Feartured Musician White Laces

WHITE LACES

Listen to White Laces online and find out where they’re playing: whitelacesmusic.com

Christine Erickson Photos by Molly Spell

What started as a bedroom project in 2009 has become a four-piece explosion of noise pop/ dream punk that’s touring up and down the east coast. While Richmond may be their home, White Laces has been doing a pretty good job at making a name for themselves all over. The band is composed of guitar, vocals, drum, keyboard and bass, but sampling, loops and synthesizers produces sounds like they’re from a garage in space. (Check them out, you’ll see what I mean.)

Landis, Jimmy, Alex and Jay were busy touring over winter break. While on the road, I spoke with Landis and Alex, to learn a little bit about themselves.

What you should know about White Laces:

The first time they ever played as a full band was live on WRIR.

L: It wasn’t so bad, really. Jimmy and I had been playing the songs together for months at that point, and I’ve played with Jay in bands since I was 12, so when we were winging it things were a lot more cohesive than they might have been otherwise. Either way, all four of us hadn’t been together in a room before that moment, so there was definitely some tension happening when they told us to start playing.

A: There was some apprehension about playing a third song. But we did, and it ended up being put on the B-side of the later tapes.

Currently. White Laces is affiliated with four record labels.

L: It gives us the ability to reach different audiences with different releases. We’re not pressing or selling thousands of records with a mega-corporation, so if we deal with small releases through our friends’ labels, it’s actually a bit easier to manage. We essentially tell a label that we’ll do a certain format with them (cassette, 7”, 12”, digital single) and then when we have the set of songs ready for that release or project, we send them over. It’s worked out incredibly well so far.

The band has been touring on and off for a few months.

L: The best part about it is the relatively cliche combination of getting out of town, seeing friends, meeting new people, and playing loud music in front of complete strangers.- simple and satisfying. The worst would be the yawning gaps of time between cities that feel like an eternity to me because I get carsick when I read.

A: Best was during the daytime when we were just kickin’ it, either at shows at Brooklyn Bowl or the rooftop cookout shindig that Jay’s friend put on. The worst was the drive back. I got a little carsick myself, especially when Landis was downing honey-buns.

White Laces does not have a drug problem.

L: As of now we’ve got a pretty cozy space, so our rehearsals consist of showing up one by one, poking around at our instruments and figure out what we’ve broken/ smashed/shorted/etc. and then kicking around pieces of songs. I wish there was more to say but I’d be up for meeting a band that has amazing practice stories. Maybe a band with access to a freight elevator and an escalating meth problem?

In the future expect a 7”, a split 10”, and a full-length record- and of course with more shows, videos, and whatever else these boys find the time to do.