The Loved Ones

Feb 19th 2008 at The Basement Columbus, Oh

Before The Loved Ones played, we met up with vocalist Dave Hause at the bar to find a suitable place to conduct the interview. Our choices were the men’s restroom or the bar upstairs. We thankfully decided against the smelly restroom and made our way upstairs to some couches in the thankfully empty, but unfortunately named House of Crave, where we got the latest info on the current tour and the immediate future for The Loved Ones.

Patrick: Ok Dave, for the benefit of our less informed readers; could you go down the list of albums, including the EP, that you’ve released so far?

Dave: We put out an EP in 2005 on Jade Tree, put out Keep Your Heart on Fat in 2006 and we just put out Build and Burn about two weeks ago.

Patrick: Yeah, good stuff, we got it from Vanessa at Fat. Huge fan of the EP and Keep Your Heart…I don’t think it left my car for about four or five months. Just got the new album, still getting a little acquainted with it…seems like a little less bounce and a little more swagger to it, how do you feel about it? Are you guys happy with how it turned out?

Dave: Yeah, we feel great about it; it’s exactly the record we wanted to make. We worked really hard on it and we pushed to be as honest with the songwriting as we could.

Patrick: Good to hear man! So, we mentioned earlier how balls fucking cold it is here…how long have you been on this tour?

Dave: The tour started February 7^th…and today is the 20^th or 19^th? It’s a short tour; it’s only eighteen days then we’re off for a little while and shoot a video and then we head west through Milwaukee and the Midwest and end in San Francisco and then we go to Japan.

Patrick: Yeah Milwaukee might be a little treacherous with all the snow up there right now. Have you run into any winter related misfortunes with the tour so far? Any perilous pitfalls?

Dave: No, no pitfalls…our heater blower just went in our truck so…we’re freezing in the truck right now, it kinda brings down the vibe a little bit, but we’re hoping to get it fixed tomorrow. (Laughs) We’re really hoping to get it fixed; kinda going out of my mind without heat.

Patrick: Yeah, I bet. Uh, let’s see here…you guys are originally from Philadelphia, correct?

Dave: I was born and raised in Philly, Mike lives in Philly now…he’s been here for four years and Dave and Chris are both from Brooklyn.

Patrick: Ok, tell me a little bit more about Philadelphia as far as the punk rock scene; well the music scene in general…I don’t know a whole lot about it, so…

Dave: The Philly scene is pretty close knit, it’s not really an international scene although it’s starting to become that way a little. A lot of the bands there don’t go out on tour and make it their lifestyle..y’know the touring lifestyle? Which is kind of a drag; it’d be nice if more bands from Philly got out and toured all over the world but there’s some bands doing it. We met some guys in Europe called Giving Chase; I had never really heard of them but they said they were working hard touring…

Chris: Yeah, I got their album for review a few months ago, actually. Good stuff.

Dave: Yeah? The thing is, Philly is a super supportive town of bands from the area and music in general. It’s always a good showing for us…for most of the bands. You get a captive audience who rapidly get excited about what’s going on.

Patrick: Yeah, I bet…so they’re kinda starved?

Dave: Well, sort of yeah. Starved for a band that I think they can call their own. So yeah, Philly’s a great town.

Patrick: We understand starvation here in Columbus, man, we’ve got what…the New Bomb Turks; I don’t know if they play out too much anymore and maybe The Bloody Irish Boys, but they’re not too international. So Columbus definitely loves these kind of shows.

Chris: Columbus is kind of the very small hardcore shows and weird indie rock kind of thing. Seems very esoteric at times. Great bands, but if you’re not part of that particular clique…you feel a bit like an outsider.

Dave: Columbus is a college town right?

Patrick: It is. Very much so. We’re a bit off the beaten tour paths so we don’t see an over abundance of good shows come through here.

Dave: I’m sure that that situation of that guy getting murdered on stage isn’t helping things.

Chris: (laughing…hysterically) Yeah, I’m sure Dimebag Darrels death might have a little to do with it. That happened in what, 2005, over there at the Alrosa Villa? We’re not big fans of the establishment; I’m sure some decent bands come through occasionally, but personally the only people I’ve known frequenting that place is a plethora of retards and rednecks. (laughs) We’re getting in trouble with this one…

Patrick: (laughs)Have you guys played in Columbus at all before this?

Dave: Some. Uh..we played here before with Bayside at this club. It was on the Keep Your Heart tour. I’m trying to think when we’ve been through here. I know my old band played through here…we played with Avail and with the Used…that was years ago. I can’t really remember…I think it’s usually Cleveland or Cincinnati. We’re just now starting to headline so it’s a lot of trial and error of where the shows are good.

Patrick: Just testing the waters a bit then. We have a decent amount out here right now, but we’re a little disappointed with the turnout.

Dave: (laughs) Oh man, it’s Tuesday…you can’t really blame anyone.

Patrick: Especially with how fucking cold it is tonight. Besides musical endeavors, what do you guys do for fun?

Dave: Well between tours we’re usually home with our families and working at our day jobs and stuff. You know, on tour the band hangs out, but afterwards we try to focus on family. We work when we’re at home and hang around. I’m married, Dave’s married and Chris is just about married and Mike’s got a girlfriend…so we spend a lot of time with our ladies.

Chris: Awesome, I’m going to switch gears slightly here…and I ask every band this question. How would you describe The Loved Ones music to someone who’s never heard it?

Dave: I’d just call it rock and roll. If you’ve heard it or you haven’t, I think that best sums up what we do. I mean, we’ve been called a punk band but, y’know, I’m not even sure what that means. So, I just think it’s rock and roll…I know it’s rock and roll. Whether or not it’s punk; some people say ‘Hell no!’ and some people say ‘Yes’. So yeah, we’re just a rock band with a straight forward approach. I think our ultimate influences come from country and rhythm and blues and , sure yeah, I’m sure over time punk rock has influenced us in some ways but ultimately I just consider us a rock band.

Chris: I can definitely see, like, back in the eighties with bands like Black Flag and The Descendents there was definitely that line drawn in the sand of what a punk band was whereas now punk has come a long way…y’know it’s not just the same three chord ‘verse chorus verse’ formula anymore. It’s definitely evolved into something more.

Dave: Oh totally! I think if we were going to have some sort of parallel drawn; it would be along the lines of The Clash who were passionate about what they did and it was just great and they didn’t lock themselves into one formula. And we’ve attempted to do that in the short period of time that we’ve been a band. Y’know I’m a songwriter with a varying degree of influences so I can appreciate the punk aesthetic with the do it yourself attitude and making sure you stay with influences that you feel comfortable with. Beyond that, I don’t really care about any of that stuff. I’m just an average joe who likes lots and lots of different music.

Chris: I can totally see that. Some people just kind of identify themselves with a particular scene…like when I was seventeen, I was like ‘I’m fucking punk as fuck!’ (laughs)whereas now I’m damn near thirty; I have a job and a girlfriend and now my mentality is ‘this is what I like, but not necessarily what I am fully’.

Dave: Exactly man. If you’re open minded, you’ll find yourself liking all kinds of stuff. Like for me I get as much from a Patti Griffith song as opposed to a fill in the blank punk song. I mean, I just like what I like.

Chris: Same here dude. I’m trying to pay the rent and keep my girlfriend and friends happy rather than worry about if some younger kids are going to laugh at me for listening to Tears for Fears, y’know?

Dave: (laughs) Right! I mean it’s just crazy; these microcosms you can find yourself in. I just like music…music that changes people’s lives. It makes this world a little bit easier to live in. And that’s what I believe in.

Pat: Here’s something I’ve always been curious about. One of my favorite songs…”Player Hater Anthem” man. It just spoke to me for some reason. Two years ago in Florida with the now ex girlfriend, was listening to that song and I looked over at her and thought, ‘dude she is such a player hater’…not that I was a player. (laughs) Shit, what’s it about? I mean, obviously I can read the lyrics, but what’s it about to you?

Dave: “Player Hater Anthem” is a joke title. I always thought of it as a double entendre you know…I play music. We were finding that when we first started the band that people were doubting our sincerity. Because of our previous bands people thought that because we had all these friends and were getting all these big shows and all that stuff. Once it blows over you have to do all the really hard work. And the line ‘Trying three percent too hard’ came from our publicist who sent us a link to Punknews.org where some kid was like, ‘I like The Loved Ones, but it’s seems like they’re trying three percent too hard’. (laughs) And I thought that was so laughable…how do you measure three percent too hard? What are you talking about? So the songs was kinda written to let people know that they can think what they want, but we’re here as a band sweating it out. Y’now, we’re here to play; if you want to come with us-fine. If you don’t…that’s ok too. We believe in what we’re doing even if some people don’t, but I really feel like a lot of that has dissipated.

I don’t think too many people doubt our sincerity with this anymore. I mean, we don’t really make any money from it. Why else would be doing this?

Chris: I visit Punknews.org from time to time for the actual news and on that front it’s pretty cool. But I don’t hold much stock in the site because essentially it’s just a haven for internet shit talk. There’s just a lot of bored little turds who enjoy flaming each other through comments. I’ve got better shit to do.

Dave: (laughs) However people want to spend their time is fine by me, I just focus on what I’m doing.

Chris: There you go. You mentioned that you were making a video soon…what song is that for?

Dave: We’re shooting it in Minneapolis and it’s going to be for “The Bridge” We’re meeting with this guy Justin who’s done videos for Strike Anywhere so it should be pretty good. He’s really creative and he has some cool ideas, so it should be a good time.

Pat: Well, I think that just about wraps it up. Anything else you want to go on record?

Dave: Just thanks for the interview guys!

Patrick: Great! I don’t know, can we buy you a shot…take a shot with us?

Dave: Sure! Let’s do it!