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interview youth lagoon
wo weeks before my flight to Boise, Idaho I’m watching Trevor Powers and his band Youth Lagoon make a music video. We’re in a small studio in Brooklyn filled with taxidermied animal heads and old Penthouse magazines, and even though it’s just midday, almost everyone in sight is nursing a drink. The band is beat from a show the night before, but spirits are high. Mostly because this is a celebratory trip to New York, and the gig was the official release show - save for a secret hometown warm up gig at local club called Neurolux - for their second LP, ‘Wondrous Bughouse’. The next time I see Trevor we’re in his hometown at that same club. This is a strange time to talk, and not just because we’re spending the lunch hour in a dark bar. His initial press cycle for the album is largely over, and without naming names, he’s got some frustrations about the tired narrative of being cast as a loner living in an isolated city. After only a few hours I can tell where he’s coming from. Powers is anything but a loner, and the isolated city of Boise is actually one of those overtly friendly places that catches bigcity-dwellers off guard, where one can’t walk down the street without greeting half a dozen acquaintances. What was the first show you saw here at the Neurolux? I don’t know about the first show, but this was the first bar I came to as soon as I could legally go to bars. I don’t remember what the first show was, but this was actually when Fat Possum came to hang out. Before anything had been signed, this was the bar where they saw the very first show. Good memories. I love this place. Seems like the people of Boise hold this place in high regard. They do, it has a lot of history. Supposedly it used to be even more booming than it is now. Back in the 90s, it used to be packed every weekend. What was your thought process for choosing a label for ‘Wondrous Bughouse’? Was it a natural choice to stay with Fat Possum? I was on a two record deal with them already, but after the first record we became really close. They’re such a tight knit group. With this record, I wasn’t sure how it was going to come across. There was some... not friction, but everyone expected it to be something that it’s not. I was talking to the main guy I always talk to at Fat Possum, Steven Bevilaqua, and we’re really close. I was talking to him on the phone before going into the studio, and he was like, “Cool, cool,” but it still didn’t click with him that it was going to be that different. So when the record was done and I sent it to him he was like, “What?” texting me all these question marks and exclamation points. But they dug it from the beginning, all of them did. It caught everyone by surprise. They have a reputation for being a really hands on label. Super hands on. I’ve flown out to Mississippi multiple times to hang out or for meetings. If there’s a huge thing they want to talk about, they’ll fly here or I’ll fly there. And any 42 thisisfakediy.co.uk
big show, any show I’ve ever played in New York they’ve been at. It’s awesome, I love those guys.
“It’s complete bullshit when people want a backstory.” Your upcoming tour has an arena show with The National, and festivals like Coachella and Treefort here in Idaho. What’s it like playing huge shows in the middle of a club tour? Sometimes it affects it in a good way, and sometimes it affects it in a really negative way. Most festivals are pretty unorganised - even down to parking. Some festivals have it down, and some don’t. You’re scrambling to find parking, everything’s stressful. You barely get a soundcheck. It depends. I love festivals when things are set up in a very organised fashion. You would expect that it would be [organised], so much time gets put into festivals, but so many times it’s utter chaos. Especially the parking. Everyone’s always coming and going. It sounds like you’ve had some traumatic experiences with parking. It’s a big deal! Especially if you have a trailer. SXSW was madness. There were five showcases, and every
single time was so stressful. For a while you toured with just your guitarist Logan Hyde. How long have you been playing with him? After ‘The Year Of Hibernation’ was done, there were some shows that followed, some local shows, like the one I mentioned that Fat Possum came to. And there was another guy I’d been working with, Erik Eastman, and he didn’t want to tour or anything. I’ve known Logan probably for the last five or six years from just going to shows in random places. I called Logan up and I was like, “Erik doesn’t want to tour and I really need someone to play guitar.” He was instantly down. How long did you tour that record? Do you remember how many shows you’ve played? I don’t remember exactly how many shows, but a little over a year. That’s not that long, but the album’s only eight songs. So to play eight songs for over a year... You didn’t want to test any of the new material on the road? I couldn’t. There was too much going on. The way I wrote the new record, it made it physically impossible to do it live with two people. Ah, I didn’t realise that. Sometimes there are certain things you can try out before recording, but for me, the way that I was writing it was already so far beyond the capabilities of doing it live, I thought, “After I record it, I’ll worry about [the live show].” Do you ever want to start playing guitar on stage?