Altsounds Interviews: With ... LoveLikeFire
"I wanted to be able to move around more with it on my head but you had be really careful, neck damage!" June 4, 2009, 05:06 PM Views: 1132
Comments: 11
 LoveLikeFire is the brainchild of Las Vegas born, San Francisco based Ann Yu. Yu spent most of her youth in frustration, with her parents refusing to let her listen to contemporary music of any description. She trained as a classical violinist, but yearned to spend time with music that spoke to her on a more personal, affecting level. The music of LoveLikeFire was nothing more than a recurring dream, but one that Yu longed to live out and discover.
Ann Kindly took time out of her schedule to talk to Altsounds exclusively about the new video shoot, living with the Killers and their favourite gigs...
_____________________________
[altsounds] Hello!
[LoveLikeFire] Hello!
[altsounds] So what was it like living with Ronnie from The Killers? Was this before they got hooked up with Island Records and became a massive Pop band (haha)?
[LoveLikeFire] It was a lot of fun, he made me laugh so much, he's a funny guy, one of the funniest I know. We were watching the grammys one night after school, and I remember saying, theorizing what we would each do if we won a grammy, I would cry and Ronnie would make people laugh, then they were nominated a year later, wierd.
[altsounds] You guys formed in Las Vegas right? What is the music scene like there? All we seem to get from LV is big lights and a lot of slot machines!
[LoveLikeFire] We formed in San Francisco, but I was born and raised in LV and started my first band in Las Vegas. It's changed a lot since 2003-2004 when I moved away, back then, there was maybe three fully functioning indie bands, loads of hardcore bands, and two all ages venues. I saw Bright Eyes, Hot Hot Heat, Crooked Fingers, Nada Surf, Xiu Xiu, Tristeza at the coffee shop venue where they held most of the good shows.
[altsounds] Have you ever played a gig at a casino?
[LoveLikeFire] Haha, no.
[altsounds] Having played The Great Escape, SSWX & Dot To Dot festivals, which has been your favourite?
[LoveLikeFire] Dot to Dot was definitely the best. People knew us best at this festival and that made it extra fun, and it was more of a manageable festival in terms of how many bands played, oh and the artist meals were ace!
[altsounds] Whats the best venue you played at this festival?
[LoveLikeFire] The Bodega was awesome. We judge a venue by sound mainly, and this place the sound was fantastic.
[altsounds] Is Leeds and Reading festival in your line-up of UK shows for the future?
[LoveLikeFire] Sure! If they'll have us, we're down to play.
[altsounds] Hows the video shoot coming along?
[LoveLikeFire] We just finished a video for Stand In Your Shoes, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Pretty simple, performance shot style, no fuss video. Wearing helmets was the only slightly tricky part.
We also just finished a shoot for our third single Boredom in the New Forest. This one was a lot more work. We worked on it for 24 hours straight. A combination of forest shots, bedroom shots, and falling shots, crawling on wet grass shots, we were attacked by midges hopefully doesn't show up in the shots, and some horse shots. I think it's almost finished, we're really looking forward to the final cut. The director was this 19 year old genius with an impeccable ability to imitate an American valley girl.
[altsounds] Do you get nervous for your shoots? I can imagine being in front of a camera is a very different feeling that to playing on stage?
[LoveLikeFire] It's really fun and refreshing, no nerves really. I get more butterflies before we go on stage than video or photo shoots. With video or photoshoots, you can do as many takes as you like and try all sorts of interesting themes and expressions so it's not very nerve wracking.
[altsounds] How was it having to wear helmets with cameras on? In that Radiohead video it seemed pretty awkward.
[LoveLikeFire] Yeah, it was heavy and kept sliding, like you couldn't tie it on tight enough. I wanted to be able to move around more with it on my head but you had be really careful, neck damage!
[altsounds] Press have dubbed your vocals as “a laid back Karen o”. Is this a good thing for you? Do you like Yeah Yeah Yeah’s?
[LoveLikeFire] We are all Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans and I can see the comparison on some of our repertoire. But most of the vocs don't sound anything like Karen O to me. Maybe 'cause she is part asian? People like to compare us to other bands with asian female vocalists, that's pretty common and lazy on their part.
[altsounds] Whats your thoughts on their latest release?
[LoveLikeFire] Not soo into it, but we also haven't given it a fair shake. Some of the songs are quite pretty but most of it sounds highly produced and the lyrics not so great, I'm a big lyrics person, and not a fan of lyrics about dancing. That said, Karen O is still an amazing vocalist.
[altsounds] The LoveLikeFire T-shirt designs look pretty cool, do any of you do the designs?
[LoveLikeFire] One was done by a friend, the horst design and the other one was done by an artist in Seattle how also did our album and singles art.
[altsounds] Who’s your favourite Artist?
[LoveLikeFire] Favourite artist is too hard, we can't commit to just one. But at the moment, artists we can't get enough of : St. Vincent, School of Seven Bells, Grizzly Bear, The Walkmen, Editors, French Kicks, Beach House, Lee Hazlewood, TV on the Radio, Lush.
[altsounds] “Tear Ourselves Away” is your next album release, are you excited?
[LoveLikeFire] Yes, we are ready finally for people to have what we've been living with for almost a year now!
[altsounds] Anything else you would like to say?
[LoveLikeFire] Thanks for taking the time to do this interview!  xo LLF
_____________________________  LoveLikeFire are back in the US for the moment but you can follow what their up to on twitter and their shiny blog...
www.lovelikefiretheband.blogsp ot.com
twitter.com/lovelikefire
Last edited by jack s : June 7, 2009 at 12:58 PM.
| |
| 
Introducing ... LoveLikeFire
| News 
Re: LoveLikeFire Interview
