Misquoted: w/ LoveLikeFire

So, because I'm taking a really long time getting all of my reviews of the Monolith Music Festival up, I'm going to post a special little something that I was going to post after the last Monolith wrap-up blogs. That is clearly going to take my busy behind at least another week to finish up (in my defense, uploading pictures takes a long time, and when I took around 967 of them...), so here is a thing:

Misquoted: w/ LoveLikeFire

[I got to interview LoveLikeFire on the second day of the Monolith Music Festival. Because it was at the festival, there is a certain amount of noise going on around at one point, for about 2 seconds, I just can't tell what was being said. I suppose that's kind of the premise for "Misquoted" though, isn't it? I hope I stayed as true to their words as possible though. Anyway, here it is:]

Luke (that's me): I know being in a band it’s really hard to tell what kind of you’re making, like what genre that you fit in. So was there, like, a goal for a type of sound to make…?

Ann: Oh, like an intentional goal?

L: Yeah. Or, Were you guys just getting together and making some “rock” music?
Robert: I think we all just have our own tastes that we each sort of bring up to the table and it kind of averages out to what we are. It’s not really intentions. It’s definitely things that all of us like and dislike…

A: …And we kind of go through little mini phases of thing that we’re really into. But it kind of evens itself out. But, it still has to be us. It’s hard to really say, like, that we definitely have…

R:…I think we balance each other, in a way, too…

A: yeah

L: That’s awesome. That way you’re not stuck to one thing. You can do whatever you want.

Ted: It’s like each of us have our own, little areas of taste and wherever it overlaps is kind of our sound…

L: Yeah, like one day you’re feeling a little bit like “Explosions in the Sky” or…

A: Yeah actually, yeah exactly. That’s how it kind of works out. And I think our limitations kind of create our sound too. Like, what we’re able to do and how we interpret most of our favorite artists, or what we’re into at the moment … it kind of manifests itself in our music.

L: You can definitely tell in a couple of the songs some of certain influences, like “Arcade Fire” on that one song … “On a Tower?”

A: Oh yeah, “FROM a Tower”

…[there’s about 2 seconds where there’s too much surrounding noise to tell what was said here. Looks like I didn’t pick the best place to do the interview]
L: I’ve noticed that out of all your songs, certain aspects are super clean, and then the other half of the song, or, half of the band is really dirty and like “My Bloody Valentine” wall of noise. Was that intentional?

Dave: That’s somewhat the rhythm section. Bob and I, we’re both fans of the 90’s kind of noisey shoegaze, so we kind of bring a little bit of that to the table, but, hopefully, not too much

A: Haha, aaaaand, it also might have been the mix in room yesterday. If you thought it was really clean, then …

L: I dunno, I thought the vocals were like, super clean. And, even on the recordings, its so smooth. I mean, I don’t really know what it is.

A: Like it cuts right through?

L: Yeah, it’s just, I dunno… It’s just some of the smoothest vocals I’ve ever heard.

A: Oh … haha, well thank you.

L: Have you guys ever heard of Forget Cassettes?
R: No.

A: Actually, who was just … yeah, Pete was just telling us about that band.

L: They played here last year, and I’d heard their album a little bit before that, kind of like how I’d heard you guys, and it was almost the exact same experience. They were a little bit more shoegaze, but … yeah…

A: But it was a similar sort of vibe?

L: Yeah, definitely, definitely.

A: I’ll have to check them out. They’re from Seattle?

L: Yeah [I was wrong! Forget Cassettes is from Nashville! Sorry Anne :(]. I was listening to your WOXY set you did like a year and a half ago, there were only three members at that point, I think you’re the new one *mistakenly points to Ted who has been there basically since the beginning*

R: No, I’m the new one.

D: Jesse was our original bass player. He’s still a really good friend of ours … just, different directions …

L: artistic differences?

D: Not really artistic, we really wanted to just be out on tour and…

A: It’s a huge commitment

D: It’s a sacrifice.

L: I remember you said that this was, like, another full time job, but, like, every single day.
A: Oh, oh yeah. This, this is more than a full time job.

R: Now it’s like the only full time job.

All: (laughing)

L: That’s gotta be fun.

R: We’re very driven, we really work our asses off, so, it’s kind of a labor of love. We push ourselves hard.

L: Yeah, I can tell. Actually, my favorite song was “William,” do you guys want to talk about that a little bit?

A: Yeah it’s one of our favorite songs too

R: Yeah, that song really gives the whole spectrum of where this band is. The intimate stuff, the huge rock stuff, the atmospheric stuff, the quiet stuff, the loud stuff…

A: …It’s kind of dark… It’s got a little bit of everything that we all love

L: Yeah, that was definitely the highlight of the set for me.

R: It’s definitely a fun song to play, people really seem to like it. When we play it live it gets a good response.

A: Except for “From a Tower” none of it’s been released yet so we don’t really know … like … well no one’s heard anything, so we don’t really know, like…

L: Yeah …. Well when is it gonna come out?

R: The new stuff will be coming out probably sometime early next year. We just finished recording like two days before we started this tour. Some of it’s up on our myspace for a limited time too.

A: Very limited time haha.

L: Do you guys find that it’s hard to find an audience for shoegaze these days? I mean, I know you guys aren’t completely shoegaze,

T: We wouldn’t market ourselves that way at all, it’s just incidental.

A: Yeah, it’s funny, a lot of people kind of pick up on dreamy, sort of dream pop. They always seem to say that we’re sort of dreamy, shoegazey, and I think … I don’t really know

R: It doesn’t seem very dreamy to us.

D: I sort of feel like, and this wasn’t necessarily intentional, but I feel like I hear more of a Coney-theme lately. I don’t think any of us intended that, but, it’s got this sort of western thing that’s happening.

T: I kind of got into that for a while, and it kind of stuck.

L: Haha, it was you!

All: (laughing)

T: I mean, like, with the “From a Tower” thing, it was kind of the start of it…

A: …yeah, with the voice pad…

T: We kind of got into that for a moment, and we kind of liked it and stuck with it. It’s kind of coming through on some of the new stuff.

A: Yeah. I feel like if we could describe our sound, there is, kind of, a lush guitar element plus a little bit of a western kind of … Well I like Lee Hazlewood, I think Ted really likes Lee Hazlewood, so we have a little bit of that tendency, very Coney, Lee Hazlewood …

D: … very dramatic…

A: … Oh yeah, very dramatic … you know, that kind of element.

R: Yeah, very powerful. I’ll come in with a rhythm one day with something with a dramatic kind of feel to the harmonies.

L: Well, all right, I usually try to keep these things pretty short, so thank you guys so much.

[After going over each other’s names again, we all separated. Dave did happen to mention that they’ll be back through Denver again some point soon, so make sure to check them out when they come back. Funny side note, I did see Ted around the festival like 4 other times, and I actually was a little afraid he thought I was following him. Festivals can make people like me seem like real creepers. Anyway, I was really thankful to get to do this interview, and I hope to see these guys again when they come through.]