RC: Do you think some of your jazz influences show up in your music, too?
GL: The one main thing I definitely noticed was on the last song on the new CD In the Mouth of the Young, "Mine Now", there's a double drum solo thing that me and Ty do, and a lot of the accents and the phrasings musically in there, right after I was doing the demo for that song a long time ago, right when I was done I called my father going, "Wow, all these jazz things you took me to as a kid, all these drummers and stuff, I never really thought it really got into my rock music or anything like that, but this song has these different phrasings of the drums over the guitars and all these different types of things rhythmically... I guess it really did sneak into my brain somewhere along the way and made a difference."
RC: The move to RCA - how did you like going to a bigger label. Did you feel like you lost some control?
GL: That's the coolest thing about when we worked with good old Matt Marshall over at RCA. I couldn't believe it; usually when you hear certain stories about A & R at labels, you always hear about them being really controlling over all of the art direction, and always wanting that three-minute long hit song that you always hear from a major label. But with him working with Modest Mouse and Tool, and some of his ideas for producers and things, it was really kind of cool how much leeway he gave us in everything we wanted to do. There were times when he was like "hey maybe come up with a few instrumentals or a really long song," and I thought "Wow this is great. You never really hear this from a label." It's really great to work with that.
RC: And they hooked you up with Page Hamilton (of Helmet), how was that?
GL: That was great, man. That was a cool situation because a lot of times with producers who aren't musicians, it's kind of hard to feel like they really understand things, but obviously with Page Hamilton being such a great inspiration, doing everything in the '90s, then writing scores and doing commercials, he's done every element of it, and we really wanted a hands-on producer, who was kind of going to be like a fifth member, outside of the box ear type of guy to really sit down and understand things.
And his ear is so different from ours and I knew that would be such a crazy combination because he's more of a riff-oriented guitar player, and our guitar player James, is much more of a guitar-solo type, and so having them both kind of disagree but agree on things, it was kind of a really kick-ass battle to watch, creatively.
RC: Who usually won?
GL: Just whatever we all agreed on. It's always a democracy with us.
RC: What is the title In the Mouth of the Young about?
GL: Everyone nowadays is trying to be this whole "You're a rock band/sex drugs and rock and roll - it's dangerous". It's kind of a cliche of the '80s and I'd rather not go there, and I started thinking one morning, we were in a hotel and I was thinking, "what's dangerous anymore in the first place?"
And I was thinking that what's dangerous anymore is kind of the outlook on our generations to come, and the kids having kids, the drugs, the f***ed up situations, the upbringings, the changes with different religions and how people are just kind of lost right now, and I'm thinking that seems more dangerous than this fake bulls**t thing people are trying to do, the future for generations to come, and that kind of tied in with the artwork - that could be our future: that little child, in a s****y apartment, with a s****y kind of parent that kind of looks torn down, probably on drugs - not that I'm trying to say don't do this, don't do that, but definitely trying to keep it where it's like think about your surroundings.
You become a product of your environment, put in the bubble of your religion with your safety nets around you, and when you grow up you find out that life's much different from that once you're outside what you've been brought up around.
RC: That is a really disturbing cover. Who's behind the album cover?
GL: That's totally our direction on that. They called us up, and we actually thought it was going to be really funny. We thought, OK, RCA is going to get on the phone and ask "OK, what's your idea?" And so sure enough we had Matt Marshall on the phone, and we're like "here's what we're gonna do: it's a woman breastfeeding a baby..."
Imagine that being the first thing you hear. A brand new band you're trying to sell, and the first thing they want to have is a girl breastfeeding a baby; it's a bit weird, you know? So, after we explained the meaning and everything, and taken the lyrics of one of the songs and made it the title, and what we're trying to say with everything, it kind of made sense. Obviously, it's kind of nice to have a good-looking girl on the cover of a rock record, that's a given, but to say so much more without trying to be overboard about it.
