by Benji Heywood (@BenjiHeywood)
The show was not going well. In the dead of summer outside Peoria, IL, Lifeguard were about to perform their first headlining gig. As the last band of a six-band bill playing an industrial barn that doubled as a makeshift bar/venue, the members of Lifeguard – guitarist/vocalist Kai Slater, drummer Isaac Lowenstein, and bassist/vocalist Asher Case – were skeptical. The band before them had been very drunk and most of the crowd had left after they played, leaving less than ten people to watch Lifeguard’s set. Lifeguard, the Chicago punk band whose music exists somewhere between post-punk and post-hardcore, had a choice to make: phone in the performance or play the show like they were playing Madison Square Garden.
If you’ve seen the explosive three piece live then you already know which answer they chose.
“We just said let’s rip it up,” remembered Slater during a recent interview with Post-Trash. “We took a bad situation and made it good. Our friend Eli was there and he was dancing crazy and eating orange peels.”
While poor Eli may or may not have barfed up citrus rinds that night (accounts varied among the band members), one thing is clear. Lifeguard is a band continuing in the long tradition of egalitarian punk music. From Fugazi to Nirvana, bands of this tradition give every ounce of their blood and sweat at every show, no matter if there’s ten kids in the room or ten thousand. It’s a quality that should gain Lifeguard new fans as they hit the road this summer in support of their recent EP, Dressed in Trenches, out now on Matador.
A week before the release, Lifeguard sat down with Post-Trash to set the record straight about their influences, how they go about writing their brand of ferocious, angular guitar music, rad tour spots, cool bands in an exploding Chicago local scene, and how they stay sane on the road.
(Note: questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.)
photo credit: Mariana Belaval
Post-Trash: So, the press seems to mention the same two or three bands as comparisons to your sound, but I’m curious what you think are your influences?
Kai: We all bring in specific sensibilities, but we always somehow make it work. Some bands that we've always connected with are Blonde Redhead, Swirlies, This Heat, Iceage, Wipers, Buzzcocks, Polvo. Also, a really healthy dose of classic British pop music and pop punk.
Isaac: Deerhoof also goes in there. Never forget Deerhoof.
Asher: Recently, we've been getting into early 2000s dance punk stuff. A lot of which is British, I guess. I think especially with that, it's something that I was unconsciously into at a young age, because it's just very fun music that makes you want to dance.
Isaac: There's a certain pop sensibility to a lot of those. Specifically for me, Bloc Party and Klaxons are both fantastic. Maybe we don't sound particularly like (these bands), but there's an energy and weird experimental ideas involved in those songs. I think we channel a similar thing.
Asher: I'm a big fan of that Rapture record Echoes. That was a big, big one for me getting into this type of music.
PT: What was your experience like recording at Electrical Audio? That place is legendary.
Kai: Yeah, we've recorded at Electrical a lot. We come from home recording and Electrical’s always been a very comfy, homey space to record. It doesn't feel too sterile. So, right off the bat, it felt natural to do the EPs there. (Editor’s note: Dressed In Trenches is the second of two EPs recorded less than twelve months apart, paired together on vinyl with Crowd Can Talk.)
PT: Did you record them mostly live? Or track by track?
Isaac: We did most of the recordings live, then add a few overdubs.
PT: Was the writing process different this time around?
Kai: For both these EPs, we got into a writing groove of taking a lot of time after we initially write the songs, playing them live a lot, and letting them kind of evolve naturally without really thinking about it. In the past, we've kind of, you know, jammed econo and just kind of written the songs, and then immediately recorded them and released them. Then we started realizing that when we would play shows, the songs would kind of just take different shapes.
Asher: In the time since we've written both these EPs, we've been playing a lot more shows. So naturally, if we write a song, and then have a show coming up, we'll probably just play that song at that show. It’s a way to road test the songs and perfect them in a way that we kind of couldn't do with some of the earlier stuff just because we weren't playing as often.
Isaac: I think recently – and especially with these newer tracks on Dressed in Trenches – there's a lot more deliberate writing and re-listening at home and bringing new things in.
Kai: Yeah, we’ll finish a song at practice – or what we think is a finished song – and then, go home and listen to it and write new parts and fuck around with it. The basics of the song usually get written pretty immediately. Then we take a lot of time with the writing process of it.
Asher: We also do a lot moving around parts after they've been made. So, a lot of (our song) forms are specifically tailored to how we play. Some songs are very verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Then in some songs, repetitions are shorter, and we add things in differently. It's all specific to the song and how we were feeling we should make it.
PT: Have you guys already started writing songs for the next full length?
The band together: We have two or three, yeah.
PT: Can we expect to hear them on your upcoming tour with Horsegirl?
Asher: Yeah, I mean, we're trying to write some new stuff before we go on tour so that we can like, mess with them. Kind of do what we’ve been talking about.
PT: You’ve already played a ton of shows outside Chicago. Is there a memorable venue or tour story that sticks out?
Asher: On our tour in January of this year, we were on the East Coast. We played at this place in Washington DC called Rhizome, which was like an art house kind of thing that does a lot of shows. It was to me one of the coolest shows we've ever played, because it was very raw. There's something about going to house shows that is so hometown for me, but then seeing that it's a big thing everywhere, that that you can just go and play somewhere and feel kind of the same belonging is great.
Isaac: Outside of Chicago, my favorite thing we've done was we played this tiny little record store in New York called Record Grouch. I think we kind of thrive in tight spaces. I think we also work on larger stages, too, but there's a certain kind of special show that we can have when we're in like a tiny little room and it's really, really hot. For some reason, the air conditioning isn't working. Something about that kind of show is magical. We all really get a lot of energy from this type of show.
Kai: We played a house show in Richmond, Virginia, on tour last summer and we met a lot of young punks, young fans. That was really awesome. I think I could probably tour for years if every show was like that, because it just boosts your morale so much to see young people that like your music.
Isaac: Yeah, anytime things are free and all ages, it always works out.
PT: Let’s talk about your home scene in Chicago, which is full of exciting young bands. I’m curious, who is standing out for y’all?
Kai: I just set up this thing called Hallogalo Fest, which sort showcases this scene, or young new bands in Chicago. Some bands that played were Flower Grease, Uniflora, Post Office Winter – all these great new bands that are our friends that we really dig and are amazing come to mind first.
Asher: You know, it's cool, because the way that we met, like, Flower Grease and Uniflora was by going out and seeing shows. It's a cool way to meet people when you liked their band, and then you become friends after the show. There's a couple shows that I've been to recently – we played with this band Fruit Leather when we put out Crowd Can Talk that was at a great all ages space in Chicago called Color Club. That was where the second Hallogallo Fest this year happened, and that's a lasting connection, a lasting friendship with them.
PT: Playing tons of shows can be a grind. How do you remain inspired on the road?
Kai: We met these fans of the band – kind of fans of the general music scene in Chicago – they're from Portugal, and they reached out. They're starting a youth collective, and they're making these new bands and these cool projects, great music. It was really inspiring to meet these people and talk to them. Seeing how universal music is, and young people starting bands, was really inspiring. When I’m looking for inspiration, it's just like, look at the people around you who are so driven, it makes me feel so driven, because it's like, we're all in this together. The more driven we all are for our own projects, the more successful all of us are going to be and happier we're gonna be. That’s what keeps the morale up (on tour), our friends and meeting other bands. Knowing that we're all just in bands, and we're trying to help each other out.
Asher: To me, I think that, lately, something that has been inspiring me, is the way I handle waking up and the morning in general. I think that's an important thing on tour, because you can't expect to, like, wake up at noon every day, and then go load in in two or three or whatever. Seeing the morning is a very beautiful part of tour. It's also a beautiful part of my experience of America. Last summer, on our tour filling in for Dummy (who were opening for Horesegirl), there was a morning where we stayed in this hotel that was right off the highway. Me and Isaac woke up in the morning and just like went out and sat kind on the edge of the parking lot by the highway. It was a very nice way to wake up. Taking that time made the day actually a lot better. It’s nice to have a morning and it’s very productive for my mental health.
Isaac: America is beautiful. I love, love the road. The last thing that inspired me is a bit more direct. A couple of days ago I saw our friends in this band Free Range twice in a row. Free Range is like indie folk so not quite the same thing as us. Both of those shows were super insane to me. Like they had this crazy dynamic, and specifically, their drummer, Jack Henry. The whole band has this middle to low dynamic for most of the time. Then like sometimes they just bring it way up. My mind has just kept coming back to the way that they kind of have this settled dynamic for a good chunk of the set. That gives them all this headroom to really bring up their dynamic. At least that's what's been inspiring me musically. Lifeguard is kind of always a one or zero in terms of dynamic.
Kai (laughing): We have no dynamic. People are surprised when we’re quiet.
Isaac: Seeing Free Range’s dynamic kind of freaked me out when I thought about Lifeguard’s dynamic. If you’re constantly playing the hardest you possibly can, then none of the hardness actually shows up because you have no contrast. So even if like, their style of music, and everything doesn't exactly align with what we're doing, something about seeing that band play, just gave me an immense sense of jealousy. They’re a really good group of musicians!
PT: How about on the road, Isaac?
Isaac: It really keeps me going to meet kids after shows, and seeing people come up to us and learning that their favorite band is, like, Can or something. Being like, wow, there are young punks everywhere. It feels a little bit like Chicago, you know? Like, this reminds me of home. It's not a bunch of cross armed adults just staring. What keeps me going is meeting the young punks of the world.