September Band of the Month Winner: Mister Loveless

hometown: Walnut Creek, CA

categories: Indie Rock

for fans of: The Pixies, British Sea Power, Joy Division

background check:
Here's the exclusive mySpoonful interview with Mister Loveless:

Dawson from mySpoonful (mS):Mister Loveless has a very singular sound, but it seems to stem from several different places - the power of commercial rock and then the art of indie rock. Do you think those two sounds are mutually exclusive? Which genre do you gravitate more to?

Mister Loveless(ML): No, I don't believe the two sounds are mutually exclusive. We probably spend more time trying to stay away from genres than gravitate toward them. I don't think any of us prefer a wall of dissonant guitars over a strong chorus or vice versa. We just think popular music can and should have substance. That it can be made artfully and sound "polished" without sacrifice. We do, however, understand that's rarely the case these days. I suppose we'd like to change that. We'd like to restore people's faith in pop music. We're pop music optimists. So, I guess we're "poptimists." ...I should probably go copyright that before some blogger takes it from me.

mS:What's one of your "guilty pleasure" favorite bands?

ML:When I'm alone in my car and that Adele single comes on the radio, I usually turn it up. My mom heard me mention that in another interview recently. Now, every time I visit her she's playing that new Adele record in the house. Yeah, my mom and I listen to Adele together.

mS:Geography plays an important role in the early formation of bands..Was there a "music scene" where you grew up in Walnut Creek? Generally speaking, what type of influence did growing up in Northern California have on your sound?

ML:Well, like most suburban communities, Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County in general, produced a lot of metal and hardcore. Still does, really. So, there wasn't much of a scene for us but we definitely had a group of friends that we're interested in making different music. The first band I saw Sean play in was called, "Vaudeville." I remember they performed this completely bizarre cover of "Venus in Furs" by the Velvet Underground at our High School's Battle of the Bands. I just remember it ending with blood and gasps of disbelief from the audience. It ruled. Still to this day, I've never seen a 16 year old kid with that type of stage presence. He made our lame High School feel like CBGB's or something.

I think the influence of growing up in a Northern California suburb can be largely attributed to the mood of our music. The garage on my parent's tree shrouded property, where we still practice today, feels completely disconnected from the pace of city life, frozen in time even.
I think the attitudes, expectations, fears, and escapist mentality found in the young people in suburban communities like Walnut Creek really influenced us. I really felt that. So, I wanted to write songs about it.

mS:Mister Loveless has opened up for Black Francis, The Wedding Present, and recently with Peter Bjorn and John. Who was your favorite band to play with so far? Also what band from the past would you have been perfect tour-mates for you (sonically, attitude, etc...) , and what band today would be your perfect tour-mates (sonically, attitude, etc...)

ML: Unfortunately, the PB&J show didn't end up happening due a severe shoulder injury their drummer suffered. That would of been an incredible show. But, that's the breaks. I guess he had been playing with one arm, total Def Leppard style for some shows towards the end of the tour. Pretty bad ass. We're hoping we can share the stage with them in the future.

I think the Wedding Present have been our favorite band to play with, so far. There were a lot of factors that contributed to how fun that show was for us though. The sound at San Francisco's Independent is incredible. The staff gave us the full "rock star" treatment which, was kind of surreal. I don't know. I remember saying "thank you" a lot. When I'm nervous, I just walk around thanking people.

The Wedding Present were nice people and really fun to watch play live. They were performing their album, "Bizzaro" in it's entirety on that tour. Some of those songs are so fast they seem almost painful to play. But, they did it so effortlessly. We felt really privileged to be apart of that performance.

I think a Pixies/Loveless tour past or present would be amazing. Surfer Blood are a really great new band that would be cool to tour with too. That's a hard question, man. Maybe I should pick a mediocre band so we just really smoke em', you know? Like, Smash Mouth. We'll tour the the US county fair circuit together. Eat corn dogs. It'll be great.

mS:Your band is named after one of Rob's middle school teachers - has he ever seen you guys play? What kind of music was he into? Did he have love in his life or did he just have an unfortunate name?

ML No, he's never seen us play. He was a teacher I had when I lived in Ohio, nearly ten years ago. I doubt he even remembers me. Maybe, though. I did hang out with the trouble makers in Middle School. I remember he liked John Denver a lot. He was a young guy, too. Much younger than your average John Denver fan. I think he was married so, yeah probably not too much love in his life...I'm kidding of course. He seemed generally happy but who knows, I was 14 years old last time I saw the guy. He could have hated teaching a bunch of bratty kids about the Industrial Revolution. I always thought he was a good teacher though. Far better than most teachers I've had. He never sent me to the principal's office or took away my Walkman so he's cool in my book.