LIVIN's Debut Album Cover

LIVIN, an upbeat, funky rock / jam band you can dance to, talks about their self-titled debut album, to be released June 3^rd, 2011

Is it true LIVIN banned computers at the recording session?

Yes it’s true! We banned computers and any digital sound effects, and recorded the album on a Studer tape machine. We view music as organic, and we wanted our sound to stay as true as possible. When you listen to this record, it’s like LIVIN is giving you your own front row seat at a show just for you. Also, while listening to our record collections as we were preparing to go in the studio, we noticed one big thing in common – all the records we love were recorded on analog tape, with no computers, and an extra large portion of feeling, passion and raw emotion.

Can you name some of those records in your collections you listened to most as you were making the record?

This is just a small, small portion of what we were digging on – the full list would take up the entire internet: Revolver, The Beatles; Electric Ladyland and Band of Gypsies, Jimi Hendrix; A Night at the Opera, Queen; Bleach, Nirvana;  Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan; Yield, Pearl Jam; Amorica, Black Crowes; Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin; Sex Machine, James Brown; Dirt, Alice in Chains; American Prayer, The Doors; Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones; Red, King Crimson; Live Cream Volume 1; Elmore James; tons of John Coltrane and Elvin Jones.

LIVIN in the studio

You are known as “an upbeat, funky rock / jam band you can dance to”. I notice the records on the list generally fall into the classic rock category. What about those records influence you as a “rock / jam band”?

For us, it’s about being a “jam band”, as well as, in the words of Gregg Allman, “a band that jams.” Live Cream is one-hundred percent jamming and improvisation. Hendrix himself called Band of Gypsies a jam band. For us, “jam band” means that we’re able to go with the flow, and create music spontaneously. And if we’re performing at a big festival, with help from an enthusiastic and responsive crowd, taking a song like “Get On It” way out to the stratosphere is our idea of bliss. Bring your recorders folks, all tapers are welcome at LIVIN shows!

What’s it like working with the engineer who won a Grammy for recording Keith Richards?

Working with Ben Elliott is very cool. Of course, when he said “we’re rolling” into our headphones on the first track on the first day there were a few butterflies, and we became comfortable very quickly. If there was something we wanted to achieve, he was very patient with us in working towards achieving the sound we had in our heads.

Groovin on the playback

Teddy, what’s the story behind the song “She Had A Hammer”?

The song was written for and about a woman named Alexandra Duguay.  I didn’t know her, and was very moved by her story.  My friend Andy moved with his family to Haiti in January of 2010 to work for the UN in Port-au-Prince.  As we all know, the earthquake struck a short time later.  In the aftermath of the earthquake, I had been trying to find information about Andy’s family, and I came across a photo of Andy’s two boys with another young boy and Alexandra, who also was doing humanitarian work for the UN.  In the photo, she is holding a hammer after she and the three boys had nailed up a street sign in an area in Port-au-Prince called Tulipe.  There is just a tremendous sense of accomplishment and happiness on all of their faces.  Apparently, street markings in Port-au-Prince are very sporadic, so Alexandra took it upon herself to make these very colorful street signs and hang them where needed.   I was quite taken by her story and also found that she had done some very interesting things in her life such as run the NYC marathon and make a blues pilgrimage down to the crossroads of Highway 61 and 49.  She just seemed like a wonderful person who had a passion for life, certainly evidenced by all she had done and the fact that she was in Haiti doing work for the betterment of the world.  Tragically, Alexandra and Andy’s family were killed in the earthquake.  I was in my apartment all those miles away from Haiti and everything that was happening there, and this song started to form in my head.  I sat down and a couple of hours later had this song about Alexandra, that photo and her life, and what I guessed she must have been like.  So “Hammer” is a small tribute to Alexandra and her spirit that absolutely jumps out at you in that photo, and an attempt to keep her spirit alive in LIVIN’s way.  I think it’s people like Alexandra who we need to celebrate in this world.

Debut Album Interview Part Two