Thankfully, Elizabeth from Land Of Talk was extremely entertaining and we didn't attempt any cringe-worthy puns...
LG: So I know Land Of Talk has had quite a few changes in the line-up?
Lizzie, Land Of Talk: Oh my god, yeah.
LG: How did it come to be at its current line-up that it is now?
LOT: A lot of hoping and praying! And Brian materialized (their new drummer). Brian came on for the first time this tour. He’s really good friends with my boyfriend and I knew he was a killer drummer.
LG: He makes the best drumming faces I’ve ever seen in my life!
LOT: They’re legendary! He played in a band called ‘Immature Love’ and the front man Josh Scott was pretty incredible to watch as it is and they’re this legendary band, anyway people were fighting within themselves because they didn’t know who to watch, the lead singer or Brian. But he’s fucking awesome.
LG: He looks like a kid high on a lot of sugar.
LOT: (Laughs) I’ve never seen him! I was just so excited, I wasn’t even looking at his face, I was just so excited that he was working out and that he wasn’t a...fucking loser! Just like, you never know. The bottom could fall out at any moment so you just have to hope that people have got your back. But Brian is totally great.
LG: I had a bottle of champagne to bring you guys to celebrate the first night of the tour for you but I left it at home because I thought the interview wasn’t happening!
LOT: You did not!! You brought a bottle of champagne, are you serious? That’s just beautiful!
LG: Well it’s not here..
LOT: Who cares it never tastes as good as the idea of it. That’s just beautiful thank you!
LG: So where does the name Land Of Talk actually come from?
LOT: Funnily enough, it’s not like this anymore but it used to be that I would talk all the time about ‘oh the band that I’m going to do’ but then I’d realise, there was a café that we always used to hang out in, in Montreal where people were always working on a novel or people who were just like ‘I’m going to do this’ so it was the whole all talk no action thing. Even on a larger scale when I started researching ‘Land Of Talk’ I think somebody said ‘oh I’m just working on a novel’ which funnily enough he’s doing his novel now and one of the chapters is called ‘Land Of Talk’ because it was with him that we were talking on the phone one day and I said, ‘Oh who knows in this land of talk’ and he was like ‘that should be your band name!’ and I was like ‘yeah you’re fucking right it should be’ (laughs). But it was the whole idea of just talking, I realised I could wake up when I’m 87 and not have done any of this, so it was a good motivator. But now it’s all do, no..
LG: Sleep?
LOT: No nothing!
LG: Did you always want to do music?
LOT: Yeah, always mostly music. Otherwise it was figuring out how to help people out of their own shitty mindsets. I used to work with developed mental delay children, usually I dealt with like 7 year olds or people who were 14 but had the mental capacity of a 7 year old. I did that before I did music full time and I always still.. I would do that in a second if I had the opportunity. I would love that I think that’s awesome. But I was always musically inclined and involved.
LG: It’s pretty interesting to go from something like that to music though, they’re pretty different?
LOT: Kinda the same thing though, do you know what I mean? Like you’re dealing with people who are often suffering from something that is obstructing them from behaving normally and I just find in this industry you find a whole bunch of people who are fucking themselves up, I mean they weren’t born fucked up but you’re still dealing with the same bizarre tendencies or like aggressiveness or self-loathing so you can kind of use the same tactics. You know, calming people, speaking, use your words! Don’t hit, use your words.
LG: Don’t smash guitars. Put down the crack pipes etc. We’re not doing too well on the drug front here (Winehouse etc.)
LOT: Love Winehouse.
LG: I know right? Really don’t want anything bad to happen to her.
LOT: She’s going to be ok.
LG: Maybe you should talk to her?
LOT: (Laughs) Maybe we should hang out. By the way I’m not even attempting to imply that I have no problems! But no I love Amy, I was watching her on the Grammys and her mom was with her. She looked happy; I think the sooner people leave her alone the sooner she’ll get better. When she’s on she’s super on.
LG: Do you feel like the current musical focus on Canada, because everyone seems to be having an obsession with Canada…
LOT: yeah it’s weird.
LG: I totally have it too.
LOT: that’s awesome.
LG: (cont’d) do you feel like it helps you as a band or is there a pressure to live up to anything?
LOT: I don’t feel any pressure, I feel like the only pressure is things like getting to the flight on time and all the stress of just… shit! But in terms of all that I don’t think that anybody is aware of it.
LG: Are people not really aware how much other people are interested in Canadian music right now?
LOT: No, I don’t think so. Come to more shows please! Prove it! It takes so much to get over here that we rely on people to come to the shows. It’s like if you have the choice of seeing a local band or a foreign band on one night, go see the foreign band!
That whole Decemberists tour… was a disaster. But we made the best of it.
LG: Yeah I heard about that. That sucked.
LOT: I mean it was ok, because I think it was so hard, it sucked so hard that everything else now is so nice. Everything feels perfect, ‘oh we got lost’ like who cares. That tour was so shitty; I don’t think anything could be shittier.
LG: I don’t want to harp on it because it was so negative and it’s in the past but..
LOT: Oh no no, go ahead
LG: (cont’d) so did they literally just cancel the tour without telling you guys?
LOT: Yep totally. Now I got an email three weeks after I was being kind of negative about The Decemberists, I got an email from them explaining everything more or less. Because we did press that whole week that the tour was cancelled and we were obviously pissed off and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get used to losing that much money…it’s not like we’re on a huge label. You get tour support, they front it, but then you have to pay it all back. Personally I was really fucking pissed off. Just as a personal thing, like human-to-human, in terms of mutual respect and common decency, a lot was left to be desired. They have their own shit to deal with that I understand fully and I would never wish that on anyone, it wasn’t about why they cancelled it was just about how they did it. I’m sure that probably fell on the tour managers shoulders, he dropped the ball and I can only understand that if we were in that situation and had to fly home immediately for something… that’s why you have a tour manager. If anything, I have nothing nice to say about their tour manager.
LG: Is it true that your record ‘Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss’ was done in a really short time and not on a lot of money?
LOT: $1000 yeah. I borrowed $1000 from my mom and I just paid her back 8 months ago, like I finally had enough money to spare it. I was like here take it mom, and she said ‘but you’re still poor’ and I just explained that (laughs) if she didn’t take it now there was never going to be another window! The new album that we just recorded isn’t as low-hi and I’m glad.
LG: Is the second one going to take a while to come out over here?
LOT: I have a lot of inside secret information! Because we just got out of our Canadian deal, that was the one thing that might have been stopping us from releasing it in June but we’re now aiming for like a May or June release. I think we’re coming back in April though to tour again, and in the summer too.
LG: Damn, I think I’m in Canada in the summer. June and July.
LOT: June we’ll be touring Canada..
LG: I’ll be there.
LOT: Yeah! Done.
LG: You recently covered Wintersleep ‘Weighty Ghost’…
LOT: Yeah! Do you know Wintersleep?!
LG: Yeah, I love them.
LOT: Ok good! They’re totally awesome.
(Cue massive conversational diversion about future tours, fears of flying, starting up a cruise ship band because of the un-enjoyable routine of flying, Lizzie’s joke side band cRap your pants with her manager (find it on their myspace page), Brian the drummer walking in and us telling him about his amazing drum faces and Wintersleep)
LG: (cont’d) are there any songs by other artists/bands you wish you’d written?
LOT: Yeah, actually. That’s really funny we’re going to record a cover tomorrow for a compilation for a magazine. But they asked us to do something danceable but not dancey? The only thing I could come up with was, do you remember Aaliyah, she died some years ago? Rest in peace
LG: Yeah in the plane crash.
LOT: She has this song that was on the Doctor Doolittle soundtrack called ‘Are You That Somebody’?
LG: That’s an amazing song!
LOT: So guess what, tomorrow we’re going to cover that song! Because I used to sing it at home by myself recording it on a 4 track but you know it’s like ‘DIRTY SOUTH’…
LG: Are you going to have a Timbaland?
LOT: I think I want to cut that part out and then the part where he’s like ‘YO’ and does his part; I’m just going to do a weird noise guitar solo. But I just can’t wait to be like (Lizzie starts singing) ‘Boyyy I’ve been watching you like a hawk in the sky, like I…’ So that’s not a song I wish I wrote but I’m really glad I’m covering it. But then there are lots of other songs that I wish I wrote.
LG: After ‘Speak To Me Bones’ do you know what the next single is going to be from the record?
LOT: I don’t know if we’re going to do another single because I think we’re just going to release the next album…
LG: You didn’t play my favourite song tonight
LOT: What’s your favourite?
LG: All My Friends.
LOT: Oh yeah, because we don’t have a third guitar but once we’re bringing back Asobi Seksu’s guitarists, so we’ll have 3 guitars for a couple shows…
LG: When will those be?
LOT: Wanna come to Paris?
LG: Sure!
LG: The benefits of touring I think are sometimes more obvious that the negatives to people who don’t ever tour?
LOT: The downside of touring is that shit can fall through last minute, like you’re relying on other people until you are of the level at which you can be calling the shots and booking your own tours, you’re constantly at the mercy of supporting other bands. I think it’s happened for every tour I’ve ever done; something falls through and you just have to roll with it. My brother’s best friend’s father who just passed away, his favourite quote and life motto was ‘The most important F word in life is Flexibility’ so I’m gonna stop saying fuck so much. I have to learn to be very, very flexible.
LG: Is it ever hard to feel a sense of belonging in one place when you’re away and on the road so much?
LOT: Not anymore, it used to be that way but I think you just get used to it. I think whenever I used to get to hotels or venues and you’d just be in a room, I wouldn’t really talk to anyone but now I make much more of an effort to talk to people etc. and feel more at ease. You just have to switch your expectations and what your criteria for home is has to change a little. Just lose the expectation of feeling settled. Just expect to be in somewhere new everyday.
LG: My last question… not even really a proper question but what is this about your mom being a female alligator wrestler?
LOT: You know what that was a big mistake to put that on the MySpace because it is true, and really, not to make it seem like you’re not asking an original question! But now every single interview brings it up!
LG: Ok, then let’s change it up. Ignore the alligator thing, and tell us something random and new that’s not on the MySpace.
LOT: (laughs) Ok, my mom’s just cool so I’m going to stay in that vein. Now my mom is running for prime minister.
LG: Is her campaign about how she used to be an alligator wrestler?
LOT: Actually she’s never talked about that but that could come up! But she’s really ingrained in the campaign; she’s trying to be the leader of the Green Party.
LG: Well we are totally done here!
LOT: Ah, it was nice! That was so pleasant!
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