Living Things (Lillian Berlin)

September 23, 2005, 08:02 PM

“…whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government….” –Declaration of Independence

Three rebellious brothers from the suburbs of St. Louis with odd names comprise the political rock act Living Things. Not surprisingly, Lillian, Eve and Bosh Berlin were the ‘weirdos’ growing up, having been raised by an anarchist mother and homosexual father, getting their first gig experiences as children playing at the carnivals where their father worked. Now as young adults, the Brothers Berlin are churning out some of the most thought-provoking and compelling rock since the 70s. Armed with an arsenal of good looks, a killer interactive live show, solid songs and a passion for activism, Living Things are well poised for stardom. But do they even care? I spoke with Lillian Berlin, singer and lyricist for Living Things to discuss their politics, music and new album 'Ahead of the Lions' to find out what makes them tick…

Conducted by AJ, VP of Altsounds.com


Lillian: Hey…so I guess we’re supposed to do an interview?

Me: Yeah…like hours ago. Thanks for making me wait.

Lillian: Sorry about that…I had some…problems.

Me: Is this something I want to know about???

Lillian: Hahaha, its nothing weird. This interview got lost in the shuffle and I was across town when I was supposed to be here, so I hustled through the busy streets of NYC just to talk to you.

Me: Awwwwwwww…I guess I can forgive you. I’ve really been looking forward to asking you some questions. Don’t let it happen again though, yeh?

Lillian: Ha..I promise. I’ll try to make the answers worth the wait.

Me: Excellent! Lets get into it then...You’re one of the more fascinating bands in music today. Where it seems others use music as an escape from reality, you use music as a way to pin reality up against a wall and ask it what the **** its problem is. That sort of social responsibility and outspokenness is rare for anyone these days, but you’re 3 young brothers from the ‘burbs of St. Louis. Where did you get this kind of fire?

Lillian: I have always felt like any artist of any sort creates work that is reflective of their surroundings. Its like through their art they show what’s going on around them. Well, what’s been going on, since even you and I were born is a governmental stronghold and control. I always run into it no matter where I go, either in big cities or our little hometown. It’s a broad subject matter. Political corruption is huge and it’s everything from conspiracies at the highest level to street police harassing citizens. It’s a broad spectrum and it’s what we feel is most important. We’re so much more repressed than we were even in the 50s.

My mother was politically active, so we got to hear all of these lectures and exposure to ideas alternative to those on television. My mother insisted we learn the Bill of Rights. In school we briefly discussed it for maybe a week in 7th grade, but she said “If you’re old enough to know your ABCs, you should learn the Bill of Rights.” Every day rights are being taken away and if you don’t know what your rights are to begin with, you won’t notice when they’re gone.

Our music and our politics go hand in hand, but I think if you aren’t into the politics and just like the music, you will eventually be turned on to the politics as well, and vice versa. I think it is sad that other artists are running away from these subjects. They just don’t give a shit. Even with the press, we find that younger journalists don’t really care about it, but the older ones are very much into it. In our parent’s generation, it was the other way around.



Me: Well, not ALL young journalists are unaware of what’s goin on..haha. I know you wrote a book recently called “Post Mortem Bliss.” You tackle a number of heavy subjects, including your own addiction to mood stabilizers after being diagnosed with ADHD. On the laundry list of shit wrong with America, where do you think our country’s prescription addiction ranks?

Lillian: I think it’s tied for number one. Young people, old people, middle aged people, everyone is being suckered into this pill thing. There’s a diagnosis for everything these days and a corresponding pill for it. With ADD and ADHD, kids are being medicated so they will stop being kids. They’re practically sedated to keep them from day dreaming or having a lot of energy and wanting to play. They’re just being kids, you know? That creative development is so important to help make you a good person. But the pharmaceutical companies and the government are promoting people being carbon copies. They want us to all be cookie cutter images of their ideal.


Me: Your shows are intended for more than just rocking out, you engage the audience in social and political discussion. Do you find that to be more difficult as you get bigger and play bigger venues with bigger bands?

Lillian: With audiences in the US it’s always a 50/50 crap shoot whether they’re into it or not. Half get pissed off and half celebrate. We like playing the smaller venues with the punk rock or alternative crowd. They seem to get it. The beer drinking crowd hates it, of course. We were able to play in Europe and they all really love it when you get political and make strong statements on stage and let them know what your songs are about. It’s sad because in America, it is us, the citizens, who are electing these officials and letting them **** up the whole world. It’s our responsibility to elect the right people. We should be doing the research and taking that job seriously. Like with the Katrina thing and FEMA. We elected all of those officials who in turn ****ed us over. Had we done our research, we would have known how unqualified the FEMA director is, not to mention every official above and below. It’s sad that the US doesn’t seem to care until it’s too late.

Me: You’ve been thrown out of venues, harassed and even assaulted for trying to bring awareness to people during your set. Are you guys doing anything differently these days to help protect yourselves from possible violence? Or do you just accept it as coming with the territory?

Lillian: We played a show in Dallas where I was beaten up and shot at. After that, we had someone coming along with us to help us out. After a while we felt like a hip hop act or something and the crowds weren’t as bad, so we stopped all that. But that Dimebag Darrell thing was scary. Clubs just aren’t safe anymore.

Me: I know what you mean. Let’s talk about music for a minute… You as individuals and your activism seem to be the topic most people are interested in, but from a purely musical standpoint, you guys kick some serious ass! Who were some of your favorites growing up? Where did you hear music? Are your parents big music fans?

Lillian: Music wasn’t really supported in our house. We weren’t a musical family or anything. Most of what we heard came from the neighborhood kids or friends. Mom was definitely not keen on it. If we got a new record and would be blasting it she’d be like ‘What the ****?! Read a book!’ My brothers are definitely more into music than I am. I have always looked at music as a great avenue to speak my mind. We all like the garage rock stuff, Bosh really like’s music from the sixties, like the Beach Boys. I like more poetic stuff that’s not as poppy. I find myself drawn to primarily female artists like Patty Smith and Courtney Love. Women singers generally have more passion in their lyrics than you find with other rock acts. It’s in the males as well, but it tends to be with the more sensitive ones, like Kurt Cobain.

Me: When you think of bands that play fairs and carnivals, it is generally bad local country singers or fat, aging hair bands. I don’t recall every seeing a politically charged punk rock band comprised of teenagers. When playing that circuit, how were you received by the conservative and simple Midwesterners you played for?

Lillian: The Midwest is really religious, so it’s generally ‘Jesus is our savior’ songs. Once we got the hang of just playing music, we had kind of a hippie vibe. People didn’t really pay attention to the words, they were more interested in the novelty of kids playing music. At the time, my mom wrote all the lyrics, so the songs were more ‘women-minded.’ Some of them didn’t go over very well. Men in the Midwest just want their woman at home cooking or whatever.


Me: Does your mom still write all your lyrics???

Lillian: hahaha...no, we have it down now, I think.

Me: You chose to work with Steve Albini on your records, someone similarly-minded on all fronts, but he has a number of years on you. What’s something you took away from that experience, either musically or otherwise?

Lillian: If you have an idea you should believe in it, live it and worship it to execute it convincingly. You know, he’s in his 40s and he’s always stuck to his guns in the music business. He never said he would be someone he isn’t. We have these same ideas, but we’re not trying to be an indie band and just hit a small group of people. We just want to really put our music out there. Steve is kind of anti-major label, but he knew what we were trying to do and supported that. He was ok with it. He’s in the studio recording with bands every single day. He has so much indie cred. We really respect him.

Me: You have mentioned before that you think the US is more conservative and repressed now than 30 years ago as we have become a nation paralyzed by fear. What’s the silver lining, if there is one?

Lillian: Oh wow…good question. I dunno, really if there is one. I think its all about fear and how people buy into it. History continues to repeat itself and you’d think by now that people would wake up and say ‘we’re not falling for it this time.’ Hopefully one day it will change. We are a country allegedly ‘by the people and for the people’ and when that government isn’t working for us anymore, we have the Right to do something about it. I don’t think it’s working, but very few of us are willing to do something about it.

Me: Your message comes through loud and clear on your album, and you really hit it home in your live show. I commend you for having such gigantic balls, as well as a great ear for melodies, making the difficult subject matter easier to swallow, and more accessible to the mainstream. Anything you want to throw out there before we wrap this up?

Lillian: Hopefully the world will wake up, and we can get more people that think like you and I do. We have a chance to save ourselves.

Me: Agreed. And on a more personal note, you’re ridiculously sexy for an activist! Normally the political bands are butt ugly and just look angry. You have ‘rockstar’ written all over you…you can strut! Your video is really hot.

Lillian: Hahaha Thanks! We’ll have to get you out to the show when we play in Philly. Make sure you contact me and we’ll get you set up.

Me: You better believe it honey. It’s been great speaking with you Lillian…congrats on your killer new record! Best of luck!

Lillian: Thanks a lot AJ!

Living Things will release 'Ahead of the Lions' Oct. 4, 2005 on Jive Records.

See the video for their first single “Bom Bom Bom” on Altsounds.com

www.livingthingsmusic.com