By Jed
We return with Part 2 of my interview with the Lonely Wild. Radio Free Silver Lake presents the Lonely Wild's record release show this Thursday, February 24 at the Bootleg Theatre. I strongly recommend checking out the show.
Local Band, Global Market
"I've gotten three phone calls already from my aunts and grandmothers saying 'How do I get the music off of my computer?'"
RFSL: How did you end up getting reviewed in Israel?
Carroll: No idea! We debuted the record, and it showed up on bandcamp's top charts and I think he saw us on there.
Schneider: We had some random stuff. We sold a vinyl record to a guy in Australia. I don't want to know how much this thing will cost to ship it.
Carroll: We'll figure it out. Buy a plane ticket.
RFSL: Were you able to translate the Hebrew?
Carroll: Well, he spoke English in the email, and it was kind of funny because I went down and looked at his website and a lot of his stuff was American folk music. I checked it out and he had a big section on the Dust Bowl, and Woody Guthrie, he had Iron and Wine on there.
Ryan: He had some good taste, you know?
Carroll: If you use Google translator, you can kind of see what he was trying to say.
Carroll: Really?
Schneider: Yeah, he downloaded it.
Ryan: It's amazing with the internet these days.
Schneider: Chicago...It's amazing. I was talking to a friend about the other day, just the amazing power of the internet these days. You can literally hear anything anywhere in the world. It still blows my mind a little bit. I remember in junior high and high school where you had to get a CD from a friend of a friend, and it was passed around.
Ryan: Very exclusive.
Schnieder: Yeah, exclusive. But now, it definitely makes a lot more competition, there's a lot more to hear but...
Ryan: Just the idea of selling a record to someone in Sweden 20 years ago when you are just starting out like us.
RFSL: Do you remember the days of taping off the radio?
Schneider: Oh absolutely, I still have mixtapes.
Carroll: With call numbers at the beginnings of the songs?
Schneider: I just read Keith Richards' autobiography and he talks about how to get their early blues records, they had to write to Chess Records in Chicago and send money overseas, and they'd have to mail you a big box of records. It's amazing how technology allows you to share music.
Ryan: I kind of miss the old way though, don't you think?
Schneider: A little bit, yeah.
Ryan: It is amazing that you can go and download any album ever made on the internet but...
Schneider: I've gotten three phone calls already from my aunts and grandmothers saying "How do I get the music off of my computer?"
All: [Big laugh]
Carroll: You'd think they'd love the vinyl, cuz, you know, maybe they have gramophones?
Jennifer: My mom was like "on vinyl! Why on vinyl!? Why are you doing vinyl?"
Ryan: It's funny that more of my friends that are my age have record players than my parents or older relatives.
RFSL: Any future releases on 8-track?
Ryan: I'd like to do wax cylinders.
Schneider: Wax cylinders!?
Carroll: Maybe make some videos on VHS? We're going to do a laser disc actually.
Ryan: It's going to be great. Double sided.
Enthusiastic Audiences
"We had a guy standing in front of the stage the whole time, and after every song would just go 'Shit man! Goddamn!'"
RFSL: Going back to being a country band, or whatever that means, do you have a relationship with any of the country or country-ish acts in L.A.? Because there are actually a lot of bands that are sort of in this scene.
Carroll: I wish we did actually.
Schneider: We just struck up a friendship with a band called Coyote, and they're associated act's name is Son Ark. They're pretty country. We just played a show with them, and they were great. And they were like "let's start a little scene and start doing some shows together."
Carroll: That was the Airliner show. It's every first Thursday, and they had been doing it for a while. And we decided let's do it. And it was a lot of fun. Schneider mentioned that we received one of our best compliments ever.
Schneider: Yeah, we had a guy standing in front of the stage the whole time, and after every song would just go "Shit man! Goddamn!"
Carroll: He came up to us afterwards and he said "you guys just make me feel...aaaaaagghgggghghghgh!!!!"
All: [Laugh]
Ryan: He kept saying "Hot damn!"
Schneider: It was one of those shows where we walked in and we thought it was going to be a total disaster. There were not a lot of people in the bar, there's five of us. And you've seen our stage set-up. There's kind of a lot of gear for a country band..."alt" country band. And we show up, and it's this tiny little stage, and we're just kind of like...
Carroll: ...meant for a singer-songwriter...
Schneider: And we all just walked in and kind of hung our heads and were like "this is going to be a disaster". There's a tiny little PA, tiny little stage.
Ryan: No sound guy.
Schneider: But we started playing and we were like "this is a lot of fun."
Ryan: You appreciate the power of good energy in the crowd. If you can get the crowd into it, it doesn't matter where you play. You can play in a living room.
RFSL: Have you ever done that?
Carroll: We played at your brother's living room.
Ryan: That's right! Our first show was in San Francisco. That day we played in Dolores Park, and that morning we rehearsed in Edward's brother's bedroom. Where was it?
Edward: Sunset.
Ryan: So we were rehearsing in his living room there and we had people outside on the street level, suddenly start cheering "hey, you sound good!" and we were like "yeah! we've playing tonight, come see us!" We did a show up in Dolores Park. We did a show at Stony Point, which is like a rock outcropping up near Chatsworth, at sunrise, like at 5:30 in the morning.
RFSL: Was that just for kicks?
Jennifer: There were so many rock climbers out there watching!
RFSL: Is that on the web?
Ryan: Not yet. It will be included in the package though.
RFSL: So it's not just going to be on youtube.
Ryan: No.
RFSL: Any other videos like that?
Carroll: Just the Dolores Park one. That's on youtube. I think we're going to do another video in March, up in San Francisco. With the same guy, Logan Grimé.
RFSL: What song?
Carroll: We don't know yet. Whatever we feel like Saturday morning. We're playing Amnesia Bar up in San Francisco on Friday, March 4.
RFSL: Have you read about the guy on the internet who thinks you guys are going to fill the space left by Ryan Adams?
Carroll: That was the first guy...I sent out a bunch of emails...That was Tympanogram. We recorded some demos and I contacted some bloggers, and he was the first one to reply, and I was like "sweet." I thought he gave a pretty good write up. I don't normally listen to Ryan Adams but...hey!
Schneider: I've got a soft spot for Ryan Adams. One of my guilty pleasures.
Ryan: The only Ryan Adams I've ever heard was that one album where every song was a different genre.
Carroll: But I've got nothing against Ryan Adams. My sister really liked him, I remember. I heard that guy can drink like a bastard.
Jennifer: I saw him play once, and I was actually quite impressed. But he stopped mid-song and he was like "I'm sorry...I've just got to say 'you're so hot'" and he pointed to this girl. He stopped the show and was like "no, seriously." There were some major fans behind me and they were like "oh my god! Who! Ugh!" And they were so upset!
RFSL: Isn't he married to Mandy Moore?
All: Yeah.
Ryan: Who do you like better: Ryan Adams or Bryan Adams?
Pink Floyd vs. Depeche Mode
"That was the thing at the very first rehearsal we did, just the three of us jammed for like 15 minutes on 'Pigs'".
RFSL: I have a question like that. Martin Gore or Dave Gahan?
[Silence]
RFSL: Depeche Mode?
All: Oh....
RFSL: C'mon guys!
Carroll: Oh...I should know this...They're both in Depeche Mode?
All: [laughter]
Ryan: Dave Gahan. I didn't know the name of the other guy.
Schneider: So the Depeche Mode, is that a reference to the Personal Jesus? We were doing a cover, and I came in, I had heard it on the radio on the way to the studio, and it had a badass guitar -- buh, bada, bah, duh, duh -- and it fit the thing, and we just tried it, and we laid this phat groove, and it was just fucking great!
Carroll: And we decided that it would be a great segway into "Money" there too. We changed the key for both songs to make it fit, but it worked out.
RFSL: Are you Pink Floyd fans?
All: Yes!
Schneider: That was the thing at the very first rehearsal we did, just the three of us jammed for like 15 minutes on "Pigs".
Ryan: Schneider can play almost every David Gilmour song.
Schneider: I'm a guitar teacher by day. So I just sit and teach people who are like "I wanna learn this guitar riff today!" So I've got this really eclectic library of iconic guitar solos.
RFSL: Do you have a favorite Pink Floyd album or song?
Schneider: Oh man, if I had to listen to one for the rest of my life, it would probably be "Breathe." That, or maybe "Great Gig in the Sky".
Carroll: Everybody says "Dark Side."
Ryan: It's hard to beat that album, bro.
RFSL: What about The Wall?
Schneider: The Wall is also great. There's just so many. Gilmour's a huge influence for me personally. I was exposed to Pink Floyd as a freshman in high school. I played bass in the orchestra, and the orchestra director gave me The Wall and was like "check this out." And it changed my life. My orchestra teacher totally corrupted me.
Ryan: I totally caught my dad smoking pot and listening to Dark Side of the Moon when I was a kid.
Carroll: I knew my parents' Pink Floyd records when I was younger, but my first experience with Pink Floyd was when I was a busser at this restaurant in Sonoma and my buddy would pick me up after work, and we would just go out and do whatever. And one night, my friend picked me up, we got high in his car and he put on Dark Side, and the beginning of "Breathe" came on, and I was like "Hoooolllllly shit! That is amazing!"
RFSL: It's a great album.
Ryan: Yeah, it stands up really well.
RFSL: It was one of the first things I illegally downloaded when I was a freshman in college.
All: [Laugh]
In Which Andrew Carroll Discusses His Disillusionment With the City of Bell and Its Impact on the Lonely Wild's Lyrics
"Just reading, listening to the radio, it's unbelievable the stuff going on. Like, are you serious? Just what people can get away with and what they think is okay."
RFSL: How would you characterize the lyrical tone of the Lonely Wild's songs [ed. reformulation of very poorly worded question]?
Carroll: Well, what do you think?
RFSL: I haven't decided. I've only had the album for a few weeks. It usually takes me longer to decide what I think.
Carroll: A lot of it is just disillusionment, and then acceptance of things.
RFSL: Disillusionment in what?
Carroll: Just how awful people can be. Taking advantage of other people. How people just rationalize these things every day, and live their lives and are just okay with themselves. And then being terrible people. So I guess it is disillusionment in humanity, at a certain point. I wouldn't call it despair either. I'm not really an unhappy person. And for a long like "Dead End", for me, it is about the pursuit of meaning that all of us have, whether it's through religion, or whatever you want to call it, but at the end of the day you don't have any answers. And that's not a bad thing. So it's acceptance I guess.
RFSL: When you talk about disillusionment in people, I know that some of the songs are about larger political issues. I saw in the press release: the Bell scandal, the financial crisis shenanigans going on. Is it just about that larger scale badness, or just people being bad in the small scale of their personal lives.
Carroll: I guess that too. I hate to write overtly political things because it can come over so ham fisted and preachy, and that's not really the goal. Just to make you think about what's being said, instead of just being told what's being said. For "Poor Fools", I had a friend who thought it was about songwriting -- he took something totally different from it than what I intended. And I think that's something great about songwriting. Everybody pulls something different, based on their own experience.
RFSL: Did you have any personal experience with either the subject matter of "Poor Fools", or the Bell scandal that got you into this? Or was it just from reading the news?
Carroll: Just reading, listening to the radio, it's unbelievable the stuff going on. Like, are you serious? Just what people can get away with and what they think is okay.
Ryan: I think the Bell scandal is just one very small example. It happens all over the country. All the banks in the fucking country went bankrupt. Why did the government have to bail everybody out? It was just everybody being greedy. The Bell scandal is just the one that we know about.
Carroll: And they'll go ahead and crucify guys like Madoff, but this is happening on a much larger scale.
Ryan: How do you just go about your life and live with yourself, when you've done something like that?
RFSL: Do you have an answer for that?
Carroll: How people do that? No.
Ryan: Alcohol?
Schneider: If you think about it -- the Bell scandal -- a lot of those people aren't seeing the faces of the people -- the Bernie Madoff scandal -- you don't have to look those people in the eye. It's all down behind closed doors. They don't see the individual faces. If they were faced with those people, and actually had to talk to them, then it's different. There's all these internet scams, and there are all these things done over the telephone. You don't have to actually interact with anybody to rip them off.
Ryan: People don't care as much about people they've never met. Like a Nigerian prince...
Carroll: Like with "Dead End", and I hate to say what it is or isn't, because that's up to the listener, but it's not really rejoice or despair, it's really just acceptance, and where do we go from here?
RFSL: Are the new songs on the new album of a similar tone or a different tone?
Carroll: Oh it's both. Some are more personal. People in my life, or myself. Some are broader. We'll have to see how the rest of it shapes up. We've only got 6 songs in the can so far.
RFSL: On the press release, you talk about the influence of Woody Guthrie and Peter LaFarge. I think most people know about Woody Guthrie, but what can you tell me about Peter LaFarge.
Carroll: I was introduced to Peter LaFarge through the Johnny Cash record Bitter Tears. He wrote a lot of the songs, and he was really big in the Native American movement. In the 60's, a lot of the folk singers, like Bob Dylan, were writing about social issues, but he was kind of filling it in a different niche that wasn't getting a lot of press.
RFSL: How so?
Carroll: Just how marginalized Native Americans had become in America and were at the time. All the broken treaties over the years. And where in the 60s, it was all about the civil rights movement, and that was kind of center stage, but there was this whole other group of people that would be totally forgotten. He was just a very socially conscious writer. I wouldn't in any way put myself on par with that, but that's just inspiration, I guess. Talking about things beyond yourself.
RFSL: Has that always been a part of your songwriting?
Carroll: No.
RFSL: How did that change?
Carroll: Well, when I was a kid I wrote about girls.
Ryan: Doesn't everybody?
Carroll: And when I was in high school, all the songs were about girls in one way or another. And then it gets to a point where, especially if you are really happy in a relationship, no one wants to hear about happy love songs. It kind of gets boring after a while. And if you don't have that angst, you kind of start thinking about just lots of other things.
Ryan: Like what does give you angst.
Carroll: Well you start listening to some folk singers like Bob Dylan, Peter LaFarge, Johnny Cash did some great stuff as well -- people that were saying important things and inspiring people. And Woody Guthrie of course is kind of the quintessential socialist folk singer.
Andrew Schneider's Stage Antics and the Music writing Process
"Sometimes I'll try to get a laugh out of these guys on stage by throwing in a little lick here and there. I don't do it in rehearsal, but when I get on stage that's my time to let everything I've got out."
RFSL: And all the songs are by you, Andrew?
Carroll: Yeah.
RFSL: And the rest of you are involved in the composition of the music?
Schneider: Somewhat. A lot of the guitar riffs, Andrew [Carroll] writes, he'll bring to me. I'll mess with them a little here and there, but I'd say that 80% of it comes from this guy. We flesh out the orchestrations.
Carroll: I can usually tell if I bring a song to the table and people are like "That's cool" or if they are like "Yeah, that's rad! We should work on this!" I don't think anyone has the heart yet to tell me "hey, that sucks."
Ryan: I think I have! You realize after a while that it'll come out eventually. I'd rather people just say straight out, if I come up with something, that they just say "hey, that's terrible, get rid of it!"
Carroll: For "Out of My Mind", Ryan did all the music, actually. He did all the guitar riffs and everything. And then I pretty much did the vocals and melodies on top of it.
Ryan: And then Edward came in with a sweet drum beat. We had no idea how to come up with anything close to that.
Schneider: That's what I enjoy, because they write great melodies, and then I get to put my own personal style on it.
Ryan: It's cool to see.
Schneider: Yeah, it's fun.
Ryan: Schneider definitely has fun with it live too.
Carroll: The record is one thing, he does it a little more by the book there.
Schneider: I come from a bit more of a jam background where for a while, most of the music I was playing for a while was improvised. Sometimes I'll try to get a laugh out of these guys on stage by throwing in a little lick here and there. I don't do it in rehearsal, but when I get on stage that's my time to let everything I've got out. All my little frustrations and all my little pent up energy in my fingers. just let it go, man!
Ryan: A lot of times I don't see it because you are on the opposite side of the stage. Every once in a while, I see what's going on.
Schneider: I very much enjoy taking chances and taking risks. Where I won't tell these guys before I do things. [laughs]
RFSL: Ever try that and have it not work out?
Schneider: Yeah, yeah! Not in this band, but throughout the musical career, I've had people tell me that that's what they like about my...I just do a lot of solo stuff. It doesn't always work, but when it works, it's awesome! I'm not afraid to fall on my face, and just throw it all out there and see what sticks.
Carroll: You've also got a wealth of information in your head -- classic rock knowledge. We met in classical guitar school. I minored, but he majored. He studied privately with Dominic Frasca in New York [between 2005 and 2006...see here for an example of Frasca's work] and he can do Van Halen solos -- he just has a knowledge of the fret board, owns the guitar -- that gives you the liberty to go off and be like "oh, I'll try this tonight!" Whereas, I write songs and everything, but when it comes to improvisation, I'm a little more terrified on stage. I kind of stick with what I know. Make it work.
RFSL: Do you have any improvisation background?
Carroll: Just playing in rock bands for a long time, jam based bands. But I usually keep it pretty safe. I know the depths I can go. I stay in the shallow end of the swimming pool.
RFSL: You studied classical guitar at LMU?
Carroll: Yeah, at LMU.
RFSL: What did you major in?
Carroll: English.
RFSL: Schneider?
Schneider: I majored in guitar.
RFSL: That's a major?
Schneider: Yeah, guitar performance.
Ryan: "That's a major???"
RFSL: I thought maybe you majored in Music or something like that.
Schneider: I think the official title is Bachelor in Music and Guitar Performance.
Influence of Modern Poetry on The Lonely Wild's Lyrics
"I thought about 'Everybody Knows' as a good cover. I'd have to knock it up a couple steps."
RFSL: And what did you [Carroll] focus on in your English degree?
Carroll: Writing, mainly poetry.
RFSL: What poets did you study primarily? Who were your favorites
Carroll: Larry Levis is great. Galway Kinnell. Gary Soto. My teacher was Gail Wronsky. She is an L.A. poet. Probably the best professor I had. Definitely helped shape my writing in terms of making me take more risks. I think you can get away with a lot more in song than you can in poetry. Song you can have like a rhyming scheme and stuff like that, while in contemporary poetry, if you start having metered verse and rhyme, it's kind of retarded.
All: [Laugh]
Carroll: That's un-PC.
RFSL: It's lame.
Carroll: Mentally challenged. It's just dumb. But you can get away with a lot in song. I think I knew who Leonard Cohen was because I took a road trip in the writing class and she played Leonard Cohen for us. And I was like "this guy is awesome!" He started out as a poet, and he became a rock and roll singer. To make money, believe it or not.
RFSL: Here's a question that I asked in another interview: what's your favorite Leonard Cohen song?
Carroll: Right now, probably "Everybody Knows"?
RFSL: Have you seen Exotica?
Carroll: No.
RFSL: It's a Canadian movie, from about 1995, where that song is prominently featured.
Carroll: Really??
RFSL: In a strip tease scene...
Carroll: I think in "Everybody Knows" the production value is so cheesy, and it's so dated, and it sounds like...with canned drums...really funky. But the lyrics are so good. And he's got this raspy, baritone delivery. I think there was no downfall for Leonard Cohen, but when the 80s and 90s crept in, his production value just got really funky.
RFSL: It almost feels like he's sort of fucking with us.
Carroll: Exactly. Well maybe he is. He's definitely smarter than us.
RFSL: Yeah! Would you ever do a Leonard Cohen cover?
Carroll: Yeah....
RFSL: Any ideas?
Carroll: I thought about "Everybody Knows" as a good cover. I'd have to knock it up a couple steps.
RFSL: There's a bunch of them, early ones, that have female vocals in them: "So Long Marianne", "The Partisan".
Carroll: Yeah, with some of those choir vocals in them. What record is that on?
RFSL: I want to say Songs From a Room [ed. correct!]? Technically, it's a cover, but his version is more famous.
Carroll: Okay. Yeah, I think I know what you are talking about.
The Future
RFSL: Where do you want the band to go in the next few years?
Ryan: Downhill.
Schneider: I've always wanted to see Palm Springs.
Carroll: Maybe the Vegas circuit?
Schneider: There's some great bars out there.
Carroll: I'd like to see us quitting our day jobs. That'd be nice.
RFSL: Like national tours?
Carroll: Yeah, what everybody wants. Just to get as many people to hear the music as possible.
Schneider: I think we'd all just like to be able to support ourselves playing music. Just be able to do what you want to do all day long. We enjoy the jobs we do. I mean, I'm a music teacher. I fucking love it. It's one of my favorite things to do. But if I could get up and not have to do the same routine all the time, just be able to have fun...
Ryan: I feel there's a magic middle ground for the popularity of bands. Where you are well known enough that you can go play cities across the nation and still have good solid shows and not worry about playing to nobody. But not to the point where you are overexposed, and constantly in the public view so that people get sick of you.
RFSL: So you'd like to be like Ryan Adams?
Ryan: I think he's definitely too much in the public eye, with the whole Mandy Moore thing.
RFSL: They don't play him on any mainstream radio stations though. He's not quite at the Arcade Fire level though.
Ryan: I wonder what is going to happen to the Arcade Fire. Are they too big now? What was that blog Who is Arcade Fire?
RFSL: Yeah, what was that?
Ryan: It was from people all over the internet, clippings from people's facebook posts who had no idea who the Arcade Fire is: "Who the hell is this band? They suck!" How can they be nominated for a Grammy?
Schneider: I saw a great youtube video today. It's these three guys walking down the street and they are like "hey did you see Arcade Fire? They should have won that Grammy" And the other guy is like "Who's Arcade Fire?" And these hipsters jump out of nowhere and attack him and kill him!
All: [laugh]
Ryan: Nice. I mean, I get it, it's great. I'm happy they won over a lot of other bands. But it makes you think, if that's breaking through to the mainstream, what's going to be next.
RFSL: Any interest in joining the Church of Scientology?
Ryan: Uh, no. No thanks.
Carroll: Actually, we wanted to talk to you about something. Can we turn this off? [reaches towards digital recorder]
Schneider: You look stressed out.
Ryan: There's a test, I hear.
RFSL: Thank you all for you time! I look forward to the show on Thursday!
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