In this interview spotlight, I chat with The Links about their latest release (Take It Away), challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We’re from Lafayette, LA (as in Louisiana, not some fancy sub-section of Los Angeles) and we make a variety of noises that by this point we’ve humbled ourselves down to calling “Alternative”
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
There were a few albums I heard as a kid that just blew my mind and had me completely enamored with not only discovering & listening to more music but also making vain attempts at my own. I was pretty young when I started producing so that helps a lot in making the general record-creation process feel seamless – leaving more room to really play with things and experiment. I’m motivated to keep going by whatever didn’t satisfy me with the last record. I’m also addicted to the whole thing.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
I’m actually still really proud of the last record we did, But Then: The Links which is kind of a rare thing for me. I often quickly find things to absolutely hate about an album I’ve put out because I’m so damn conscious of the entire thing and ever little nitpickable item in it which is at times unbearable – but with Take It Away we were just kind of having fun. Being completely outside of the big-label system and all that, for better or worse, means we have essentially no pressure aside from whoever’s actually heard a Links record before and expects something from it and, of course, ourselves.
What is the lead single, “Take It Away,” about?
It’s kind of a “fuck you” to people who think they have any sort of power over you or can take anything from you, being able to just cut those people out of your life and say “goodbye” for once. I had a real problem with that at one point in my life, for a long time, but now I seem to have turned a new leaf and can do it fairly easily. Make of that what you will. Of course, I often don’t even really realize what my songs are actually about until after the fact, since so much of it is just transcribed “scratch vocals,” which are very, very subconscious. But yeah, a handful of my new songs I feel have that kind of attitude, both for Links and another project I’m involved in, Warganization. It’s a beautiful and ugly thing, all at once. Mostly beautiful.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Exposure and funding, by a long shot. The actual process of making music is fantastic, especially as someone who is able to record & produce the stuff, because it means we have even less obstacles in getting the kind of record we want. But then, when that part of it is over, there is a reluctance from other members of the band to tour and stuff like that because we’re not in a pipeline that guarantees breaking even much less any sort of profit from that kind of venture. Nevertheless, we have done a few mini-tours and, quite frankly, I’m going to keep playing shows no matter what the circumstances because I simply can’t help it. Links or otherwise.
What was the last song you listened to?
“Home and Dry” by Pet Shop Boys
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl is a pain in the ass, honestly. And it’s expensive as hell. It’d be fantastic to be rich with some kind of dedicated listening room with some ridiculous sound system that really just got the best out of records but, well, that’s not exactly my circumstance. If I want that old analog effect or whatever, I feel like I’m better off listening to tapes, honestly. But normal everyday listening, streaming at home & CDs in the car (aux players broken and I got hundreds.)
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
To be honest, as contradicting as it may sound, I’ve seen the greatest results from the actual merch tables at live shows. Of course, every show is different, but the degree to which people are not only interested but willing to just throw money at you for your own music and merch items, as well as talk to you about whatever it was they just heard from the stage, it’s like being in a pre-Napster time portal and I love it. But yeah, as far as digital distributors and stuff like that goes: as a listener I normally use Spotify or YouTube but as an artist, Bandcamp is fantastic.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Anything else before we sign off?
Take It Away EP was released in April on all distributors including bandcamp, in both digital and physical formats!
