Crate Digging With La Luz

Perhaps more than any other artist on November’s roster, Seattle quartet invoke an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Drawing from the best of music’s Golden Age, La Luz channel equal parts the doo wop, surf rock, and garage harmonies that took the US by storm in the 1950s and early ’60s. Few bands manage to sound as authentic and comfortable with the weight of history as this Seattle four-piece. With that in mind, we dialed up members Shana Cleveland and Lena Simon to sift through the crates of nostalgia that inspired their warm, warm sound.

 

Interview by Roxy Merrell

 

What record brings you back to your childhood?

Shana: “Liquid Acrobat As Regards the Air” by the Incredible String Band always brings up memories of being 15 years old and just discovering the 60’s and lighting incense and listening to my mom’s old records in my room.

Lena: “Bad” by Michael Jackson is one record that I remember listening to ALL the time. I specifically remember listening to it on vinyl repeatedly.

 

There’s the line ‘wrong book at the wrong time’. Have you ever received the wrong record at the wrong time? Shana: I think the first 100 times I heard Bob Dylan I just couldn’t get into it and then one day I was like “Oh, okay”

 

What do you catch yourself singing in the shower?

Shana: Usually Will Oldham for some reason.

 

What record can you endlessly rediscover?

Shana: Billie Holiday. Or Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations Lena: I think Beck’s “Sea Change”. It’s so beautiful.

 

What record allows you to defy the laws of physics and travel time?

Lena: Gonna go out on a limb here and say N*SYNC’s “No Strings Attached” … I immediately turn into a 13 year old girl.

 

What record sticks out like a sore thumb in your collection?

Shana: Suburban Lawns. 80s synth weirdness. Look up their song “Janitor” on YouTube as soon as possible.

 

What record do you hear in every faint bass line in the distance?

Lena: I heard that you can find “Pachebel’s Canon” in pretty much anything.

 

What record did you make in a past life?

Shana: Maybe a Karen Dalton album. I would have liked to make Nippon Guitars by Takeshi Terauchi, he’s my guitar idol.

Lena: Something in the Big Band era I think. Although I don’t own any big band records, I’m sucker for them every time I hear it.

 

What record has stalked you down and made it into your house?

Shana: I can’t remember how I found Yanti Bersaudara, so I’ll say it found me. Three Indonesian sisters from the 70s who sing like angels and have a killer backing band filled with sick guitar riffs and great keyboard parts.

 

What record are you unable to leave behind in a record shop, even though you already have three copies at home?

Lena: I’m gonna go back to Michael Jackson’s “Bad” album.

 

What shared favourite record makes you like someone instantly?

Lena: Everly Brother’s song “All I Have To Do Is Dream” is an instant one for me.

 

La Luz play Rotown, Rotterdam with Slow Down Molasses on 2 November. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.