Indie music: An interview with Light Pollution

By Gargoyle Staff
Published: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 - 6:33pm

Tags:

Arts

By Erin Hayes

Gargoyle staff reporter

Posted Wednesday, April 11, 2007, The OG, arts

DeKalb's finest: Light Pollution. (courtesy Light

Pollution) (click to enlarge)

I'M SITTING IN the Illini Union, conversing with a scruffy young man with big blue eyes.

Before long, a second guy wearing a neon track jacket approaches and promptly situates himself on the other fellow's lap.

They enjoy some playful banter, and soon a third guy comes around, affectionately mussing neon-boy's hairdo.

No, I'm not chilling with a group of my schoolmates.

I am conducting an interview with Light Pollution, an indie rock band from DeKalb, Ill. Though this group is still developing (both in terms of their sound and in terms of their sheer membership), I think it is the fluid quality of their growth that charms me about them.

I saw one of their concerts in December and one in February, and in the small period of time spanning those two concerts, their repertoire had expanded undeniably.

Not surprisingly, they show no signs of slowing down. Light Pollution are back in town tonight playing at the Illini Union's Courtyard Café. Also performing are bands Ambulette, Eastern Conference Champions, Parenthetical Girls, and Watery Domestic. The show begins at 8 p.m.; tickets are $4 for students, $5 for everyone else.

Read on, as members Jim, Matt, and Bojan of Light Pollution discuss matters ranging from dirty jokes to their penchant for playing multiple instruments.

Do you want to give us the “Reader's Digest” version of the story of Light Pollution?

Jim (singer/guitarist): Uh … it started out as a solo thing. I started playing with Matt, the drummer, and we just decided to make it a really big rock band with lots of instruments. And, Paul joined — he's our accordion and trumpet player — and we had another horn player, and then he went to Scotland. And then I started playing — or no, I met Heather at a show [Heather plays keyboards and viola], and like, played some songs with her, and we started dating and now she's in the band.

So are you guys still together?

Jim: Yeah, yeah, of course. She's been in the band for maybe, like, eight months? Eight months.

Eight months? Cool. So, the dude who went to Scotland, what's his name?

Jim: Alex. He's studying Gaelic music and recording technology. Music theory stuff. Like, he's gonna come back next year probably, then it'll be a six-piece.

Yeah, so, I read on your MySpace that he came back to do some recording for your new album?

Jim: Yeah, yeah. He played double bass, and uh, trumpet and trombone and mandolin. Everybody in the band can play at least four instruments, so it works out well.

Yeah, I've noticed that about you guys. It's really cool ‘cause you guys always switch it up onstage, like no one's playing the same thing for the whole time.

Jim: Yeah, I don't do too much switching.

Yeah, well, except for you and Heather. You and Heather kind of do the same thing mostly.

Jim: Yeah, but the newer songs, she's gonna be playing more organ and I'm gonna play some keyboards on some songs live. But like in the studio, I've played a bunch of different stuff. Everybody mixes it up a lot.

Did you all know how to play most of them [before becoming members of Light Pollution], and did you learn how to play some of them when you got in the band?

Jim: Actually, what's awesome is that a couple of us picked up new instruments over time. Paul, when he joined the band, he saw us play with, uh … like, it was me and the bass player, Bojan, and Matt, the drummer, and a couple other people, and we were just trying out for this one show, and he saw us and he was like, “You need a trumpet player, I'm gonna start learning trumpet,” so like, within half a month he started playing trumpet with us.

Wow.

Jim: He never played accordion before, and he learned how to play that too. He's become very, very, very good at accordion.

Yeah … So … Who's the biggest troublemaker of the band?

Jim: Uh, I don't know. Maybe Matt. When we're with the band he gets pretty vile. His jokes are pretty disgusting sometimes. Oh, that's Matt. Matt! Come here!

Matt comes and sits on Jim's lap.

Hi, Matt.

Matt: Hi. Erin?

Yeah. So I was just asking James who the biggest troublemaker in the band is. Who do you think it is?

Jim: It's you, buddy.

Matt: Me?? I think Bojan causes trouble, but I don't know if he's a troublemaker.

How does he cause trouble?

Matt: Uh, he's always late to practice.

Jim: Always.

Matt: We all run on a half-an-hour-late schedule sometimes.

Yeah, you're my kind of people then, because I'm always late to everything.

Bojan joins the exchange; Jim leaves.

Hi Bojan, I'm Erin.

Bojan: Hey, nice to meet you.

Matt: You MySpaced us or something, didn't you?

Yeah, I MySpace-messaged you, yeah. So, is your guys' band Web site not working for a reason? ‘Cause I tried to click on [the link] and it didn't work.

Bojan: Uh, it's been … it's in the works. It's been in the works for about a year and a half.

Matt (laughing): Ever since we started.

Bojan: Yeah, even before we started the band I think we had the Web site.

Is anyone working on that?

Matt: The guy who used to be in our band, he was making our Web site, and then he moved to school.

Bojan: I called him today and I was yelling at him for not doing it. Just for fun.

So do you know anything we can expect out of the new Web site, or is it just totally up in the air right now?

Matt: Jimmy's got the whole plan behind that …

Bojan: It's gonna be amazing.

Postscript: While there still hasn't been much progress on the Web site, Light Pollution continue to evolve with time and experience. In the past year alone, they have performed with the likes of The Audition, The Pillows, and Margot & The Nuclear So And So's. For more information about their performance tonight at the Courtyard Café, see this week's Gargoyle entertainment guide.