Originally called Lulu and the Lampshades, Landshapes morphed into the U.K.-based quartet it is today in 2013. Currently touring in support of their second full-length album, Heyoon, Landshapes will be in New York for five performances during CMJ:
- October 14th at Brooklyn’s Palisades
- October 15th at Manhattan’s Le Poisson Rouge
- October 15th at Manhattan’s Pianos
- October 16th at Brooklyn’s The Living Room
- October 17th at Manhattan’s Rockwood Music Hall
Prior to conducting Q&A with drummer Dan Blackett and vocalist/ukelelist Luisa Gerstein, there were pretty much two things that I knew about Landshapes:
- They make great, guitar effect-drenched, folky-pop music.
- Two of its members are largely responsible for the “Cups” phenomenon that the movie Pitch Perfect brought unto this world.
After speaking with Dan and Luisa, I learned that thing #2 may have delivered some notoriety for Landshapes, but it has very little to do with the band in its present state. More interesting — to me, at least — is how the band got its name, an international incident of sorts.
Heyoon – as released by Bella Union – entirely avoids the sophomore slump cliché that many bands face, and it has already found a tremendous amount of critical acclaim both here and abroad. The folks at BBC 6 were amongst its early fans.
For someone who hasn’t seen or heard Landshapes before, how do you describe the band?
Dan Blackett: Energetic. Inexpert. Danceable. Loud. Broke.
What brought about the change in band name from Lulu and the Lampshades to Landshapes?
D: Our name were misspelled at a gig in Paris – it was supposed to be Lampshades at that point — we didn’t want to be “Someone and the Somethings” anymore, and we just went with that. Parisians don’t give a shit what your band is called.
A lot of bands tend to overthink things when making their second album. Did that happen at all for Landshapes?
D: The record is a mixture of old stuff that was kicking around during the first album and new stuff that was about 15 minutes old. There’s tracks that didn’t make the cut and ones that came out of nowhere at the last minute and, like “Ader” became the single. We tend to throw it all together and see what has happened once we run out of time rather than overthink it, I guess. It’s quite a schizophrenic record. Maybe we’ll try overthinking the next one.
Your music video for “Submarine” is stunningly-beautiful. Was that planned when coming up with the idea for the video, or more of a happy accident?
Luisa Gerstein: Thanks! The idea for it was pretty loose, concocted largely by the serendipitous chance of finding a miniature Heloise [Tunstall-Behrens] doppelganger, and wanting to film something on the Cornish Coast where most of the album was written, so it’s a special place for us. A lot of what we filmed was pretty much what we found and ideas we had on the spot, like “the light looks really nice in the woods over there, maybe we should do a dance routine,” and so on. The rest was down to good editing from my brother.
You have five announced New York City area gigs coming up during CMJ week. What do you look forward to most about the week you’re here for CMJ?
L: We’re excited to be in New York and playing shows! That’s gonna be great, we had such a good time last year. For me, I’m excited as well ‘cause it’s my birthday, and I don’t particularly like my birthday but it’s already an occasion by virtue of being somewhere else – easy!
What do you remember most about your first trip to New York City?
D: It’s quite a city, isn’t it? I thought pretty much straight away, “yep, this is probably the best city on Planet Earth.” I didn’t want to go back to London. Staten Island was pretty memorable . Me and Heloise were adopted for the day by an intense Irish-American war veteran who made me walk his four tiny Chihuahuas while he looked for his knife and took us for pizza. Couldn’t get a word in edgeways. Dogs kept getting tangled in my legs. The pizza sucked but an amazing day.
Has the popularity of “Cups” as a result of Pitch Perfect been helpful to Landshapes in any way? Or do most people not make the connection?
L: People make the connection less and less, we hope to continue along that vein until it disappears!
Who is the best band from your hometown that our readers may not know?
D: Do you know Micachu and the Shapes?
L: Seconded, they are the BEST band.
Finally, any last words for the kids?
D: Get the tattoo.
-by Darren Paltrowitz
