Q&A: La Luz on Tour, Their Evolving Sound & More
THE MEMBERS OF LA LUZ HAVE NEVER BEEN FARTHER APART– physically, that is. Shana Cleveland, Lena Simon and Alice Sandahl are now spotted across the country after years of familiarity in one spot. Cleveland, the band’s guitarist and songwriter, is now based in rural Northern California. Bassist, Lena Simon, lives in Jacksonville, Florida and keyboardist, Alice Sandahl, in Los Angeles. After listening to their eponymous fourth LP, La Luz, one would think they never left each other.
Now, the band is together on tour after a long, arduous process of writing and recording the album in quarantine. After hitting the west coast, the longtime trio chatted with Luna while driving their tour van up north. The three members huddled over one phone, driving through the middle of nowhere, which humorously captured the mood of their new album. You can almost feel the earth and the heat while listening to tracks like “In the Country” and “Spider House.” Their collective harmonies melt into one voice, crooning “oooh’s” and “ba ba ba ba’s”, telling tales of friendship and adolescent freedom.
Their latest release is self-titled for good reason. On one hand, La Luz has never sounded so different. Each song shimmers and sways in comparison to 2018’s gritty Floating Features. Yet, this switch-up is all the more definitive of their growth as a band. La Luz has an impressive arsenal of producer collaborations– Ty Segall iconically produced their sophomore album, Weirdo Shrine, and the Black Keys’s Dan Auerback worked with the band for Floating Features. Each producer brings something new to the table and helps deliver what the band has to offer. This time around, Adrian Younge joined La Luz to push them to higher hills. Younge is attributed to some of the biggest names in hip-hop and jazz, like Gallant and Kendrick Lamar. With his help, the band created an introspective journey from top to bottom. With sounds emulating The Doors’s “Waiting for the Sun” and The Beach Boys’s “Good Vibrations,” they pair psychedelic fuzz and cosmic keys with their gauzy harmonies to create a fresh interpretation of La Luz today.
Read the band’s conversation with Luna below.
LUNA: Congratulations on the new release! I know you guys are on tour right now. What’s it like playing these songs in front of an audience after such a long gap of not performing?
LA LUZ: It's always interesting to see what songs resonate with people and which ones don't. [For] some of the songs we were recording, I was like, “Oh, this one's gonna be a hit.” Like one time in particular… I was like, “Oh man, this song is going to kill live.” But then that's not really the most powerful song live.
I feel like “Watching Cartoons” is more of a crowd favorite, even though that's the song where I was like, “Are people gonna like this one?” For this, I feel like that's something you kind of forget as a band. Like there's a temptation to just make all your fastest rockers, you know, like all your loudest songs…I think that for us, one of our strengths is we have a pretty diverse array of sounds. We're not just blasting away all the time. [We try] to remember that and kind of lean into that a little bit. Even though it might not get people to be like “wow,” sometimes it's more powerful to put those lighter moments into our sets.
LUNA: Something I appreciated in this album was definitely the slower, mellow sound. I really love that switch up you guys made for this one.
LA LUZ: We kind of made the fast songs faster and slow songs slower on this record. I think part of that was Adrian’s suggestion. I think that “Lazy Eyes” in particular, I don't think any of us really expected it to come out that slow. We listened back and we were even like, “Oh wait, that’s a little too slow.” And he really encouraged us.
LUNA: How did you and Adrian connect with each other?
LA LUZ: It wasn't an idea that ever would have really occurred to me. But my partner, Will, who is also a musician and plays in Shannon and the Clams, for some reason he always thought that we should work with Adrian. He just had this idea in his head like, even before we recorded our last record, he mentioned it to us this time around. I think I just kind of rejected it without really considering it last time, but when [he] mentioned it this time, I just thought, oh, maybe we should look at that. I think we're all kind of just interested in the idea and really respected his work. We were very excited about the idea of doing something different. So we thought well, we might as well just reach out to him and see if that's something that he's open to and to our surprise, he was really excited about it.
LUNA: Do you think this album would be different if you guys didn’t collaborate?
LA LUZ: I think it would be so different. I don't know exactly how, but I think Adrian is really intentional. He also had a really good way of pushing us and what we were able to do and challenging us, so that comes across on the record.
LUNA: Do you guys feel like there was more freedom in creating your new music as opposed to creating your last few albums?
LA LUZ: I think in a way, there was in a sense where he had all of these awesome instruments and tools in the studio, but he usually wouldn't play them himself. He would kind of sit back and be like, “hey Alice, try this” instead of playing a part that he was hearing. He would put it in front of us to see what we came up with on our own. That was a little bit different. I think people we've worked with in the past, like when we worked with Dan Auerbach, it was more like, “oh, I've got a I've got an idea, I’m gonna lay it down real quick.” So it was definitely more collaborative in that way.
LUNA: For Floating Features, I know that that album was really inspired by living in LA and it kind of encapsulates the city when you listen to it. How do you think the environment you were in while writing and recording your self-titled, as in the time and location you were in, fed into the album?
LA LUZ: I think in a lot of ways it's a more expansive album with the nature of all of us being in different places. For me, being in the country feels a lot more expansive than LA, which is probably the most expansive city that exists in the country. But there's something about nature that just feels more open.
There's this patience in how a lot of the songs unfold. I think a lot of that does come from being in a space where I feel like I'm able to relax and let my mind wander. I think it allowed me to kind of tune into myself a little more and my more intimate world, as opposed to looking to the outside world for influences. I think it with my bandmates, all of us being in different places, it does open up a variety of influences that are coming into creation. I think it’s a really contemplative album.
LUNA: Oftentimes, through a band’s evolution there’s this essence throughout that makes you go, “this is different, but it’s still La Luz.” If you were to describe your band’s essence, what would you say?
LA LUZ: Serene, dare I say "angelic" vocal harmonies, twangy guitar, a love of life and a sense of foreboding.
LUNA: Shana, you mentioned on the release that you want the listeners to feel love listening to this album. What do each of you love about each other?
LA LUZ: I don't know where to start! There are so many things I love about my bandmates. I love Alice's kindness and empathy, the way she always comes up with the perfect part for every song. I love how Lena is hilarious and friendly and organized in a way that truly holds the band together, and of course is a killer all-around musician. I love how they're both massive dorks, like me. I love the energy and thoughtfulness they put into every live performance and the way I know we've always got each other's backs.
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