Project Description
Interview with
Jordan Dreyer
from
La Dispute
Interviewer: Laura Hughes
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La Dispute is an American post-hardcore band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and they have been making waves from their initial formation in 2004. With thought-provoking and profound storytelling lyrics, layered with intricate and cleverly placed instrumentation, they quickly made a name for themselves. With the release of their fourth studio album Panorama, they have hit our shores with a run of headlining shows.
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What was your first memory of music?
Most of my earliest memories of music are related to my dad, hearing him play his guitar with a group in our home, or going through his record collection, and picking up things that I loved a lot. His old Bob Dylan record, Neil Young record, Jackson Brown, doing my absolute best to not do any damage to the record, or the jackets, that would he not reluctant to do so again in the future.
What was your favourite out of all his records?
The one I probably listened to most frequently is Bob Dylan’s ‘Highway 61 Revisited’, the one that probably worn out the grooves of the record because I played it so often. It still is one of my favourite records, but I remember listening to that record and I remember listening to ‘Harvest’ by Neil Young quite a bit, ‘After The Gold Rush’ by Neil Young, so those were kind of my go-to, and records I still love and have tremendous amount of respect for.
Do you think they helped you shape and inspire you to be a musician?
Yeah, I think having a love for music and a passion for it as means to express and to process was really important and something that all these years later I still cherish equally, not only listening to music but also as of now making music, and I don’t think it’s too hard to draw a line between some of the narrative storytelling in a Bob Dylan record that I loved, to the way that I write lyrics to songs now.
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How do you think your music has evolved over the years?
The cool thing about having the opportunity to do this, in a manner that is at least self sustaining, is that you get to be witnesses to that process of evolution, of what you do, what you bandmates do, and as an extension of how you operate collectively, and because first and foremost making music has always been about satisfying that creative impulse we have. We’ve always put a lot of emphasis on challenging ourselves to grow and challenging ourselves to maintain that level of interest in creating something. It’s fun now, having done this for ten years, and being able to look back at that process, how you’ve improved or directions you’ve gone in. In answering it more simple, we’ve gotten better, each of us, at our contribution of what we do collectively, we’re all better songwriters, better musicians, better writers. It’s very cool to be able to look back on that.
How can you compare your new album Panorama to your past albums?
Our previous three relied heavily on a lyrical standpoint, and in some degrees on a musical level, narrative storytelling kind of approach to telling one person’s story or a particular story to capture a feeling; and when we started to write this record, and we hit a groove, we did so by thinking less in a way, and focusing more on the ethereal and abstract capture idea, a mood, or a feeling. As a result the record is a bit weird by design; this one required a lot more experimentation and a lot more layering, a lot more building a song in that fashion, so I think this one is a bit harder to pin down, a bit more abstract on a musical level but also on a lyrical level.
You’ve always had storytelling albums, what made you change your approach for this one?
I think that I’ve always felt particularly drawn to characters, people, how people respond to external factors in their lives, always been satisfying for me to work those things out on a creative level about specific people, but also about people at large. I think that part of it is just an interest in others. I’ve always loved music and books, and it was a way for me to combine my two natural entities into one creative outlet to be apart of a punk band, and also to try my hand at capturing stories. This time around I think that the reason why I wanted to do something different was because I wanted to challenge myself, but I also think that it required it, and I was having a really difficult time trying to fit all of the feelings that I wanted in this record into a narrative arc because there wasn’t one, so it required me to work on a more abstract level, but I also think the music informs the lyrics as much more of the opposite, the fact that my bandmates were writing these songs that were kind of sprawling, spacey, and layered, and wanted to write in that fashion as well.
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What is something you have learned through recording albums that you never expected when you first started?
I think you learn a lot truly, it’s really – for me, the process itself of making something is the process of learning, how you may have a specific idea but it rarely stays that way, it rarely stays how you imagined it to be. Everything we have ever done I have learned things about myself, about the people I decided to write about, or the case of our last record people who didn’t exist; I think in a lot way that making any art is a way to learn about you and the human condition. It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of moving parts, there’s always an obstacle that you come up against that you need to manoeuvre around, and that’s a process of learning itself.
Did you ever envision how far and big your band would get, and the important role it would play in the scene?
No, I don’t think we’ve ever looked ahead truthfully. There was never a time we sat down and said ‘hey let’s try and make a career out of this’, we just did it with the urgency of use, and because we loved music, and punk, and hardcore. It’s just everything step along the way has been a gradual one, and it’s been very humbling and satisfying everything step of the way.
What has been the toughest thing about touring?
Toughest things about touring is being away from home, being away from loved ones, that’s by far probably the hardest thing about travelling for a living. You’re away from familiar places, familiar people, partners. It’s taxing being separated that way, everything else is pretty manageable, and you get pretty good at it when you have done it as long as we have. It’s just hard being away from home for long periods at a time.
What does La Dispute stand for, what is your mission statement as a band?
I think that La Dispute wants to be apart of creating a community where people feel comfortable, people can learn and learn from, and help others to learn. Creating a space that is beneficial for all people.
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Connect with La Dispute
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
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