Liberty Music: Paul Lacques of Double Naught Spy Car

Great interview with an incredible musician. Here are some rough notes from the conversation to give an idea of what we talked about. 

 

 

 

-Fifth release.....Record that day, arrange more complex racks and cut the next day......Overdubs from Nels Cline. 

 

-Fast sessions, spontaneous with good chemistry.....

 

-Mike Watt feature......Well known stars but are friends to the band.....Shoot hoops, play, good rapport

 

-Outsiders to mainstream pop approach; players brought in for latest album

 

-Band's bassist mixed and engineered project.....Project is like recording with family. Studio was at Mark's place and the vibe was much more chill.....Home grown approach

 

-Intertwined scene.......Musical tribes in the L.A scene...........

 

-Making people nervous since 1994........Strong themes/ melodies within racks with avant garde, left turns all throughout......

 

-Between three and ten approaches for creating new songs......Skeletal guitar parts can be brought in and that can be the tune. Other stuff, jamming will occur and some cool melody will materialize.....Musical improv......

 

-Strong personalities coming together in crafting tracks.....Love for country/ bluegrass players......Self taught but everyone else in the band had a certain amount of lessons/ imparted technical know how

 

-Had to learn various international flavoured rudiments w/ his prior group........

 

-Soundtrack work beforehand.......Major seventh over minor chords.....Chromaticism is something Paul digs

 

-You don't over think things with sound tracks. This is tied to one's own ego being removed from it......There's no element of "is the band repeating themselves?" w/ arranging a soundtrack to someone else

 

-Alt country outfit on the side eco stuff, social criticisms, etc.....Expression through lyrics which isn't available in the all instrumental ......Spy Car

 

-Fidlar guitarist Elvis played on new record.....

 

-Paul is a self described lazy listener.......Often finds new bands through playing with younger gigs

 

-Echo Park sound........Came together in the 90's.....Right in the Echo Park neighbourhood......Silverlake scene was key too

 

-Didn't seem like a defined scene at the time but looking back, there undeniably was a scene and certain approach

 

-Everyone going for something new.....A scene of brands under an umbrella but no one was derivative of anyone else in the scene......No stifling of creativity.....Experimental mindset. 

 

-Formative years.........Delta blues influences, bluegrass, etc

 

-Key venues/ record stores as a youth......Gigging in the 70's......Pizza PArlours playing......On the road with a country cover band for a few years.......Eventually the local LA club scene blew up

 

-New Wave, roots bands, etc all started popping up.....Thrift stores became popular and many coming to gigs created a vibrant live scene....... Around 79 or 80 this boom happened.

 

-Very DIY scene...........L.A underground reflected a myriad of influences......Some just starting instruments, some trained musicians "sneaking" into the scene.......It was almost cool to be a noob. 

 

-Playing with Bo Diddley.......Played with Bo while in a band called The Bone Daddies.......Played as Bo's back up band.......Rehearsed the Bo Diddley chunk chunk beat for a few minutes, "Bo don't play that shit anymore" from Bo's bodyguard o the guitarists.........Bo is very experimental......No hits for Bo......Lead the band with these swampy, improv jams

 

-Bo wanted Paul to play lead......"But you're Bo Diddley!"......Bo signed Paul's metronome.....Coolest guy

 

-Afternoon of weapons training w/ Paul Kickstarter feature.........Not being derivative........Don't reproduce yourself.....Searching for that next thing 

 

-"Spared mass fame and fortune"......Not being skewered by Rolling Stone, no beef with other musicians, etc.....Relative obscurity has shielded band from insecurities of being a mass reviewed band......The trap of the good review.......Praise for a certain sound= repeat that sound for more praise......That can create a quandary as artists who want to feel good but also want to create boundaries and push new things.....

 

-Researcher for The History Channel.....Actuality Productions.........Interesting interviews with people (details in prep notes)

 

-"Can't predict what will make you a better artist".......If something bad happen, you can make it so that it's supposed to happen

 

-Remaining open can get harder as you get older.......Focus can get narrowed, defining one's self for protection purposes......Constant goal to not be tethered to that.....Stay open 

 

-"Try to maintain sanity in a world that is clearly insane right now"