Lake Street Dive stopped by the WYEP studios on Tuesday, Oct. 1 ahead of their show at Stage AE. They brought their unique mix of soul and indie pop to the WYEP studios.
Set list:
Good Together
Seats at the Bar
Dance with a Stranger
Party on the Roof
Interviewer: Rosemary Welsch
Engineers: Thomas Cipollone, Tom Hurley
Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity:
Rosemary Welsch: You cannot top live music. You know, watching people work together is really something very special. So this is Lake Street Dive. They have a new album. You just heard the title track, which is "Good Together." And they are playing Stage AE tonight. So it's also the 20th anniversary of the band, which I was really kind of surprised by; I wasn't expecting it to be 20 years. Have you done anything special to acknowledge that this year? Any special events?
Mike Calabrese: We put out a new record. It was funny; I was thinking about this recently. We didn't commemorate our anniversary, but I don't know... yeah, I don't think after 20 years together, any married couple would know what I mean.
Welsch: But it seems perfect that the album is called "Good Together," and it's a really positive record. These are times where sometimes it's really hard to continue to listen to the news, and there are times you just think, "I need a break." It feels like that's happening a lot on this record. I'm wondering, is that just something that naturally happened because you needed it as individuals in the band?
Bridget Kearney: Yeah, I think there’s an interesting thing in watching trends in music. I read this article recently that discussed how you would expect in a time of sorrow that the music would be very sorrowful, or in a time of fear that the music would be very fearful. But sometimes the music is sort of the opposite of that — it's like a remedy for what's going on. So yeah, I think right now there are a lot of things to be sorrowful and fearful about, but we're coming at it from an angle of not ignoring it, not escapism, but just offering something that might help.
Welsch: I also think what I read was that the writing process for this was a little bit different. I mean, you've done... I don’t even know if you guys keep count of how many albums you’ve had, but it's been a lot. I read that this one started a little differently, maybe a little more collaborative early on in the process. Can you talk about that?
Calabrese: Whenever I talk, I talk too much. But yes, we started this record — now it can be told — with no songs ready to be written. We met in a room and stared at each other for a few seconds, and we were like, "You don't have anything?" "I got nothing." But it was our first experiment in writing all together in the same room, coming up with ideas and not being precious about our little ideas, trying to make them perfect, and then jumping to our friends and pretending that we were blazing about it. We had to do a few things to literally get the ball rolling. One thing we did was roll some two-sided dice to create some structure. We rolled four chords and tempo and meter, and we got three songs on the record that way. But there were about twelve or so that were truly horrendous monstrosities, but "Good Together" was one of them.
Welsch: So, Bridget, you’ve been here from the beginning, right? And Rachel on vocals as well. Mike, how long have you been with the band?
Calabrese: I’m 31, and it’s been three years.
Welsch: Three years. Okay, so this has gelled already. You're all part of the same thing. So, I'm going to put one of you on the spot. One of the things I love about reviews is they never know exactly how to describe you. It's like jazz, blues, pop — what's your elevator pitch? If you had to say right now, this is Lake Street Dive.
Kearney: We are roller-skating music, the soundtrack to a romantic comedy, and just enough to pop.
Welsch: I think you're going to get a contract that’s going to get you somewhere. Okay, here’s another question: It’s really hard to keep a band together for 20 years. There has to be some sort of commonality, some sort of mission that you all have. Why does it work? What’s the secret for this particular band lasting 20 years?
Calabrese: It started with four people who didn't really have a sound yet musically; it didn’t really sound good, to be honest, but we liked hanging out. That’s the key. If you like tortilla chips and hummus, you can join the band, basically. From the get-go, it was that. Whether it was the label we were on or the manager we worked with, or even our lawyer, everybody needs to be able to hang. Because if you're going to be in a business where relationships are everything and you're frequently stuck on a bus with someone else’s socks near your face, you need to be able to hang out — or at least talk about it, like, “Hey, can you get your socks out of my face?” without getting into a big fight. That extends to our crew; we’ve had the same bus driver now for 10 years just because he likes us and we like him. It’s all about finding other people who want to work together.
Welsch: I can tell you’re like tortilla chips and hummus, but you don't want me in the band. Trust me on that one. So if you've just tuned in, it is Lake Street Dive, and they have this great new record called "Good Together." We'll talk a little more about working together and what it takes to be on the road, but we want to get a little preview of what's going to happen on stage tonight. If you could do a couple more tunes, I’d love that.
Rachael Price: Sure thing. We're going to play a song called "Seats at the Bar.”
Seats at the Bar
Welsch: Lake Street Dive here in the WYEP studios are playing Stage AE tonight, and they've got a new album out called "Good Together." And certainly, this is a band that plays very, very well together. That last song, I know there’s a story behind it, and I think Bridget, it's your story.
Kearney: Yeah, I was working on some songs for this record and staying in Kingston, New York at the time, and someone invited me to a square dance. So, yeah, the song is inspired by a square dance and just like a dance setting where you're encouraged to intermingle. The classic square dances are like the rabbits and the squirrels, and it's all about turning your partner around and grabbing the person next to you. It’s all about everyone dancing together. I wanted to create an opportunity for that to happen in our shows because there are so many people coming in every night who live in the same city but may not know each other. They’re all enjoying the show together, so it's like, “Find somebody you don’t know and bring them out on the dance floor.”
Welsch: That has to be really incredible. Whenever you're on stage and you look out and see an audience reacting to you, that just has to be one of the most fabulous feelings.
Kearney: It really is. It happens whether we directly direct it, like this song is very direct, but it happens just musically too. When we start the song "Hypotheticals," everyone just jumps in; they immediately do it. It’s really amazing.
Welsch: Well, everyone knows that even in the best of relationships, there’s a point where you might say, “You know, I’m going to go to the other room and you stay here.” You just need a break from one another. How does this band deal with conflict? I’m assuming there is conflict on some level, but if it pops up, how do you deal with it?
Price: We make all of our decisions together — big decisions — and everybody's opinions and voices are taken into consideration. If there’s an aspect of the decision that's divisive, there’s always a compromise. What we’ve learned over the years is that you fight for things when you really want them, and when it’s not a big deal to you, you just say, “I’m going to go with the group.” That’s part of the ebb and flow of being in a band. It works because we know we all have each other’s backs. Very early on when we started touring a lot, I said, “I can’t do four shows in a row,” and the band was like, “No problem. We’ll do three shows in a row.” It’s less money, but we want to save your voice. Anytime something comes up, they always turn to me and say, “It’s your decision.” There’s a lot of support for everyone’s needs.
Welsch: Since we were talking about touring, this is a band — you’re seasoned now; you know what the road is like, and it's challenging. People have an idea of glamor, but you're on the road, away from your family, looking for decent food and sleep. How do you pull together as a group and say, “Okay, we're going to tour, we’re going to plan this?” How do you keep your sanity on a long tour?
Price: Well, we take our alone time. We do the things that fill our cup as individuals, whether it’s meditation, exercising, playing tennis, reading books, going to the public library, or going to the spa. We make sure we’re attending to our needs so we can maintain a baseline level of optimism. But the show does a lot; you can have really tired, long days and feel like a ship out at sea, and then the show anchors you.
Welsch: But it must be really nice at the end of all of this to go home to your place, your stuff, your people.
Price: That's nice, but I also miss everyone, you know? You get home and it's like, "It's so quiet in my apartment by myself."
Welsch: Well, if you have not checked out the record yet, I highly recommend it. I was listening to it earlier today, and this band has always had this amazing capacity for melody—just incredible. Lyrically, there were places where I was surprised, where I laughed. I thought there were really clever turns in it. It’s just a stellar record. So, by the way, the album is called "Good Together." Stage tonight if you get the chance to check it out. It’s Lake Street Dive here at WYEP!