Adam Pfleider
05/07/10, 11:34 AM
Look Mexico have certainly made a name for themselves in the scene for a while now, but with the release of To Bed to Battle, an album that is reminiscent of the Midwestern emo of old with a contemporary feel, the band are already looking into expanding that sound and moving forward even more. I caught up with the band at this year's South by Southwest in their new hometown of Austin to discuss their influences and what the band aim to be in the end.
The first thing I want to touch upon is the sound of Look Mexico. It's very reminiscent of early 90's post-hardcore. Get Up Kids. Braid. At the same time, there's a southern tinge to the whole thing. What do you think of that?
Matt Agrella: Definitely. We're all Southern boys for sure. It's not like we set out to do this new thing, [this] Southern rock. I think it just kind of happened when we were looking for more sounds, more textures to put on the record. Dave [Pinkham] acquired this pedal steel from a friend and [Ryan Slate] laid his golden fingers upon . I don't know. Overall, there's a couple of directions we could have gone. For us, we wanted to kind of go this more organic way.
So what are your influences that make up that sound?
Band: My Morning Jacket. Wilco. New Built to Spill record.
Agrella: It's not like we listen to a lot Southern sounding stuff. I guess we're not going for a more alt-country sound. We're not listening to jam bands, but we're going for more of a rock and roll sound. If you think about rock and roll bands, you think about American rock and roll bands.
Now that you have [I]To Bed to Battle coming out and the hype behind it, where does the sound of Look Mexico go now?
Agrella: Well, we just picked up a new drummer, Alex Gooding. We've been working on some new material, and it's even more of a progression. It's kind of hard to describe. You mean musically what's next, or tour-wise?
Tour-wise, but I'm interested now in the musical aspect.
Agrella: I don't really want to use the term groove. Yeah, definitely take the word groove out of there. Something we really want to do with the next album is get really good vibes out of it. Stuff that makes you feel good. We don't want there to be any stressful points to the album, not that there are those points in this album, but we want to have a feel good album.
Is that the challenge for the band to keep moving in that direction? It's not like there isn't a good time on To Bed to Battle, but there are moments where you are pulling at the heart string.
Ryan Slate: The whole progression of the band over time, we've tried to make it less forced. Less, "Look at all these crazy parts we've come up with." We want it to be more, and I can't remember who described The Beach Boys in this kind of way, but a nice hug that kind of brings you in. I think that's kind of what we're looking for.
Agrella: More than anything, we're trying to develop our own sound. With stuff before, it was probably easy to say, "This sounds like this to me." With the new album, we started moving in a new direction that is more of us. With this [future] one we're going to establish that this is us. There's a lot of bands that will say the same thing. I think in this industry, it's always an uphill battle. Like with the Weatherbox guys or The Felix Culpa, we're all in the same boat. We kind of just need to stick together.
Do you think it's harder for a band that isn't catchy to everyone but still receives praise like you guys do?
Agrella: We're definitely glad to be doing what we're doing. We definitely don't want to be part of this wave of bad music that's going on right now.
Ryan Smith: I think I heard best of what you were saying. I think as far as incorporating different types of music and not fitting into any certain type of genre, I think it hurts and it helps. I think it helps us get attention because we don't sound like anything else, but I also think it hurts with the familiarity with the sound.
Dave Pinkham: On the flip side of that, all the best bands we look up to - and it's so easy to say The Beatles or something - the best bands that ever came have progressed. There's still the same core idea or thread that runs through all of it. I think that's kind of what we're doing.
Agrella: We don't want to be held back by something we'd done before. It's funny. We have had conversations before about it. Overall, whatever Look Mexico sounds like, we want to push it. We're at a point now, we just want to write music that we want to listen to. Some of our earlier stuff I wouldn't necessarily sit around and jam out to. I don't know if I should say that. [Laughs]
Slate: We're still going to have interesting guitar parts and interesting parts overall. We just want to move away from just focusing on the individual parts and focus on the overall flow of the album. We don't really want to lose the elements that composed us either.
The first thing I want to touch upon is the sound of Look Mexico. It's very reminiscent of early 90's post-hardcore. Get Up Kids. Braid. At the same time, there's a southern tinge to the whole thing. What do you think of that?
Matt Agrella: Definitely. We're all Southern boys for sure. It's not like we set out to do this new thing, [this] Southern rock. I think it just kind of happened when we were looking for more sounds, more textures to put on the record. Dave [Pinkham] acquired this pedal steel from a friend and [Ryan Slate] laid his golden fingers upon . I don't know. Overall, there's a couple of directions we could have gone. For us, we wanted to kind of go this more organic way.
So what are your influences that make up that sound?
Band: My Morning Jacket. Wilco. New Built to Spill record.
Agrella: It's not like we listen to a lot Southern sounding stuff. I guess we're not going for a more alt-country sound. We're not listening to jam bands, but we're going for more of a rock and roll sound. If you think about rock and roll bands, you think about American rock and roll bands.
Now that you have [I]To Bed to Battle coming out and the hype behind it, where does the sound of Look Mexico go now?
Agrella: Well, we just picked up a new drummer, Alex Gooding. We've been working on some new material, and it's even more of a progression. It's kind of hard to describe. You mean musically what's next, or tour-wise?
Tour-wise, but I'm interested now in the musical aspect.
Agrella: I don't really want to use the term groove. Yeah, definitely take the word groove out of there. Something we really want to do with the next album is get really good vibes out of it. Stuff that makes you feel good. We don't want there to be any stressful points to the album, not that there are those points in this album, but we want to have a feel good album.
Is that the challenge for the band to keep moving in that direction? It's not like there isn't a good time on To Bed to Battle, but there are moments where you are pulling at the heart string.
Ryan Slate: The whole progression of the band over time, we've tried to make it less forced. Less, "Look at all these crazy parts we've come up with." We want it to be more, and I can't remember who described The Beach Boys in this kind of way, but a nice hug that kind of brings you in. I think that's kind of what we're looking for.
Agrella: More than anything, we're trying to develop our own sound. With stuff before, it was probably easy to say, "This sounds like this to me." With the new album, we started moving in a new direction that is more of us. With this [future] one we're going to establish that this is us. There's a lot of bands that will say the same thing. I think in this industry, it's always an uphill battle. Like with the Weatherbox guys or The Felix Culpa, we're all in the same boat. We kind of just need to stick together.
Do you think it's harder for a band that isn't catchy to everyone but still receives praise like you guys do?
Agrella: We're definitely glad to be doing what we're doing. We definitely don't want to be part of this wave of bad music that's going on right now.
Ryan Smith: I think I heard best of what you were saying. I think as far as incorporating different types of music and not fitting into any certain type of genre, I think it hurts and it helps. I think it helps us get attention because we don't sound like anything else, but I also think it hurts with the familiarity with the sound.
Dave Pinkham: On the flip side of that, all the best bands we look up to - and it's so easy to say The Beatles or something - the best bands that ever came have progressed. There's still the same core idea or thread that runs through all of it. I think that's kind of what we're doing.
Agrella: We don't want to be held back by something we'd done before. It's funny. We have had conversations before about it. Overall, whatever Look Mexico sounds like, we want to push it. We're at a point now, we just want to write music that we want to listen to. Some of our earlier stuff I wouldn't necessarily sit around and jam out to. I don't know if I should say that. [Laughs]
Slate: We're still going to have interesting guitar parts and interesting parts overall. We just want to move away from just focusing on the individual parts and focus on the overall flow of the album. We don't really want to lose the elements that composed us either.