Hailing from NY, dream pop/rock outfit Laveda set nostalgic and cinematic moods with a guitar driven sound reminiscent of The Sundays, Ringo Deathstarr, or Hatchie. Founding members Ali (vocals, guitar) and Jake (vocals, guitar, synths) voice the concerns of today’s younger generation in an early single Better Now and say that this will be a main theme throughout their debut record “What Happens After” releasing Summer, 2020.
Discovered via submithub.com
Hi guys! Can you tell me a bit about your musical journey so far?
Ali and I (Jake) have been playing music together in various projects since 2015. In the midst of our band before Laveda breaking up, we were writing and recording our own demos. We were actually going for more of an experimental/minimalistic singer-songwriter vibe initially. But once our old band parted ways, we wanted that full-band sound in our music again. So we took some of the demos we made and brought them to our talented producer and friend Dylan Sky. He really helped us bring our music to another level. The whole “shoegaze” thing kind of came naturally. It’s like the songs we were writing at the time wanted to sound like that. After 2 years of hard work, mixing, live shows and pushing we finished our album and are now so excited to share it with the world under our label Color Station.
Where did the idea for ‘Laveda’ come from?
It is actually my (Jake) grandmother’s first name. I grew up with everyone calling her Suzzy. When I found out her “official” name was Laveda, I thought it was the coolest name ever. I thought for a while about this project’s band name. One day when I was looking through old Facebook posts and scrolled past my now passed grandmother’s profile, I thought it’d be a great fit for the sound.
Where are you from and what’s the music scene like there?
I (Ali) was born in Albany NY and grew up in Saratoga Springs NY. Jake and I both live together in Albany and consistently travel to Brooklyn to work on music, do shoots with friends, and play shows. The music scene in Albany is small but honestly has a lot of great stuff happening. Sometimes it can be difficult to see the best local musicians in clubs in and around the area because unfortunately we don’t have many that support up and coming musicians, but usually you can see these acts at house venues. One notable house called The Chateau hosts smaller touring acts in addition to great local musicians and bands. They also have a professional film crew and post live video footage of groups on their YouTube channel.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
We’ve both really been into the new King Krule album, Bigger Than Life by Black Marble, and as the weather has gotten nicer we usually put on a lot of You’ll Never Get To Heaven. They’re a favorite of ours over the past 2 years or so.
If you could perform at any venue in the world, where would it be and why?
It would be really cool to play Brooklyn Steel. We’ve both seen so many shows there so we have lots of good memories and are familiar with the venue. The sound is also pretty outstanding. We also both talk about how we would love to tour in Europe. Once we’re able to play shows again we’re going to start exploring potential options.
What’s next for you? Is there more music or any live shows on the way?
We hope to plan and hold a few more live stream concerts this summer via social media and there is a chance we might take part in a safe drive-in movie theatre live music festival here in NY this July. Otherwise, due to COVID-19 shows are not really in our near future. As soon as it’s possible to realistically start booking our next tour, we are planning to play out as much as possible. We do also have some new music in the works but we really want to take the time to share our new record “What Happens After” with the world before we seriously start planning any other new releases.