Live Review: INTERVIEW: Loon Lake
We sat down with Sam from Loon Lake to discuss their upcoming debut album 'Gloamer' and more.
Melbourne-based garage-rockers LOON LAKE have been making waves recently, releasing a new series of mixtapes, a new single, and with news of being added to the BIG DAY OUT 2014 lineup they show now sign of slowing down. Especially with their debut album coming out just next week!
I got the chance to sit down with Sam, the front man of LOON LAKE to have a chat about the upcoming record 'Gloamer', the upcoming tour, how the band came together and other things (like frisbees).
How did LOON LAKE come together, how did you guys meet?
Three of us are brothers and we grew up in the small town of Wangaratta in Victoria. We were all mates with Tim, our bassist, who lived in the same place with us. I met Ben abroad in Turkey, and he was from Victoria as well. We sort of just decided to form a band together, and it all happened from there.
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Where did the name come from?
The name came from a book of the same name by E.L. Doctorow, I found it whilst traveling around Costa Rica. I really fell in love with everything about the book. The name was cool, and it just stuck.
You guys just released the second mixtape episode, some great tracks on there - what's the reason behind the tapes?
It was initially started as a chance to give people an insight into what kind of music we as a band were into, all different kinds of music and how it influenced us. From there we also thought it was good way to leak a few songs from our upcoming debut album, each episode has a new LOON LAKE track on it as well as a bunch of other cool stuff.
I just saw before that you guys have got some Loon Lake frisbee merch, which is so awesome! Where did that neat idea come from?
Haha yeah, well we have a few different out-of-the-ordinary merch items, from stubbie holders to mini-footies, and yeah the frisbees. The idea really just came to me one day, and I thought "hey why not?" They've been pretty popular too, I mean, who doesn't love to chuck around a frisbee, right? Everyone loves frisbees.
The debut album 'Gloamer' is out in just over a weeks time. Can you tell me a bit about the recording sessions?
Basically over a span of two months we did three six-day sessions, with plenty of spacing between them. My brother Nick actually sort of half-produced the album as well, which meant we were always very close to what we wanted to achieve. Over the recording sessions we split it up between half doing it at our home studio and half using a pro studio. We found that the mixed spaces ended up working really well, we're really happy with it!
On a scale of 1-10 how would you gauge your excitement for the release of the album?
TEN! Definitely ten. To see all of the hard work paying off for something, it's really exciting. It's been a long process from the inside, and a lot of anticipation - we're really looking forward to sharing it.
How did the album artwork come about?
I did it, mostly all of the artwork with the band is done by me. We tried working with a designer from the UK but it got tough, especially with the time differences. Our manager was back and forth and it got to the point where it just wasn't working. And so at that point I just sat down and designed something myself overnight, and that's what the cover is!
Next week you guys will be heading off onto a nation wide tour for the album release, what could we expect from a typical LOON LAKE show?
Obviously for this tour we have a a lot of new songs, which is going to be great to do live. We're playing at smaller venues then what we're used too, so we're looking forward to that aspect of it. We've been practicing really hard, especially working on turning the show into a continuously flowing show - working on keeping the energy high throughout the shows, and I think it's paying off.
You recently got added to the bill for Big Day Out 2014. First of all congrats! You guys played BDO 2012 too, yeah? Looking forward to it?
Can't wait, it's gonna be fucking brilliant! So many bands I can't wait to see too. Just going to take it all in over the couple of dates and just enjoy it. BDO is a massive part of Aussie culture and it rules to a be part of it. Stoked.
Favourite Aussie acts right now?
There's so much great stuff out there now, I could go on forever. Jeremy Neale of Velociraptor has some amazing solo stuff. Tame Impala, of course. The Cairos, Papa vs Pretty, Millions, and Courtney Barnett are all at the top of my list though.
Words by Nick Luke
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