Nothing Brooklyn-based indie-pop band Lucius does is accidental. The band’s aesthetic is inspired by 1960s girl groups, but the quintet’s sound is pure 21st-century sonic experimentation. Formed by frontwomen Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, Lucius’ sound is constantly evolving. On stage, their eclectic songs, emotive vocal unison, and bold imagery burst from a sea of wires, pedals, drums, and vintage keyboards and guitars. Their latest record, “Wildewoman” (pronounced like wildebeest), is a towering statement of feminine strength from Wolfe and Laessig. The band has earned praise from National Public Radio and Rolling Stone and landed on the Billboard charts.
Lucius will take the stage at The Music Hall in Portsmouth on Thursday, Sept. 17. The Sound caught up with band member Peter Lalish, a New Hampshire native, to discuss the purpose behind their aesthetic, the state of their newest material, and prospective cover songs about the Granite State.
Lucius is a carefully curated, purposeful band. Did the band have a specific mission when it started?
Not really. It’s sort of a natural progression to what it’s become, I think. I joined the group at a certain time and then Andy (Burri), the other guitar player and drummer, he joined after me. Then we realized the girls are singing harmonies together and then there’s these three guys. Sort of out of necessity, we were travelling with a smaller amount of gear and we had decided to break up the drum set a certain way, and then I started playing guitar and bass. I had a slew of guitar pedals and I split mine up between the guitar amp and the bass amp, so I started doing double duty, and then everyone started doing double duty (playing multiple instruments and drums). And, if you look at the stage plot, it’s basically a mirror image on each side. We just decided to roll with what was happening with the arrangements, and then I think the clothes were the next natural progression. I think the visual part came right after that realization of how we were aligning on stage.
How did this aesthetic influence the band?
With that, I think, not to speak too much on behalf of the women in the band, but they both kind of have this unified sound. When they’re singing together, it’s necessarily in harmony the whole time. A lot of this thing that they do is unison. They’re really projecting together as one singular voice. I think that they wanted to keep the sound and the visual trickery together. Everyone is always like, “Are they identical twins?” No, they don’t look anything alike, but I guess with that interplay up there, the voices and the visual stuff, it really provides this singular sound. So it’s not, you know, “I can hear Jess’ voice in this moment,” or “I can hear Holly’s voice.” It’s kind of like, “Oh this is the sound of band, it’s Lucius.”
What role does fashion play?
Well, it makes touring a hell of a lot easier, because I don’t have to bring clean underwear (laughs). It makes touring a little more difficult because when you’re down to just two suits for about two months, there’s about one week of praying to the rock gods that you’re going to cross paths with a washing machine or drycleaner. So it can be a blessing and a curse when you smell yourself occasionally, and you’re playing in 100-degree weather in the summertime outside. … I think just having a visual thing keeps it all unified in a certain way. We’re not going up there dressed necessarily like we would wear clothes like these on the street or anything. It’s a little bit timeless, so it allows you to do whatever you want musically on stage.
Your music tends to be dynamic and complex; what’s your songwriting process like?
It’s very splatter-paint. It’s almost like you paint with a medium that you’re allowed to easily paint over or erase. And you might be left with some ghost colors underneath and you never totally get rid of those things. As we’re writing, as we’re recording demos, (drummer and vocalist) Danny (Molad) in the band is a producer. He has his own recording studio, so we do a lot of recording. We’ve done a lot of recording in the van on tour. We did a cover (song) completely in the van. I think it was a Tears for Fears cover that we did while we were driving.
There’s a lot (that happens) through experimenting sonically. Experimenting in the studio, or in a recording because it really allows everyone to play around with their own ideas. Everyone in the band thinks not only sonically but also as arrangers. We all have different musical projects outside the band, and so when we each approach it, we … (are) trying to look at the song objectively, but we all each have our own subjective take on what it could become. There’s a lot of all of us in that and somehow it works out democratically that there some vocal elements, there’s some screaming vocal elements, there’s some very loud drums to go along with some very quiet guitars. Somehow we all have a say in what happens, and the girls’ voices allow that dynamic to shift because it’s always funneled through this very clear sound that they have singing together.
Are there principal songwriters or is it more collaborative?
Yeah, so far, Jess and Holly … they really wanted to write. It’s very hard when you have one person try to articulate their emotions on paper. It’s even harder when you have two people, and I think when they write together, it’s like they’re checking in. They’re saying, “Where are you at in life?” “Where are you at in life?” I think a lot of life has happened since the last record, so instead of five people all trying to get their stories on the page, they really wanted to write this new record and keep it focused in that way. But it’s still a very collaborative process because when they finished writing, they gave us a bunch of demos and then we sent them back our twisted-up versions of their songs. And then we all got together and rewrote those songs for a third time. So the conception is from the two women, and then we all have our hands in the pot, stirring it up. It’s like a big musical stew that we all stir up and then decide, “Is this edible?” (laughs).
What has influenced you over the years? Are there any influences pushing you right now?
What’s always influenced me are people that have a strong sense of arrangement and people that self-produce their records or work as producers. Someone kind of more recent is Richard Swift; (he) just made a number of just unbelievable solo albums. He’s produced Foxygen and a little bit of Sharon Van Etten and Damien Jurado. I think now he kind of bounces around with a lot of other bands. I think he’s a presence in a band — he’s a multi-instrumentalist; he’s kind of a go-to guy for sonic ideas. For me, those are the people that I’m naturally drawn to. You know, people that have a sonic vision for music.
What issues or themes are important to you in your music?
What connects me to a song is not always — I don’t always know what it’s going to be. If it’s going to be a sound, you know, the sound of the recording, it could be something intimate or something very big and expansive. Or if the lyrics are very literal or very metaphorical or abstract. It’s sort of wherever I’m at in life. … I go back and listen to a song like, “Wow, this completely resonates with me in a new way.” It kind of unveils itself based on the experience you’re currently having. So I think with writing these songs, it’s sort of looking at what sort of personal issues are happening in each other’s lives. Again, this is my interpretation or objective look at the songs and then trying to make it feel universal. You know, lik