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"I've never owned a white belt " 10 Questions with Ted Leo
By: D-Bot (Lawrencerock.com Interviews Editor) |
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I caught up with Ted Leo in Ann Arbor the night after he played Detroit and got to talk to him about his echoplex, his friends, and why he loves making pop music. 1) How would he describe his new CD? Don't call it "pure pop"- Ted feels he made a conscious choice to attempt to work backwards and leap over a "pop" sound, with lots of varied influences coming together to create something that is his own.But he also feels that he and his bandmates (James Canty- guitar, Dave Lerner-bass, Chris Wilson-drums) have the real honest belief that " pop music has the power to actually move things in the world... and we take it that seriously..." 2)
Influences? "70's rock, Arty Punk, 60's R&B and Celtic folk..." and "...Paul McCartney's Ram" 3)
Average time spent on hair? 3-5 minutes. "No extra products." 4)
Piercing Count? Zero 5)
Tattoo Count? Zero 6)
Hours Sleep per night? 7
) How does Ted write his songs? For this album Leo first wrote and made demo versions of each song, but considers himself privileged that he is friends with an incredible group of musicians who could work with him and understand what he was aiming for when he was ready to go into the studio. The closeness made it easy to work together and create great sounds. 8
) Artists, heard on the road, that Ted liked: Ghosty
(God yes! L-town reprazents!!!) 9
) Hours Practicing? When not touring, at least an hour a day. 10)
White belt count? Zero When
I asked Ted Leo about his first solo album he told me, "People
fucking hated that record..." A lot of people felt betrayed that
the former Chisel frontman had dared to break some new ground. With
his plucky echoplex (note: he actually bought his first echoplex, which
has become an intrinsic part of his guitar sound, in Lawrence in 1996!!)
feeding a new sound, he tried to capture what he was creating by himself
after Chisel stopped playing together. I was lucky enough to see him
tour after that CD came out and was one of many in the crowd blown away
by a person ballsey enough to get up on stage with just his guitar,
echoplex, and a reel-to-reel tape player. While it was not greeted with
enthusiasm, it was still a great listen. Ifyou're not down with his
self-described "pop songs through the dub\noisewringer" you
can get behind his new CD "The Tyranny of Distance." While
he feels that both CDs have strong songs and writing, he recognizes
that this new CD is more accessible to people if they want something
written for a whole band. So don't forget to come and see him and his band play. This is a show that will make you feel good, no matter what you have to do that night to get there: Thursday, Nov. 29 with the Dismemberment Plan and Triangle at the bottleneck (for the KJHK birthday party!). Be there. |
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