Elin Larsson, Zack Anderson, Blues Pills

0:14Elin LarssonMy name is Elin and I'm the singer of Blues Pills.

0:18ZachAnd I'm Zach. I play the guitar in Blues Pills.

0:21HostAll right. So you just started the tour. Album came out earlier this year. I like the album. I like your band. I interview people that I like. So it's not an assignment. I like your band since 2016 or anything. The first two albums I remember for sure. I discovered them on YouTube. Remember when on YouTube they were uploading the whole albums? And there were channels completely ripping the whole thing. That's how I discovered you. And your new album just came out relatively recently. Super energetic, positive vibes and everything. So the question is, how much pop did you want to go in the direction of the pop? Because definitely there was your conscious decision. But were you afraid that you're going to lose a lot of audience if you go further?

1:11Blues PillsNo, I just thought it was going so fast to write the songs.

1:17Elin LarssonLike, that was all I could think of. And then I was, you know, I was pregnant. So I didn't really think like how much pop we're going to do, you know, or like how. I didn't think about it like that. I think the decision was when we connected with the producer and like that we became friends and it was so easy to work with him and everything went so fast. So I think I was more used to like in awe of that reason because the previous albums have been taking years to create.

1:48HostYeah, why I'm asking this question this way, because I compare you to the Black Keys, Queens of the Stone Age. You see how they were like evolving. And then the last album and the last couple of albums, they went into like, I would call it a pop sphere. And I like it. I dig that music, but I know people who said like, ah, it's too much. I can't listen to it anymore. Have you thought about that in that respect?

2:15ZachI don't think we really thought about it so much. Although like when we chose to work with Freddie, our producer, like we knew that he's doing like a much more modern sound than what we did before. So just even like just his way of mixing, it makes it sound more modern because it's like a bit, it's more this modern approach versus like the first album was, you know, recorded on all like 70s equipment and tape. And it makes it, it just sounds a completely different way based on like the different production styles. But from like the songwriting point of view, I mean, I don't think we thought about it any more than just that our tastes have evolved over like 10 years from being a band.

2:53HostSo did you have a reference album for this album, like from somebody else? Or you just like went with the flow, how you feel and that's it. And just the only connection, my conspiracy theory went, goes to shit because you just chose the guy who you like and that's it.

3:09Elin LarssonYeah, I guess, I mean, we, we cut a lot of songs too. Like we weren't.

3:13HostThat's interesting. What, what did you cut? Too much vintage 70s rock?

3:18Elin LarssonNo, no, I think it was like, we were like, okay, this, this sounds like shit. But like, uh, cause we, we learned a lot after, I mean, this is our fourth album. So we learned that sometimes we took forever to finish a song and sometimes it's just better to just leave it and start new. So that's what we did.

3:38ZachIf it doesn't feel good right away, like it used to be, we could have a song and we're like, maybe if we work on it for like a year, it'll finally be good. This time we're more like, if it doesn't feel good right away, we just like throw it in the garbage and start. But like when you were asking about a reference album, like the way I saw this is like this time we didn't really have a reference album versus like in the beginning, there definitely was reference albums. Like, I feel like then we were trying to sound more exactly like the albums we were listening to, which was like the Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green and stuff. And we were like trying to recreate that sound. And then now it was, it's more like, I can't really give a specific example of a specific reference. It's more just like a blend of probably everything that we listened to subconsciously that's in the back of our minds. But for sure, we like listen to more, a more broad spectrum of music now than we did then.

4:31?Yeah.

4:32HostSo now you're like in the deep water regarding like putting your, like, you know, you don't have a reference, right? So you're like, all right, let's play what we want to play for real, how we feel, you know? And it's like, there's like, you know, you're not sure where you're going. Does it feel like that?

4:48ZachYeah, I think it can be a good and a bad thing as well for fans. Like for us, it doesn't matter. We just are like having fun making the music we feel like making. But I can understand sometimes for some fans, I think, think that we change too much. Like there's a lot of fans that just want you to be ACDC and do the same thing over and over again for 40 years. And we've never really been a band that does that.

5:15Blues PillsYeah, I think we, I mean, yeah, I agree.

5:20HostLike, you know, last week I interviewed a band from Sweden, Maida Vale, and they're there because they were here on tour. So they had the experience. They were around your time when you were, I think, 2016. No, they were a little bit later. Anyways, I released the album, Stoner Rock inspired, 70s inspired. I love it. They released a different album, Go Sideways. I don't like it because I'm still in the 70s. And I went a little bit differently. They released a new album. I love it. They found their own way. So like you did. So even if you like fans go away, they can come back. That's so, yeah, like that's how I feel.

5:59Blues PillsI just feel like I don't want to feel that I are owned by anyone.

6:04Elin LarssonLike my music isn't owned by.

6:06HostHere we go to the theme of labels, putting you on metal shows where you don't belong and feeling finally free because now you can do what you want.

6:15Elin LarssonYeah. And the same with fans, like if they don't, I mean, it's also completely different. And I always felt that when we, when we have released albums that it's always like the mix is shit or like blah, blah, blah. It's like always something that's, that they can probably do better or think they can do better. But for me, I mean, it's, it's the songs. It's like how we sound live, what we do, how they change and develop during time. And I don't feel like anyone should own that.

6:46Blues PillsLike, because that stresses me out. I think I just want to be free.

6:50?Yeah.

6:51HostSo by the way, regarding stress, how do you deal with, I know you don't drink, right? You don't drink alcohol. How do you deal with stress? Because when I heard like on the interview that you don't drink.

7:01Elin LarssonYeah. No, I used to drink. I mean, I, I, I'm not like, I never drink that that's, uh, I drink sometimes, but never on tour. Uh, I, uh, I work out a lot, but now, uh, my kids with, so now I'm just like, I'm, I'm too busy to be stressed. I think.

7:20HostThat's what I thought, because you're going to have a kid and your stress is, it goes away. It's different. Yeah.

7:26Elin LarssonNo, but I can, I can say that I feel like I was well prepared for having a kid. Like, I mean, after being on the road and dealing with a lot, a lot of pressure and stress and all this stuff.

7:36HostSo are you taking care of the rest of the bands? They were your child instead?

7:39Elin LarssonNo, I would say, yeah, some of them, yes. But, uh, I would say we've been good at taking care of each other. That's always checking in, like, how is everyone doing and so on. So I think, uh, we have a good vibe right now.

7:52HostHow do you, how do you prepare to, before going on stage? Do you have like a, like a technique or how you'd go like mentally and like physically warm up, you know, just to go into the groove on the stage? Do you have something? Why I'm asking is because now I'm asking, I used to ask this before, but I thought it's an amateur question. But now I'm asking this because I saw, uh, a warmup of Jack White. Have you seen it on YouTube? No. Type it in Jack White. It's freaking crazy.

8:18Blues PillsLike, what does he do?

8:20HostBeastie Boys playing super loud. They're like pumping in his breathing in. And nobody like, like when you see it, it's like, what the hell is that? It's he's breathing in oxygen. Oh, wow. You know, like the can that you, like, breathing in, there's his, uh, guitar player, like playing and like warming up, like really like just before going on stage, the door opens and they immediately go on stage, you know, and he screams.

8:43?Oh, wow.

8:44HostLike, and he also screams like to warm up to his like higher pitch, whatever. You should check it out. So do you have anything like that?

8:51Elin LarssonNo, I wish now. Uh, no, I, uh, I used to, like have a vocal pipe, uh, like, um. Glass pipe that I, uh, I do bubbles. Ah, the classic vocal. Yeah. And the thing is, I think I'm, uh, I'm too, uh, I'm, I am like an, I'm loose, I guess, like normal. Normally I'm just how I am. And that's like how I am on stage, but a bit more.

9:19HostHow you sound on the album. That's how you are in real life.

9:22Elin LarssonYeah, I would. Oh, I mean, just like, I think I have no, uh, I don't have any limits. I don't feel like I'm not scared of going on stage. Uh, I'm just like, let's, I think like every night I think, okay, I'm going to sing like it's my last day of singing. That's, that's mentally how I go in.

9:41HostSo you go a hundred percent, a hundred fifty percent.

9:44Elin LarssonEven if I'm like blown out and harsh as a, or sick, I was like, this might be the last time I sing. So just like put it all, even if it's in the beginning of the tour and you have tons of shows before, you know, left, you just go in a hundred percent.

9:59?Jesus.

10:01?Exactly about you.

10:02ZachI mean, like, yeah, I have like some, some days I will warm up just on the guitar, just to like warm the hands up and stuff. And then as far as like the energy, some days you just feel like you have the energy anyway and you don't have to do anything. You can just like go out and it's awesome. And then other days you feel like tired and you have to kind of try to like pump up, get yourself into the mindset. And that's when you start doing these things like jumping around and force yourself.

10:31HostThe warming up, yeah, basically physically. I wanted to ask you, like you mentioned that you have a song on, on, on the album that is not yours or, uh, from the vocal band, right? Is, is it like, uh, uh, the, the horse song? Yeah.

10:46HostI'm not going to read the whole title.

10:49Elin LarssonNo. Uh, so yeah, it's, uh, by a band, uh, in my hometown called Grand Roses that I was watching. So it was like, I think, I mean, I really like when I got pregnant, I started to think about like a lot of things, uh, and like why I'm so into music and like, why is it like, why, what does it that makes me so happy about, you know, singing and creating and, and all this stuff, uh, and also it started, uh, it, it made me start to think about the, the music and, and bands that I saw grew up and that I got inspired by that I sort of forgot, you know, somewhere. I think we just recorded for fun and then we put it on the, the record.

11:34?Yeah. It just started as like a fun, just something for fun. And then it was like, I mean, this is a cool song.

11:40ZachSo then we like worked on it some more and it, we put it on the album.

11:43Elin LarssonYeah. And now they actually, cause they, they've, they've been very quiet for a long time, this band, so now after we released the, the cover of, of their song, they released a new EP. So that was also like, you know, it's like helping out the local band. Yeah. Or like, it's just like, maybe, you know, it's like get them a kick in the butt, uh, to, you know, I don't know. It was just, it's awesome.

12:07ZachBut I don't think you can hear their version online anywhere for some reason.

12:10HostI tried finding it. It's like, I mean, I didn't go that well because I was not sure.

12:14ZachIt's on YouTube, it's not on Spotify, but their version, it's very different. Like, it's more like a punk song and ours is like a ballad. So we like completely changed the feeling, but that's how you go with it.

12:28HostAnything else like regarding, like, uh, taking other people's songs and putting on the album?

12:35?I don't know.

12:37ZachI mean, we had a cover on every album except Holy Moly.

12:41?Yeah, we did. Yeah.

12:43Elin LarssonWhat was it? Chubby Checker, Tony Joe White, now, uh, Grand Roses. Yeah.

12:50HostSo, okay. The album came out, you're promoting this album, the tour started, uh, but have you been doing any new material, demos, thinking ideas, or just going, see how it goes, this one. And then we'll see.

13:05Blues PillsI mean, we, what have we done?

13:07ZachI think we have a lot of random ideas, like on our computers, like just when you're working on song ideas, you end up with so many extras. So that's how we've always worked really is like, we'll go back and listen through all those and be like, oh yeah, this, like after you've given it some time, maybe at the time you think it's no good. And then you come back and you're like, oh, this is actually good. So there's tons of ideas to go through, but we haven't like actively started to work on any new recordings.

13:36HostI mean, you will go on this tour and then you'll go in the United States and blah, blah, blah. It's the next album material will come out next year. Uh, one new age will probably. Yeah.

13:47ZachBut we are excited to start on a new one now.

13:50?Yeah.

13:50HostYeah. Any new direction that you want to go? Go even more pop? Let's go ghost. I don't know.

13:55?I want to go punk. You want to go punk? I feel like punk. No, I don't know yet.

14:00ZachI'll have to see what happens. Yeah.

14:03HostAll right. Which song should I put at the end of the interview of your band? That's a good introduction.

14:08Blues PillsThis is like a drug.

14:24Blues PillsMakes true in this world.