1. Cru Cru Burn the Louvre , super nice to have the chance to chat with you! What first got you into music?
Hey, thanks for having me Pigeon Opinion! So I guess the short answer to that question is Led Zeppelin. I just thought they were the coolest thing ever when I turned 12 and started going through my Mom & Dad’s record collection. My Mom was a big Zeppelin fan, so I took up the drums at age 12 because I wanted to learn how to play like John Bonham.
I played the drums in a bunch of really bad high school and college bands until I decided I wanted to start my own project and play my own songs, so when I was 20 years old, I took up the guitar and started Burn The Louvre with my brother Dylan. We released 2 EPs together from 2014 - 2017 until he decided to leave the band to pursue other interests.
Shortly after my brother left the band, I started recording these new songs we’ve been releasing this year with producer Mickey Ellsworth. I got some help from my friend Andrew Billone of indie band Silvertone Hills and fellow singer/songwriter Stephanie Deshane (who sang with me on our song “Alison”). After Mickey & I finished recording the album, I met my guitar player Sean around the end of 2018. Fast forward 4 years later and here we are with that new album we just released called Silhouettes.
2. Can you tell us a nostalgic memory of yours?
I mean, Disney World was a really fun time when I was 9 years old [laughs].
3. Have you ever been in the Louvre? Would you burn the Louvre?
I have not, no! But a Eurotrip is definitely on my bucket list, which of course would mean at least one day in France to check out The Louvre.
Fun Fact: the name Burn The Louvre actually came from a Fight Club quote! It’s not in the movie, but it’s a line in the book. I just loved how many different ways a name like that can be interpreted, which is fitting as to how many different ways our music can be interpreted (lots of genre mashing in there).
But, no, we are definitely just an indie rock band and not a terrorist group [laughs]. I have nothing but respect for art museums and obviously The Louvre is arguably the most famous one; I just loved that quote too much not to use it. Fight Club is definitely my favourite movie and I really loved the book as well. It just made sense to me, right?
(Please see Question #8 for more details;)
4. What's your favorite Louvre painting?
Now see, I need to educate myself more in the world of art, but if I had to pick one with the limited knowledge that I have, I’d pick Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night, just because I love the way it looks. I really respect how Van Gogh has a very distinct style that whether he was painting a landscape or doing a portrait, you could still tell it was him. I think that’s the goal for any artist. Create a diverse body of work that still feels unique to you. Also, Starry Night looks like it would have made for an absolutely epic album cover.
5. What’s the best decade for music?
You know what, it’s so tempting to pick the 60’s or the 70’s just because of all of the iconic artists who produced so many iconic albums during that time period, but honestly I want to say that the 2000’s has been my personal favourite era for music. A LOT of my favourite artists are relatively newer artists that I myself grew up listening to, so I guess I’ve got more ponies in that race?
6. What’s your favorite artist?
That’s a great question and one where the answer changes on a monthly basis it seems [laughs]. If I had to pick ONE artist it would probably be Lana Del Rey. I have so much respect for her as a songwriter and I love the way she creates an entire atmosphere with each one of her records. I feel a lot of that credit goes to her guitarist/collaborator Blake Lee, who is actually my favourite guitar player of all-time. But yes, I am definitely a member of Team Lana [laughs].
7. What’s the best advice you ever gave?
Buy Bitcoin & Ethereum while they’re still cheap.
8. What does Burn The Louvre actually mean to you?
So, as I had mentioned earlier, the name Burn The Louvre came from a quote from Fight Club. The thing that I love the most about our band name is that there are a couple different connotations surrounding it depending on how you interpret it. The 2 extremes I see are either:
A) “Down with the upper echelon! Let’s burn The Louvre!”
(which is pretty self-explanatory: rise up and revolt, right?)
Or as I like to interpret our band name:
B) “People don’t care about art anymore. If art is so undervalued, then let’s just burn The Louvre down. Mankind doesn’t deserve The Louvre anyways. Let’s see if anyone misses it.”
9. What album torments you the most?
Honestly, if I had to pick, my own records probably torment me the most [laughs]. I mean, not that there’s anything particularly wrong with any of them, I’m just not the kind of person who can listen to his own work without trying to find negatives, so I’d rather just not even think about it, you know? I’m very much a perfectionist by nature, so I try to avoid listening to my own music after it’s been mastered and finalized.
NHaving said that, our new LP Silhouettes that we just released at the end of November 2022, this is the first time in my life I’ve gone back and listened to the entire thing after it was mastered (I did it a few times actually) and felt really good about it afterwards. I know there is definitely room for me to improve upon some things for the next record (probably an EP), but I think I can take that as a win if I can walk away from something I had a big part in creating and feel generally good about it. I think that’s the goal. Because I don’t think any artist is ever 100% satisfied with something they’ve done, but if you can get real close, I think you’re winning for sure.
10. Do You agree with the Pigeon?
I mean, has anybody ever said “no” to this question? ;)
Merry Christmas!
The Pigeon added the new single to his Weekly Gems playlist on Spotify.
You can check out the released music below. If you like what you hear, make sure to follow along so you can stay on top of new releases!
Words by The Pigeon
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
This coverage was created via Musosoup
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