If you caught last month's issue of Magazine33, you might have read Michael King's stellar interview with John Morand, co-owner/engineer of Sound of Music Recording Studios here in Richmond. In the interview, Michael asked him what new music we should be on the look out for. John named a few bands and concluded the list with, "Louisiana Territory, an indie rock band from Richmond." Interestingly enough, I had spoken to Mark Brown, lead singer and guitarist of the band, just the day before I read this. I planned on attending their album release party and became very excited to see what Morand was talking about.

And then the swine bit me.

After about ten days of Tamiflu and Oxycodone, the symptoms dwindled leaving me with nothing less than a Percocet addiction and a raging sofa-induced energy surplus. I ran a few screaming laps around my house, ripped a PBR, and then gave Mark another call. This time I wanted to apologize for missing the party, and instead of whining atrociously about my empty Percocet bottle, I asked him some questions about their new album, Traces of Gold. Before I gave the CD a listen, I felt it imperative to know a little something about these guys and what makes them tick. And when I say "these guys", I mean Matt Klimas [bass, guitar, keys, vocals], Tyler Crowley [guitar, vocals], and of course, Mark Brown himself.

M33: First of all, where does the name Louisiana Territory come from?

Mark: [Laughs] It's got absolutely no tie or meaning to the state itself. To be honest, we took a night and wrote about 60 or 70 random words on a piece of paper and narrowed it down to ten. It was the bass player, Matt, who came out with it randomly. Liked the way sounded, liked the way it felt, liked the way it fit our vibe. So, absolutely zero meaning at all.

M33: That's interesting. I rarely get that kind of response to the "band name" question.

Mark: I know! I wish it had some kind of deep or underlying meaning, but it really doesn't [laughs]

M33: Under which genre might we find Louisiana Territory in a record store?

Mark: Tricky question, I think what we're [deciding]on now is just rock. Probably more on the pop side of indie rock. We say indie rock, we say rock, we say pop, but I think we're a straight forward melodic rock band.

M33: Who do you guys sound like?

Mark: Well as you would probably expect, we all have different influences. Matt, the bass player, probably has the most eclectic range of influences. I know he's a big Yo La Tengo fan, New Pornographers, The National. Then there's me on the other side, a huge Ryan Adam's fan, at least from a song writing perspective. I also love a lot of the alt-country, rootsy stuff like Wilco, Sunvolt, and Lucinda Williams. My song writing might not reflect it, but that's what I listen to. I think we all find common ground on a Nada Surf kind of a feel, like indie rock, pop, melodic rock type of stuff.

M33: Do you write all of the material yourself?

Mark: For this record, I wrote the majority of the songs. Tyler was the writer of a couple on the record. So far with the band, I tend to bring in the basic bare bones of the song. I'll bring in the music, the lyrics, and the chord structures. But then the chemistry of our band allows Tyler and Matt to rally around it all and make the songs what they are. I think with this record, we're releasing material that I happened to do most of the writing for, but we're trying to get to a point where we're writing more collaboratively.

M33: What's your writing process like? What inspires you?

Mark: I get a lot of questions about what the heck I'm talking about [laughs]. My lyrics are generally about exploring the conversations that go on in my head that deal with the normal things people deal with in life. Matt and Tyler come from more of a story-telling side of things, more tangible analogies and descriptive writing. My writing tends to be more like thoughts in my head, struggles, or things I'm excited about.

M33: Where was the album recorded?

Mark: We did it at Sound of Music Studios with John Morand.

M33: How long did it take to record the album?

Mark: We did about 3 or 4 days of pre-production, before we recorded anything. We just went in with John, played the songs acoustically first, and then came in for another 3 or 4 days with a full band. We worked with Miguel [session drummer], who actually plays with us now, and took some time to teach him the songs and tweak some other things out before we started recording. There was about 4 or 5 days of that, and then about 10 days of tracking, and then about 5 days of mixing after that.

M33: Were there any bumps in the road while recording?

Mark: Yeah, one thing was time. We ran out of it. We were hoping to record a couple more songs, but we had a budget and time ran short so we had to make some decisions about exchanging songs in and out. That was tough.

M33: How did it turn out? What can we expect from Traces of Gold?

Mark: I think you're going to hear real big, lush guitars. I think you'll hear melodic hooks and choruses mixed with some nice indie, experimental type sounds. You'll hear a nice variety of dynamics between big rocker songs and some slower chill stuff. We're hoping that we've created a record that will appeal to a wide variety of folks, from the indie-artsy side to the mainstream pop-rock side, too.

Louisiana Territory's new album, Traces of Gold, can be found on iTunes, eMusic, and at their website, LATerritory.com.

 

By Author and VP: Ben Cokeley

Ben was born in Pittsburgh during the summer of 1983 (the year Roxy Music disbanded). He has since inhabited Chicago, New York, and several Virginian cities including Richmond, where he prefers to spend the majority of his time. His interest in music sparked at age three when he began taking piano lessons. A passion for theatre and film would soon follow; he was known for acting in high school and college productions while focusing on the independent film scene in Richmond. Nowadays, you’re likely to catch him at a bar in the Fan or commuting to Fredericksburg where he works as a high school teacher/behavior specialist. Ben enjoys a variety of music, some long-time favorite musicians/bands include: Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, The Doors, The Isley Brothers, Buddy Guy, Tom Petty, David Bowie, and George Clinton.

 

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