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THE INTERNET GARBAGE
Band
Interview • January 11, 2012
Zoe DeJesus
Gossip Girl, Vamps and 2012...
The Internet Garbage
The
Internet Garbage was lucky enough to interview New York band, The Lost
Patrol. We spoke with lead singer, Mollie Israel, along with band members
Michael Williams, and Stephen Masucci. Read up on the band to hear about
some of their exciting events coming up! Including a song, and acting
debut on CW’s hit show
Gossip Girl.
Mollie,
Last time I saw you, you mentioned that you would be having your acting
debut on the CW’s Gossip Girl. Were you intimidated at all by that
typical Gossip Girl flamboyant style?
Mollie: Not
really. Actually, it was a very pleasant experience because everybody
was very nice… and as it turns out, I went to high school with Leighton
Meester. It was a kind of funny reunion on the set. I was fairly comfortable
because my mother is actually the director of the episode I was featured
in, and the LP is also going to have our song, “This Road Is Long”
featured in the episode.
I didn’t know you went to high school with Leighton Meester, that’s
awesome!
Mollie: Yeah it was funny because I didn’t remember her from
high school. Apparently she was this really nerdy little girl, and now
she’s the star of Gossip Girl.
Your song, “This Road Is Long” is being featured on the
show as well. That’s a pretty significant accomplishment, congratulations!
Did the producers ask for a specific song, or did you simply feel as if
“This Road” was just the right fit for the episode.
Mollie: My mother selected ‘This Road Is Long’ because
she thought that it was a really nice, heartfelt song that would emphasize
the emotion in the scene that they are using it in. And actually we are
going to have a new music video for ‘This Road Is Long’ for
the air date. I think the episode is January 23rd, so we are going to
have the video posted by then as a cross promotion type thing.
Can you tell us about your role?
Mollie: Sure. It was a two second role. I played a goth girl
who was standing outside of a night club smoking a joint, and I’m
looking for a light, and I hand the joint to Leighton Meester and then
she get’s arrested. It’s an essential role for the plot, I
feel (laughs).
If you could use one of your albums as the soundtrack for any show, what
would it be?
Mollie: Really good question! I would probably tend to favor
our latest release “Rocket Surgery” only because I feel that
there is a significant amount of growth. It’s my 3rd album with
the band, so I felt the vocals and the lyrics were stronger. And also
I feel like we experimented a little more on “Rocket Surgery.”
So there is more diversity from song to song. So, it would offer the broadest
range of emotion.
Have you always been a fan of the show, or was the opportunity something
that was just sprung on you?
Mollie: It was kind of sprung on me, my mom is a fan of the show.
So they offered her to direct and episode and she said, “Oh there
is a role for a pot smoking goth girl, and it’s the role that you
were born to play.” (laughs) So that’s how I got the role.
She’s also been very cool in helping out the band. She featured
us in her movie Vamps which is coming out sometime in 2012...
The
Lost Patrol went to Michigan this past August to film a movie called ‘Vamps,’
which was actually directed by your mom, who is the acclaimed director,
Amy Heckerling. Without any spoiler alerts, what can you tell us about
the movie?
Mollie: Totally.
Well, you know it was fun being in Detroit shooting the movie because
the whole process was so exciting and we were so honored to be a part
of it. They were using quite a few of our songs, which was nice. Also
hanging out with Alicia Silverstone and Sigourney Weaver… that was
a lot of fun. Detroit, a lot of movies are being shot there for the tax
incentive, so thats why it was filmed in Michigan.
Your
music is incredible and has the ability to please the ears of even the
most diverse listeners. When I hit the play button on a Lost Patrol track,
I get a rush of so many different vibes. There is beachy, dream pop –
I could go on. And in reading about your band, critics never fail to mention
a menagerie of genres including ‘shoegazing’ and ‘spaghetti
western.’ How would you describe your genre in your own words?
Mollie: You
know its always nice when people reference a lot of genres for your music
but we’ve recently been coined as folk noir, which is a new genre
name that I think emerged for us and our and our friends The Blueflowers,
and Dotsun Moon, it’s a mix of all those things that you just mentioned,
like you know, dream pop, cinematic, and spaghetti western. But then again
its always hard to try and pigeonhole us into one thing.
We always want to continue to grow and expand what we do, and frankly
no matter how people describe us, no matter what words they use, we are
always just very grateful for the press and the recognition. We’ve
actually been getting a lot of very positive reviews on the last album
from The Big Takeover and people like that so it’s been cool.
You
have an interesting story behind the creation of your band. Can you tell
us about how you all found each other?
Mollie: Well
(laughs) the band was around for a few years before I came along, and
when their old singer left for personal reasons, they found me on CraigsList,
because I was just a singer/songwriter and I was always looking to join
a band. So I posted an ad saying, “everyone and their mother is
a singer/songwriter” and they thought that was funny.
Your
music definitely has a slight throwback vibe. Is that intentional?
Mollie: Yeah,
I definitely think that. We are very huge fans of a lot of older music
– stuff from the 80s, 60s, and 50?s. We do try to put a contemporary
spin on it, we don’t want to sound like we are mimicking older groups.
We want to sound like it’s almost timeless, as if you can’t
pin it down to one time period.
Working
with three people can be difficult, especially in an environment where
everyone is so creative and passionate about their craft. How do you all
get along, and does everyone have equal input?
Mollie: I
like to think so. Of course when you are doing anything creative with
a group of people sometimes there are disagreements that arise. We’ve
never had any major blowouts over a chorus or a bridge, we always manage
to find a solution that pleases all of us. We really arrange the song
from the ground up together for the most part, so it is a very collaborative
process.
Michael:
Interestingly enough too, we all get along very well, and we have cohesive
visions for what the ultimate outcome of the music will be.
Mollie: Since
we are all on the same page to begin with, there is not a lot of conflict.
You can’t do anything creative with other people without there being
some disagreements along the way.
Who
are some of your musical inspirations and influences? Any favorite bands
at the moment?
Mollie: I
personally am a big fan of a lot of 60s artists. Main influences are the
Beatles, but I am also a big fan of Dusty Springfield, Melanie Safka and
Shirley Manson and Garbage, I really like a lot of their music. A lot
of the things that they experiment with, and a lot of the sound textures
that they use in their music.
Michael: As far as any new music, I am actually intrigued by the Vivian
Girls at the moment. They kind of have that older feel to some of their
music but they do it, again, in a contemporary way. As far as Steven and
I, I know we like a lot of female fronted music too and have always been
partial to the female voice, so we find a lot of common ground with bands
like Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cocteau twins, Elizabeth Fraser and
Beth Gibbons. You know, I think we have a lot of the same CDs in our collections.
We are always trying to keep each other updated on what we like.
The
songs on your new album, ‘Rocket Surgery’ are truly heartfelt.
For example, we have a lyric here that goes, “I was broken up, I
let you rest in pieces, I had enough, time slid on by, I got mine.”
What was the thought process behind your writing?
Mollie: well
I was going through some emotional troubles from a relationship, just
having a lot of conflicting emotions. I was on a hiatus from my boyfriend
and those were just the thoughts and feelings that were going through
my head at the time. I mean usually that’s where the best lyrics
come from, I think.
We
like to ask this next question to every band we interview, just because
the answers are always pretty interesting. What would you be doing if
you weren’t recording artists?
Mollie:
Well i studied at NYU as a screenwriting major so I’d just be trying
to develop my sitcom (laughs), and you know sitting on my “tuchas”
writing.
Michael: Yeah I actually went to school for visual arts so I do a
lot of graphic design work which I really enjoy. And you know, I was also
an aspiring painter at one point... but because of so many things going
on I’m actually just focused on music right now. But I do enjoy
painting and the fine aspects of art as well but you know I think we all
dabble in a lot of things creatively, its just what we do.
Stephen:
I was going to run a chain of self-serve massage parlors, so there was
that idea. I don’t know, I had a couple of business plans, one of
them involved rat extermination, but there were a lot of things on my
plate so..(laughs) I’m kidding. No, I wouldn’t know what to
do. No matter what I did I’d always have to record or play or do
something. I’m lucky to work with Mike and Mollie. But you know,
even if I didn’t do it with them, I’d still be doing it at
home by myself.
Are
there any shows or big things we should be waiting to come from The Lost
Patrol in the future?
Mollie:
I’ve been deemed the spokes person since steve cant be serious for
2 seconds (laughs). This is why we don’t let him talk. We have a
couple shows coming up. We’re actually going to be playing in Butler,
New Jersey at a place called Architekt on February 4th. That show starts
at 7. And we’re also playing at a club in New York City called The
Delancey on February 18th and thats actually part of an evening of DJs
called ‘Contempt.’ It’s gonna be really cool, it’s
going to be a bunch of DJs and then we go on at 10pm. DJ HI-Fi Hilary
is playing and Subvert, it’s gonna be a cool night. We’re
also booking for California and Nashville while we’re working on
our new album.
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