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If you pass them on the street, Lights Resolve look just like any other group of laid back guys, but catch them at a show and you’ll see that these four guys are extraordinary–they’re legends in the making. These guys have already been praised as restoring people’s faith in music. PopWreckoning caught up with these young music gods at SXSW. Check it out:
Joshua, PopWreckoning: Last time I talked to you guys, you were prepping for the giant NY show. How did it go? We covered it, but I wasn’t personally there.
Lights Resolve: The Highline [Ballroom] show was awesome. It was like our first big step into doing something cool in the NY circuit that was worth talking about, I guess. We just had a bunch of bands on the bill that we were friends and it was a good vibe from the start. We also worked with Tattfoo that I told you about the last time. It’s a NYC artist that’s actually from Malaysia and we put something together with him and it was just a pretty magical night that over sold and it was at Highline Ballroom. It was rad.
JH: I had the greatest time in the world when I was trying to figure out how to spell Tattfoo when transcribing that interview. You guys have also been labeled as the biggest unsigned band on the East Coast.
LR: Really? By who? Must have been in Dayna’s [the band's publicist] notes. Haha.
JH: I’ve also read it in other places as well.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: Our website.
LR: Haha.
JH: No, you guys have got Billboard, AP, Prosounds, Purevolume all sorts of giant media outlets backing you. How has that helped pushing you forward?
LR: I think just more and more people finding out about the band through different means. Everybody looks in a different place, as we all know, now with the internet. People check out their favorite things and they find us there. Then we see them at a show or we see them online, talk to them on whatever social networking site we find them on and we make a point to talk to every single person. I think that really helps. 
BS: You guys just finished recording an EP?
LR: Yeah, But I think that maybe we might wait a little bit because we went down to Florida for just a little bit before we came here to Austin. And we’re like, “Let’s set up in a house and just write,” and we did for like five or six days and came up with some really cool stuff.
BS: So you looking at just a completely different direction for the EP or making it an album?
LR: Not necessarily. I think we are working toward an album. We’ll see what happens. Everything is kind of up in the air right now. A lot of things shaping up and great stuff is happening. Only good stuff.
JH: Tell me a little bit about this Time Warner Cable special.
LR: For Time Warner Cable, they did a feature on us when we played Webster Hall, which is another amazing show in NYC. It was a venue that I never thought we’d be able to play, but we ended up playing there and it was cool. It was for an MTV2 thing also. It was Time Warner Cable and MTV2 and we ended up getting the chance to play with Dashboard Confessional, which was a cool thing. We ended up playing there and then we played at the Prudential Center in New Jersey for 18,000 people. So it was quite an experience that we would never have and won’t have for a long time.
The coolest part of it was that they did a reaction. It was them, Chris Carrabba, a couple of guys from Panic [at the Disco], and they sat there and they critiqued our set-our three songs. It was pretty unbelievable to hear this guy who is so epic in the industry, sit there and tell us that he was blown away by our songs. It was definitely an honor.
Chris Carrabba, whether you like his music or not, great guy who was just like, “You guys sound like the Secret Machines and Muse and everything I like about them, but you guys are different. You guys have your own thing going on.” I took that as a huge compliment because most people respect both of those bands and he was all about it. He said we renewed his faith in music right now.
JH: That’s a huge compliment.
LR: Yeah. That’s a huge compliment and I see his point because there’s not a lot of great stuff coming out right now, at least that I have found, and it gave us hope and an artist always needs that little bit of drive to keep it going. It was cool. 
JH: I got to listen to your album when I did the other interview, but I never got to see you guys live until the other night at the PureVolume party and I was blown away by the extreme, well, I really like your album, but the energy in your live show is so much different than the energy that comes out in the album.
LR: You’re talking about PureVolume?
BS: Yeah.
LR: Haha, that was not our energy. We had just driven 24 hours straight and we were just zonked out of our minds.
JH: So I was just ridiculously impressed with a bad show?
LR: That’s amazing to me. We had a great show, well if you thought the energy was great at that show, last night was a great show. Yeah, last night was amazing. We certainly appreciate that, thank you. That’s what we strive for. We strive for giving as much as we can possibly give until we’re falling on our faces. To be honest with you, that’s what the people deserve.
BS: You guys do a lot of stuff in NY and you’re doing all these big showcases there, what are you doing to get your name out to the rest of the country?
LR: We have been touring since 2006 when we started the band. We did two independent cross country tours where we headed all the way out to California and back and then we did a tour with the Used. Which was awesome, but it was also like an arena tour, so that was a different experience for sure. After that we did another tour with a band called Elevation.
BS: Used fans are kind of crazy, how do they compare to your guys’ fans?
LR: I’d venture to say that we don’t sound anything like the Used, but the fans really, really appreciated it. We were the first band, the opening band out of I think five bands. There were Street Drum Corps, Army of Me, Straylight Run were the other openers and we were on first. Yeah, Straylight Run are good friends of ours. Will [Noon] actually just emailed me, but yeah, we were on first.
Usually the bands that go on first you’re like “eeh,” but the kids really enjoyed it and we had some great experiences. I got to sing on stage with them and their guitar player played a song with us a bunch of nights and it seemed like their fans dug it, which is a great experience.
BS: They’re here at South By-you going to check them out?
LR: Absolutely. Actually, our buddies in the Urgency whom our manager also manages, they’re opening the show here. So we have two reasons to go. They’re another really good band signed. Good, good friends of ours.
BS: Anybody else you’re looking forward to checking out while you are here?
LR: We don’t have any time. That’s the problem. We’re busy the whole time we’re here. We’re talking to you guys.
JH: Dayna’s got you guys running in circles.
LR: I would have liked to have seen my friends from Head Automatica play.
JH: I didn’t know that.
LR: Yeah, they’re playing. -That’s what Brad said. Brad said they were playing. We’re going to try and catch the Cold War Kids tonight. I think it is at 7, where is that show?
JH: Give us a second and we can find. You have the itinerary of every band ever.
BS: I don’t have the itinerary of every band ever.
LR: I don’t even know, we were talking about this before, what’s the “it” band to see this year? Like last year it was Vampire Weekend.
JH: The Decemberists show was a really big deal because they played that album beginning to end.
BS: CWK are at Lakeshore Auditorium Stage.
LR: What about like new bands because the Decemberists have been around?
JH: There was a huge buzz surrounding the Manchester Orchestra show.
LR: Yeah, but they were around, too.
JH: Hm. So you want even littler than that. I don’t know.
LR: How was that, by the way?
JH: It was good. Very good.
BS: Yeah, and he had seen them before.
JH: And I thought they were awful before, but last night they were amazing.
BS: There are a lot of rumors of bands to must see. Like Metallica’s supposed to play. And Kanye’s rumored to be playing with somebody.
LR: What? No way. But we want little or local.
JH: Little. Kevin’s worth seeing. Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band.
LR: Give us new. Like really fresh. He’s already out there, too.
BS: I would say to check out the Mae Shi, but they’ve been around, too.
JH: I forget you guys are from the coast, so what is brand new to us has been around for you guys for awhile.
BS: I know the Mae Shi have been around for awhile, but they’re live show is amazing.
LR: Who?
BS: The Mae Shi. I was watching these guys and all of sudden the sound was coming from behind me and I thought the speakers were off, but I turn around and I realized the guitarist was singing and playing guitar and pushing his way through a packed room and holding it above him and playing. And I was like, shit he is right there in the crowd.
LR: Whoa.
BS: They’re playing like 100 times here and I think you’d enjoy their show based off their energy.
LR: Cool.
JH: Yeah, that’d be a good time. You should check out the Republic Tigers. They’re at the PureVolume House.
LR: Republic Tigers?
BS: Yeah, they’re from KC.
JH: They’re from KC, but I think they’re going to take over the world.
LR: OK. That’s good.
JH: You guys probably already know Dead Confederate.
BS: Josh is also a big fan of a lot of the female artists.
LR: Lydia. Have you guys heard of Lydia? We played with them last night.
JH: You got to cover them right?
BS: Yeah, I’ve covered them a couple of times.
LR: We actually didn’t get to see them because we were warming up. They any good?
BS: Yeah, they are. I was worried they’d have to cancel their shows because Leighton was just sick.
JH: OK. Tiny bands from Austin-great energy, great Motion City Soundtrack everywhere energy-check out Driver F.
LR: Somebody else told us to check out Driver F. They guy who interviewed us yesterday.
JH: We’ve adopted them and taken them under our wings. I think they’re the best band in Austin.
LR: Cool.
BS: Yeah, they have almost a full brass section.
LR: Really? For a second I thought you said a full breast.
JH: That too. I can’t really think of more.
BS: Yeah. I have a lot of bigger names on my list that I’d like to see, I guess.
JH: I am kind of addicted to the fact that the entire Hotel Café is here.
BS: And I have almost everyone from Omaha.
JH: I would say your obscure band from Austin to check out is Driver F and they play at 3 pm at the Tiniest Bar.
LR: That’s where we’re playing tomorrow. 9pm. We’ll be playing there.
JH: They’re unreal energy wise. Like mics swinging. They do this amazing thing where the brass section will be playing the brass and the two guys will be on the moogs and then the lead singer will have to go run over to sing one of the brass will run over to the moogs and take over on those parts.
LR: Really?
JH: Yeah. It’s amazing. We through a showcase with them and they just stole the show. It was very cool.
LR: Well, we’ll absolutely check that out.
JH: Well, we will let you guys get back to your other things. We said this would be seven minutes and it was 14.
LR: Haha. Enjoy your day. Thanks for having us.
JH: I look forward to seeing you again not that you’ve told us that was bad show. I’ll catch you tomorrow.
Joshua Hammond, Popwreckoning: I’m told that you guys created an album called Nobody Sings Anymore which was never released due to an extreme shift in the band’s sound. What differed in that sound that the current line-up of your band doesn’t sport today?
