RFC Interview: Le Loup

Washington D.C based septet Le Loup is a band everyone should know about. After only playing a few shows, they immediately got signed to the Hardly Art label. With the release of last year's melodic and lengthy titled "The Throne Of The Third Heaven Of The Nations' Millennium General Assembly" album, comparisons arose to Islands and Animal Collective. Filled with a banjo, french horn, guitars and references to Dante, the record swells with emotional beauty. Seeing the group live is a completely different experience, though. On tape, they sound sedate, but live, they become a full-fledged rock band. Sam Simkoff started the band himself and then posted an ad on Craigslist to find other members. Seven musicians strong, the group encompass three guitars, four vocalists and Sam Simkoff rotating a banjo, piano and toy instruments. Throughout their eight song set, they generate a cacophony of noise: the percussion resonates, Simkoff's body seizures as he yelps along, the french horn throttles transitioning into a spectacle of joyful chaos. After the show, drunken audience members scream, "One more song!" leaving them wanting more. Before their awesome gig at Schubas, we sat down with Simkoff to discuss how it feels to be touted "the next big thing," touring the world and how they are all well behaved musicians.

Download: Le Loup - "We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!"

So, how's the tour going?

It's going very well. It's long. Infinitely long. I think we're all starting to feel the wear and tear of it. It's been pretty fun. Pretty well reception and good shows all around.

What was it like playing SXSW?

It was much more relaxing than we expected. We only had played one other festival, CMJ. It was based out of NY and it was stressful trying to navigate NY getting to each place in a very limited time. We got to SXSW expecting something along those lines and we were pleasantly surprised because everything was very spread out and it was a lot more laid back. Everyone was nice. It was a good atmosphere to do a lot of shows. We had a great time.

I read you quit your day job of being a paralegal. How's that going?

I'm living frugally. I've cut out the finer things in life. I'm not very good at office jobs. It's an environment that's tailored to a very specific group of people. I can't sit around all day working on a computer. It's a little formal. I've been enjoying my time out. When we're not touring I feel like a real loser. I do odd jobs and stuff like that. I have to keep on reminding myself this is what I do. All and all it's pretty damn satisfying. I suggest you try it.

How would you classify your music?

I guess indie. I mean, it's kind of a large term these days. It's not a very helpful classification. It's hard to say. We're not rockish enough to be rock. Any attempt to make it more specific sounds kinda dopey.

What do you bring live shows that's different from your recordings?

Our live show is incredibly different. The recordings are first of all, basically myself and a friend of mine. It's very controlled. It's a littler quieter, a little more tense focusing on atmosphere. The live show, because it's suddenly translated to seven people onstage and because we made a conscious decision to make it more theatrical, it's a lot louder, it's a lot bigger, and more straightforward than the album. I love both of them in my own ways. The live show is much more like a rock show just in pure energy.

Do you have any before show rituals?

We usually have a pep talk backstage and outline what we need to think about during the show, what we need to work on, what we've been playing well. We look around at the crowd we're playing to and how that'll affect the way we play songs. We don't sacrifice a goat or drink seven shots each.

Have you noticed different reactions from city to city?

There's not really a geographical way to lay it out. Some cities we've had very responsive audiences and some cities it's been a little more subdued like they've been talking more during the set. I haven't noticed a trend in city by city. I try to avoid that sort of thing because we were expecting that in NY. We played two NY shows and they were both really awesome audiences. They were very enthusiastic. It's hard to tell from city to city.

What has the reaction in DC been like?

The DC audience was awesome. There were a lot of people there. It's really heartwarming going back to DC. We've played it a good few times now but I worry the next time we'll wear out our welcome.

Who are some of your influences?
When I was writing the album, I was listening to a lot of Destroyer, Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective. It's something to aspire to. Brian Wilson. I'm in love with Smile and Beach Boys. On that vein, Panda Bear. Person Pitch is a fantastic album. Talking Heads and Television.

What have you been listening to lately?

Everything because we've been in a van all day. Lately we've tried to branch out and become a little more esoteric and listen to things we'd not normally listen to. Our bassist and drummer enjoy goth music more than rest of us. We want to try and listen to all sorts of music. I put on Pissed Jeans the other day because it's hardcore. Swan Lake we listened to the other day. Deerhunter. We also got this cassette tape, an instructional tape of a guy doing African polyrhythms. It's starting at the most basic level and working up. it's not really music, but we've been listening to that, too.

Would you say this is a personal record?

I think any album will ultimately be a personal experience for the writer. I think very many if not most musicians or composers pull from their personal adventures. That was a very big part of it. The Dante part was more of a filter. It's not as prevalent as it might seem. I certainly brought it back at certain times. But for the most part, the songs were based on real world experiences I was having at the time and trying to translate them into a way that was more emotionally palpable to me. So that was the basis of the album.

Describe the dynamic of the band.

The album itself was written by me. I worked with a good friend of mine, Christian Ervin who at the time was attending Rice University in Houston, TX. So it started out with me making songs on my computer and sending them to him and saying, what do you think of this? And he'd gave his feedback, saying 'I like this, I like that.' It progressed later on to me actually sending him songs and saying do what you want with this. He would also be very extensive. Those are the only two people on the album. In terms of songwriting now, I'm still writing the songs, but they're very general ideas and I bring them to table to the entire band and give them a run down of what I generally want it to feel  like and sound like. It starts out improvisational and we flesh out the parts later.

There's a lot of buzz and hype surrounding the band--how do you deal with it?

I try to not let it affect me too much, personally. It takes time to get used to, anybody writing about you either positively or negatively. It got to a point where the positive reviews, this is nice, and the negative reviews, even if it wasn't consequential, would break me up. It took a while to learn that buzz or just people writing about you is going to happen. You can't take any of it personally. You have to respect their opinion. It doesn't help anything to let it get to you in any way or get too down on yourself about it. I certainly appreciate the exposure. I can't lie--it's great. I try to keep levelheaded about it.

When did you decide you wanted to be a musician?

I didn't decide. I've loved music for as long as I can remember. My parents were always feeding me music since I was young. I started playing piano when I was 6. I started playing in bands in high school. It was always a passion, obviously. It's not a profession you plan out. Like, I'm going to be a musician. You're basically dooming yourself to poverty with no success. I got out of college and I kept on doing music, but in the meantime, I was looking for another profession I might like, but I didn't find anything that made me passionate. It just sorta just happens. Getting signed to Hardly Art was a happy coincidence. I'm really glad it worked out. It was never a conscious decision.

What advice give to struggling bands or artists?

I think it's enough just to truly love music and believe in what your doing. There's no formula for making it. I don't think of ourselves as the prototype for making it. But that's not what it should be about. It should be about being In love with making music and making something that personally resonates on your terms, not on the terms of your peers. That's the only advice I have: do exactly what you love. And whatever happens from it is a pleasant offshoot, but It's not the same itself. The most important thing is the music you're making.

What's next for you guys?

I don't know. We're done with tour mid-April then I think we're going to hang out the home turf for a while collecting ourselves. We renewed our contract for another album, so that's in the works. I've written about seven new songs, two of which we're going to be playing tonight. We're planning on going back and start flushing out these songs and start recording them in some way shape or form. Beyond that we don't have many plans. We're going to take it as it comes and hope for the best.

What would you like to see happen with the band--any goals?

My only goal is to keep on being proud of the music we're playing. That's enough for me. The point of which I find us playing music that I'm not proud of or music I don't want to hear myself, that will be a sad day. I don't have many aspirations professionally speaking for music, but I do very much want to see us making songs that we're proud of and that we like playing over and over again.

Do you have any crazy anecdotes or weird things that have happened on the tour?

This will come as complete shock to you, but we're a low-key band. I think every band has their stories of getting wasted and doing stupid things--it's not so much interesting as embarrassing. It's completely commonplace. For the most part, we drive from place to place to do a show and then we fall asleep in a hotel. That's pretty much it.