Bay Area hardcore punks Loma Prieta aren’t getting lazy now that they’re on one of the most respected labels out there, Deathwish Inc. These guys are all about straight honesty, DIY and playing the finest blend of really intense no-bullshit hardcore music. We had a good and in-depth chat with Brian Kanagaki about Loma Prieta’s new record, Self Portrait, life on tour, Deathwish Inc. and much more…
Not only when it comes to the actual writing but also to the production, I.V. was a big step ahead of what you had done previously. Now that some time has passed, do you feel like I.V. took the band to a new level – more fans, more opportunities to play, etc?
I think that working with Deathwish was a huge help and the support that they gave us was amazing. Also being able to tour with Converge was huge for us. I think that through Deathwish we definitely got exposed to a new audience that wouldn’t have given us a chance otherwise. We are very appreciative of all the hard work that they do for us. We’ve always been a DIY band, so we still continue to book our own tours and we don’t have a manager or anything. I think that everyone assumes that once you are on a popular label that you stop working on stuff on your own. For us we wanted to make sure that we still did things on our terms and Deathwish has been there with us the whole time.
As far as writing goes the approach for each album was completely different. For LIFE/LESS we wrote it as a three piece. I played bass on the album and we wrote with just one guitar. We even toured as a three piece and it worked out with those songs. For IV we wrote as a three piece but I wrote on guitar so the bass was more of an afterthought, most of the bass lines were written in the studio, so the album was defiantly more guitar driven. To me when I listen back to IV I think it sounds crazy and the production definitely helped that album stand out. It’s fucked up sounding and really loud, the songs are also super aggressive. We must have been going through some shit when we wrote that. It’s hard to think back because we wrote that album 5 years ago. So much has changed since then.
So, the new record: is there any kind of general theme to it – what about the album’s name? Was there any particular goal to achieve with this record?
There isn’t a theme at all. It was meant to be S/T LP but we changed the name at the last minute. Mostly we felt like this was the best most accurate capture of what the band is, hence Self Portrait. It’s just a documentation of who we are right now. We are a very honest band, our lyrics are about or lives, we aren’t trying to be any deeper than that. We wanted the record to speak for itself.
By the time IV was written and recorded you were thinking about releasing it yourselves. What was it like to be approached by a label such as Deathwish, and how does it feel to have your music released on the same label that has supported acts Like Modern Life is War, Punch (where some of you play), Birds in Row, Rise & Fall, Deafheaven, and, obviously, Converge? Are you hardcore fans of some of those bands?
We had self released almost all of our own albums, mostly through Val’s label Discos Huelga. We release our LP Dark Mountain completely on our own and it was a great experience so we had planned on doing the same with IV. Val and I played in a band called Punch, and they had just released our record and Tre at Deathwish didn’t even really know we’re also played in LOMA. We just figured it out pretty late after the album had been recorded and the art was done. We are really happy to be a part of Deathwish and honored that Tre and Jake wanted to release or record and they still continue to support our art and music. The Deathwish roster is insane and it’s completely mind blowing to be listed in the same regards as all the other great bands that they have released.
IV got pretty positive reviews and great feedback from the audience. What was your mindset like before starting writing the new album – did you feel like expectations were higher this time (yours and the audience’s), did you feel any sort of weight on your shoulders?
I don’t think that anyone’s expects anything from us, I don’t think in those terms. We all expect a lot out of ourselves though. We are all really passionate about what we do and it’s a huge part of our lives so obviously we just wanted to write the best songs that we could. If that meant we wrote metal songs or did a pop album then so be it, I feel like with LOMA we have the freedom and latitude to kind of do whatever we want. That’s maybe the biggest mental hurdle, where to start. I think that if you have heard us you either like us or you don’t, so I wasn’t worried about trying to win over anyone to bring them to our side. I was concerned with reaching a completely new audience that doesn’t know if they like us or not yet, the only thing we had to do for them was write a strong album and release it. I think we were successful in the writing process so now we just need to wait for the release and we’ll take it from there.
With this new album you seem to be going back to a slightly less violent approach, favoring one more melodic/punk-rockish, though still saturated and noisy, most of the times. Is that accurate?
We wrote a lot of new songs for this LP and we ended up cutting almost all of the heavy songs. Writing them just wasn’t as fun and fulfilling as writing the more melodic songs. We knew that we wanted the album to be driving and chaotic while still having clear melodies and audible guitar tracks. It’s hard for us to even have a clean tone and pull back so the songs still sound like us playing them. There is defiantly more headroom on the new LP and each song stands alone a little better than the older records. In my mind the songs aren’t that different from anything else we have done but I think people might think otherwise.
“It’s just a documentation of who we are right now. We are a very honest band, our lyrics are about or lives, we aren’t trying to be any deeper than that. We wanted the record to speak for itself.”
You tour a lot. How and when do you decide to write new stuff? Is there a lot of meditation and planning before the actual writing process, or you just pick up you guitars and start jamming?
Normally since we tour so much we don’t get to actually play guitar or play drums and work on new music. I think we all write and catalogue ideas in our heads for years, saving them for when we have time to write. We normally start a practice with jamming just to warm up, sometimes something comes out of it but more often we come in with ideas or concepts and hammer them out until we get something that works. Sean and I are both really good at working ideas out in our heads without even being around a guitar. I think it’s a good way for us to write music so that by the time we sit down with a guitar we know how the song flows. I personally write most off songs or parts rhythmically first, I’ll work it out in my head and then figure out where it sits on the guitar. I think Sean is the opposite, he’ll have chords, voicing or phrasings and progressions in mind and then sit down and work our each part chord by chord. I think when we combine our two styles it works perfectly and writing comes really quickly.
I know that for you it is very important not to repeat yourselves creatively. That doesn’t always happen with a lot of bands, especially within hardcore music.
I think it’s different from band to band. Most of the time when a band changes their sound everyone hates them or just wants to hear songs off the demo or first LP. I get that, it’s nostalgic and you are always going to live the first songs that you heard from a band the most. With us we have always just written the kind of music that we wanted to write at that given time in our lives. And since it’s the same people writing it it always sounds like the same band but we have always been growing and maturing as people and as artists and our influences change and naturally our music will change. The writing process is really exciting and it’s the part about the band that we enjoy the most. If we went into the studio with a plan it would defeat the purpose for us. We aren’t that calculated, we just write whatever comes out organically. Often times we have a few ideas in mind, like this style of song is more fun to play live, or this tubing doesn’t fit anywhere in the set so stay away from using it. That’s about it, other than that there isn’t a plan.
How is it to be in a hardcore band in 2015 in comparison to what it was some 15/20 years ago? Do you feel like the Internet has weakened the sense of community among the hardcore scene?
For the 10+ years that I’ve been involved in music/punk/hardcore the Internet has existed and always been a great tool for me to discover new music and be a part of a larger community. It’s definitely helped our band a lot and I don’t think we would be where we are without it. I feel like the scene in the Bay Area where I am from was better 5-10 years ago just because there were more bands and more venues doing punk and DIY shows. It’s really hard to be in a band in San Francisco and it’s only gotten harder with rent prices going up. Now that we are done writing the record we don’t even have a practice space anymore, we can’t afford it, we keep our gear in our apartments. I think that that is the only thing hurting the bay area music scene.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to see you play live, but as far as I read you seem to deliver pretty intense shows. What are you trying to achieve with your life set and what goes through your mind while playing?
We always like to think about our live set as a performance, it’s meant to flow as one continuous piece that washes over you. It’s something that is meant to be overwhelming and chaotic but controlled, something that you can take home and continue to think about and experience. We never talk on stage, we try to play all the songs together with no breaks. We’ve worked out interludes and loops to help stem all the songs together.
Any particular bands you are enjoying listening to/touring with right now?
We recently did a tour in Europe with Dangers and Touché Amoré, both great bands full of fun people to be around. We also toured a lot the last few years with Fucking Invincible from Providence, Rhode Island. They are an amazing band.