Love Inks are a blend of history’s most poignant and transgressive pop music and postmodern, off-the-grid musicality. They compose spacey dream pop on analogue recording devices, while playfully and delightfully ringing of the of post-punk of Blondie and the synth pop of Depeche Mode. The Austin-based trio released their sophomore LP, Generation Club, this September and they’re currently in the middle of a tour that has them supporting The Blow, which will be stopping in Philadelphia next Saturday, November 9th, at the First Unitarian Church. I recently got a chance to chat with vocalist Sherry LeBlanc about what Love Inks has been up to recently and she tells me it’s really been all about Generation Club: “Our highlight of 2013 has definitely been having our second album, Generation Club, come out. That was like two years in the making. A lot of these songs were actually written even before the first album came out, but there were just all these issues with getting it out.” She also tells me that she’s really happy with the album and feels as though it displays a slightly more accessible and bigger side of Love Inks.
“I, personally, like it more than our first album. It’s a lot more full. On our first album we were playing with space and silence and we did a lot of touring behind that and a lot of the time it felt like we were doing spoken word. For this one, we wanted something more that could work in a bar. And I think we’re all more developed as musicians at this point.”
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I inquire about what were likely the biggest influences behind Generation Club and Sherry tells me that it was a combination of things that she and bandmate Kevin Dehan were especially into in recent years.
“Kevin would say his biggest inspirations would have to be our trips to Europe and David Bowie’s whole Berlin Trilogy. We spent a fair amount of time in Berlin. That’s the only place where we had any time off and we would just stalk all of David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s old haunts. For me, I’m always looking at great female musicians. But Kraftwerk is also significant influence. Also, Young Marble Giants have been a big influence and I hope that shows through on the new album. For my approach, I was trying to tap into my younger self, my less emotionally restrained self.”
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I ask Sherry about their current tour and sharing stages with The Blow every night and she tells me that it’s not only a ton of fun, but also inspiring: “The Blow are so amazing live. Their performance is more like performance art than just a band.” And of their own sets, she tells me that it’s a little different than their studio recordings and would seem to be a balance of the heavy and the joyous: “It’s a little more full than on the record. I’ve had a lot of people tell me it really makes them want to dance, but it’s also very emotional. It’s very emotional, while also being fun.” And as for what 2014 holds for Love Inks, Sherry tells me that the band plan to spend a fair amount of time both on the road and in the studio: “Of course we’ll be at SXSW and then we’re planning our European tour. It’s been too long since we’ve been there. We also have a backlog of dozens of songs, so we’re going to try to pump out another album and just continue touring.”
