09/04/09
Text: Kee Chang
Finding truly exciting up-and-coming bands that are destined for longevity can often feel like panning for gold. Okay, most of the time. Always. LoveLikeFire’s Ann Yu, David Farrell, Marty Mattern and Eric Amerman are quickly dashing up the indie rock totem pole in San Francisco with tenacity unmatched by any other band this Contributing Editor has come across before. Yu’s drama-fueled anthems have a way of stopping wayward listeners in their tracks with her passionate cries and euphonic melodies. One minute you’ll find the songstress wallowing in heartache on the beautifully somber “William” then triumphantly lift your spirits with the soaring “From a Tower” (exclusively streaming here at Anthem).
With early buzz from Spin, NME, and Q under their belt, the driven foursome have a lot more to look forward to with the release of their debut LP, Tear Ourselves Away, on September 14 through Heist or Hit Records. To celebrate, we’re giving away signed tour posters! Just shoot over and email to kee@anthemmagazine.com for your chance to win.
Is songwriting a therapeutic process for you or are you more interested in weaving stories that aren’t necessarily autobiographical?
Ann: I think we do a little bit of both. If it starts with me, it’s definitely more of a therapeutic thing inspired by something that’s happening to me currently or something that’s stuck in my memory from the past. If it’s an idea that one of the other guys have—if Dave has an idea or Marty comes up with a keyboard part—then I take whatever the initial shell of the song is, listen to it, and try to figure out what kind of mood it conjures up. It really comes down to which one of us is inspired more at the moment to come up with an idea.
Do you find that you become somewhat disconnected with the more personal songs over time as you experience new things and just evolve in general?
Ann: For me, it’s almost like a very beautiful journal entry, a very private moment in a diary all the time. If we go over a course of a few months and there’s something that I’m really obsessing over, then everything is about that. It could be a number of things. A lot of the time, I like to dote on more of the passionate things that happen in your life like heartbreak. With something like heartbreak, there are so many angles to it: your end of it, what the other person was feeling and the different circumstances that lead to that. You go through a progression of feelings like fear, anger, regret, guilt... I think that’s all I wanted to say. [Laughs]
David: I have nothing more to add to that.
How does living in San Francisco affect your songwriting?
Ann: I’m originally from Las Vegas and when I was writing songs in a different band, I had a song about bike riding. [Laughs] I used to incorporate action-related stuff into the songs. Here, since it’s always foggy and cold at night, there’s definitely more of a...
David: People here tend to stay inside more compared to like New York during the summer where everyone is outside at cafes or Las Vegas where you’re outside in the heat at night. Here, you’re either in your apartment, a bar or someone else’s place. It’s much more closed in.
Ann: It’s funny because just as we’re talking about this, I’m realizing, “Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.” Here, I rarely ever want to do anything where I’m walking around. I’m always indoors.
I’ve heard a lot of people describing your music as Brit rock. Do you think this is an accurate categorization?
Ann: Someone actually mentioned to me once, “She sounds like she has a British accent.” I can see where they’re coming from. Sometimes you just enunciate things differently because you want to and I very well might do it again. You fully immerse yourself in a song, so if it’s calling for a certain kind of feel, you give it that certain kind of feel. With our first EP especially, people thought that I was British. It was really unintentional. I have never purposefully gone out to do a faux British accent. [Laughs] I feel like that was part of it, but also, we don’t write typical female-fronted indie music for America. I feel like we definitely have a place in the U.K. scene more so. Not to discount American music, but I feel like the kind of songs we’re writing speaks to a different culture or something. Maybe it’s the way the melodies are inherent in some of the songs that make it seem that way. We definitely get a lot of Brit pop, British rock...
Incidentally, you guys were picked up by a U.K. label as oppose to an American one. Was this at all surprising to you?
Ann: Not at all. I’m really happy with how everything worked out. It’s an amazing opportunity for us because we don’t have enough exposure right now in the U.K. This is going be a really cool way to introduce the band to the U.K. scene and just see how far we can go with it. I think it makes sense that the Brits latched on first. The scene’s just different there. So many cool bands are coming out of the U.K. right now. There are also a lot of bands in the US that are doing really well in the U.K. who might not be doing as well here. There’s something to be said about that too. I feel like we could fit into that category for sure.
