Lucius: “We want it to feel like you were taking a journey with the music”

US 60′s throwback Lucius released their debut album Wildewoman across the pond back in October of 2013 but are now bringing the album to European territories through PIAS.

Lucius was founded by vocalists Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, when the pair bonded at a party and after performing with various numbers of band mates, they are now joined by Dan Molad, Peter Lalish and Andrew Buri who make up the five-piece. The girls both studied at the prestigious Berklee College of music and since have moved to Brooklyn where they began recording their debut album.

During the latter parts of 2013 and early 2014 Lucius have been extensively touring the US but after SXSW, will be taking their energetic live show to Europe, in support of the forthcoming European release of the debut. We caught up with the pair one afternoon to discuss how the pair became Lucius, the album itself and why touring Europe is so much better than the States (obviously).

You two first met as students at the prestigious Berklee – did you hit off straight away musically?

Jess: We had a bunch of mutual friends and we were sort of acquaintances, and I had a party at my apartment and we just got talking about our mutual influences. They were all very similar and we thought it would be cool to do a girl group take on The Beatles, so we got together the next morning to do some arrangements and never really finished that project but started writing our own music from thereon. That was about 9 years ago!

In terms of your sound – was it similar then to what it is now or has it developed?

Jess: Oh it’s changed it has seen many lives. Like 9 of them, like a cat. It started very like, Portishead-jazz meets, I don’t know…

Holly: Like Portishead meets Massive Attack!

Jess: It was very much like electronic jazz, almost. Then we moved to New York and we were really influenced by the songwriting community and we were just trying to hone our craft, so we were listening to a lot of folk music and that was having influence on our songwriting. Then, after about 2 years living in New York we were really looking for a way to dance onstage you know, we wanted a little more energy. We then met Danny who is a producer and engineer and we took these songs and wanted to just explore in the studio. Our aim was to throw spaghetti on the wall and see what stuck and that’s sort of how the band how you see it now began.

What about The Beatles White album? You mentioned you wanted to put a girl group spin on it – did you eventually make and if so where can we hear it!

Jess: We were just rearranging songs from The White Album. We wanted to do a show that was sort of like a girl group take on the White Album, but we never really got around to it…

Holly: We rearranged “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” but that was it – which we did put out, but don’t search for it!

Jess: You can try and find it; I don’t know if it’s out there, it’s definitely not on iTunes or something like that!

Holly: It’s probably in like the depths of MySpace. We’ve gotta take that down!

You also make jingles too don’t you? Including a jingle for Mercedes that was premiered during the finale of Breaking Bad?

Jess: We do that to sort of make some income while we’re on the road and we’ve been successful a few times – it’s like a project, it’s like write this 60 seconds or less clip to this commercial and they sort of give you guidelines – it’s like a writing project and for us it’s fun!

Do you think that by having to be so diverse when you’re making these jingles and having to think outside the box helps when you are creating your own music?

Jess: I think any way to create, and to work on something new and experiment with things is helpful.

In terms of influences, you told The New York Times about the importance of fashion and clothes for you as a group, why is this important to you?

Jess: I think it’s important for us as I think it’s a way for us all to connect before we’re on stage, and I think it puts us in this headspace because we are all so dependent on one and other. We’re like a machine you know, each part needs the next part in order to function properly and I think it’s about dressing the sound, creating a visual representation of the music and I think that connects people and draws people in as well as drawing ourselves in.

Like seemingly every new artist these days, you’ve been compared with bands across the spectrum, with the standouts being Arcade Fire and Haim – how do you take to that?

Holly: I mean, we don’t know how to describe our music ourselves, so any descriptions and comparisons are welcome. It’s always interesting to hear how people interpret it and it tends to have been really talented people so that feels good.

Jess: We definitely have nothing bad to say about either of those bands. Haim – their live show is really epic and Arcade Fire, their songwriting and just everything they do is just so thoughtful, so being put in the same sentence as those guys is totally cool.

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You released your debut in America back in October of last year, does it feel weird to be going through all the press again?

Jess: It’s cool, I think it’s normal. It’s certainly not abnormal, I think for us we really wanted to focus on each territory to the best of our ability so I mean I don’t mind it, I think its good.

Holly: Before the record came out in the States we toured quite a bit, so it kind of just feel it kinda feels natural to you know to set things up before we sing.

Tell us about the process that went into making the album.

Jess: Well its gone through many incarnations. The first incarnation, three and a half years ago, was recorded basically by just experimenting with Danny and bringing in different people to play on the record. Through the recording process we then formed our band. Then after a year of playing together, and still recording and experimenting we wanted to go back in the studio and re-record everything, so that it was cohesive with our live show.

Did a lot of people work on the record?

Jess: Well mostly Danny, our drummer, and then we did see a couple of people in LA in the early parts of the recording stage – but not too many.

After spending a while listening to the record it sounds very complete and perfected, rather than a bunch of singles. Obviously everyone aims for this, but was it a specific goal of yours?

Holly: Oh yeah, for sure, we did go back and re-record things – just because it was over such a long period of time and once we started playing it live, things started to evolve. We wanted to go back and to rework them to feel more like the band that we were now because the band kind of came together through recording the record.

Jess: And also, in regard to the cohesiveness of the songs, we wanted it to feel like you were taking a journey with the music. We wanted dynamics and we wanted it to feel like there was a story and not just monotone, like every song just feels the same – that’s not that exciting to us.

There’s quite a lot of disruptive sounds layered into the tracks which makes the album extremely engaging, was that intentional?

Holly: Yeah I think so. Danny is a big lover of sounds and that was one thing that we agreed upon initially – to be very open minded and creative as far as all the different sonic textures that we used, as it just makes it more exciting. We kind of use the doubled vocals and the songwriting to give it that common thread but let everything else go off the rails a little bit.

Jess: Yeah, we tried to make each song sit in its own world and somehow magically connect.

Although everything on the record is entwined together, there’s lots of variation from track to track, is this due to what you were listening while you were making the album?

Jess: We listen to a lot of old school soul music and 60s rock ’n’ roll and glam rock, so all those things definitely have a part in it but I think we just focused on writing good songs and good melodies with a strong message.

Holly: Yeah, I mean it’s like what Jess was saying earlier, about how we kind of just wrote these songs and we wanted each song to kind of just live in its own space. I think that is something that is attractive about someone like David Bowie – he’s very chameleon-esque and it makes things interesting, because you always hear that common thread but there’s no fear of experimentation and where something can go. That was something that was important to us when we started recording.

What are you expecting from the live dates you’ve got coming up?

Jess: Hopefully people who have heard about our live show and are ready to have a good time. We’re always excited to tour, we’re definitely a ‘live band’ and it means everything to have people hearing are music. I hope that people can experience that with us. Also, just touring in Europe is so wonderful! I don’t know if you’ve talked to other American bands that have gushed about touring in Europe, but its definitely a different experience than touring in the US, as artists are respected on another level, so we’re really looking forward to that. It makes all the trucking and the driving and all the other stuff easier to deal with!

What are the differences between touring the US and Europe?

Holly: Let’s draw a visual of a US green room…

Jess: We’re talking like a basement or garage, with like a couch and a six pack of beer – and that’s it. In France, Germany or England you’ve got like a 3 course dinner, and wine, it’s just on a whole different level!

When will you start beginning to write for the next record?

Holly: I don’t know, we’ve written a little bit here and there but we haven’t had a real chunk of time to sit down with it yet…

Jess: I imagine by the end of the year we’ll have a good group of songs together and start recording again. It’s exciting, because everybody says the second record is the difficult one. I definitely don’t believe that – I think we’ll be fine!

The Wildewoman LP is out now via PIAS.