Today's
guests début album was a very challenging one to review. As their
blend of Stoner Metal, Hardcore and Punk Rock does take a while to
get used do. But once it does you can't deny the sheer talent of this
band.
I
called their début album – Sleepwalker - “Now I should of
said earlier of who produced this album as the album sounds superb
through out. Philip Cope of Kylesa fame has produced this album. So
it's good enough for Philip then it should be good enough for you to
check these guys out. As L.M.I. are definitely worth checking out.
Sleepwalker
is one very strange beast indeed. It will frustrate and entertain you
in equal measure. If you want something different to check out then
L.M.I. is the band for you.
An
intense wild ride that you won't easily forget.”
So
it's my pleasure to be talking to L.M.I. - a band with a lot of ideas
and riffs to confuse the living hell out of you. But like I said, If
it's good for Philip Cope then it's good enough for you all to check
out. I decided to find more about L.M.I. And they have kindly agreed
to do this interview.
Q1
– Hi guys. Thanks for doing this. How are things with you all
today.
No
problem! Thanks for having me. I’m doing pretty well.
Q2
– Can you tell our readers a brief history on how the band started
and where it is today.
The
band really started in early 2010. Our bassist Brando and I had been
jamming for a little while and we needed a drummer. I knew Kevin from
another band he had previously played in and I asked if he wanted to
jam with us and he said yes. That’s pretty much how things got
started.
Q3
– How would you describe your sound as you pack a lot of different
noises into the mix.
A
kind of genre people have been calling us recently that I think is
interesting is “Stoner Punk”. Normally when people ask me what
kind of music we play I generally just say weird punk rock or
something along those lines but I kind of like the term Stoner Punk.
Q4
– How did you become involved with music.
I
have been playing music since I was 7 years old. The first instrument
that I really practiced and learned how to play was the violin.
Q5
– What does L.M.I. Stand for. Any particular meaning behind it.
L.M.I.
stands for Lazy Middle-Class Intellectuals. We got the name from a
song by Bad Religion called “21st Century
Digital Boy”. When we first started, Bad Religion was definitely a
big influence on our band.
Q6
– So lets get talking about your new album. Sleepwalker. What a
great album it is. Was it a hard or easy album to write and record
for.
Thank
you! And the writing process was more of a mixed bag. When we first
started writing the album things seemed to be going smoothly and on
time. But I’d say right around when we were getting close to
finishing the record a lot of issues seemed to come up. But we worked
through them and this record is a result of it.
Q7
– It's a very strange album especially with the different mix of
sounds. Was that your intention to do something different compared to
other bands.
Our
band has a very wide range of influences so it wasn’t originally
our intention to have a record that has a bunch of mixed sounds
through out but it ended up coming out that way. To tell you truth
when I was writing the majority of the record I thought our songs
would sound too similar to the bands that influence me but as I
played it for the rest of the band it was obvious that they didn’t
think of it that way and once they put in their parts it really took
on its own sound.
Q8
– How did you hook up with Philip Cope from Kylesa to produce your
album.
I
had emailed the studio that he worked at but never got a response. So
I ended up messaging him on Facebook and we talked for a little while
and I showed him our material and he liked it and agreed to produce
our album.
Q9
– What sort of dynamic did he bring to your album. Did he offer any
helpful advice.
He
was very honest and a diligent hard working guy when it came to
working in the studio and that had a positive impact on the record.
Pretty much within the first few minutes of getting into the studio
we setting everything up and began recording. If their was something
that we played that he didn’t like or he thought didn’t fit the
song he would come straight out and tell us that we needed to rework
or rewrite whatever we were doing because it frankly sounded like
shit haha. But I appreciated his input because he really told it like
it was.
Q10
– Which bands and artists influenced you as musicians. Any
particular band or album that stand out.
Like
I was saying earlier it is really a wide range of bands and artists.
But I’d say some bands that probably had the biggest impact on my
writing and myself would be groups like Kylesa, Best Coast, Black
Flag, Gallows, The Bronx, Hot Snakes, Converge, Cancer Bats and
Unwound. There are tons of bands that influence us but these are the
first that came to mind for me.
Q11
– Love the album cover. Who designed the cover and how much input
did you have with overall design.
John
Santos did the artwork for the record. I’d say I had some input on
the overall design but more so in the beginning rather later on. When
Santos first began the sketches for the record he and I talked
extensively about what the songs were really about the general themes
of the record. I would explain to him what the songs were about and
he would tell me ideas he had based on what I had explained to him
and that’s really how it started. It was really bouncing ideas off
of each other to get a general idea of what the visuals should be.
Q12
– What is the song-writing process in the band. Is it down to one
individual or is it a group collective.
I
would say it is a group collective. How it normally starts is I have
some riffs that I show it to our drummer and after we jam with them
for a bit the song is generally different than what I had originally
written. After the drums are written I write the lyrics and our
bassist writes his parts. Afterwards we come together with what we
have and jam till it sounds really tight. There are also times where
our bassist or drummer will have some riffs they wrote for a song but
the process is generally the same.
Q13
– How big of a help has BandCamp and the Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal
community been in promoting your music.
Well
the album just came out this week so I haven’t really seen much
support from the doom/sludge/stoner metal community. But we will try
our best to spread the record around so people become aware of it.
But having Bandcamp has definitely made things a lot easier for us.
It is just nice to have a simple page where all that shows up is our
music and no other distractions. It also makes it easier for us to
send out our music to promoters and venues because it is simple and
easy to use.
Q14
– What is your musical set-up when playing live or recording your
music. Any hints and tips would you like to give to the budding
musicians out there.
We
have a pretty simple set up when it comes to playing live and
recording. We all generally use the same set up for recording and
live as well. I have a Fender Bandmaster head and 2x12 Fender cabinet
that I use pretty much all of the time. Our bassist uses a Yamaha
B100 2 head and an Ampeg BA115 as a cabinet. Our drummer has a mix of
Tama hardware that he uses with his kit and all of his main cymbals
are Paiste cymbals.
Q15
– We are massive Vinyl Heads here at Sludgelord. Are you vinyl fans
yourselves.
Absolutely!
Yea we all collect vinyl and have been for a while now. It is
definitely my preferred way of listening to music. We are fortunate
enough to have a great record store near our area called Siren
Records that has a pretty extensive vinyl collection. So it’s nice
to be able to have somewhere close by that has a good selection of
records that aren’t insanely expensive.
Q16
– Do you guys perform a lot of gigs in your home town or do you
have to travel further afield to perform regularly.
We
actually don’t play in our hometown very often. We normally try to
travel further outside of where we live to play just because we
primarily played in our hometown when we first started. I’d say we
normally travel at least a few hours on a regular basis for shows. We
also currently booking our east coast tour set for August as well.
Q18
– What is your verdict on the whole crowd-funding scene. Where
bands ask fans to fund their next album. Are you a fan of that
platform. Would yourselves ever go down this route.
In
some circumstances I can understand the crowd funding idea. The only
real thing I think it works best for is if a band has an accident
somewhere and they are in serious need of help to get back on the
road. Their was a band from our area that had an incident happen like
this, they got in a van accident while they were on tour in Europe
and they were completely out money and basically stranded in the
Czech Republic.
But
because of crowd funding they were able to raise enough money to get
home. That’s really the only time I think crowd funding is worth
it. Other times I really think it makes a band not have to work as
hard as they really should. A lot of the bands I see doing this
easily have enough money to record their new record but they don’t
feel like paying for it from their pockets so they try and get their
fans to pay for it for them. I think fans really already do enough by
supporting the bands and buying their records and it is kind of
selfish to make them pay for the recording process as well. I would
never use crowd funding for our own recording.
Q19
– If you could give any advice to someone wanting to start a band.
What would it be.
Work
hard and expect nothing in return. If you do this there is no way you
can be disappointed with how things turn out.
Q20
– The last thing before you go, Do you have anything else to say to
your fans.
Thanks
to everyone for checking out our new record and supporting us these
past 4 years.
Well
guys. Thanks for doing this. All the best with Sleepwalker.
Check
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Written by Steve Howe
