Chicago's own post-grunge, alternative rock, two-man power house Local H is probably best known for their hit "Bound to the Floor" off of their 1996 release As Good As Dead.
The two-piece band – guitarist/vocalist Scott Lucas and drummer Brian St. Clair – are currently on tour supporting their recently released seventh album Twelve Angry Months and hit Milwaukee's Turner Hall Ballroom on Thursday, October 23, 2008.
One spin of their latest work will quickly reveal why Local H has stuck around after many of their mid-90s counterparts have vanished from the scene. Underneath his awkwardness, sarcasm and grunge-like don't-give-a-shit attitude, it's evident that music is what drives Lucas – he loves it far too much to let anything stop him.
At any rate, I recently caught up with Lucas via telephone (and mini tape recorder) for a quick 20 minutes to discuss his new album, why he makes concept discs, life as a rock star and how he's survived in the music industry.
Between the Bars: So, how’s it going?
Scott Lucas: OK...
BTB: I’m here for Between the Bars, an indie Milwaukee blog, and if you wouldn’t mind hanging out for a bit, I have several questions for you.
SL: OK...
BTB: In my opinion, Twelve Angry Months is probably Local H’s most moving concept album since Pack Up the Cats. Did you plan to make another concept album or did it kind of just come about?
SL: Did we plan on it? Well, yeah, I mean we pretty much knew we were going to do it before any of the songs were written, so that was the main thing right from the beginning.
BTB: Is that typically how concept albums develop? Like...
SL: Well, most of the time what happens is, like, say in the case of Pack Up the Cats. The cat theme was just something that kept coming up and I noticed it and, like, for whatever reason back here a lot of things were happening that had something to do with cats.
So, I just kind of went down that, um, that road, and then once a couple of songs were written then I started to see what the record was about. Then, I started to follow it and, sort of uh, steer other songs in that direction, you know, whereas this, well, that was the basic idea from the very beginning.
BTB: What makes this album different from the last? Did you have a different approach to making it?
SL: Um, not really. I mean, it still was the idea of steering the record ourselves, and then, uh, putting it out, you know, whichever way we wanted to put it out. So, it’s the same idea of recording in pieces or over a long period of time.
BTB: Why did you decide to go with the breakup theme?
SL: Actually, those [Local H] records don’t tend to get much play, you know, people are more interested in...well, they’re more interested in songs about, you know, fans not digging the band anymore or, you know, bands selling out. It’s going to be more of, uh, music critic type of stuff. Sort of like, respond to songs that are about scenes or shitty fans. And so we wanted to get away from all of that and just focus on a record that would be very personal and so that there wouldn’t be much of a chance for people to, sort of uh, ignore that kind of thing.
BTB: Even though you’ve written songs about relationships on past albums, this is a more brutally candid venture. Wasn’t it hard to open yourself up like that?
SL: It’s hard, but you know, it’s not worth doing if you don’t do it like that. You know, one of the other things we really wanted to do was take back relationship songs from, uh, sort of mall/emo type of bands that are on the radio.
These songs really don’t seem to say anything to anybody and it’s just sort of sing-songy, you know, you broke my heart type of bullshit that no one really cares about. So we wanted to take the heartbreak, which is like a really valid and important emotion that everyone goes through, and just sort of infuse it with anger and reality and make it into something that couldn’t be just fluffed off.
BTB: Right, that’s probably what I really admire about it. You know, it’s not unrealistic or syrupy. It’s really honest and interesting and it seems like everybody can really appreciate it in some way or another.
SL: Most songs like that now are sort of like these romantic comedies, you know, that you’ll see someone like Dane Cook in, you know, and who wants to listen to the musical equivalent of that?
BTB: Right, absolutely... ha-ha.
The album also kind of reminds me a little of the Rolling Stone’s After Math or maybe even Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear. Were you inspired by either of these or any other breakup album?
SL: Well, I’m surprised to hear you say that. Those two records along with Blood on the Tracks were the major touchstones of this record. They were the MAJOR sources of inspiration and, like, sort of road maps. Um, so, yep, that was exactly what we were going for – sort of getting back to that kind of thing.
BTB: Well, you know, I’m a big fan of those types of albums and those two are probably my favorite breakup albums.
I also noticed that Twelve Angry Months also has a serious lyrical approach. Do you tend to set time aside to write or does it just come naturally to you?
SL: Um, I don’t set aside time, no, it just, if something strikes me, that’s where I’ll go. You know, it’s hard to force yourself and there was a period of time where we were recording tons of demos and you find yourself needing lyrics and you break out a rhyming dictionary and you end up not saying anything. I just don’t want to have songwriting come that way, it’s like a watching the clouds kind of thing.
BTB: I’ve seen you guys when you’ve come to Milwaukee probably a handful of times and I was always blown away by the fact that you’re a duo and you can blow the top off of any venue with your loud guitars and fierce drumming. You guys make more noise than most rock acts with four members, but it seems that what was once a novelty has become all too familiar in a scene where the fewer the instruments, the better.
So, when you hear of another two-person band like, say, The White Stripes getting a ton of press and praise for being inventive and unique for doing the two-piece thing, do you ever wonder where the heck all that attention was for you?
SL: You can kind of get into that, I mean, you can kind of see that, but we didn’t invent this thing. You know, the first band I heard doing it was The Flatduo Jets.
I think something like The White Stripes, it was more a debt to those guys 'cause most of the two-pieces that were happening when we were coming up were the blues-based bands, so like them and Chickasaw Mudd Puppies were this kind of thing...that’s probably where the two-piece thing came from is, you know, them – the Mississippi tall tale blues-type things.
So, when you look at The White Stripes and The Black Keys, they are very much in that tradition and we’re not. Our thing was trying to figure how to make a two-piece out of a heavy rock band.
We are probably closer in idea to someone like The Spinanes, like what they were doing as a two-piece. So, I don’t expect anyone to pretend that we were the first ones to do that, but, you know, when I see bands like The White Stripes, I’m glad we did it, it is a good idea because it can make somebody famous.
BTB: You’ve stuck around after many of your mid-90s contemporaries have faded. How’ve you stayed relevant and vital?
SL: I go see a lot of music; I listen to a lot of music. I don’t rest on, you know, our laurels and think you know...we don’t have a lot of people drowning us or kissing our asses and telling us we’re the greatest band, so we don’t feel like that. We don’t feel like when we go into a studio that we should just rehash what we did or, you know, when we go in, we try.
We try to make every record better than the last one and we try to connect with people and, yeah, there’s not really an insulation with us. So, there’s a sense of just trying to, I mean, and music is a form of communication, so we try to connect with the people who are interested in being connected to.
You know, we’re not going to, like, make records for people who obviously would never listen to our records. We’re not going to make records for people who would rather listen to, I don’t know, uh, 30 Seconds to Mars, whatever like that. But, the people that want to communicate with us, we want to try to connect with them in some way. You know. I don’t know. Maybe that’s why? I’m not sure.
BTB: So much music has become homogenized, how do you continue to evolve?
SL: Everything should just be, uh, I mean there shouldn’t be a formula. I think that’s because you should always try. Just because it worked before, doesn’t mean it will work again.
BTB: Since you don’t get as much media buzz, do you think you have to prove yourself all of the time with every record?
SL: Yeah, it seems like that. In a way that’s good and it’s good for the art of the record, it may not be good for...I don’t know...I mean in a way it’s good for the band.
BTB: Yeah, ‘cause then you’re constantly striving to do something different.
SL: It keeps us kind of hungry in a way.
BTB: Awesome.
I’ve read many past articles that label Local H as "Nirvana wannabes." Do you still get that? If so, does that annoy you?
SL: That stopped around Pack Up the Cats. I think that was a huge nail in that coffin. That’s what I knew would happen – as long as we’d stick around long enough, we wouldn’t have to deal with that forever and that’s kind of the way it has worked out.
BTB: I’m going to ask you a couple of random questions now.
Do you think you could have been anything other than a musician?
SL: No. Once I decided I wanted to be a musician that was pretty much it. I didn’t really give it a second thought.
BTB: What’s the hardest thing about being in a band?
SL: Um, I don’t know, maybe the driving?
BTB: What’s the most bizarre thing to happen onstage?
SL: Now, see that question always leaves me blank. Yeah, I have no idea. Actually, there’s a lot of bizarre things that happened onstage but, you know, that question is a little like asking Bush what his biggest mistakes were. OK? So, you’re going to have to think about that one for awhile.
BTB: Gotcha.
I read in an article that you can polish off an entire bottle of Makers Mark in one show. Is that true?
SL: I don’t see how that can possibly be true.
BTB: I didn’t think so. I was just, you know, checking – going to the person who’d know.
You have a reputation for dropping zingers on audience members. What’s the best one-liner you’ve ever hurled at a fan during a show?
SL: Uh, I don’t know. I mean, those things just kind of happen. They aren’t really thought up. Like last night there was somebody who was undecided in the audience and I was like, “How can you be undecided? What kind of fuckin’ idiot are you?” It’s not something that’s thought out, you know? It just happens.
BTB: Regarding touring, you’ve developed a reputation for relentless touring. What keeps you going?
SL: I don’t know. Probably just the playing – it’s pretty terrific.
BTB: Is there anything you’ve found that you can’t pull off as a duo live?
SL: There’s always a way to do it, you just have to figure out what direction to do it from.
BTB: To wrap it up, I’ve noticed that you come to Milwaukee pretty frequently. I was wondering what keeps you coming back so often.
SL: Uh, I don’t think we come to Milwaukee that much. I mean, we were at Milwaukee on the last tour that we did and now we have a new tour, so we are going back to Milwaukee. But, yeah, it’s the same thing with Detroit or Minneapolis or L.A. When we’re coming around, we’ll come around.
BTB: Well, you certainly come to Milwaukee more frequently than, say, Smashing Pumpkins or Nada Surf, two or my favorite bands.
So, what can we expect from Local H on Thursday at Turner Hall?
SL: Um, I don’t know. We will have to see what happens.
BTB: Alright. Well, that’s all I’ve got, I guess. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.
SL: No problem.
Local H rocked the socks off the audience at Turner Hall Ballroom on Thursday, October 23, 2008.
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