Laveda

 Laveda are up and coming Albany stars who have crafted an addicting wave of dream-pop for those of you craving something noisier. Laveda is Ali Genevich (guitar/vocals) and Jake Brooks (guitar/vocals), but the duo has recruited Lemon of Choice leaders Joseph Taurone (drums) and Daniel Carr (bass) for their live performances. Laveda sat down to talk about their favorite shoegaze albums, their new album and their tour leading up to SXSW. 

RRX: I always start with origins, so tell me: how did you guys decide to form Laveda?

JB: We met in High School. We both played in the school orchestra. 

AG: We started to get to know each other because Jake asked me to sing backup vocals in his band at the time. So I was like “Sure I’ll do it,” and we started playing in a band together.

RRX: Jake, can you tell me about Lucy and some of your other past bands? Someone mentioned to me that you had many previous band names. 

JB: Yeah, that was my band with Johnny. It was guitar/alt-rock. 

AG: It was Better By Morning first by the way, and that’s when I joined, and then we all changed the band name to Lucy; that was my band name idea. 

JB: We rebranded and went on tour and did all that stuff. It worked-ish, it was ok but that wasn’t really where Ali and I were in terms of writing. And then we started writing the Laveda stuff and decided we needed to do our own project. And that started to gain some traction because a guy from Pitchfork really liked “Dream. Sleep” and he premiered it at the Chicago music fest ran by Pitchfork which made us decide to put all our energy into this. We had been writing a record for a long time then, and “Dream. Sleep” was one of the last songs we wrote and that’s when the guy came in; he happened to be in the other room of the studio that we were recording in and he was like “I wanna premiere this!”

RRX: That’s awesome, which studio was that?

JB: That was at Hook and Fade, down in Bushwick with our friend Dylan Skye; He was a huge part of the whole album, we actually met him through Lucy because we had recorded at a studio called Mission Sound and that’s how that connection began. 

RRX: Do you guys still have old songs from that era that you pull out or is that mostly gone?

JB: Those are pretty much all gone.

AG: Yeah no.

JB: They’re still on the Soundcloud but that’s about it. Soundcloud and Bandcamp. 

RRX: So where does Laveda come from, I heard it was one of your grandparents?

JB: Yeah, it was my grandma’s name. Everyone called her Suzy, but Laveda was her first name. She was from Kentucky and the way they pronounce it over there is (La-vee-dah) but we think (La-vey-dah) is kinda the right way. 

RRX: So when you guys get south on your tour are a lot of people gonna be calling you La-vee-da?

Both: Probably (laughs)

AG: We’ve already gotten it. 

JB: We’ve gotten it before, I don’t really care either way. 

RRX: It sounds cool, I didn’t realize it was a name until someone told me a little while ago. 

JB: It’s like pronouncing Bon Iver (Bone-eev-air) Vs. (Bon Eiver), it doesn’t really matter. 

RRX: Has Laveda heard any of your music?

JB: No, she passed away long before we started. She was very supportive of my cover band when I was 12. She would always text me like, “You’re so talented, you’re gonna do great” and I was like, “You’ve never seen perform before Grandma, thanks.”

RRX: (Laughs) that’s still very sweet though. You guys are going on a big tour very soon, are there any hopes or fears you want to talk about in regards to this tour?

AG: Getting sick (laughs)

JB: Catching the flu is the big one.

AG: I’m scared everyone around me has it. But actually just on that topic from a more general stance, just staying healthy because we’re gonna be gone a long time. It will be 3 weeks so it’s our biggest tour that we’ve ever done. We toured over the summer for about 2 weeks so this is just a bit longer, and this one is a bit more extensive. We’ll be traveling a further distance. 

RRX: And you guys are hitting SXSW, right?

Both: Yes.

JB: We’re gonna be doing one official showcase with Glam Glare on March 20th, and we’re doing a bunch of unofficial ones before the cut-off time dispersed intermittently. And we’re playing in Houston twice in a row, for the SXSW overflow fest; that’s gonna be interesting because we’re playing there two nights in a row and I’ve never done anything like that before. Us and Lemon of Choice who are touring with us. 

RRX: Their new album (Lime of Decision) is very good. Anyway, I want to move into a new part of the interview. I have a bunch of LPs here that I’ve picked out from my own collection, and I wanna just run through them. These are albums that I think might have had some influence on you guys, so I want to run through them and do a little show-and-tell thing. I’m gonna start with one that I think is pretty obvious.

Souvlaki by Slowdive

AG: Oh yes!

JB: We actually just talked about this album literally an hour ago. 

AG: This album is so good, I think it’s my favorite of Slowdive’s

JB: This is the band that got me into shoegaze. They dropped that album in 2017 and I had never really listened to the genre before that and I played it and was confused and I saw some live videos and was like, “Oh they’re looking at their shoes! I get it!” But yeah, I thought that that record, the self-titled, was phenomenal. But then I found this one (Souvlaki), this one’s just crazy. This is the album that made me wanna get a flanger; those guitar tones sound like synthesizers, they’re so saturated. It’s such a cool sounding album. It’s so pretty and sad. 

RRX: Yeah I was excited for this interview because you guys have a very nice dream-pop/shoegaze sound and I haven’t really heard a good band like that in Albany that can nail quite as well as you so I wanted to nerd out of these albums. 

JB: Should we say favorite tracks?

RRX: You can if you want!

AG: Mine is definitely “When the Sun Hits” and, I mean, “Alison” is good.

JB: The first time you listened to it you really liked “Souvlaki Space Station.”

AG: “Souvlaki Space Station,” yeah.

RRX: That’s my favorite as well. 

JB: That’s the Brian Eno track. My favorite is “Dagger” (laughs), Ali hates that one.

AG: I just don’t like it!

JB: His voice just rubs her the wrong way.

AG: I just make fun of him every time Jake listens. No offense obviously to anyone who likes that one. 

RRX: Ok so we have to go with the next classic.

Loveless by My Bloody Valentine.

AG: Ooh! I love it! This one perplexes me, I feel like…

JB: I love and hate this album.

AG: I love it, everytime I listen to this record I love it more. The first time I liked it the least and now I love it. 

JB: The thing that drives me nuts about this album is that if I ever just wanna listen to it on Spotify, in my car, it just doesn’t sound good. For some reason the Spotify rip of this album just doesn’t sound as good as on vinyl or CD. I don’t know if it was because of the upload or something, but there’s just so much more bass.

RRX: Yeah, this pressing got me excited because it came from the analog tapes. I preordered it instantly. 

JB: It looks really nice and I bet it sounds great. It’s just such a forward-thinking album, easily my favorite track is “Soon.”

AG: For me it’s the obvious: “When You Sleep.” But I think it’s always just a good album to listen through. I don’t feel the same way with the Slowdive record, I do, but…

JB: You one just flows really well, it’s one of those albums for sure. 

RRX: I just love how Kevin Shields essentially bankrupted his studio making this record. My favorite track is “What You Want.” Next is this one:

Depression Cherry by Beach House

JB: Hey! You brought all the classics, how’d you know? 

RRX: And the vinyl cover is real velvet!

AG: Wow, this is a nice collection. Ok, so this one is a really big one, specifically this one, I love that you picked this one. 

JB: This was a big reference all through our album. 

AG: The first time I heard “Sparks,” that was a big influence on “L,” which is our next single that will be out three weeks from tomorrow (3/20). And just the production overall, I feel like this is very clean while at the same time it’s not. I feel like you really have to listen for things, I didn’t notice things until the third or fourth time listening to a track, but at the same time the vocals…

JB: Yeah, because the vocals are just so well-recorded and so well-performed. And then all the instrumentation throughout is just so hazy and distant. 

RRX: would you guys say that the thick layering that encourages repeat listening is something you guys look to do in your own music?

JB: It’s something that we like. It’s something that we like to try and do. We definitely have a lot of tracks. I feel like the way they (Beach House) achieve it isn’t with a lot of tracks but with how the tracks sound. But ours, we use a lot of tracks. We saw (Beach House) live and it was crazy. 

RRX: Ok, next. I’m not sure if you guys are familiar with this band.

Despondent Transponder by Fleeting Joys

AG: I have heard of them but I haven’t heard this.

RRX: They’re called Fleeting Joys, they’re from Norway I believe? And this album is the album that has come the closest to replicating the sound of My Bloody Valentine in my opinion. There are some really great heavy moments on this one. I wasn’t quite sure if you guys have heard it. 

JB: We’ll have to give this a listen on tour. 

AG: I’ll have to add it to our list of things to listen to. 

RRX: So here’s another classic

Heaven or Las Vegas by The Cocteau Twins

AG: Yes! This is a really good one because… oh the colors actually look like our vinyl, this is cool. Yeah this record is… I don’t personally love the record but the singles are golden and this is just one of those childhood ones for me, my parents listened to a lot of this 90s stuff.

JB: This one sounds very 90s. It’s very nostalgic whenever you turn it on. 

RRX: I wanted to ask what you guys think of the sort of nonsensical lyrics on this album. 

JB: Yeah! So that’s my issue with it honestly. I’m not gonna call myself a crazy good lyricist but I really like understanding lyrics. I feel like words just evoke an emotion in me, even if they’re nonsensical in delivery, they still evoke emotion but sometimes I feel like (Cocteau Twins) lyrics are so nonsensical that I’m just tapped out. 

RRX: I always think of this album as, if you want to describe to someone what it sounds like to not speak english but hear someone else speaking it, just listen to Heaven or Las Vegas (Laughs). 

JB: Yeah that’s spot on.

RRX: We’ve got a few more, here’s this one.

Ceres & Calypso in the Deep Time by Candy Claws

JB: That one looks familiar.

AG: I’ve never even heard of Candy Claws.

RRX: It’s a very cool shoegaze record, came out in the 2010s. They have another band now called Sound of Ceres that’s based off of this record. 

Both: Oh! We know them!

JB: The guy that mastered one of Sound of Ceres’s albums did the mastering for our album. 

RRX: That’s awesome!

JB: So we’ll have to definitely give this a listen. 

RRX: Let’s see, this one is next:

S/T by Melody’s Echo Chamber

AG: Yes! I like this one. This is the guy from Tame Impala- Kevin Parker, he produced this.

JB: Oh! Yeah you’ve (Ali) shown me a song or two from this. 

AG: I don’t know if I’ve actually listened to the whole thing but yes, I love it. On the topic of Tame Impala, not a fan of the new Tame Impala (laughs). But this is really cool, and I’m like “Kevin, man, if you’re having some trouble just work with someone else.”

RRX: The vinyl itself is cool too, it’s a pink sherbet swirl.

JB: This packaging is really cool. This kicks our packaging’s ass (laughs).

AG: Well, we had a limited amount of money, so (laughs). 

RRX: So, you guys are signed to a label now, correct? 

JB: Yes. It’s a very small team, basically us and the guy who owns the label; he does a lot of management stuff with us, very quick to respond to emails and calls. 

AG: It’s really good, I like having a small team because you don’t have to worry about, I mean we haven’t really had a big team before…

JB: We had a big team with Lucy, or more band members.

AG: Not really, because we have like, three people working with us on social media and we have people working with us on radio promotion, which is cool. Everything is outsourced, so the label just kinda tells everyone who we are and we get to meet everybody either over conference calls or ya know… it’s good thought because everyone is more invested, everybody is excited about our music, or that’s what they say (laughs). So it doesn’t have a corporate feeling like, “Oh this is my job.” People are doing it because they actually want to support us and get our music out there. It’s honestly just been such a good experience. The label has been very helpful with helping us do what we need to do, in terms of recording or anything. They helped us finish our album which would have taken forever and is financially very expensive. 

RRX: It’s still a dream of mine to get my own music on a physical format, I feel like the design process is really fun, do you guys want to talk about that? 

AG: Oh yeah, so, originally we had a design that we kind of wanted to do but we ended up going with something else but I think we’re both really happy with how it turned out. We did a photoshoot with our good friend Andrew who we actually did some shoots with during Lucy which is how we met him but he’s always been a good friend and he shot our album cover and did the back art and all the text for it. 

JB: Him (Andrew) and…

AG: And there was one other person…

JB: Who finished it. I’m trying to remember what his name was, sorry. I don’t want to not credit anybody. 

RRX: Alright, this next album is actually my favorite shoegaze record:

Everything Else Matters by Pinkshinyultrablast

AG: Oh my gosh, they’re going to be at SXSW! 

RRX: Really?? I want to see them so bad.

JB: Sorry, I just remembered what that guy’s name was, it’s Ryan Minkoff.

RRX: Gotcha. But yeah, this is my favorite record from my collection, the vinyl is a really cool splatter pressing. These guys are from St. Petersburg Russia.

JB: Yeah, they’re nuts. We definitely have to go see them. Hopefully we’re not playing at the same time. 

RRX: One thing I wanted to talk about was the first time I saw you perform; it was at the WCDB in-studio performance. 

JB: Wow, that was one of our first shows.

RRX: And back then it was just the two of you, so I wanted to talk about the difference between then and now, having a band of four. 

JB: Very different. It’s a totally different approach. We definitely like playing as a full band, especially at venues like this (the Byrdhouse) when it’s high energy. When we play as a duo it’s very chill. But when we play as a full band there’s a lot more; we have a drum machine, we have playbacks, two guitars-it’s loud, reverb, the whole thing. It’s a lot, and sometimes it’s a little difficult to pull off but our sound is all of that stuff.

AG: It’s very representative of the recordings now. 

JB: Yeah, we try to replicate the recordings as much as we possibly can. 

AG: I’m excited for you to hear it, because you’ll have heard both. A lot of people haven’t heard the duo set, I mean they’ve heard us through recordings and stuff…

JB: It’s cool to have recordings of the duo set because then it’s like a different version that you can listen to. 

RRX: I thought you were great as a duo, but I’m excited to see what having two more band members adds to it.

AG: Working with Dan and Joe is great.

RRX: I was gonna ask what it’s like working with them.

AG: They’re very sweet and both so talented. 

JB: Ali and I are both very serious people, and they’re so funny. It definitely is really good for our mental health working with them. 

RRX: Alright so this is the last album, and it’s definitely a personal favorite album for me; more on the noise-rock side of things. But I wanted to know if you guys have heard of Swirlies at all.

Blonder Tongue Audio Baton by Swirlies

JB: I have not.

AG: I have heard of Swirlies.

RRX: Really good stuff, kind of Sonic Youth worship too.

JB: Speaking of Sonic Youth, that’s not a huge influence but definitely on a couple of tracks. A couple tracks on the album are definitely more on the noise-rock direction of things versus just straight shoegaze. And you’ll all hear it… one day (laughs). Right when this interview comes out. 

RRX: So that’s all for the records, I’ll move on to regular questions again. Do you guys have any favorite venues or places to play in Albany? 

AG: This spot (the Byrdhouse) is honestly really cool. I feel like so many venues are dying right now unfortunately. I could give you the names of the venues I don’t like but I won’t do that (laughs). 

JB: I feel like Albany is in a state right now with the bigger venues that are defaulting to booking the easiest things to book. I think that’s a big disservice to the scene in general. I’m a little disappointed, when we were in Lucy I feel like we saw a different side of the scene and now that we’re Laveda those venues don’t really want as much to do with us. But the house venues here have always been something I’ve enjoyed going to more. It’s one of those towns where people doing stuff like this (the Byrdhouse) is cooler. I feel like I'm being weird, but I don’t know. 

AG: I’d love to do a show at the Social Justice Center, I’ve heard great things about that place. 

JB: I feel like a lot of the venues around here that are good are just unconventional. 

AG: Yeah, it’s not like going to… well Philly has a pretty big house scene too but, I feel like you go anywhere else and there are one or two spots that book original music. 

JB: Or even Gug’s up in Glens Falls. That venue is nuts, it’s crazy. It’s very cool. There are a lot of cool spots still. I talk about this like, everyday.

RRX: So next, I want to talk about what you guys have scheduled for the future. I know you’re new single is out tomorrow (2/28 “Ghost” is out now!) and what is the schedule for future singles?

AG: Our next single is “L” and that will be out March 20th (Check out “L”). And then another single that will be out two weeks after “L” called “Rager” (Check out “Rager” as well) and then the full album out April 24th.

JB: “Rager” is the fastest song we’ve ever written.

AG: Maybe yeah… but don’t tell them that! 

RRX: So let’s talk about your tour, are there any upcoming shows that you really want to talk about?

JB: When this comes out we will have already survived our tour, hopefully. But yeah, we’re going to NYC tomorrow, then New Jersey which will be fun.

AG: Yeah, we played at the Clubhouse in New Jersey before in January and we’re excited to go back, it was an amazing venue; it’s an all ages space that has a pop-up art shop, which is really cool. They showcase a bunch of local artists and it’s a really nice space, a really nice sound, spacious but not too big. 

JB: We’re playing with Another Michael.

AG: Yeah, we’re playing with Albany hometown heroes, Another Michael in Philly which we’re super pumped for. And then, I’m really excited, we’re playing with this band who we linked up with- this is a little bit closer to Texas- but we’re playing in Baton Rouge with a band called… Riarosa. We just linked up with them on social media, they just started following us and they had a song I listened to and it was just a great back and forth; we connected and we wanted to play a show together and when we found out we were heading down to Texas we said “Hey let’s play a show together!” So I’m excited to meet them.

JB: And we’re playing with True Blossom, in Georgia. They played in Albany once with us. 

AG: We’re linking up with some friends, it’ll be fun. We’re gonna be meeting a shit-ton of new people too.

RRX: So what’s it gonna be like on the road? Do you guys have a van?

AG: We have a 2001 or 2002 Suburban; it is Joe’s, our drummer’s. And we have an extra large tooley and rack with storage space, and that’s where all of our personal belongings will be.  

JB: Hopefully it works!

AG: We start tomorrow and there’s six of us and a shit-ton of gear. We’ve got places to stay pretty much everywhere so we don’t have to sleep in the car. It’s really not big enough for all of us. I’m really excited I just hope I’m not sick right now! We can also talk about this since it will be out later, we are going to be going on tour after our album comes out and that’s gonna be a really big tour. 

RRX: I think my last question will be this: is there anything around Albany you want to give a quick shoutout to?

AG: Shoutout to Lemon of Choice for just being amazing guys and congrats on your record, it’s so good. Who else? Shoutout to my parents, cause ya know, why not.

JB: Shoutout to my parents too.

AG: We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.

JB: Shoutout to Bose for laying me off.

AG: No! Don’t put that in there! Fuck Bose! 

JB: I’m unemployed now, and I’m gonna go on tour so fuck corporate America (laughs). But no, shoutout to the Byrdhouse for having us. 

AG: I think that’s it for shoutouts. We are going to be having an album release show at, and we’ll hopefully have more details for you later, but at Studio G3 in Saint Rose…

JB: Aka Jack’s Place.

AG: On Thursday April 30th; it’s gonna be a little after the album comes out. We’re doing our main album release on the 24th in New York City at Lola. But the Albany show is gonna be awesome.

JB: We’re also gonna be playing Fredonia the 25th.

AG: Yeah it’s gonna be crazy, we’ll be off tour for a little bit and then we’ll be back out. The album will be out, then graduation. I’m saying this also although you’re not supposed to tell anyone yet, but we’re playing Tulip Fest, so come see us there. This won’t be out till April so by then it will be announced. 

JB: We’re playing May 9th at 1p.m. Come see it! I don’t know what stage but, yeah.

AG: And our album release, we’re going to have vinyl that we’ll be selling at the show and some new merch by then. But I think that’s it. 

Laveda’s tour was unfortunately cut short due to Coronavirus concerns, however you can check out their singles on all streaming platforms and follow them on instagram and facebook at:

@lavedamusic

https://www.facebook.com/lavedamusic/