In what is proving to be a big week for Scandinavians in DC, The LK (formerly known as The Lovekevins) are arriving to kick off their US tour with a DC show on March 8th at the House of Sweden (which, as you know, is always a good time).
This will coincide nicely with today’s US release of their “vs. The Snow” album (out on kora records) that has had everyone from Spin (…”a brilliant fusion of electro-pop and a languid, Kings of Convenience-like vibe”) to us drooling all over it. So, naturally, we set down with them, keyboard to keyboard and talked about The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos and the Sound of K. Among other things.

BYT: Hi, and welcome back to The United States THE LK:Thank you very much. BYT: First up, for the uninitiated, how would you describe THE LK? Who and how ideally listens to THE LK? We build pop-ish songs out of scrambled acoustic sounds, noise and other stuff that usually doesn’t get to be in verses and choruses. THE LK:Some japanese blog called our music “micro-jangle”. An irish rock journalist called it “lift music for paranoid schizofrenics”. It’s either way really. BYT: Last time you were here, you were called the LoveKevins and you played this teeny show @ DC9. Now, you are THE LK, you have a us label, Spin is excited about your new record and you’re about to hustle out on the US tour. What has happened that prompted all this change? THE LK:Actually, we’ve been The LK for quite a while now. But some people who were into our early stuff have kept using our older names. Yeah, last time we were over holiday, playing around for the hell of it. This time we have a purpose. Or at least we pretend to. BYT: What is the name about? THE LK:In 2001, the band started out as The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos and the Sound of K because we wanted the longest band name in the world. But it was too much work to make spray templates for the cassettes and CDRs we frantically kept coming up with, so we shortened it to Lovekevins. Now, after the band split up and we reunited as a duo, we came up with an even shorter version of the original name. I guess it marks a fresh start for us.

BYT: Vs. the snow sold out its printing in Sweden. Is the Kora records release a direct reprint or are there any additions? And if so what they are?
THE LK:Well, there’s this 11th song we put on exclusively for the US release, along with some moving images:
check out the DC premiere of the video here:

BYT: Is it different being excited about a record you’ve already been excited about, only in Sweden? Are you approaching promoting it differently, just because it is in a different geographical location?
THE LK:To be honest, I can’t remember promoting anything in my whole life. We recorded the album and had a handful of people tell another handful of people about it. If you’re onto something good, that’s about what you need nowadays. It’s always different to be excited, wherever you are.

BYT:. So, lets talk a little bit about the tour. Where are you going…how…etc etc..? THE LK:We were going to get a really nasty vintage german VW minibus, 1) because they’re neat and 2) so as not to attract attention and get our gear stolen. But then we realized there are better alternatives. Like a red family car with a roof pocket. We are stopping by Austin, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburg, and New York to name a few, as well as a whopping 3 DC shows, in a month. BYT: Is this the biggest tour you’ve been on thus far? THE LK:Yes. It is the biggest tour in the biggest country with the biggest trees and the most shotguns and scientologists we’ve ever been to. Bound to be a lot of fun. BYT: What is your biggest fear (about the tour and in general)? THE LK:Being stabbed in a dark cinema without delivering a couple of famous last words is a terrifying thought. As is meeting Kevin Costner in an elevator with music in it.

BYT: Isn’t that EVERYONE’S worst fear? The album is a veritable encyclopedia of pop influences. Press mentions everything from Kings of Convenience to Pierre Schaeffer to Pet Shop Boys to a less whiny Postal Service. If we were to ask you…what is behind the record? What did you listen to while you were recording it?
THE LK:I remember listening a lot to Norwegian nursery rhymes on my old non-electric 78rpm grammophone. The wind and snow frequently tore down the power lines last winter so that’s probably why that happened a lot. But I also needed to space out and cook something without a chorus. I don’t know about Fred but I think we both did. We had a pretty hard time making sense of things in general at the time of recording this album. I think that’s why it came out as fragile as it did.

BYT:. If you had to pick a favorite of all of them what would it be (Tamagochi Freestyle seemed to be a DC favorite, what with Hej Hej girls pimping it out relentlessly and so on)
THE LK:See, an album is like a family. The parents always have their favourites but they don’t talk about it unless they’re really drunk or really mad. So you’ll have to buy us a solid round or make us have a stupid argument to get that on paper.

BYT: We’ll have to wait for the weekend and the drinks then. Is there a song out there that you wish you had written?
THE LK:I don’t know. Maybe something grand. “Bring the Noise” by Public Enemy, or “In C” by Terry Riley. Or “Shrinkwrap” by This Heat. There are too many.

BYT: Tell us about the Swedish music scene? Is there something in the water there that causes pop perfection?
Nah. I think people are just bored. They like to go places in their heads. At least we do.

BYT: How tightly knit of a music community is it? Are you all best friends? Who are some of your favorites.
THE LK:Swedes in general are very reserved toward one another. But once we get friendly there’s no letting go. Taxi Taxi is a really good swedish band.

BYT: THE LK is a very stylized and stylish band. The record, the site, the press materials. You are also playing to visual art backdrops at the House of Sweden, how tightly interconnected you are with the art world? THE LK:Well, I’m a graphic artist and Fred’s a photographer, but as with the music, we’re 100% self-taught, blue-collar style. So no fancy diplomas or official recommendations. If I’m not entirely mistaken, that’s a big part of what the art world is about. If there is indeed such a thing. BYT:. Is the visual almost as equally important as the sonic to you? THE LK:The way we make music is very visual. We kind of make songs like soundtracks to images in our heads. To us, the two are as inseparable as coffee and sugar. Or coffee and not sugar. BYT: What are your plans while you are in DC? Anything particular you want to see, do…? THE LK:Last time we ended up in a lesbian bar, playing volleyball for 5 hours straight in the backyard, then going swimming in the middle of the night, eventually ending up in a huge bedroom listening to christian hymns on Myspace. That was weird, and definitely something worth trying out again in some combination.

BYT: And finally, what is next? When do you go back, when do you start cracking out the new record?
THE LK:These are pretty hectic times. When we get back I’m going to add the finishing touches to my solo debut album “Periodika”. Fred’s going to tour Sweden and Norway with his solo stuff. We also run a small label. But we make music pretty much all the time so it won’t be long before we start hoisting out new LK tunes.

BYT: Promise us something.
THE LK:Ok. We promise to plant a tree at some point during the tour.

BYT: That is the best promise anyone’s made us all week

want more:
befriend them: http://www.myspace.com/thelkhideout
buy the record: here
see the shows: http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/events/the-lk-live-house-of-sweden/
win the tickets here

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