L.S. Dunes have spoken to NME about new album ‘Violet’, the magic in the “brotherhood” of the band’s dynamic, what could be next for Frank Iero’s My Chemical Romance, and if they’ll tour the UK any time soon.
Comprised of Thursday’s Tim Payne and Tucker Rule, Coheed And Cambria’s Travis Stever, Anthony Green of Saosin and Circa Survive along with Iero, the post-hardcore band formed during the pandemic and released their debut album ‘Past Lives’ in 2022.
Last Friday (January 31), L.S. Dunes shared the follow-up ‘Violet’, celebrating with an intimate headline show at The Key Club in Leeds the night before. They are currently in the middle of a UK and European support tour with Rise Against, and they have also scheduled another headline show in Cardiff next Monday (February 10).
Speaking to NME backstage at The Key Club, Iero explained how the band’s chemistry has hit another level in the past two years. “It’s more of a fully-fledged relationship,” he said. “We know each other better, we know each other’s strengths – we finish each other’s sandwiches!”
Green added: “[NME] previously interviewed us in a honeymoon phase, where everything had to be perfect – because there wasn’t anything but perfect. Now we have all this experience, and we are still here. Showing up, getting through it, and figuring out stuff through the obstacles of each day.”
“Everyone is so busy, whether it be other bands or family life,” continued Iero, who is set to embark on the ‘Long Live ‘The Black Parade’’ US stadium tour with My Chemical Romance this summer. “But this band is so fun to be a part of, to be creative within. In spite of all the bullshit that might come with life in general, this is worth it.”
Check out our full interview below, where Green and Iero unpicked some key moments from the record, why the title of ‘Violet’ can be compared to a “patron saint”, and how Iero feels about the possibility of My Chemical Romance bringing ‘The Black Parade’ tour to the UK.
NME: Hello Anthony and Frank. You’ve both released plenty of albums in your time – what goes through your mind at midnight, or when you wake up in the morning?
Anthony Green: “It’s your birthday, Christmas and your last day at school – all wrapped into one.”
Frank Iero: “It’s a great feeling, man… these days, too, it’s also like opening a wound and having people kick you! Ultimately, somebody’s waiting in the wings to fucking tell you you’re not that good.”
‘Like Magick’ is such a soul-baring opener. Why did that feel appropriate to kick off the album?
Iero: “For me, I don’t have a record until I know where it starts and ends. The middle – that’s the journey, the fun part, that’s easy to navigate. We had [closing track] ‘Forgiveness’, but we didn’t have that first track – and then Anthony brought that in. One of the things that I’ve always heard him say is, ‘Music is magic.’ I love that. As soon as I heard it I was like, ‘Fuck!’… but also, ‘Fuck you – why have you been holding that in!’”
Green: “The way the band reacted to hearing the rough idea made me feel so confident. I’m terribly insecure about stuff. I alienate myself, sometimes, from the process, with my insecurity. When I heard how everybody liked the feeling of starting the album so bare and vulnerable, to have a group of people who are all willing to take a chance and experiment with making a strong statement, it builds this feeling of courage.”
Can you explain what feels so special about the energy between the group?
Iero: “There’s a sense of serendipity to it. Each member of the band brings something to the table, and it’s wildly different from one another, but somehow, it works. Everybody is [amenable] to working with one another in a selfless way, for the actual craft of the song. That’s pretty rare, and it’s nice to be in a group of people that all feel the same way.”
Green: “The magic of this group is in the soup of it. What happens when Frank’s life and influences match up with Travis’, Tucker’s, Tim’s and mine – it all comes together to make something that is greater than each of us, individually. On this album, more than ‘Past Lives’, I can hear everybody’s individual spices interweaving. It’s like a fire that can burn really, really, hot.”
Do you believe in magic?
Iero: “Oh man, yeah. I want to, so badly, too. I want to believe in a thing out there that we can’t understand or explain. If that’s true, then anything is possible.”
Green: “I love magic and magicians, but when I talk about magic and the mystery of music, I’m talking about the feeling that you get when something moves you, artistically. It’s an extreme. It can bring you to tears, or get you motivated to do something that you wouldn’t have normally done. When you’re at a concert and everybody’s singing, how is that not magic? We’re all joined together [through] music. That’s tremendous. It’s like an ancient church that we all meet at.”
The top line of ‘Machines’ is surely destined to be sung back by a crowd: “Tonight it can be anything you want”…
Iero: “To me, ‘Anything you want‘ is [about] breaking down the barrier. There were songs that we wrote for this record, where I didn’t know if I should send this over [because] this doesn’t feel like a Dunes song. I had to take a step back and be like, ‘What the fuck am I doing? What’s a Dunes song?’”
Green: “That lyric was inspired by that idea of when people come to you when you’re younger and say, ‘You could do anything if you set your mind to it’. That wisdom piece breaks the limitations that you’ve had for yourself. When you’re getting flattened by life, then you realise, ‘Oh, wait, this is actually setting me up to be better. This is paving my road to victory’. It wasn’t until this band had this song that I even felt there was space to explore a lyric that had that kind of optimism.”
With the momentum behind L.S. Dunes right now, can we expect new music soon?
Iero: “We did two new songs when we came to Europe.”
Green: “We were just jamming at soundcheck…”
What are the odds of getting a fifth L.S. Dunes album before that long-awaited fifth My Chemical Romance album?
Iero: “Ha! Oh man, I don’t know. I’m not really a betting kind of guy. I like to spend money, but I’m not a gambler. We only have two so far…”
Is there anything to report in terms of new MCR music?
Iero: “No, sorry. When that stuff – if that stuff were to happen, we will tell you. We will tell you in the way we want to tell you.”
Is he telling the truth, Anthony?
Green: “I’m not at liberty to say, one way or another – I can’t speak on anyone else’s shit. I haven’t seen him sneaking off anywhere.”
Did headlining When We Were Young Festival whet your appetite for the ‘Long Live ‘The Black Parade’’ US stadium tour this summer?
Iero: “It’s weird [to have the stadium tour coming up], for sure. I liked doing the double-header [L.S. Dunes also performed at the festival] because it took the pressure off the later set. Once I pull that band-aid off, I can do this, nothing can hurt me. If I could do that every night, I would.”
Green: “It speaks to his musicianship and his mastery that he can do that. There are no musicians in the world that have the level of shit that he has and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to play The Key Club in Leeds,’ [because] he loves it that much. This is a dude that could just chill with his kids – and he needs more. He needs it to be more intimate, grimier.”
Iero: “I’m a fucking music glutton!”
Green: “It’s a light in my life. No musician right now is doing what he does. Watching that My Chem set fucked me up, dude. It was like Kraftwerk or Joy Division getting back together. It’s still like it was, but it’s totally different. And then I turn around on stage, he’s playing [alongside me] and I get fucked up. I feel so proud to be in the sphere of that force, because it’s such a powerful force in the world of rock ‘n’ roll right now.”
Will MCR be bringing the ‘Long Live The Black Parade’’ tour to UK stadiums?
Iero: “It’s been long-documented that we are huge fans of the UK – this is a home away from home for us. We’ve done things where the first place we played for a record release was the UK. It’s always felt like a place that we love and that we hold very dear. But, to tell the future? It would be remiss to do that.”
Well, it doesn’t have to be stadiums – the sound is much better at venues like The Key Club…
Iero: “That’s what I hear, yeah. I’ve played here, The Cockpit, the [Camden Assembly, FKA] Barfly, all the places. We’ve been around the block.”
L.S. Dunes’ second album ‘Violet’ is out now via Fantasy Records. Check out the band’s remaining UK dates below and visit here for tickets and information.
FEBRUARY
6 – London, O2 Academy Brixton (supporting Rise Against)
8 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse (supporting Rise Against)
9 – Birmingham, O2 Academy Birmingham (supporting Rise Against)
10 – Cardiff, The Globe