Lollapalooza Interviews and Portraits

Check out Josh Darr’s series of artists interviews and portraits taken at Lollapalooza.

The Lollapalooza artists pictured below were asked to answer these two questions:

1. What is one summertime event or past time from your childhood so impactful that you still remember it today?

2. If there were one animal you would best liken the spirit of your band to, what would it be and why?

Delta Spirit

1. Matt Vasquez: We had a community swimming pool that I would spend every day at during the summer. That was about the best thing in the world when I was 13!

2. Vasquez: The Human, because if I said shrimp nobodied get it.

The Chain Gang of 1974

1. Katmin Mohager: When I was a little kid I lived in Hawaii and my parents won some all-access thing to a hotel, it was like a nice hotel thing in Hawaii and so we, my brothers and I and like a bunch of our friends packed into a car went there and pretty much like wreaked havoc on the hotel the entire day. Like stole all the food in the buffets like we weren’t suppose to we did and yeah it was pretty awesome. Either that or I went to the Iron Man Marathon and for some reason our parent gave us all our own hotel room with no adult supervision and once again it was that same group of friends and it was awesome and we stole a bunch of shit too.

2. Mohager: I’m gonna say a lion, only cause I’m a Leo and we’re like jokingly obsessed with horoscopes and stuff. So I’m gonna say the lion, because it is fierce and doesn’t take shit from anyone…and I wanna be like that too.

Reptar

1. Ginger Bear: Mathemagics is my summertime activity.

Madison Adams: Speed reading, I dropped out but did a lot of doodling afterwards.

Graham Ulicny: I’d say SciTrek summer camp when I was six.

Poof Daunty: I was an astronaut…when I was young…in the summer.

William Kennedy: I’d say scientific sign dancing at space camp.

Sweaty Gene: I was definitely, I did a synchronized swimming event when I was seven in the summer of ’83.

2. Ginger Bear: I’m biased I can’t answer that. [bands members throw out a multitude of answers all at once) Flies because they throw up on their food before they eat it. Quetzalcoatlus have a wing span of 25 feet swooping down on you scooping you up just like our band did before we had to make it bigger.

The Drums

1. Connor Hanwick: Summertime, I feel like to me was pretty aimless..I didn’t really like go to camp or anything like that, but summer was great for that reason I guess. I liked just not having to do anything. Yeah, I just looked forward to summer, I mean every kid does. I still like doing nothing..so that’s cool.

Jacob Graham: I don’t know, just like running around and playing in the woods. I always liked fireworks and stuff like that.

Jonathan Pierce: I never liked summertime really. I mean not really. I didn’t prefer it to anything else. No I hated school too. I don’t know… I feel like most of my memories are from the other seasons. I do remember I was terrified of fireworks when I was a kid… that’s a summery thing, right? Fireworks? I would run and hide and cry until they were over. That was sort of the beginning of the end for us.

2. Hanwick: A camel.

Graham: A dove.

Pierce: A decapitated cat head on my campus [referencing response from interview at Sasquatch].

Disappears

1. Brian Case: Wow, I remember that I had this little skate camp in this park by my house and it was the local skate shop had the older kids come out and show how to do stuff… and I still think about it sometimes in the summer in St Louis.

Jonathan Van Herik: Hmm..I used to just lie out on my front lawn and watch the clouds go by. I’m just gonna say that. I still… every time I watch the clouds I’m remember like doing this when I was 5 years old.

2. [Case turns to his 5 year old son, Asher Case and asks him the question…prodding that they’d been talking about animals all day] Asher Case: I know what it is…a wolf.

Portugal. The Man

1. Zach Carothers: My favorite summer pastime growing up would have to be fishing with my dad. Fly fishing on the Gnowee Highway. That’s my favorite thing and that’s what I feel like doing a lot actually.

Ryan Neighbors: Well I had my first girlfriend during a summer, that only lasted half of a summer but it was memorable… holding hands.

John Gourley: And I was gonna follow up with last girlfriend [everyone laughs]. The thing I remember the most actually… So on this dog sled ride… [I] went out… amazing giant mountains coming up out of this just flat Tundra, everything’s frozen and we’re riding along. There are herds of caribou and we’re just riding through this stuff…It’s completely silent when you’re on a dog sled. You just silently go through all this stuff—caribou everywhere. My hat had blown back and my ear’s were freezing. I didn’t know they were just going numb. I mean, they burned a little bit and then they went numb. I had frostbit my ears really bad—to the point at where when they had thawed out. I had grabbed onto them at one point and the cartilage was frozen and I just bent my ear and it just froze like that and I didn’t know cause they were numb. But they’re finem—y.ears are fine. They’re fine now, but at the time they’d hurt really bad for years and years when I’d get into the cold they’d freeze right away. Huge blisters they didn’t turn black but should’ve—they looked bad for weeks and it kinda pushed me away from dog sledding for a while and I guess luckily in some ways, cause I just listened to music all the time not that we didn’t do that too. We could’ve run dogs and listened to music but it was cold and I froze my ears…that was a really long story.

Jason Sechrist: Turn record over to side B…I enjoyed walking up and down every numbered street as far as I could go East to West for the Summers and then I would do it on the bicycle as well…I’d basically pretend what it’d be like to live in each house. I would look in each house and wonder what’d it be like to live there. I’d see another one and think the same thing. That’s really it for me… how’s that… big time.

2. Gourley: I think we’d have to name each other right… in that respect I’m a bear. Actually you know what… [discussion begins].

Carothers: Bald eagle.

Gourley: We do a lot of roaming, we could be buffalo… which is pretty respectable.

Neighbors: I’ve got an idea… can we do a combo animal? So it’s a kinda like a buffalo but it’s got a snake tail.

Gourley: Whoa… why a snake man?

Neighbors: ’Cause that way it could attack from the other side… stuff like that [discussion resumes].

Gourley: Maybe a unicorn without the horn… [laughs, followed by a pause and an agreement all around].

Grouplove

1. Ryan Rabin: When I was really young and I don’t know how this ended up happening I was like 4 years old and there was this big Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show at Madison Square Garden and so like I got to go up on stage during soundcheck I sang Michael Jackson’s “I’m Bad,” and Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac and someone else were watching cause they were setting up the stage and watching each other soundcheck and so I performed Michael Jackson to them and ever since then, I’ve loved being on stage.

Andrew Wesson: There are probably two things, one is when I was a little kid I liked feeding these giant geese out on this little beach out on Lake Tahoe where my parents had a little condo (which is gone and makes me wanna cry)… But I remember one time I went up to feed the geese and it like swallowed all of my hand literally… like bit me really hard and I had this huge temper tantrum where I started to cry. So I learned never to feed geese.

Hannah Hooper: I’ve got one, I’ve got one…when I was little I used to really look up to my brother and he had just started riding a new bike that he got. It was like, I guess it was kind of a BMX bike and I still this weird training wheel bike from my next door neighbor, and I followed my brother through Golden Gate Park in the middle of the day and we got completely lost and he saw me. We were going so fast and we got completely lost and my brother was like, “dude stop following me,” and he biked away and I was left alone. The sun went down, purr parents sent out a car to find me and this cop car finally came and got me. What was the lesson… I don’t really know, run far away from home [laughs]. I’m just kidding. What did I learn from that? I don’t know it was just a sketchy experience in the summer that I’ll never forget.

Christian Zucconi: I remember in the summertime, I grew up in upstate New York..right along Sing Sing Prison in this town called Ossining. There were these train tracks that go by the prison and my used to take me and my brother down there and we’d cross the train tracks and climbed under the fence and I figured it was pretty exciting for a young kid and not stepping on the third rail. Then we’d like go across the tracks and there’s this old rock and all these old piers and we’d just hang out there and we used to take quarters and put em on the train tracks and let the trains come and smoosh them and then like crawl on the tracks before the next trains came and collect them all. Every summer we’d do that… it was a lot of fun.

Sean Gadd: When I a kid I used to have big ol’ dog, it was a Rottweiler and I remember in the summertime I would take it out to Ravenscourt Park which is a park near me and I used to love taking him for walks and he’d get super tired and then I’d always have to drag him home—this super heavy dog. That part kind of sucked but it was always fun taking my dog out.

2. Hooper: I wanna say an owl because they’re swift and awake at night… I guess cause they can see at night.

Wesson: I like pelicans. Pelicans are the coolest because they like chill together and have a big beak… and they like surf, have you ever seen them when they surf the waves ’cause there are drafts off the waves.?

Hooper: Do they hang out together?

Wesson: They kick it like big groups and shit.

Hooper: Big Grouploves?

Wesson: They just like float on the draft with the wind coming off the wave..

Zucconi: But Andrew, you’re the only one who surfs in the band..

Hooper: But we all hang out together.

Gadd: We’re like a funny squirrel, you know a funny squirrel just always running around..

Hooper: I Like Turtles!! [Cheers in the background for turtles].

Gadd: I look like a funny squirrel, you know just like running around making jokes all day and stuff.

Hooper: So you think our band’s like a squirrel?

Gadd: Like a squirrel.

Hooper: Like a bunch of little squirrels?

Gadd: They’re just always laughing, having fun..

Hooper: You know, I’d like to think of us like… we’re all hopefully queen ants and we’re gonna have all the little ants bring us food and stuff… come to our show.

Zucconi: We’re like a bee too…

An Horse

1. Kate Cooper: I would have to say the summertime event was [one] my family had a caravan by the beach in a place called Brisbane where I grew up… We used to go surfing for months..and my dad used to say to me “this will be the best time of your life…” [I] never forget that, and now I think what an awful thing to say to a small child, ’cause you have your whole life ahead of you. But I have to agree it was one of the best times of my life. Those summers at the beach… just summertime in Australia is wonderful.

Damon Cox: Yeah, I’d have to say that too… family holidays in the summer, ‘cause summertime is over Christmas. Everything kind of shuts down and winds down, so no one’s in school and people have time off and everything is just slower. Everything slows down.

Cooper: You can’t even get a coffee like at Christmas for a few weeks in Australia.

Cox: A lot of cafes close over Christmas and stuff.

Cooper: Maybe McDonald’s is still open.

Cox: Yeah, summer holidays with family definitely.

2. Cooper: A shark, yep a shark.

Cox: A shark’s pretty accurate. It’s kind of quiet and stealthy but also very vicious.

Cooper: Yeah, we’ll..we’ll tear your head off.

Cox: When needed…

Cooper: Yeah..we’ll tear your head off.

Fences

1. Christopher Mansfield: I used to jump on a trampoline with a Bart Simpson costume on, but a cheap one from like a drugstore… and it had a plastic mask that would like cut your face when you’re jumping up and down…

Sean Lane: I crashed my bike into a barbed wire fence when I was 12 and got stuck on the fence and the barbs went into my back and my head and I had to scream for help because I was all alone on the fence. These two kind ladies came up and supported my weight so the barbs wouldn’t tear my skin and the paramedics came and cut me off the fence.

Terry Mattson: I am gonna go with carnage too. When I was six years old my older brother was out. We had a family gardening day, we were like indentured servants growing up… it was awesome. We didn’t see each other and he ended up cutting off the two tips of my fingers..so you know that’s like kind-of-life-defining in some ways.

Jonathan Warman: I was lost in London once at a very young age and that’s about it, but I was found and recovered by Aunt Jill so…

2. Mansfield: Probably like…you know the dog from King of the Hill, Ladybird? Maybe like a nice quiet hound dog but it could bite you potentially, and it could run fast if needed but it’s usually pretty mellow. That’s my answer, not a cat.

Mattson: I like dog—dog power. I would say also maybe horse—horse is like the image…we were just talking about this, he doesn’t have a horse tattoo—gotta get on this…[guys agreeing noting the noise they make when they breathe out].

Lane: It’s the first two things I thought of too.

Warman: Dog power and tomorrow I’m getting a horse tattoo.

Mattson: [laughs] Dammit.

Warman: Dog power…horse tattoo.

Lane: Or a unicorn snake… yeah we call it a unisnake.

Lia Ices

1. Lia Ices: I have to say summer camp. I went to a boarding school arts camp and it was like the first time I sort of realized there were other kids who were like me [giggles] and were in the arts and it was like the only thing that made me look forward to…like all year around. That’s what got me through school, ‘cause that sort of energy didn’t really exist in Conn.. So it was sort of the place that I could figure myself out. So those were like my best friends and then school was just…

2. Ices God, I have a hard time deciding between a land animal and a bird. I would say… maybe I’m going to go with snow leopard. I think the predatory and gentle combination and the ice.

Beats Antique

1. David Satori: I actually had an opportunity to see this famous Indian musician at my high school, named Hariprasad Chaurasia. I think I’m saying it right and he’s a really famous flute player so he actually got me into Indian music… and then I got into Ravi Shankar and all of these different Indian musicians. So that was a really big influence on me when I was young.

Zoe Jakes: My memorable summer was when my parents sent me to my marine biology camp and I was wading around in lakes and rivers and streams and going out trolling for sea cucumbers and stuff and I think it just made me… I dont know…enjoy nature [laughs].

Tommy Cappel: Was it summer or supper? I thought you said supper and I had a really good one. I would say the big transformation for me was in 1998 I. moved to San Francisco and all of a sudden three days later I found myself at Burning Man. Coming straight from New York to Burning Man was the weirdest possible transition you could imagine. From very conservative fun loving people to very non-conservative crazy people, naked all over the place on drugs. So that was my biggest transformational period and I got more into electronic music and more into different ways of life.

2. Jakes: Sea Otter! Sea Otter!

Satori: I would say a pegasus zebra.

Cappel: Yeah..I would say a Pegacorn polar bear zebra.

Jakes: I think it’s a sea otter because they’re really big and oily and squirly and horny and really weird and really cute..and the ladies love ’em.

Satori: You can make your own animal out of all of that.

Young Man

1. Joe: Collecting bugs.

Emmit Conway: Family vacation in West Virginia every summer.

Colin Caufield: Probably hanging out at the neighborhood pool everyday during the summers.

Jeff: I’d say, I don’t know probably touring with my friends…this other band. Yeah… it’s pretty fun [laughs].

Dylan: Probably going to Lake Washitaw in Arkansas with my family.

2. Conway: Like a dog, because our recreational activities seem to be a staple of our touring around. being something active.

Caufield: I think we all can get behind dog. I mean dog is really the best animal—one of the best, one of the most interesting… taken for granted. They’re one of my favorite animals—final answer.

Maps & Atlases

1. Chris Hainey: I think for me, the first show I ever saw when I was a kid, it was at Summerfest in Milwaukee and I saw Cheap Trick so I think that was pretty impactful for me as a kid, that was around the time I’d started playing on the drums and it kinda introduced me into that whole classic rock world. I think that was a pretty important part of me becoming a musician. So I guess that was a [laughs] summertime deal.

Dave Davison: Totally, I think it was a similar kind of thing for me. When I was like 12 years old or something. I went to see… actually Foo Fighters headlined this festival I went to see. It was a Q101 Jamboree and one of the first bands that played was Spacehog and was like, “yeah it was like the first current concert I went to and it seriously like blew my mind.” Like I couldn’t really believe it. I’d been to a concert with my parents before but it was really like the first time I saw…I dont know…like that kind of show and Foo Fighters headlining was like totally amazing. So it’s kinda crazy we’re playing this festival.

Erin Elders: Yeah, I think my parents took me to see Jethro Tull or something when I was in like fifth grade. Before that I was really into like I don’t know, ONYX or something. So it was like, “Oh, rock music exists. It’s awesome…”

Shiraz Dada: My brother first took me on a roller coaster when I was eight years old. It was The Demon at Great America and it changed my life and I love roller coasters now.

2. Davison: I feel like maybe a St. Bernard or something. You know what I mean?I don’t really know why exactly… [guys nod in agreement noting it’s right] I think a big dog that mellow but…

Dada: Wild Sometimes! Chill Sometimes!

Davison: Yeah exactly.

Dada: Climbs in your lap when it doesn’t know you, always got a piece of ham hanging out it’s mouth, you know.

Davison: Exactly. There you go—just the vibe is right and the timing of that beast is right.

Lord Huron

1. Ben Schneider: Wow, I guess most of that stuff from my childhood would’ve taken place up north in Michigan. My folks have a place up on Lake Huron near Sheboygan and we spent a lot of time in the summers there. I guess just spending time with my family out in the water or on the water was always really important to me and I still try and do it whenever I can… try to go back at least a couple times a year and spend some time with them.

2. Schneider: That’s interesting… that’s tough. I don’t know, it’d probably be something that lives in the woods..something kind of powerful. I guess a bear might work. I don’t know, I definitely like the idea of animals being invited into the music we play. I actually think about that a lot when we write songs—just like imagine a lion screaming or you know an elephant in the water or an elephant stomping and I guess that could really lead to a cool place musically so. I don’t know what animal we’d be in particularly but that animal influence is definitely there.

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