The Album Leaf
by Dave Sharp on Jan 20th, 2010
The Album Leaf is a frenzy of wordless passion. The deep and elusive disposition that this one-man-band shows on stage and through recordings does nothing short of lead you on. Jimmy LaValle, who plays and writes every instrument (except live!) is a normal Joe, who tends to not analyze his very seemingly analytical compositions. Sinizine.net talked to Jimmy outside of the Modified in Phoenix, following our discussion we witnessed a spectacular event of both sight and sound. The Album Leaf’s music is played with perfectly choreographed images flashing on the back wall (check out the picture with the eye in the background).
Sinizine.net would like to thank Joan Hiller of Sub Pop Records for her aid in the coordination of this interview.
SN: State your name and what you do in the band.
JL: Jimmy LaValle. I guess, everything. On the records, but not live.
SN: So, you are the Album Leaf?
JL: Yea.
SN: I know this is a real generic question, but I’d really like to know what you’re influences are. How far back do they go? I know you’ve worked with Sigur Ros, but it wasn’t like they influenced you, I know it was a by chance thing.
JL: Yeah, actually I hadn’t heard Sigur Ros before I toured with them. My influences go way back, all over the place. I take from so many different things. Musically, I like a lot of different electronic, I listen to a lot of country, like old country. Not Garth Brooks and shit. [laughs] And a lot of, I guess, indie. I listen to all kinds of shit. As far as influences, its jut what comes out naturally in a way. Its not like I sit there and get influenced by somebody, I just do it. I’m more influenced by things that just go on, that’s about it, rather than an actual band or something.
SN: Just for the records, could you explain your relationship with Sigur Ros?
JL: Jónsi bought my CD in Iceland, and then they invited me on tour. We did the first tour and built a friendship that way. And then I did their next tour also. We just basically are really close friends. That’s about it, a good friendship.
SN: With them being from Iceland, and you being from the States. Has making that connection brought more culture to your music? Maybe more influences or changed the sound at all?
JL: Well, of course in this record (In A Safe Place), what they contributed, its not what I did, so its of course changing the sound because its not me playing everything as opposed to my other records.
SN: Their recording studio sounded pretty cool. It’s a converted swimming pool, right?
JL: It is.
SN: How is that?
JL: You can’t tell it’s a swimming pool at all. It hasn’t been a swimming pool for like 30 years. It’s already gone under their renovations and stuff. There’s a big huge room where the pool was with a super high ceiling and stuff like that, it’s probably like 30 feet. They have a nice big control room and a nice lounge and nice like isos and storage space. It’s really cool.
SN: Do you plan on recording your next album there?
JL: I haven’t really decided yet, because I haven’t really thought about the next album.
SN: How do feel you fit into this lyrically dominated industry?
JL: I don’t feel I fit into it at all. [laughs] That’s my point. With the instrumental, you’re singing along and you’re told to feel away and with instrumental music you can feel however you want.
SN: Have you faced any adversity coming through with that? Has it been a challenge?
JL: Well, it’s taken me 10 years to make a living off of what I do, so I guess that was a challenge.
SN: Well, kudos to you fro sticking with it. The music is awesome. Speaking of a living, you’re touring around and making albums, but does that really maintain you?
JL: Yeah, now it does. Just because I have other licensing and publishing money and things like that keep me going.
SN: You’ve bounced around from different bands spanning many difference genres, do you feel like you’ve found your niche with the Album Leaf?
JL: Yeah, and that’s always what it was there for. Because I could do everything else and just have fun and be able to do other things and play around and play with my friends in other bands and stuff. The Album Leaf has always been my thing for me to do my own thing.
SN: When did you decide to devote all of your energy to this?
JL: When it started to take off, I guess.
SN: When you’re constructing a song, is there an element you build it around? Like, I noticed mainly in the initial tracks on “In A Safe Place” and “One Day I’ll Be On Time” there is a lot of progression, ala Godspeed You Black Emperor! Is that something you build your music around?
JL: I usually just start with whatever is first, in a way, like whatever I come up with first, I start with that and then I build on top of that. I usually have, like however many things you’re hearing at the beginning are normally going on through the whole song and then I come back and take it all away and replace things and make them come in at the right time and stuff like that. I just throw down my ideas and re-record everything to be how I edit it out.
SN: There are very few songs that you have put lyrics too. What does it take for a song to earn lyrics, so to speak?
JL: I have no idea. It’s not something that is familiar enough to me to know what I’m really doing. When I was recording in Iceland, someone would give me something to try…and it would work, so that’s how it would happen.
SN: What about touring experience, the States compared to Iceland or overseas?
JL: With the Album Leaf, we’ve only done Japan and one Sigur Ros tour in Europe with me solo, and that was great of course, but with other bands touring Europe is like a completely different element just because of how you’re treated. We’re going on our first legitimate Album Leaf European tour in a month. It’s more comfortable for us to tour in the States, because we’re more well known and we’re bigger. But Japan, we’re well known and we do well there. Iceland is probably where I draw the most people. One of the shows I have played in Iceland there was 600 or 700 people and they were just my shows.
SN: How did you come to sign with Sub Pop and how has that been?
JL: My A&R guy Tony has been a friend of mine for probably 10 years, we all go way back. There was this band we all played in, it was with Jimmy from the Postal Service, me, the guy from All Night Radio—Jimmy Hay—and the Beachwood Sparks singer, it was a band called Strictly Ballroom and Tony used to have a record label of his own and he put out that bands album. Coming around to it now and being out of contract; Sub Pop was trying to sign my old band Tristeza and never got around to it or something like that. Then, he was saying he wanted to heard the Album Leaf stuff, so we sent to him and got signed.
SN: And they’ve been treating you pretty good over there?
JL: Oh yeah, its great. No complaints whatsoever.
SN: That’s all I have for you. Is there anything you want to say or want to plug?
JL: There’s a new Moog film that I have a song on the soundtrack and in the movie. Its supposed to be released this month on Plexifilm. Look out for that, you’ll learn a lot about that.
Interviewer: Dave Sharp