Life After Winning Back The Right To Release Their Album

For over a decade now Lake Street Dive has played together and in that time steadily built up a strong following all over the world thanks to energetic, highly-infectious pop songs that draw on influences from Motown and ‘60s soul to British Invasion and jazz.

Two years ago though, the band’s career stalled when their third album, Bad Self Portraits, was blocked from release by a label to which vocalist Rachael Price had previously been signed.

“We had a year to just be like ‘Okay, we can’t put out this album so we’ll just gig and play our asses off and then drop this and hopefully by then we’ll have garnered a little more attention,’” drummer Mike Calabrese explains. “And that’s what happened, so in the end there was a great silver lining to the waiting and the sort of headache of dealing with the contract.”

The album eventually came out in early 2014 to some of the best reviews of the band’s career, including one from Rolling Stone, the magazine later citing the group as one of the best artists of 2014. For Calabrese, it was the recent celebration of his 30th birthday that gave him a chance to finally reflect on how far the band has come. “It was really, really great; it was wonderful. We’ve been a band for so many years but this was the first time we did well enough to afford some small luxuries. Like it’s the first time we’ve ever had disposable income in the band so I was able to get a nice venue in Brooklyn and cater it. It was sort of like a symbol of the growth we’ve experienced as a band over this past year and it was perfect timing because you want your 30th to be somewhat meaningful, or at least I do, so it was great to celebrate.”

The band is bringing its exciting, energetic show to Australia for the first time. Calabrese says that though the band hasn’t toured the country before, it just so happens Price was actually born in Perth. “Her entire family was born there and she moved to the States when she was like three but still has an Australian passport so it was just sort of perfect. I think her mother’s actually coming out for some of the shows as well.”

Apart from this Calabrese says he and the rest of the band can’t wait to get out and play some of the new songs to Australian audiences. “Festival season is a really great time to tour because every town seems to have its own type of festival and it seems Australia’s no stranger to that. It’s a lucky time of year and we’re getting to crisscross the whole country, so it’s very exciting.”