Back in Love
Love Is All Oct. 10, Roseland Ballroom, 239 W. 52nd St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-777-6800; 7, $23. (Also Oct. 13 at Maxwells.)
The story of Love Is All begins like a bad joke: A band walks into a bar. This particular band was known as Girlfriendo, a pop-tart group from Gothenburg, Sweden, and the year was 2002. Band members Josephine Olausson, Nicholaus Sparding and Markus Görsch were out for a beer in the wake of a terrible rehearsal, and they got to talking about their shared dissatisfaction with their current project. It was there that the trio decided to scrap its involvement with Girlfriendo and start another band.
The three friends, Olausson on vocals and keyboards, Sparding on guitar and Görsch on drums, began jamming together, taking steps to formulate a sound that did not relate to their previous band. We just tried to do something really different and more experimental, Olausson says. The group brought in Johan Lindwall on bass and Fredrik Eriksson on saxophone, an instrument that features prominently in Love Is Alls music. Ive always been into bands with saxophones, Olausson says, citing post-punk bands like Essential Logic and Kleenex as inspiration, both of which have female leads with the twitchy delivery thats also a big part of her own bands sound.
The difference between playing with Girlfriendo and Love Is All was immediately apparent to Olausson. There was definitely more space for me in rehearsal, she says. The band was able to explore uncharted territory and operate in a more democratic way, with every band member getting a say. We argue a lot when we make music, Olausson says. She explains that everyone in the group listens to something different, be it Prince, heavy metal, punk girl groups or even classic rock, which gives the band its eclectic soundhaphazard and frantic in delivery, but tied together with a binding pop-like melody. Together, it makes Love Is All. The band name was the finishing touch on the new group, and Olausson and Görsch came up with it one night while watching a 1960s spy show The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The television shows star was tackling a case that involved a hippie sect, and when investigators went to the hippies home, above the door of the commune, in like Auschwitz-style, were the words Love Is All, Olausson says.
The bands debut album, Nine Times that Same Song, came out in 2006, and indie music critics gave it a warm reception. With the follow-up album, this years A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, the success of the previous album was in the back of the bands mind. Its an impossible task to make a second record after the first one has been well received, Olausson says. The band members wrote some songs during the last tour and recorded the album in their own studio. This time we tried to be more professional; we used real mics, Olausson laughs. Their record label, Whats Your Rupture?, brought in a big producer to mix the album, and when the band mates heard the result, they were not happy with the albums slick production. [The label] signed us on the basis that we were who we were, Olausson says. We didnt want to compromise. In the end, the group asked its own sound guy, Wyatt Cusick, to make a mix, and the result is the finalized album.
Love Is All has had some lineup changes since the last album, with Eriksson departing as saxophonist. Fred didnt enjoy touring as much, Olausson says. The new saxophone player is Åke Strömer, now the groups youngest member. Olausson cannot say exactly how young he is, only that he is the only band member born in the 1980s. When the band met Strömer, he didnt really know how to play the saxophone, but the group was impressed by his enthusiasm. And lucky for Love Is All, Strömer was a quick study.
On the bands last tour, it scored big with audiences in the United States and United Kingdom, which lead to the group snagging the spot of supporting band on Maximo Parks recent U.K. tour. This tour around, Love Is All plays with Vivian Girls, Times New Viking and indie glam eccentrics Of Montreal. Ive seen so many pictures [of Of Montreal], and it makes me nervous, Olausson says. I think I need to go to the store and get some new clothes.