Q&A: Laveda Cannily Presents What's Fleeting In New LP, ‘Love, Darla’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SYDNEY TATE ☆
Photo By Julia Tarantino
WHIRLING WITH A GLINT OF IMPERMANENCE — Laveda introduces listeners to their darker, mettlesome alter ego through Love, Darla, the third album from the New York-based outfit releasing via Bar None Records.
Ali Genevich and Jacob Brooks front Laveda alongside drummer Joe Taurone and bass player Dan Carr. Although separated by a physical distance at times, the band members converge on a comforting tightrope that is their heaviness in sound, following the promised fluctuations of pace and poeticism in seeking.
Love, Darla serves as a trusted companion for taking a leave of one’s senses, both fitting for the stout-hearted rush of standing stern in a crowd and dazed dives into outgoing tides.
Luna had the pleasure of talking about flip phones, The Powerpuff Girls and the real spider named Darla with Ali Genevich and Jacob Brooks of the band. Keep reading to find out more.
Photo By Mars Alba
LUNA: What’s the best and worst thing that happened to you this week?
ALI GENEVICH: Mine is all one—I was at my friend, our bass player, Dan's show for his project, called Dan Carr And The Cure For Asthma, and we had to park the car really far away from our apartment on our way home. He was like, “Yo, I have my skateboard if anybody wants to skateboard back to the apartment.”
I took the skateboard out and I was ripping so fast. I was definitely too drunk to be ripping down the street the way I was, and I totally f*cked my knee up, but it was really fun.
JACOB BROOKS: Nothing broke.
GENEVICH: Just some road rash.
BROOKS: But you had a lot of fun, so it was also the best thing.
GENEVICH: I did have a lot of fun. Now I see people skateboarding on the street and I want to get back even though I don't really skateboard.
BROOKS: The best thing was hanging out on the rooftop for Dan's birthday. We put on a little rooftop show. It was beautiful, and I got to do sound for all my friends’ solo projects. It was a blast.
The worst thing was also really fun: We had Ally’s fam here, but the bad part was I had too many beers. (Ally laughs) I was hungover the next day. They just kept giving me beer and I couldn’t say no. It was free beer, I just couldn’t keep up.
LUNA: Would either of you ever switch back to using a flip phone?
BROOKS: Yeah, I would.
GENEVICH: In a heartbeat. I don't know why I haven't done it already. I was considering it.
BROOKS: It would be cool to have an iPod or something to go on the internet, and then the flip phone is what you use to contact people. That'd be kind of cool.
GENEVICH: Yeah, I go through phases where I don't really use the internet a lot when I'm out and about, then I go through other phases where I can't get off my phone, like I can't get off social media, and I can feel it rotting my brain.
A flip phone would be sick, and then every time you text someone or call them, it's super intentional.
LUNA: Right, you’d have to put more effort into it. Have any of the songs from Love, Darla taken on a new meaning as you started developing them from when you first started writing?
GENEVICH: Honestly, no, which is weird because some of our older material has sort of evolved in its true meaning, but right now, because these songs are so new… it’s the quickest turnaround time we've ever had for a record.
It almost feels like we wrote the songs yesterday, which is such a crazy feeling. I'm still in the same headspace that I was in last year when I wrote them, it feels like this extension. Obviously, it's been a year since we recorded at this point, but if anything, it’s solidified what they mean even more.
LUNA: Do either of you have a favorite subgenre?
GENEVICH: Jake doesn't listen to music. (Group laughs) I like a lot of post-punk and newer bands that have sort of that flavor, like Deeper and Wombo. Jake really likes Snõõper.
BROOKS: They’re a little more post-punk, but my favorite subgenre would have to be hyperpop if I had to pick one. It’s pretty big now. I’m not a huge fan of subgenres when the rule is to sound like one specific band that did something that was cool, but hyperpop seems so cool because the vibe is being forward-thinking and doing crazy sh*t and trying to one-up each other.
It’s spread out into different things, which is why it's probably my favorite. If I had to listen to one [subgenre], it would probably be that.
GENEVICH: There’s not a newer subgenre that I’m super into right now, but I’m such a throwback listener. I like a lot of Discord and Numero group bands right now. Julie Doiron, Fugazi, Q and Not U; I think it used to be a popular genre, but mainstream artists aren’t making music that really sounds like that right now. I hope it starts to resurface a little.
LUNA: If you kept your current life as is, but you could have a clone that could live anywhere and do anything, what would they be doing?
GENEVICH: That's awesome, I wish I could do that. If I could clone myself, I would probably live on the beach.
BROOKS: That’s what I was going to say.
GENEVICH: On the West Coast or not in America actually. Maybe Italy or something. I don’t know why I chose Italy. I’ve never been, but I bet that would be so sick.
BROOKS: On some foreign beach somewhere living off the land.
GENEVICH: Living off the land and not being connected to that many people. I’d learn how to farm and grow things and go out to a little restaurant and drink some good ale and good wine.
BROOKS: I think both of our clones would want to go and do that.
LUNA: What's your favorite and least favorite thing about being in the city?
GENEVICH: My favorite thing is definitely the people and the opportunities here. One of my really good friends has introduced me to so many amazing people. So many talented and genuinely cool artists that also live here, blocks away from us and they’ve become good friends.
It’s not something I feel you can find in other cities. We've never lived in another big city, so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I've talked to other people who’ve said New York is unbeatable in terms of the artistic connections that you can make.
People are so down to collaborate and hop on to new things and throw themselves into something crazy. It makes you feel you can do that too, you know? It’s incredible. Then sometimes I get so overwhelmed.
There's so much to do all the time and I have to be in eight places at once. It's a lot. There's a constant buzzing energy here that sometimes it's hard to tune out. If you do want to relax and take a day, you really have to force yourself to do it, and you can’t get mad at yourself for it, because everyone has to take a beat now and then.
Our whole society, or American culture, is so go, go, go, don’t ever rest. If you take a vacation, it can be two days long, and that is very much here in New York, so it can be a little difficult to find time to chill, but I do like it here. For now, it’s the place for me. Maybe one day I’ll move to Italy and I’ll live on the beach.
LUNA: To Italy with your clone.
GENEVICH: Yes, I’ll go be with the clone and we’ll share some beer.
LUNA: I was curious about where the name of the album was coming from?
GENEVICH: Basically, we played a show in St. Louis in March of last year. It was a house show and someone gave us a photo of this spider, and goes, “This is my spider, Darla.”
We thought it was crazy and then we had this photo of the spider in our car for the rest of the tour. I'm sad because we can't find the photo. We looked really hard for it.
BROOKS: It went on tour though. We maybe left it at a house in Canada or something.
GENEVICH: It probably fell out of the car. Then, Jake, I think, had the name Darla in mind when you were writing a lot of your parts for the record.
BROOKS: It had its own persona.
GENEVICH: The energy started to take over with the name for some reason.
Darla is like Laveda’s evil alternate.
It’s like an alter ego honestly, yeah. It’s the evil girl that you’re not, or maybe that you wish you were. Every song is sort of a different version of Darla. That’s where we got the idea for the name and since all the songs have these very different characters, some of them are based on interactions with friends I’ve had, and others are more about versions of myself I think I could have turned into.
I really could have doubled down on one thing that I did in my life and taken a totally different route and be somewhere completely different than where I am right now. Interesting that you asked about the clones, because that coincides a little bit.
It’s really small decisions that sometimes do change so much about your life.
It’s so crazy if you think about it too much. If I didn’t have a cup of coffee this morning, my whole day could have been completely different, or if you run into someone on the street and all of a sudden you’re grabbing drinks and your night is entirely something you didn’t plan.
It’s interesting to think what if I’d done something differently, where would I be? That’s the main inspiration behind the name and all of the songs. You could definitely dissect them individually a little deeper.
LUNA: Final question, what cartoon universe would you live in?
GENEVICH: Oh my god. The first thing that comes to mind for me is The Powerpuff Girls. It’s hard for me to choose one because there’s a little part of me that relates to each one.
There’s this episode where Bubbles wants to prove she’s not a little girl, that she can beat up all these monsters, and she beats all of them up and she’s such a bad*ss. I love how sweet and cute she is but then she’s so angry and destructive.
I like the overall vibe [of their world,] it’s bright and very poppy. I would probably live in that universe because it seems crazy and also having superpowers are fun.
BROOKS: I would probably end up in Adventure Time as much as I would want to deny it.
LUNA: Why would you deny that?
GENEVICH: Adventure Time is the best answer.
BROOKS: I don’t know, Adventure Time feels like such an easy answer, but I like the idea of living in a half blown up post apocalyptic Earth that’s fine. The lore is insane.
Love, Darla is out now via Bar None Records.
