few months, however, as she and bandmates Kinsey Lee, Sharon Silva, Nick Jones and Nick Phakpiseth hit the road for a stretch that runs through the end of May to support their latest album, The World We Built, due out on Dualtone on April 7.

The band will stop Wednesday at Stickyz Rock 'n' Roll Chicken Shack in Little Rock.

The new record, which follows 2014's Blind and Brave, highlights the clear, effortless harmonies of Howe, Lee and Silva along with their penchant for country-tinged, fuzzed-out folk rock.

"This is our first album with help from a label," Howe says, "so it kind of feels like our first real record. For the first time we have a team. We have a publicist and we have a great manager. It feels like our first album that will reach a little bit further."

The band had been around for a while before Howe, who had known Lee and Silva in college, joined around 2012. Not long after her arrival came a new rhythm section in the form of Jones (drums) and Phakpiseth (bass).

Recorded over a month in Bridgeport, Conn., The World We Built was produced by Peter Katis, who has worked with The National, Interpol and others.

"We lived there in this beautiful old house, and we would just wake up and grind for four weeks straight until we'd go to sleep," says Howe, who, besides singing, plays electric guitar and keyboards.

The three vocalists, who mostly write their own songs with occasional collaborative overlap, showed up with a batch of tunes that were whittled down to the 11 that make up The World We Built.

"It was a good experience for all of us," she says.

Howe, 27, grew up playing piano, violin and saxophone before settling on the guitar in high school.

When she was around 8 or 9, she got a CD of Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Schmilsson from her mother, which started her love affair with classic FM radio rock.

"I learned every word of that record," she remembers. "I think that sort of diverted me from the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC route that most girls my age were going through. Even to this day, Harry Nilsson, Jackson Browne, those records were played in my house a lot and they're still my favorite records."

While Howe, who had been home for a few months, felt ready to get back on the road, she says that was not always the case.

"There's a routine to touring that I used to resent," she says. "My time is no longer my own, you know? We drive all day and we're with each other all day and all night."

To her surprise, though, she has come to appreciate life on the road.

"We no longer work day jobs, so you really have to make your own routine and schedule," she says. "So I look forward to tour because our day is mapped out for us. I know what's going to happen -- when we're going to load in and when we're going to sound check. I know what my job is and I like having that structure."

Style on 03/07/2017