Love Battery talks about their history and their lives in Seattle.
DM) How would you sum up the style of your music, in a couple
of words or less?
JF) Well, a couple of guys with guitars... we're sorta just
rock music.
DM) Any particular bands that you consider your influences?
JF) Lately we're compared a lot to The Screaming Trees and
the edge of things. We love them. Bands as Pond as well.
DM) What's the story behind the new E.P. coming out?
JF) It's four songs, two of which will be on the record. It's
called Nehru Jacket. It's sorta something to throw out there.
We actually wanted to get the record out by now. Of course things
get delayed so we wanted to get something out. We made it this
summer at Bear Creek, up in Woodenville... and it's just one
hell of a rock record.
DM) What's the differences between the record and the E.P.?
JF) Well, there's an awful lot more songs on the record. They're
all from the same sessions. The songs were written in the same
four or five month period in about three patches.
DM) Well who does the songwriting in the band?
JF) We tend to do it sorta together by committee, we call
it. Ron or Kevin come in (one of the guitarists) with maybe one
riff, or maybe two riffs, or maybe almost a whole song, and we
just start tearing it apart. Ron does all the lyrics and the
vocals. It sorta bang itself out with everybody. It's democratic
in rearranging and stuff.
DM) How did this 'committee type method' of songwriting start
up?
JF) That's the way it happened. We started about 5 years ago.
Ron [Nine] and I started playing together and then Kevin [Whitworth]
lived with me so we started playing in my living room. The band
wasn't started by one person so that's where the democracy came
from.
DM) What does the name 'Love Battery' mean?
JF) That was actually done with not a lot of thought. We were
together for a month and we got a show all of a sudden. When
you're out drinking or something, you constantly thinking of
great band names, but when you really need something to put on
the club listing, all of a sudden, your mind just goes blank.
We were just banging our heads. I don't know if we were listening
to the Buzzcocks at that moment. It is the name of a Buzzcocks
song. It wasn't a tribute to them. It was just "Love Battery",
that's two words!"
DM) What is your touring schedule?
JF) We haven't really toured at all this year, although before
that for the two or three years before that, we were touring
constantly. Right now we're doing a west coast tour for the E.P.
until Feb [95] when the record comes out. Then we'll circle the
globe repeatedly. We've been to Europe once before, and Japan.
How was it touring Europe and Japan. Europe was a couple of years
ago, after our second record on Sub Pop came out. And Japan was
last year, and that was just for a week. A couple of shows in
Tokyo and Osaka.
DM) What's the difference between your major label work, and
the indie label Sub Pop?
JF) This record, we took a lot more time with it. Sonically,
obviously it's been stepped up a notch. We've used a lot of high
tech studio stuff. It's not really slicker, but it has a lot
more fidelity to it. We spent a lot of time mixing and really
captured what we think we're sounding like, right now. Whereas
for the last record, we didn't like how it was mixed... we had
a difference of vision with our producer, and it's all sort of
more fallen into place now. We're ready to put it out now and
say, "This is our trip. This is what we sound like, this
is what we want to sound like."
DM) And what will you be doing outside of the band to relax
until the big February release?
JF) Myself, I work as a bartender on the side. It's great
flexible work for somebody who needs to leave town all the time.
Bar work is very gentlemen like. You can leave for a couple of
months, and come again.
DM) Where do you see the band as going after February? Success,
hopes, dreams, etc?
JF) The skies the limit. We're not looking for millions of
dollars or sales or anything. Hopefully the label will stay behind
us, and will kick it up certainly a notch or two from what Sub
Pop was doing. Which wasn't bad. We've been around and we have
our fan base around the country, which was small but relatively
devoted.
Q; Have you been approached for your first autograph and how
did that feel?
JF) Weird. I don't really approve of them, per say. They seem
like a really strange thing to me. but you put that aside. if
somebody's asking for your autograph, they're not really putting
you on a pedestal or anything, they just want you to sign their
record.
