When an indie band employs banjo, xylophone, harmonium and glockenspiel, one expects its recording process to be just as eccentric; DIY studios on abandoned burial grounds or creaky, ambient old houses come to mind. But for Freelance Whales, that supernatural power doesn’t come from a contrived location, but instead grows out of a gothic love story. Concept album Weathervane, the band’s debut release, explores a boy’s romantic fantasies about the ghostly woman who haunts his family home. Years of rehearsing in unusual places—city streets, subway platforms, and geriatric wards—have enabled Freelance Whales to transfer their vagabond minstrelsy to record, heightening the dreamy, atmospheric quality of Weathervane’s songs without relying on an exotic location.