No Questions Asked

It's worth noting that there are many La Dispute fans out there who would love nothing more than to pick at the brains of the band members. To sit down and listen to their latest release, Wildlife, in its entirety is subjecting yourself to one of the most emotionally devastating musical experiences of your life. These guys get labelled “post-hardcore” quite often, but don't worry, this is not your regular modern blend of hardcore where you get the growling vocals followed by the dime-a-dozen breakdown and a hit of cheap, sugary-sweet vocals swooping in through the chorus – this group are raw, urgent and intense, and considering the rapidity of their rise to fame, it is certainly fair to argue that they are amongst the elite in their genre. Considering that title, Vander-Lugt chuckles, revealing that the group never had any grand allusions of making it big – it just happened.

“I just went to college as I expected myself to. I was there for two years and then the band started taking off,” he says. “I decided to put that on hold, but some of the guys, like Chad, he finished school, so there's different varying degrees of experience that we have, but you know, it was unexpected, I don't think it's anyone's dream job or anything but we definitely enjoy what we do. We're very thankful for what we've accomplished, that's for sure.”

As teenagers, it was as good a time as ever to be into that particular style of aggressive music. While the band still remain true to that sound, Vander-Lugt admits his music tastes have broadened and his longing to experiment with different sounds has grown.

“I think when we started, seven years ago now, that (post-hardcore) was the style of music we all clung to. I think now though, as we've gotten older, we still, well, I know I still really appreciate aggressive music, but I have a larger palette for what I enjoy and what I take influence from – I think we all do. Now it's just become a matter of challenging ourselves artistically and musically with what we appreciate now, and how we can take different impulses from different types of music and try to bring that into the band. I think that's kinda the fun of it now.

“The way we write music and piece the record together now is very different to the way we would've done it seven years ago. I would argue that a band, especially our band's goal, is to challenge ourselves. We don't want to be putting out similar-sounding records, so we will definitely be trying different sounds. I think we're always going to sound like us, though. There's a certain way we go about writing our songs that will give us our own unique style, I suppose. I think challenging yourself as a musician and artist is extremely important. When you approach writing songs and on a larger level putting together a record, I think it's imperative to push forward.”

It was this growth and musical maturity that allowed the band to stretch its ambition with Wildlife, which was released in 2011 to a flourish of positive reviews. The album follows themes such as abandonment and death in three-to-four-song blocks and, according to Vander-Lugt, was a release entirely pre-conceived.

“Wildlife was very deliberate, and we knew exactly what we wanted each song to sound like, as well as what we wanted the record to be as a whole, before we even started writing. For Wildlife, Jordan pitched the themes first and then built it musically after that, so in the case of that record, it was very precise and the stories he does tell are true – a lot of them are from Grand Rapids where we're from so I think that he took a lot of influence from what was going on around us at that time. Right now, depending on the things he decides to touch on, it could be more storytelling or it could be something else entirely. I think that's just where we were at that time. Our first record, in terms of creating it, was sort of the opposite; we wrote all the songs first and then Jordan came up with the themes after. I guess when it comes to getting our next record together we might try to do a mix of those two methods, or maybe something completely different. It is a collective effort, it's not just one person writing the songs, we all come together and add our two cents, add and subtract appropriately, and make the final product together.”

The band are preparing themselves for their fourth Australian tour in five years and Vander-Lugt confesses the group have a bit of a love affair with the country and the people.

“We really enjoy the people Down Under,” he beams. “Some of my best friends live in Australia; it's a beautiful country. And the shows are incredible – to me, everyone is really excited about music in Australia and that's really wonderful about that community, especially in this genre of music; whatever you want to call it, there seems to be a real passion there. We love it, we love seeing that, and I think that's what gets us coming back year after year.”

He also gives us some exciting news to ponder, revealing that the band will be playing tunes that our country has never heard in a live setting before. “We try to approach every tour differently, and then doing a headline tour as opposed to being a supporting group is different too. When you are the headlining band, things are expected, which is good. You have a longer set so you can pull from a bigger pool of songs and maybe play some lesser known songs in an appropriate setting. On this upcoming tour, we'll probably play some songs we've never played on tour before, just to keep it fresh – not just for the people coming to the shows, but for us, so we're not playing the same songs each night. We try mixing it up for each night so if someone comes to [say] both Melbourne shows they'll have a good time and a different experience for each night.”

As for now, the band are making the most of the little amount of leisure time they have by doing what they most enjoy – seeing their friends play shows. “There's a festival in Detroit which is only a couple of hours from Great Rapids, and a tonne of our friends are playing that festival, so we're just gonna hang out and see them. It's great to see so many bands come together so close to my hometown where I can see them all in one night in such a chilled-out and relaxed setting. We've played at the festival ourselves before, but to be a spectator, it certainly takes the edge off. Australia's gonna be huge, so we're reserving ourselves as best we can for it. We can't wait!”