The Light and The Dark Out on September 17th
Quite simply, Lost Romance are a New Brunswick, NJ trio that play rock and roll. Their songs feature both big, rock guitar sounds and catchy, pop hooks. What Lost Romance have come up with is an alt-rock / power pop combination that's both hard-driving and accessible.
The band are set to release their first studio EP, The Light and The Dark, on LA's Starving Dog Records next week. To celebrate, they'll be holding a release show at New Brunswick's Court Tavern this Saturday, September 14th. Joining them on that bill will be Science (a project featuring Lost Romance bassist, Alexander Paul), Chris Batten and the Woods, and The Everymen.
I sent a few questions over to Lost Romance founding member, guitarist, and songwriter Gerry Perlinski. Read on to find out about the band's approach to creating their first studio recording and about some of the things the band have on "tap" for their release show (Hint: That was a really bad pun.).
CDM: Your band is called Lost Romance. A lot of the music that New Jersey is famous for -- Bruce, The Gaslight Anthem -- contains a pretty big strain of romance. On The Light and The Dark, I can hear some of that big, TGA-style sound. Is that something you guys are going for? Keeping the romance in rock music?
GP: Absolutely! I think that's what missing in a lot of today's music. There's no danger, no passion and as you put it, no romance in rock music. That's not to say there isn't any good modern music out there, because there certainly is. But, it seems that so many new bands are out there playing it safe. They are doing what they think people are into instead of being vulnerable and real. But, that's the way I've always written my songs. I try to take personal experiences and make them relatable to the everyday listener. There's a place for confessional songwriting, but to me the best music leaves things to the listener's imagination. That way, it becomes personal to them in a way only they know.
CDM: You guys have been a band since 2010 and The Light and The Dark is your debut studio release. You've been pretty relentless about playing live, though, even releasing the live recording Live at Great Scott last year. How do you go about capturing the energy of your live shows in the studio?
GP: We record all the basic tracks live. So bass, guitar and drums, plus some scratch vocals are all done live. To me that's the key to making the studio tracks feel like it's a live show. It's the closest you can get without actually being in a club. We don't do many overdubs or effects, so it's pretty pure.
CDM: Lost Romance are a straight-up power trio. It sounds to me like you try to combine the sound of guitar-driven bands of the 1980s and 1990s like The Replacements or Hüsker Dü with a real ear for pop. Can you talk a little more about the recording process? What's the band's songwriting process? Do you have a songwriting philosophy or are you doing what comes naturally?
GP: As I mentioned earlier, the recording process is very raw. We want the songs to speak for themselves as opposed to having the studio do the talking. There's a place for pristine production and multi-tracking and all that, but we're keeping things real and honest for now. We want to give people hearing our songs for the first time a taste of what to expect in the live show.
The songs at this point are mainly written by me, but that's changing. I'm a much different songwriter when we jam together as opposed to sitting in my house working out tunes on an acoustic guitar. It inspires me to write outside of my comfort zone and I think that makes for exciting music.
CDM: You've got this release show for The Light and The Dark coming up on September 14th at The Court Tavern in New Brunswick. What special things do you have planned for that night?
GP: Fire-eaters, sword swallowers and jugglers are all on tap for the show! Joking aside, we are planning a big night with some great friends on board. We have our bass player Alexander's band Science opening up the night, Chris Batten & The Woods right before us to get everyone fired up, plus the ubiquitous and raucous The Everymen closing out the night. I'm sure we'll be sharing the drunken mic with all of those bands at some point during the night with some sick covers as well.
We're also working with a new micro-brewery based out of Virginia called Starr Hill Brewery to help promote the event. We're going to have a beer special for the night called "The Light And The Dark" which will be a black and tan (Northern Lights IPA & Dark Starr Stout) named after our EP. We're pretty psyched about that!
CDM: So your debut studio recording is almost out. You're doing the big record release show at the iconic Court Tavern. What does Lost Romance have on tap for the rest of the year? Can we expect to see you again around Asbury Park?
GP: The rest of the year will see much more touring all over the Northeast and perhaps a West Coast tour at some point in support of the EP. We'll know more once the radio charts start coming back in. We'll also be hitting the studio to begin our follow up to this recording before year's end. As far as Asbury Park, it's a guarantee that we'll be back there to shake things up very soon, so look out!
_________________________________________________________________________________
I'd like to thank Gerry for taking the time to answer my questions. You can stream The Light and The Dark right now over at Lost Romance's Soundcloud.
No comments :
Post a Comment