Interview: lovelytheband
09.02.18
LA indie rockers lovelytheband may only have a year or two together under their belt, but their dynamic—on and off the stage—is clear. Supporting the release of their full-length debut, finding it hard to smile, the three-piece brought their lush, melancholic pop to the stage of Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival and found a few moments to chat with Seattle Music News too.
SMN: Let’s start from the beginning—how did the band come to be?
Mitchy Collins: Alcohol. Wings. Instagram.
SMN: Perfect, say no more! As a band, what would you say are your guys’ biggest musical inspirations?
Mitchy: Uhh you know, life in general really, that’s where a lot of the song topics come from. Musically, I grew up on bands like Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional, but also people like Bruce Springsteen, and old punk rock, Rancid, it’s all over the place. Oh country music! Country music was my first love.
SMN: Ohhhh *cringe*
Mitchy: What?!
SMN: I just can’t get into country music, I don’t understand it I guess, not my thing.
Mitchy: Oh, just wait.
Jordan Greenwald: Just give it some time.
Mitchy: You haven’t found the right stuff yet, you’re young, you’ll learn.
Jordan: Okay so I grew up in Santa Monica, and I went to school in Nashville when I was 17 for college, and I didn’t listen to a lick of country music. But I got to Nashville, two years later I got a cowboy hat, I got the boots, all in.
SMN: If you guys have had a chance to look at the lineup yet, who are you excited to catch?
Mitchy: Blondie.
SMN: Oh so do you guys actually get to stick around and watch then?
Mitchy: For sure, yeah, so Blondie.
Sam Price: Pheonix.
Mitchy: And we caught our good friend Olivia O’Brian too, and Fleet Foxes will be cool.
SMN: Have you guys been around all weekend, or just for the day?
Jordan: Nah we got in this morning.
SMN: Ah, but you’ve got an early set so you’ll have time to watch everyone else!
All: Exactly!
SMN: Best of both worlds! What’s one big goal you guys have as a band?
Mitchy: I think the only goal we have is to continue doing this.
Sam: To be able to continue doing this.
SMN: What future projects do you guys have coming up? Like I know the album just dropped, congratulations, but anything else?
Mitchy/Jordan: Touring.
Jordan: Just making the show the best lovelytheband show people will see.
SMN: Perfect, and then the last question is one we ask all our interviews: if you were stranded on a desert island, what’s one book, movie, and album you’d bring with you?
Mitchy: Oh movie: Almost Famous, book: either The Perks of Being a Wallflower, or Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa-Puffs, or Nothing Feels Good is a really good book too. And Album…that’s tough…
Sam: That’s so tough.
Mitchy: Uh, Bruce Springsteen’s greatest hits.
Jordan: Nice, nice.
Mitchy: Yeah that’s like the safest route, go with the greatest hits album and you get all the good ones.
Jordan: Okay for book, what automatically came to my head was Moby Dick, just to know, ya know, what went wrong on the ocean, to learn from their mistakes. Then movie: Anchorman, so I can just laugh the whole time. And album, I think I’ll go Joshua Tree by U2.
Sam: Book: I think I would have to do something nerdy like some kind of Halo book, just really like that whole series. Movie: probably…
Mitchy: What was the one you were in?
Jordan: *Laughs* he looks like Jonah Hill, but like the good-looking thin Jonah hill.
Sam: Oh thanks. Anyways! Some kind of Star Wars, I love Star Wars. And then album would be, deep cut, Frank Sinatra, live.
Interview and photos by Lulu Dawson
