Growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Shana Cleveland’s home was filled with music. “My parents are both musicians so it just felt like music was the point of the world,” says the leader of La Luz, calling from the road. “I listened to a lot of Beatles when I was growing up because my parents were into them and I loved those songs, that sort of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ playfulness really drew me in.”
La Luz, an all-female band that has steadily emerged as one of contemporary rock’s most inventive forces, tries to tap into that sense of oddball Beatles-y playfulness, Cleveland says. “We want to keep it so it’s fun and light and weird.” The band will appear at the Richmond Music Hall on Oct. 5, touring in support of a new album, their first on Sub Pop, “News of the Universe.”
Guitarist and songwriter Cleveland’s acclaimed solo albums, like last year’s moody “Manzanita,” tap into her love for acoustic music; La Luz is a different, noisier, more psychedelic affair. Spin Magazine writes that the new album “boasts robust, controlled sonics and arrangements, as if more money was used with good taste. Musically it widens with grace, too: Bits and pieces of krautrock and prog, vintage synth-pop and New Wave, and ’70s pop-rock thread the psych flawlessly.”
The group, which formed in 2012, recently went through some changes, amicably replacing two longtime members (keyboardist Alice Sandahl and bassist Lena Simon, both of whom perform on the new album). “It’s been wonderful,” Cleveland says of the recent shows on the revamped band’s current U.S. tour. “The audiences have been so cool, and we’re trying out new things and incorporating new ideas into the set every night.”
Style Weekly recently spoke with Cleveland and new La Luz keyboardist Maryam Qudus (who also produced the new record), as they traveled in the band’s Sprinter van, en route from Des Moines, Iowa to St. Louis, Missouri.
Style Weekly: The original band almost died in a road collision while on tour. Does that ever weigh on your mind while you travel?
Shana Cleveland: Well, we don’t drive through the night anymore. Before, it was like, ‘Let’s get a headstart and drive six hours after the show.’ We don’t do that now. It’s not a good idea.
How did all of this start for you?
Cleveland: It took a long time. I played by myself for years but I always dreamed of starting a band. I’d say, ‘That’s what I’m going to do with my life.’ But I took my time getting there. I went to art school at Columbia College Chicago, and it had a great music program but I was adamant that I didn’t want to study music. I studied other things, poetry, photography. When I got out of there, I was going to start a band, and I first moved to L.A., where I had such a hard time. Now I love L.A. but it took a long time to figure out. It’s a horrible place to start a band.
So you moved to Seattle?
Yes, I moved to the Northwest because I knew there were a lot of record labels there. I went to Seattle and started La Luz, although I had another band first, the Curious Mystery. It was more… serious. La Luz has moments of heaviness but I feel it’s very important not to take myself too seriously. I would always see other bands and wonder, ‘Where is the humor?’
An all-female band is still somewhat rare. Along the way, has La Luz encountered much sexism?
Cleveland: It’s hard for me to say, I mean, I have no complaints. We do encounter it, of course we do. But the older I get, the better I get at tuning out what doesn’t serve me. Part of the reason that I wanted La Luz to be all women is that I felt like, when I was in a band with men and women, nobody ever assumed I was in charge of anything. They’d always look for the guy. But if it’s all women, they don’t have that option. They have to talk to us.
Maryam Qudus:I haven’t felt the weight of [sexism]. I feel like the tide has shifted a little bit. What I felt a decade ago is so different from today, both as a musician on the road and working in the studio as well. People are shifting their mindsets and being more open.
Would you ever consider asking a man to join La Luz?
Cleveland: I don’t feel as strongly about keeping it all female as I was before. But there’s something easy about keeping it this way, and it’s really about being with people that share a similar mindset. So I’ve never considered it, but I feel I’m more open to it (laughs).
‘News of the Universe’ feels more elaborate and ‘produced’ than previous La Luz records. Was that your influence, Maryam?
Qudus: I tried to take the essence of the band and just put an exclamation mark on it. Everyone put in their ideas to these songs, it was a real group effort.
Cleveland:’News’ was really partially written in the studio. Before, in the past, we’d have the songs ready and were very prepared and practiced them. With this one, it was a lot more loose. We had the songs but we were open to suggestions, to change. Going into the studio with Maryam, it was really a collaboration. She had a lot of great ideas, and she created an environment that just felt very welcoming and everyone felt free and comfortable with throwing ideas out there. There was an atmosphere where we felt safe to try things out. There was one song where she was like, ‘Let’s take the guitar out in this verse.’ And it felt good to have that flexibility. Let’s see where these songs want to go.
Maryam, you’re a veteran producer and engineer [her credits include everyone from Taylor Swift to Tune-Yards and Kronos Quartet]. How did you end up joining the band?
Qudus: When it comes to my own music, I’ve always been involved in solo projects [like Spacemoth]. I never really joined other bands, but I really connected with La Luz. Making the record, I became a part of the band in the process. It was a natural transition. When Shana asked me I just had to say yes. There was no other band I wanted to join.
Was it hard stepping into Alice Sandahl’s shoes? Her keyboards have been such an integral part of the La Luz sound over the years.
Qudus: I adore Alice and love her playing so much. So on older songs, I want to keep it pretty true to what she did. But with La Luz, I feel that what’s on a record and what’s live are two different things. I feel like, live, there’s room to play with sounds even more, get weirder and wilder. [Lee Johnson replaces bassist Lena Simon]
Cleveland: Maryam is really into synthesizers and she’s set up this amazing synth section, giving us a lot of different sounds we’ve never had before.
Shana, with La Luz and with your solo work, you seem so prolific. Are you able to write on the road?
Cleveland:Unfortunately, no. It does feel like there are these hours available but I can’t do it. My homelife is busy, I have a 5-year-old son, Ozzy [whose dad is Will Sprott, keyboardist for Shannon and the Clams], and on the road you’re surrounded by other people. I do need some solitude to write.
What’s your own personal favorite La Luz song?
Cleveland: It’s not my favorite song I’ve ever written but I really love playing this instrumental song, “Orchids.” I love the way the song builds, it starts off very slow and ends up really heavy. I enjoy the way it unfolds. I love playing instrumental songs because it gives me a daydream break in the set, some time to really focus on my guitar and not singing. I can have a little moment of zen.
La Luz will appear at the Richmond Music Hall at Capital Ale House with Mia Joy on Saturday, Oct. 5. Doors open at 7 p.m. Info and tickets at thebroadberry.com La Luz will also appear before the gig on WRIR 97.3 FM’s “Cause & Effect” show at 1 p.m. For more on La Luz, go to laluzband.com
