The Loved Ones

Keep Your Heart will definetly be finding its way into my year end list this year, so I was pumped to get to see The Loved Ones play some of those songs live on The Grind Tour. Luckily, before that I had a chance to talk to Spider from the band and ask him about a whole bunch of things. It was a great interview, and I’m glad we were able to do it. Thanks to Spider for doing it, and to Rob for setting it up.

All photos taken by Chris Wedman.

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Bobby: So Spider, you’ve been on this Grind Tour for a couple days now, how’s that going so far?

Spider: It’s great. I love being in Canada, and all the shows have been wonderful, and I feel petty good about the whole thing.

Bobby: Last time you guys were in Canada, you were supposed to go on tour with Tsunami Bomb, but they didn’t get let into the country. Did you guys still go on that tour?

Spider: The other bands on the tour, Crowned King and us continued, Crowned King headlined and we toured across Canada. A couple of the shows were cancelled, but most of them happened.

Bobby: How did that tour end up going?

Spider: It was okay. It was really nice of Crowned King to continue on with us, so we were very appreciative of that.

Bobby: On you’re new CD, Keep Your Heart, you have three songs which were already released. Jane on the With Honor compilation, 100K on the EP and Arsenic on your demo. Why did you decide to re-record them and put them out again?

Spider: Well the demo songs we always planed on re-recording for a proper release. The songs changed, they got a lot shorter; the demo versions are about four minutes long apiece. Over time we edited them down and we found ways to make them work better, make them a little shorter and punchier. So those songs we had always planed on re-recording, Jane and Arsenic. 100K, Fat Mike asked us to include that on the album, so we said yes. But I like the album version better, personally.

Bobby: Why’s that?

Spider: I feel that it has more energy.

Bobby: Alright, the CD was released to great reviews, were you expecting such a good response?

Spider: I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m really flattered and grateful and I’m pleased that so many people enjoy the music.

Bobby: From the CD, you guys have two videos, 100k and Jane, why did you pick those songs?

Spider: 100K was the video we made for the EP. It felt like the strongest song on the EP I guess, or at least maybe the song we should make a video for. Our friend Jason Shevchuk, who I was in Kid Dynamite with, made the video and we had a really good time, we filmed it at his house. He also made the video for Jane, and that sort of felt like the single. *laughs* quote-unquote single – not that there really is a single, but it felt like a good song to get our name out there.

Bobby: On the video for Jane, I really like the whole text messaging theme for the video, who came up with that idea?

Spider: Thank you. Dave and a friend of his named Dave Adolf. They had an idea to sort of maybe play with or poke fun at people who spend too much time on the internet.

Bobby: That would be me.

Spider: Really, I think it would be all of us, or a lot of us. It’s almost like it might be more natural for some people to interact via computer than in person. So the idea for the video, all the people who come see us know each other through Myspace, but they don’t know how to act when they meet up in person. We thought it was funny.

Bobby: Yeah, I like it. Okay, one thing I find funny is how on all your artwork you have a key. The three keys on the demo, the key hole on the EP, and the bird holding the key on Keep Your Heart. What’s your fascination with the keys?

Spider: The key concept was supplied by Kate Hiltz, the Bouncing Souls manager. The concept actually dates back to before the Loved Ones when Dave was a roadie for the Bouncing Souls and she said that Dave was a “lock picker,” meaning that he’s good at getting information out of people, or getting secrets out of people – and a good story teller also.

Bobby: You guys do a lot of work with the Syrentha Savio Endowment, you have the tshirt on ShirtsForACure, you did the With Honor compilation to beat cancer, what’s it like working with Mark Beemer and those guys?

Spider: Oh, great! Mark’s been a friend for years and years and years and we’re happy to help him out anyway we can.

Bobby: When I was doing research for this interview, I found out that there was another band called the Loved Ones from the ‘60s in Australia – did you guys know that?

Spider: We didn’t know that until it was too late. There’s actually two bands called The Loved Ones besides us, the other one’s from San Francisco in the 1990’s. We didn’t know that until it was too late. At this moment, we own the service mark for the name, so we’ll be The Loved Ones until we’re done and then maybe someone else can have the name after that.

Bobby: With the amount of bands that are out there, how hard is it to come up with a name that has never been used before?

Spider: It’s hard. The Loved Ones was our second choice; our first choice was Little Trigger, which is an Elvis Costello song. Loved Ones is also an Elvis Costello song, and it’s also a good book by Evelyn Waugh.

Bobby: Okay, let’s go back a few months to South By SouthWest – how was that?

Spider: Oh, it was a whirlwind. We drove thirty hours straight to get there, played two shows, pretty long day and night. And then we drove thirty hours straight back. It was exhausting; it felt like it was over as soon as it started for us. It was great playing with Lifetime and My Chemical Romance. They’re all very good to us. Lifetime are friends, the members of Lifetime, so it’s good to hang out with them; and I always love listening to them.

Bobby: I was reading a review of the entire weekend on PunkNews.Org and during the Lifetime portion of the review, it mentioned how Kris Roe from the Ataris, you and Dave all jumped into the pit and started moshing to Lifetime – how was that?

Spider: I didn’t mosh personally, but Dave Hause did – must have been pretty exhilarating.

Bobby: Still talking about Lifetime, they are releasing a new record on Decaydance Records, the label owned by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy. This, of course, caused a lot of people to throw up their arms in the air and complain and stuff – how important do you think scene politics have become now? Should that stuff matter?

Spider: I don’t know, to me it’s not important. Maybe I’m out of touch, but that stuff doesn’t matter to me. Personally, I’m looking forward to the new Lifetime record and however they want to get it out there – it makes no difference to me.

Bobby: Yeah, as long as it’s still good, it shouldn’t matter who’s paying to put it out.

Spider: That’s kind of how I feel about it.

Bobby: I love going to concerts, I try to go to as many concerts as I can, but of course there’s always some that are more memorable than others. So thinking back, what are some concerts that you went to that are really memorable for you?

Spider: One of the most memorable shows I ever saw was Fugazi in Malcolm X Park in Washington, DC, 1995 or 6. That was actually one of the very first real punk shows I ever went to. The first time I saw Kid Dynamite was pretty unforgettable for me. I liked it so much I then joined the band a few months later. That was very moving, really, really awesome, exciting, punk rock. Um… let me think. I live in Washington, DC, and there’s been a lot of great bands that aren’t really known outside of DC. But nevertheless were really wonderful bands and put on great shows. There’s a band called The Warmers who were on Dischord Records, I thought they were great. Q And Not U were excellent, I actually worked for them a little bit. I sold merch for them a few times. What else? I was thinking about this not long ago, what shows I would name if someone asked me. *laughs*

Bobby: Getting prepared for all the upcoming interviews?

Spider: Yeah, but I could only think of a handful right of the top of my head. Seeing Lifetime at the Stone Pony last August was unforgettable for me, and getting to play with them as well.

Bobby: Yeah, that would be amazing. Okay, if you could pick one person or band, dead or alive, still going or broken up, whatever, who would you choose to tour with and why?

Spider: Dead or alive? The Ramones probably, or The Clash. Those might be my two favorite bands of all time.

Bobby: Alright, now onto a bit more unusual questions I like to ask at all my interviews, just to keep it interesting. First off, if you guys, as a band, were stranded on a desert island, with no food and nothing to eat, which one of the band members would you eat to survive and why?

Spider: *laughs* Well… I hope it wouldn’t be me. *laughs* I guess that’s all I can say.

Bobby: Fair enough, if you were a member of the opposite sex for a day, week, month, however long you wanted, what would you do and why?

Spider: I don’t know. There’s a funny interview with Steve Martin and someone asked him this and I think he said he would just play with his breasts and never leave the house. *laughs* That’s probably what I would do too.

Bobby: Could you tell us something about the band or one of its members that not many people know about, like a little quirk they don the road or something like that?

Spider: Well, I could tell you that I work for the Washington Post newspaper that might interest people. Dave owns his own construction business, that’s something. But you might be thinking of something eccentric or something?

Bobby: You gave us some pretty good information right there.

Spider: Okay.

Bobby: If you could have one thing at this moment, anything at all, what would you have and why?

Spider: One thing at this moment? I wish my girlfriend Susan was here, I miss her. I’m looking forward to seeing her again.

Bobby: Okay, I guess that’s about it, do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

Spider: Thanks for listening, and thanks for coming to the show.