Interview
Interview
L.S. Dunes: “you can hear that the focus has shifted”
Anthony Green talks the second age of L.S. Dunes they get ready to take on UK stages
Anthony Green has always found the downtime that comes with a life in music difficult to handle. The quiet before a tour, the uncertainty of when the next studio is getting booked. But things are different now, and a lot of that comes down to where L.S. Dunes are in their musical journey. Starting life as a means for five dads in other bands to get together and jam in the middle of the barren wasteland that was the COVID-19 pandemic, it has quickly developed into a central focus for its storied members, offering them a space where they can work things out in ways that their other endeavours can’t offer.
And it’s because of this that the band were able to develop Violet, their second full-length, and, for Green, the most complete version of what they feel Dunes should be. A record written about just how magical music can be and how the power that it holds has a huge effect on the other aspects of our lives, it is as much a love letter to sonic exploration as it is an anchor to the heart, reminding us to stay grounded in the things that truly matter.
That’s why, as the band prepare for the album’s release and for returning to the UK alongside Rise Against in support of it, Green is savouring every moment he has at home as much as he does making his time away worth it. Before this interview, he states that he grabbed coffee with his son, both of them spending time drawing in their respective notebooks and talking about the art they were producing. It’s these moments of peace, of priceless connection, that he appreciates the most now, and he has the band to thank for it in more ways than one.
To dive deeper into what the creative process around Violet has offered him, and the rest of L.S. Dunes, we sat down with Green for a bit of soul-searching.
This chapter of L.S. Dunes has found you reaching more of a balanced place in terms of what you are writing about. Past Lives, as well as being the first stage of this band, ended up being a bit of an exorcism for you, it feels, going a bit deeper than you probably expected. How does it feel to have Violet there to represent more the person you want to be in the long run with this band?
I can’t say that I let a day go by without taking a little inventory of how much better my life is now that I’m not an active addict. Now that I’m involved in therapy and taking a role in managing my mental health. That’s not to say that things are perfect now. But I feel like Past Lives shined a light on a lot of stuff for me, within the group even, and how the band operates as a conductor for all of our different emotions. Having people that were so supportive and creatively invigorating in allowing the space, but also in working together so we could help each other to get what we all needed. I feel like Past Lives was almost like demos. When I hear it in the context of Violet, it was us getting used to the fact that we could write songs together. We were still finding that out. But Violet was the real blossoming of the group, not just as friends but in our creative relationship becoming limitless. That can be scary, so we have just been taking our time with it and really exploring all that we can do together. Finding all the wants and desires that we want out of this project.
The process to even get to Past Lives was a long process. You’d been a band for several years at that point, and an idea for even longer. By the time it launched, you didn’t have time to breathe and take stock of what was happening. Now the layers have peeled back a bit; it shows how much you needed each other…
I feel like that has been the real bonus of this project for everybody. Everybody shows up to the table with this desire. When you are making music and art, and it becomes your lifeline, trading that art for money can become really difficult. The transition between this being something for us to scratch that itch to it being something we share with the world that also makes us feel represented fully and puts light on the creative process too… It’s the transformative power of the creative process. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to get to experience the things that we experience together. We are able to architect our own flow. We’re really lucky in that way. And yeah, we were a band a little while before we let the world know. We were making music together as a bunch of dads getting together to play darts or poker. We all love music so much. But for me, you could hear just how depressed I was on Past Lives because of how much opioids had taken over. Now, you can hear this transition where I traded my addiction to opioids for this compulsion to create art. Switching my focus helped in remembering the process of making music. With Dunes, there’s this thing that Tucker [Rule] always says when he sends us a drum beat. He says, ‘First best guess’ because he has just gone at it. The way that a painter will start scribbling and then start putting it together as they go is masterful. I love creating that way. It’s such a high creating that way. It gives voice to something greater than you, and that’s very destructive to the sense of ego that feeds into things when you’re getting f*cked up. You can hear that the focus has shifted to Violet.
A lot of that also feels like you are not just speaking to yourself with your lyrics here but to the rest of the band. Offering them an understanding of where you are now and being vulnerable enough for them to see how much you have changed and how they have helped. It takes a lot to take ownership of those things, but it’s a task that is clearly so worth going through…
There’s a connection piece in all of this. The ultimate thing comes from this, both within the group and with the people who will come to the shows and participate. The reason that you’re able to relate to this is because it’s everyone’s story. I’m not just telling my story. Every artist’s voice is speaking to something that we can all resonate with, even if it’s a stretch or it’s bizarre. Just trying to make sense of your own self in an honest or vulnerable way will make sense to some people. I think the trick is speaking to each other. The connection I was able to create will influence the sonic landscape of the group forever. As long as we are using this project to celebrate music and the mysteries of music, we will always find everything we are looking for in it. That’s a gift you only keep by trying to give it away as much as possible.
You mention the people coming to the shows and participating – how do you feel the energy of the L.S. Dunes show has changed as you have found your footing more? What do you take away from what you see of the people who have gravitated towards you?
I try to be careful never to feel like I am just playing to my people. As an artist, you want to make sure that you don’t get caught in the loop of just playing for your people, ever. Not that you ignore them, but it’s a tricky balance. Whether we are supporting or headlining, I am making it up as a go. There’s a ritual opening of myself that I will do just to connect with the band and the spirit of the songs that an audience doesn’t play an enormous role in. Their energy is not depended on for my own enthusiasm or my own charge. That isn’t to say that I’m unaffected when I feel a room come alive. But I don’t notice how people are responding as much as I see how I am responding. For years, I ruined so many opportunities to experience performing and being in the moment with music on stage because I was looking at the audience and how they were reacting as a means of knowing that I was doing well. That’s a f*cked-up trap. The consistent thing between big and small shows is your relationship with what you’re doing. And if you are connected to what you are doing, it doesn’t matter about anything else. It transcends the idea of winning or losing or doing a good or bad job. You take control of your own antenna. I’ve seen so many artists who have mastered that, and this project gives me the gift of being able to go and do that myself.
Since the beginning, it’s been so important that all five of you are in this band with a clean slate. It doesn’t matter about your track record, the numbers you have with other projects. This is about finding yourself again like it’s the first time, and that speaks to how music should always make you feel like the purest version of who you are…
Music is unstoppable like that. It will always add that quality to anybody’s life that wishes to fully embrace it. But when you start hating it, what you hate is yourself. When I found myself in that loop, I really hated all of the elements of comparison that kept coming up. My want and need to be validated by other artists. My desire is to be anything other than connected to what I’m doing. Every one of the people in this band could just retire, you know? They could play their whole back catalogue forever and just chill. It’s cool to be surrounded by many artists who actually have no chill when it comes to art in that way.
And when you have harnessed that, there’s no reason to stop or slow down. To feel so addicted to something so positive and fulfilling is to want to encourage others to feel the same way about the things that make them feel alive…
You’ve got to be careful, though, because workaholism is a dangerous thing, too. I do get caught in that cycle a lot. I can be really busy and touring a lot, and that’s cool, but if your personal relationships suffer, it’s the same as getting high. I think a lot of it has to do with the perspective shift. You may stop doing drugs, but the things you replace it with, you start doing too much, and it’s not healthy. When you’re a functioning addict, you always find a way to get high, even when you have no money. You manage to stitch things together. You can shift that into wanting to write a song that you’re inspired by. It’s a similar energy, and taking that energy that once hurt you, and switching it around into letting your voice be heard whilst also giving it up and letting it go is so important.
It’s very much about perspective. It’s knowing that you’re not 16 anymore, even if your infatuation with music is the same. But that doesn’t mean you should ever ignore that fire because it’s even more heart-breaking when you realise it’s been blown out…
The most important thing in my old age, that stops my creative urges from being burnt out, comes from the stuff that I do for myself. I spend a lot of time making music and putting together ideas that nobody ever hears. I’m just playing. I spend time each day doing that. Make something up and put it on my phone, but I never put myself in the headspace of, ‘I need to finish this song’. Sometimes, it’s enough when I’m writing some words, and it feels good. But it can be difficult when it becomes your job. The greatest gifts are the moments I have alone playing music in my apartment or, on the tour bus or backstage. The same with when you’re on stage, and you sing something a little bit different because you’re so in the moment, and it flows. This is something that took me a long time, but you really do need to have a lot of output that is just for play and fun. It’s finger-painting essentially, otherwise your spirit is going to get taxed.
Yet some connections stick and carry through to stuff that does make its way out into the public eye. The title Violet feels like one of those, as Frank [Iero, Guitarist] has stated that it’s a word that followed him out of nowhere within this process. What does that as a title, a colour, a hue mean to you as a representation of these songs and this chapter of the band?
When somebody in this group has a charge for something, I notice it and know it’s important. It’s greater than something you can just put a label on immediately. I’m still becoming aware of the magnitude of what Violet is within the symbolism of these songs. But the fact that it came to Frank in that way says something. He also sees colours in music. So, part of this collaboration is about giving in to the greater piece and not trying to push a singular vision. Sonically, aesthetically, and personally, that has been the foundation of this group. We’re giving each other space to express what we need to. And when you see one of those ideas through, you can all respectfully appreciate what comes from it. That equates to this ultimate respect everyone has for each other. So when Violet as a title was brought up, it evoked these feelings of newness. Everyone has the same sort of interpretation of it. A lot of this record reads like a tarot card to me. If you hear it with one state of mind, it will feel positive; if you hear it with another, it will have a negative connotation. So, it’s giving ultimate construction to the listener, and I love that. For me, it evokes an immediate sense of peace and intensity in its colour, but I also found myself where I felt like I didn’t even need to define it. When my heart starts resonating with something before demystifying it or giving it a definition, I will follow it to the end.
L.S. Dunes play London, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff from 6 February. Find tickets here
