Interviewed: La Dispute

Nearing the end of a hectic UK/Europe tour, with our shores in their sights, La Dispute frontman Jordan Dreyer catches up with Nils Hay from the back of the tour bus to talk touring, the band’s latest album and their special relationship with Australia.

LIVEGUIDE: Hi Jordan, you just played Cardiff tonight. Have you just come off stage?

JD: I’m in the van right now. We just left Cardiff and we are en route to… I don’t know where… We play in Belgium tomorrow. We’re on our way out of the UK and on our way to mainland Europe. We’ve been in the van now for probably an hour and a half to two hours.

LG: Cool. Antwerp I believe is tomorrow night, from memory. It’s been a couple of months since Wildlife dropped - how’s the new material being received at the live shows?

JD: Pretty good. This is the first proper tour we’ve done since the record came out; when it was actually released we were on a support tour so it was a bit of a different ballgame. We’re looking forward to this because we can see how things are going over because we’re headlining and playing a lot of the new songs. Every night’s been pretty fantastic and people seem to be enjoying it.

It’s fun. Firstly, it’s fun to play gigs full stop, but we’ve been playing the same songs for about three years so it’s fun to play the new stuff and see people react to that for the first time. It’s cool.

LG: It’s a crazy tour schedule, you’ve got something like 19 shows in 20 days, which is mad.

JD: It is.

LG: Fortunately you’re nearly at the end of it, how are you and the rest of the band holding up?

JD: Surprisingly well. Is it really 19 shows in 20 days?

LG: Something like that, yeah.

JD: That’s a breeze! We just did a tour in the states, where we were on tour for two months and only had two or three days off. We’re used to the stress of travel and the repetition, the exhaustion. We get tired, but it’s easy to find a reason to get excited about playing to people who like our stuff. We’re still kicking along on this one, then we’ll start a new one in a different.

LG: That’s right. And that different place is going to be down here in Australia, are you ready to go from European cold-snap to the Australia summer?

JD: I’m ready to be warm. I generally prefer the cold – coming from an area of the States that is covered with snow four months out of the year, we’re pretty accustomed to it. I don’t know that I’m prepared for the shock alone, physically, but I am looking forward to sunshine.

I didn’t pack enough appropriate summer clothes, that’s the one thing I really screwed up. I had to buy shorts when I was somewhere in the UK the other day because I only had winter clothes. I left the winter and arrived in the winter and now I’ve gotta go to your blazing hot summer.

LG: I believe Australia was one of the first places you guys played outside of the USA, and I think this is your third trip back since about 2009. What have we done to earn such a special place in the band’s heart?

JD: Part of it I think is that it is the first place that we toured that was outside of our home country – besides a show here or there in Canada. I think that’s part of it, but I think the friends we’ve made and all the great memories of the first time we came, just the nature of everything, the effort everyone put in to getting us over there, part of it stems from that. They went over and above the call of duty for that tour and the one that we did after it. In some ways, we owe it to them.

I don’t know what it is, we have a certain specific kinship with your country and all the people in it. It seems like every time we’ve finished playing, once we’re done with a tour in Australia, we want to go right back.

LG: You’re playing quite a few all ages shows on your Aussie tour - many international bands wouldn’t go to that kind of effort, why do you guys feel it’s important to play those shows?

JD: It’s always been important to us. I think part of the creative side of this realm, post-hardcore or pop punk or whatever you want to call it, it’s something where everybody’s welcome. Everybody should have a home there; that applies to the colour of your skin, your gender, your sexual orientation, your religion, as much as it does to your age.

I think that it’s a shame that that part of it gets omitted and you exclude a large number of people who have just as much right to enjoy music as anyone else. It’s always been important to us to do that, to pay shows that are open to everyone. We’re doing it partly because it’s the way we’ve done Australia in the past – we had a kind of unique opportunity to keep things in our hands, because we went through friends and kept it in the family so to speak, we had the liberty to keep control of things that other bands may not.

LG: Now, following the Australian tour, there’s a bit of a gap in the schedule before the European festival season - what’s happening there. Taking a break, another tour, or getting back into the studio?

JD: Well, we get home after Australia, we have a short bit of time off to kind of collect ourselves and then we’re going to a proper headliner in the States for the record. I think that’s about seven weeks. Then probably another chunk of time off.

We’ve got a lot of personal obligations this summer with friends getting married and one of us getting married. We have a limited window this summer in which to travel but we’re always talking about it and always planning in advance. I think before long we’ll start writing new songs, once we get that creative itch.

LG: You mentioned keeping it in the family. Both with your records, and just about everything to do with the band, you guys have adopted a bit of DIY approach - getting friends involved rather than big-name producers and the like. Does the success you’re having make you feel like you’ve been on the right path the whole time with that approach?

JD: Yeah, I think so. But I don’t think we ever felt like we weren’t on the right path. As much as I enjoy doing shows and people singing along, there’s always been this feeling – at every level – of us satisfying ourselves creatively and taking care of the people that take care of us. I think that mentality has kind of pervaded every way that we function.

It’s very comforting and rewarding to make it happen and not to have to sacrifice or compromise a portion of ourselves to do this stuff.

LG: Talking about the home town, I believe that the song 'King Park' is actually based on a true story from your hometown.

JD: Yeah.

LG: It’s a pretty intense song. Being so close to home, is it easier or harder to write that kind of material and put it out there?

JD: I think it’s inherently easier because where you live has a profound impact on who you are, whether it’s the scenery or the nightly news, you’re saturated by that, by your origins. For me it’s easier to write about things like that.

I guess to some degree it is – from a creative level, it’s probably easier to write about these things because they happen close to you, but on an emotional level it’s probably a bit of strain to have to be empathetic in that situation and to consider the people around you and how it’s affecting them, and just to rehash that can be a bit difficult. It works on both levels I think.

LG: I had a read of the song’s lyrics and now I’m morbidly curious; how did the story end?

JD: I don’t think I can say. I think that’s why I chose to leave it open-ended. I wanted the interpretation to be in the hands of the person listening.

LG: That’s fair enough.

JD: I think the most relevant aspect of that story is perhaps how extreme the situation was and how things can spiral out of control from seemingly nowhere. So I would probably politely refuse to answer if that’s alright.

LG: That’s OK. You’re doing it politely, I can’t complain. Because I can’t finish on a note like that though, is there anything in particular you guys are looking forward to seeing or doing when you’re back on our shores next week?

JD: I know it’s like a really lame and obvious response, but I’m really looking forward to playing the shows. We’ve always had that specific kinship and that’s translated into really fun and engaging shows. I’m excited for that, I’m also excited to see all our friends. The best past about Australia is the lasting relationships that we’ve made. I’m excited to play shows for people, and see my friends and hopefully we’ll have some downtime here and there to explore a bit.

Yeah, friends, more than anything.

La Dispute kick off their Australian tour on the 8th of February in Brisbane. For full details, check out the gig listings.