Love letter band interview by Weston of and for Junk Town zine:
The first time I saw The Love Letter Band was a couple years ago when they played at Planet Earth. I had been hearing about them but always seemed to have to work whenever they played. When I finally caught the show, I was completely blown away. The songs were sad but they made you feel happy, it was comforting and kind of made you feel warm inside. The band had this kind of sincerity that I had never seen before; there wasn’t a hint of pretension or anything that could alienate the crowd from the performers. Afterwards I walked home beneath a clear, star-filled November sky. It was one of the best walks I’ve ever had. Since then I’ve seen TLLB countless times and in over a half-dozen different incarnations. Their new album, “Even Pretty Girls Take Medicine”, shows the band evolving in to something even greater than they’ve always been, and it’s easily one of the top five things I’ve heard come out this year. Originally, I had conducted this interview in Chris’s garage with the whole band present, just before they played their farewell show in preparation to make the trip to New York. But since this zine was taking forever and all the information was already quickly growing outdated, a new interview was conducted via email with Chris and Trevor. Enjoy!

Who is in or has been in TLLB?
Trevor-Chris can tell you the whole history as he's the only one who's been there all along.
Chris-Chris Adolf, Evan Adolf, Marisa Wood, Trevor Addams, Harrison Allen, Erin Lefevre, Karla Frank, Laura. People have lives so people come and go. Chris started the band and is still in it. Marisa, Chris, Trevor, Laura and Evan are the line up that has lasted to present day.

Love Letter recently got back from a trip to New York, how was that? Anything particularly strange happen?
Trevor-Surprisingly, no. Our trip went really well. Playing as part of the CMJ Music Marathon was just a blast! We saw 20 bands in 4 days. One of those shows was at CBGB's, which was interesting. That place is really just a punk rock dump. The Essex Green were the highlight of that show. We met a great band called Kanda who played the same showcase as us at The Knitting Factory. The Gossip, Rilo Kiley, and Bright Eyes all played great shows.
Chris-New York was super fun. We didn't partake in a lot of the CMJ stuff going on though. CMJ is like a music biz trade show and it's weird to see something that we do for fun put into a business framework. There are all these dudes with sculpted facial hair, silver shirts and leather pants asking bands if they are "on the web" and if they have a press packet. I guess that some bands go there to get hooked up or discovered or something like that. But we just went to see all of our friends and label mates. Our show (the 555 records showcase) wasn't music bizz at all. It was just a good room full of our record label mates, label extended family and close friends. Pretty amazing experience when I look back on it. I got to play to a room full of people that I knew and that knew me. It was like a family. Indiepop music IS like a family. It's so small and close knit.
We kind of got burned out on going to shows. There are 100s of bands playing at CMJ and it's way overwhelming to try to see everything. We did see a few good shows. (Bright eyes, the gossip, boyracer) But we mostly hung out at our friends houses in Brooklyn and went site seeing. Everyone kind of just took advantage of all of our friends being in the same city at the same time. We had a blast seeing everyone again.
We got real good at riding the subway around too! Oh yeah! That's one crazy thing that we did. The night of our show we were at Chuck's (from bright lights) house in Brooklyn and the show was in Manhattan. We had all of our equipment, and the bright lights' equipment to get from Brooklyn to Manhattan and no car so we had to bungee cord all these guitar amps to little hand trucks (those things with wheels that people sometimes carry their suitcases on when they run through the airport) and our arms loaded with guitars and drums as we (love letter band and bright lights) made our way on the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan. It was insane hard work just getting there. We walked so far and changed trains like 4 times. The bright lights acted like it was an everyday thing for them. Man those NYC kids have it rough! Kelly Slusher took us to this amazing waterfront and we got in a car crash too! Seriously. But everyone was fine.

What's up with all these labels (555, Red Square, This Heart Plays...)?
Trevor-That's a question for Chris.
Chris-555 Records is owned by our friend Stewart who plays in boyracer. The label started in England but Stewart has since moved to Flagstaff Arizona to be with his wife, Jenn Turrell. Jenn Turrell owns red square records and the two labels co-release our records. That’s why at the bottom of our records there are two different label names. Jenn and Stewart are amazing people. They're kind of like farie god parents to us. They have done so much for us. Brought us a long way. This heart plays is my own small label that I started about a year ago in hopes to release some of the amazing people/bands that I have met on tour. That's my favorite part about touring, meeting and playing with so many different bands/artists. This heart plays has 3 releases so far. Dave Longstreth, The badger king and a compilation called lullaby lullaby.

How do you describe TLLB to an uncle at the family BBQ? ...to a scene-kid?
Trevor-That's always tough - describing your music to someone who's never heard it - and I've had to do it plenty in the past 10 years of playing in various bands. I've pretty much decided to give a very general answer. I usually say TLLB is kinda folk and kinda pop and it's mostly acoustic.
Chris-I know what you mean. It's hard. When I'm feeling lazy I just say we play rock music that sounds like late Beatles or paul simon. But if I'm feeling good I might try to explain in more detail but that usually gets confusing so I just end up telling him what instruments we play. Sometime I ask people who don't know a lot about the indie scene if they have heard of the violent femmes because that’s an indiepop-ish band that most "uncle at the BBQ" people have heard of. I sometimes make that lazy comparison just to say something. I try not to be pretentious by alienating people who aren't part of the elite indie scene. I think that music can be enjoyed by everyone it's just a matter of exposure.

...to a scene-kid?
Trevor-In a way, that's even tougher because it's someone who listens to music and probably indie music specifically. I really don't like comparing us to other bands (and I really don't think we sound like anyone else), so I usually tell them our instrumentation and maybe let them know that we are often very quiet.
Chris-I say we play acoustic indiepop. Kind of beat happening-ish kind of magnetic fields-ish. But comparisons are weak. It's always hard to say.

I've heard you mention "art-punk" a few times before, what's that all about?
Trevor-I honestly don't know. Punk rock made by kids who've been thru art school?
Chris-I don't even know. It's just a good word to use when trying to answer the above questions to uncles at BBQs and scenster types. Is there a genre called "art punk"? Sub genre names get funny. all the fill in the blank "---- core" and the wanting to belong to some genre or scene as if it justifies what you are doing artistically somehow. Or perhaps all those subgenre terms were just invented out of necessity at a family BBQ or at a hipster hob nob!

What kind of ideas on music and art do you consider when you are presenting TLLB to people? Are there certain ideas or feelings you are trying to convey to others?
Trevor-I think we try to encourage the DIY aesthetic more than anything else. Also that it's okay to make pretty music and still be "indie" or "punk" or "whatever".
Chris-I want people to know that art is in everyone. You don't have to be a rockstar to have passion and ideas. That's kind of what punk rock is about in many ways. Isn't it? I mean if art is from the heart and everyone has a heart then everyone is an artist. Makes sense? It does to me. I would rather see calvin johnson stumble over 3 chords with soul and passion than Dave matthews band play bland and technically flawless crap with no heart. "Sloppy at times but with oh so much heart." But I don't want to say that every sloppy indie band has soul and that every tight band doesn't. It's just that in music people often place too much emphasis on technique and not enough on heart and soul. Punk rock?

What’s the worst case scenario you could imagine of somebody not getting what “TLLB is all about”?
Trevor-I guess if someone thought we we're doing it for money (hah!) or if they misunderstood a lyric to be racist or sexist or something, that would be bad.
Chris-It happens a lot. We aren't a bar band. We play shitty acoustic instruments and shitty old keyboards. We don't have potato shaped bass guitars or rack of lights guitar amps (steve albene quote). We are about playing songs that we wrote and sharing them. But some people are used to a bar band that is there just to passively listen to while they drink beer, dirty dance and talk too loud to prospective late night lovers. Not to say that we are a cerebral band at all. (We play simple 3 chord pop structure.) But I think it's sad that most people want music to be something that is passively listened to. I guess that that's the way that rock and roll has been presented though. I mean... You go to some big deal rock show and there is this huge gap and fence between you and the stage. The band is this mysterious group of god like beings that you have only seen on TV that comes from the magical back stage and plays 15 feet away from the front row. Sometimes the lights go out when the band has to change guitars so you don't see them when they're being human. And then they say goodnight and disappear back into the darkness of the back stage. It's no wonder people are used to being disconnected from the music. I think that some people might feel squeamish when music is presented in a different format than the traditional rock show or bar show. We're more about people being a part of what's going on. Listening, singin along, hanging out with us, laughing with us when we mess up. But some people might see that stuff as being unprofessional. We get that a lot. Especially here in GJ where there are so many bar bands.

What inspires Love Letter songs?
Trevor-Chris writes the songs so he'll tell ya.
Chris-I don’t know.

Where would you like to see the punk* or independent music scene going?
Trevor-I'd like to see it get smarter and less alcoholic.
Chris-Geez. I don't know? There are so many stigmas in music. I think that it is indipendant/punkrock music that has to break down those stigmas. A rock band doesn't have to sound like this formula or that formula. Punk rock doesn't have to be loud or quiet or aggressive or gentle. I think that it's no good to want it to go anywhere specific. It's just better to let things organically go where they will on their own. And it will always go somewhere interesting if it's always pushing the envelopes of comfort. (By pushing envelopes of comfort I don't mean you have to scream "fuck" and offend old ladies. I just mean that there should be no preconceptions about art.)

What would you like to see happening in the local GJ scene?
Trevor-I'd love to see more women and girls playing music! I'd like to hear more variety in styles of music. It's great that GJ now has a reggae band (Lion Vibes). We also need a proper indie venue.
Chris-Here in GJ I think that the community is afraid of young people doing something on their own. They have read too many articles about mosh pit deaths and rave party overdoses. So the "powers that be" make it hard for kids to do creative things on their own. I think that if those misinformed people came to a show and saw how positive it was that they would be more supportive. You would see more coffee houses hosting shows and more house shows going with out police intervention. That's exactly what we did at the pop up house. We invited the police in and told them what we were up to and what it was about. They agreed that it is positive and we now have the city of Grand Junction’s permission to have shows in our basement. It's the old problem. Generations need to communicate more. If the community understood what it was we were doing than it would be less oppressive to kids being creative and there would be more outlets for it and in turn we would see more local bands popping up. There has been quite a few amazing new local bands in the last year or two though. I think things have come a long way. Mahjong (and all of Lukes other projects), attacked by wolves and many others. Hopefully if the kids see that you can do this and it's a legitimate thing to be doing even if it isn't in some big rock club and that it's their peers and not some rock stars than hopefully the kids will feel inspired and have the confidence to start their own a band or project. I think that in small town the kids are underexposed (due to reasons above) and all they see of music is the mainstream side so they feel discouraged. Like they aren't god like rock stars, they could never do that. But when they see their peers in the underground scene doing it it's like, "Hey, billy from down the street has a band? And they played a show in a basement? WOW! I could do that!" And you will see a lot of creative things happening. And besides... the underground is where all the mainstream "bands" get their ideas so why not be there first. Small towns are always behind though so I hope there isn't like 30 new EMO bands.

If you could collaborate with any other musician in the world, who would it be?
Trevor-That's a super hard question to answer because I'm such a huge fan of so much music. I'll say Kenny Anderson. He's a great friend of mine from GJ and he and I have played together some, but he lives in Portland now. I really wish we could live in the same town and play together. Actually, Kenny is a close second to Laura, who I've wanted to play music with for a long time. But now she plays with TLLB so I'm happy.
Chris-Prince!

How long will The Love Letter Band be around?
Trevor-That's really up to Chris. Hopefully a long time.
Chris-I don't know. A long time I hope.

What’s with all those penis stickers?
Trevor-I suppose Chris was feeling extra silly when he made those, which is why Laura has designed us some nice new stickers with a giraffe on them.
Chris-That was just a joke. Stickers are made on a sheet of 8.5"X11" adhesive paper. We had the razor blade drawing that almost filled up the page 4 across and 5 going down. There was a little strip at the bottom that was too small to fit another row of razorblade stickers so Andrew (who at the time worked at copy copy) asked me if I wanted to fill that space with something so as a joke I quickly drew the penis 5th grader style! So for every 20 razor blade stickers we got one penis sticker.

What’s the last book you’ve read?
Trevor-Just today I finished “About A Boy” by Nick Hornby.
Chris-Jack Kerouac's on the road. But everyone should read everything by daniel quin.

What’s a few records that everyone should own?
Trevor-Well, I don't think it's cool to push one's tastes on another, so everybody should own the records they really like, right?... Okay, I'll list some records I personally love. I could make this a ridiculously long list, but I won't. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, The Beatles - pretty much anything and everything by them, any Prince album pre '90's, Radiohead - Ok Computer (but you already know that.), Run-DMC - Raising Hell (R.I.P. Jay), Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions..., any and all R.E. M. and Sonic Youth and Pixies, Jeff Buckley - Grace, and , of course, Andy Williams' Christmas.
Chris-Any record by: the Beatles, the ramones, the beat happening, magnetic fields, the silver jews, the cars, the essex green, the bright eyes, lenord cohen, the tight bros from way back, miranda july, the ladybug transistor, boothby, the new doug marsch solo record, of montreal, elf power, the gossip, neutral milk hotel (any elephant 6 family records for that matter), the aislers set, god speed you black emperor, the melvins, kool kieth, dennis driscoll, heavenly, the get hustle, led zep!, wolf colonel, the flaming lips, the softies....go from there. Everyone should spend most of their money on records like I do.

What’s one question I should have asked?
Trevor- Q: Why do you play music in TLLB? A: For the love, baby.
Chris-Who is onyx and what happened to his baby?