New York City band
Leland Sundries wears its heart on its sleeve most unapologetically.
Whether it’s
wielding influences from the city they inhabit–Jim Carroll Band and the Velvet
Underground–or giving a nod to non-Gotham superheroes like The Replacements,
Leland Sundries is a band of geographic reference and
irreverent humor. It looks like New York, it laughs like New York. The
band skates the razor between garage rock, roots rock, and country delivered
with a punkish swagger. It ain’t sloppy, its genuine.
Frontman Nick Loss-Eaton has the inside track on
this whole star-maker machine as a publicist for artists like
Alejandro Escovedo, Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder, Tom Jones, Bruce Springsteen, and Loudon Wainwright
III, to list a precious few. He does a good job at pimpin’
Leland Sundries, too. He’s currently shedding light on the band’s latest
release “Music for Outcasts.”
We asked the man a
few silly questions and he shot back some poignant answers. An edited version
of the transcript follows.
CITY: Do
you write lyrics for your music, or music for your lyrics?
Nick Loss-Eaton: It’s a combination. The chorus to “The Tide” and “Song
for the Girl with the Replacements Tattoo” came with both music and
lyrics. Other songs, like “Radiator Sabotage,” had a guitar part and
then lyrics and then a melody. I wanted to focus on melody for “Music for
Outcasts.” The upcoming single “If You’re Gonna
Drive, I’m Gonna Drink,” out in October, also had a fairly full-fledged chorus and I wrote
the verse lyrics before I had the chords.
What do you write about?
I write some
autobiographical songs, some semi-autobiographical songs, some narrative songs,
some joke songs, and some abstract word-collage songs.
Who are the
characters in your songs?
I tend to write
about people who don’t fit in whatever situation they find themselves: a
stripper who can’t afford to live in the neighborhood in which she works; a guy
who spent years pining after a girl and then his own behavior drove her away;
someone riding a bus after taking a few too many pills; a guy trying to keep
his sanity amidst incredible loneliness in an oil boom.Sometimes
it’s me trying to figure out where I fit.
What song on your
newest album best represents your sound and approach and why?
That’s a hard
question, actually. We span a gap between Americana, garage rock, and indie
rock, and most of our songs tend to lean one way or another. Our forthcoming
October singles exemplify that spread: “If You’re Gonna
Drive, I’m Gonna Drink” is a full-on, honky-tonk
number that turns into a rock & roll jam; “Lone Prairie” is an
old cowboy song that we play as a punk song.
To
what advantage is being a publicist for other bands?
The chief advantage
is being able to work with a band over time and see how their music works and
learn new ways of making music. It’s really inspiring in that way, as artists
with whom I work become friends and influences. I’ve also become friends with
some artists with whom I’ve worked and that’s led us to open shows for Chuck
Prophet, Todd Snider, and Eilen Jewell.
Am I right to say
you have a little classic New York–i.e. the Velvet Underground, Television–in
the new album?
Definitely “Music
for Outcasts” is a New York album. We tried to conjure that vibe in the studio
and make this album a bit more of a rock record and a bit more modern NYC than
the past EPs and singles. We love the New York Dolls as well.
What’s your
favorite guitar chord and why?
It’s a Dm+2 that
Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan used in very different contexts, Paul in a twee
song and Dylan in a cowboy song. Tabbed out, it’s: x03230.
Do you care if
your audience dances?
We love it when the
audience dances. On the last tour, on a stop in Burlington, Vermont, a
one-armed man danced and then swung from a chandelier at 1 a.m. while it was
snowing, and it made our night.
What comes hard
to you with this band? What do you work at the most?
I’ve worked hard on
my vocals the last few years.
What comes easy?
The funny songs seem
to come quickly: “Roller Derby Queen;” “Givin’
Up Redheads;” “If You’re Gonna Drive, I’m Gonna Drink;” “Bad Hair Day.”
What’s on the
horizon for Leland Sundries?
We will have a new
EP early next year along with a new video.
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2018.
