Lanterns Interview: BeatCrave Exclusive

Lanterns won our BeatCrave Fav poll for February 2010, so here is our exclusive interview with the San Diego-based punk band as promised! We talk with lead vocalist and guitarist, Lowell Heflin, about the start of Lanterns, what punk really is, and a bit about what makes the San Diego music scene so great.

Check Lanterns out in our BeatCrave Exclusive interview below!

What’s the story behind Lanterns’ formation?

We had been playing together in various combinations since high school, and after one of our previous bands dissolved we all decided to start over again.  We scrapped all our old songs and and kind of took a different approach in an effort to make something truly representative of us as people. We wanted the band to be more like an idea or concept. The band allows us to grow in and of world.

I affectionately call this melding of the physical world and our consciousness “Super Nature.”

You guys have been around since 2006, but you are just now receiving a lot of great buzz that is definitely well-deserved. How has the climb been in regards to actually being seen and heard more by the music community?

To be honest, at least so far, things don’t feel all that different… The recognition is great, but we are still pretty much unknown to most people, and  it really doesn’t change the way we do things. At the end of the day, we are just trying to do and live the way we want to, no matter who is (or isn’t) paying attention.

What is something you always think about to keep yourselves grounded as musicians?

When things seem super bleak i think we all just try to remember that we play music because we love it. That’s the only reason we’re out there. It isn’t something we just enjoy, it’s something we need and must do. The same would be true if we were ever to experience any  level  of  “success.” Essentially, as long as we are creating exactly what it is we want to create, we are always successful.

Lanterns has put out a hand full of EPs, many of which are successfully sold out. Is there a full-length coming any time soon?

We are in the process of recording a full length right now. It is called “Young Wizards” As far as when it will come out, I have no idea. We are just working on it, and hopefully by the time it is complete someone will be willing to put it out.

Where did the name of your latest EP, Apocalypse Youth, come from?

Apocalypse Youth is basically the first time your young idealism is threatened.  It is born out of that moment when you feel you are starting to lose little pieces of the things that you felt were vital to your identity.  Your friendships change, your worries change. It is basically the struggle to adapt yet still remain a thoughtful, curious individual.

It is also  a little sarcastic; the whole universe won’t be compromised because of your bad day.  I think that sometimes helps to soften the blows you gotta take.

San Diego seems to be churning out a lot of great bands lately. What are some of the things in that music scene that make you really proud to be a part of it?

There have been some really great bands and labels that really changed the way we experienced music growing up. We would always go see The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Tower (now Crocodiles), and it was great to see shirtless bodies flailing, people just being themselves. It was really viscerally beautiful. Something you could touch right in front of you, but beyond that San Diego has great history in the punk tradition, grounded in labels like Gravity, and ThreeOneG…

We are actually recording right now at a studio owned by the Black Heart Procession. I guess all of this isn’t what’s been going on lately, but that is what first comes to mind when I think San Diego music.

You guys describe yourselves as a punk band based on your genre label on MySpace. Who are some of the big punk artists out there in the past and in the current era that influence you guys the most?

We all really dig the Clash, the Ramones. Those bands are classic, but the band collectively got really hard into Q and Not U, At the Drive-In, Hot Cross,The Red Light Sting,Cursive, the Replacements, Sonic Youth…. It is a long list and the line starts to blur a bit between what is and what is not “punk,” haha.  I am not sure that musically they are all direct influences,  but they have influenced our lives and for us, they are inseparable.  One is just an extension of the other.

There are a lot of pop words you use in your lyrics that are dangerously catchy. Punk has such a hard reputation but nowadays, pop seems to sit right beside current punk music sometimes. Do you think there is a vast difference between the two genres or do they go hand in hand for you?

I don’t think there is such a huge chasm between punk and pop music.  Both the Sex Pistols and the Ramones were genuinely hook-y.  The Clash were able to bring grit to tuneful musings. I think the tag of punk describes attitude and intent.

When we started we toured with our friends in hardcore bands playing basements and basically being immersed in DIY culture. I loved the intensity of punk rock. The sound itself is interesting, but what I found far more appealing is the passion it stirred and the sense of community. As a band we try to bring that kind of intensity to pop music.

How does your songwriting process go, if there even is one for you?

Usually, I’ll have some sort of idea or basic structure, and then we jam it and arrange all the instruments together in our practice space, or sometimes we’ll all work around someone’s  lone riff. End-Times Blues was pretty much grown out of Sean’s bass line in the intro.

You have become successful by taking many responsibilities on by yourselves which provides you with a lot of hands on experience in the music industry in return. Although a label is most likely a goal for most bands, what is the best thing about being an unsigned band?

The best thing is having direct control over everything that we do. It was  really rewarding when we first started out, working with other kids who just really wanted music to happen everywhere. Like friends coming together to help you:  Stuff vinyl sleeves, another friend getting artwork done, a pot luck afterward…. I think it definitely helps to see and feel that kind of love first hand, flowing out of regular people.

Tell us one thing about yourselves we probably don’t already know.

Go U.S. Soccer!