Livingmore Tell Us All About Recording Their Top-Secret Album In Quarantine

The name of the indie Rock band Livingmore may be derived from the last names of Alex Moore and Spencer Livingston, but their larger hive mind most definitely includes drummer Mike Schadel and bassist Rodrigo Moreno. That core connection has enabled the band to weather the ups and downs of the pandemic and their own musical plans very ably. In fact, they've been so highly productive that it's almost mind-boggling, recording and mixing an entire super-secret new album during this time, which will be forthcoming from Nomad Eel Records. 

Having a shared living space and a useful studio space have also been huge bonuses for enabling them to stay together and work more easily. Moore, Livingston, and Schadel all live in the same house and drummer Schadel has a kit in the basement. He apparently plays there all day and is actually a morning person, which proves that every band needs at least one monster. 

Alex Moore and Spencer Livingston talked with Tower's PULSE! about their musical lives and that secret album, but if you want to hear more from the whole band and some live previews of their new songs, you can still check out their appearance on Tower's Instagram Live show, too.

Hannah Means-Shannon: I don’t really understand how productive you have managed to be. You’ve managed to record a whole secret album during the pandemic. What are your plans for that album?

Alex Moore: We’re thinking of releasing it this winter and we’ve been working on music videos. We’re just seeing what happens.

Spencer Livingston: We tend to write at a slow and steady pace so we always have a ton of songs. One of the ways we’ve managed to stay productive is by living together, so we manage to play all the time. Also, we have a studio space which is run by our drummer Mike, and it’s really his spot. We rehearse there and we recorded there. Because we’ve been able to cut so many costs, we’ve been able to be more self-sufficient.

HMS: That’s amazing since the main question that Corona posed to musicians was, “Do I have somewhere to make music? Somewhere that’s not far away, somewhere that’s not probably shut right now?”

AM: In hindsight, we were always going to record it ourselves, but I’m happy that we did make that decision.

SL: We got most of it done in the first month of the lockdown, really.

AM: We had so much work to do, too, but there was nothing else to do.

SL: We pretty much locked ourselves in the studio for a month.

HMS: That’s amazing. I saw the photos on Instagram that you posted on those days going in or out of the studio. But wait a second, does that mean that you were not inundated by all the social media and news that everyone else was facing during that first month?

SL: I feel like we were in the evenings, but I would wake up and read some horrifying thing in the morning, and then I’d put my phone away. I’d turn it back on in the evening and hope the world didn’t burn down.

HMS: That sounds like a much healthier way to engage with that time.

SL: There was a contrast happening between everything around everyone seeming so dark, but we were making this album that I think has really good feelings to it and is intended to make you feel good. It has many moods, but overall, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It had such a positive energy about it and we were all really thankful to have it.

AM: It was definitely good for our mental health at the time to focus on that.

HMS: That’s wonderful. I’ve been able to listen to the secret record. I feel like I should talk in code now about it.

Basically, I think the sound is incredibly uplifting and has a lot of energy to it. I enjoyed listening to it. When you get into the lyrics, there’s more nuance there, and it’s not exactly happy clappy about everything, but you’re actually looking at real feelings and real ideas that are more complicated. But the sound itself does take you out of one space into another, which I love about music.

AM: We do have that balance to it. We have heavier topics in the music, but the music will have a melodic aspect that balances it. That’s part of my personality, and Spencer’s personality.

SL: Happy-sad. [Laughs]

AM: Introspective.

HMS: There’s quite a range of sounds on the album, too. The first track had a much more melodic sound, and was fast, with a lot of energy to it. It’s really strong. Not to influence you, but that would make a great single.

Around the third track or so, we have a more Bluesy sound, more Blues-Rock, and metallic sounds. It speaks more to music traditions, like the 60s and 70s. But by the time we get to the last track, I’m hear more Soft-Rock traditions, more of a ballad approach. I think it’s cool that you didn’t force all the songs into one category.

AM: I don’t think we even know how to force that. [Laughs] What you’re hearing is a mixture of a lot of different influences. Spencer likes Neil Young.

SL: I’m more a 60s and 70s guy. I like The Kinks a lot.

AM: I grew up with Garbage, The Cure, Blondie. Spencer likes all that stuff, too, but he didn’t grow up with it.

HMS: All of these are very “Yes”. Tower Records endorses this message.

SL: Mike likes a lot of 80s New Wave.

AM: He’s helped us out with that kind of sound. I love it.

SL: Our bass player, Rodgrigo, has got all kinds of interests, but he’s a Jazz guy. He’s super versatile. He really gets into songwriting, too.

AM: I was a teenager when I was into My Chemical Romance and Smashing Pumpkins. Now I have really opened my mind to other things. I love Roy Orbison. He’s really influenced me on the more ballad-like stuff. He’s also a storyteller, and I always have had a natural “folksiness” to me.

HMS: Also yes. By the way, Roy Orbison’s last album is outstanding, and it has a lot of storytelling to it. Also, in my notes that I made while listening to the secret album, I did write “New Wave”. So I called it. But not every band is not into the storytelling aspect, so it’s interesting that you are. I do hear it in your music, but I don’t think it dominates other aspects.

AM: It’s part of it. We’re also not just one thing. We’re a lot of different things and we embrace that.

HMS: That’s been a really helpful tour of the different sounds that you come from. What are some things that you all think you have in common that enable you to work together?

SL: I love working in this band. I think everyone is just super-generous with the energy and creativity that they bring. We’ve always creatively meshed with each other.

AM: Some of it is opposites attract, I think, too. We write songs in different ways, but don’t say that the other one has to write our way. What one person lacks, the other brings.

SL: We all try to make each other sound as good as possible, too. On a creative level, I don’t think the drums step on the guitar, or the guitar steps on the vocals. I think things blend.

HMS: That kind of works with how the music sounds. One element is not leaping out and hitting you over the head. There’s a lot of harmony to your sound. Every band is different, and some have more dominant instruments, but with you it does seem more egalitarian.

Aside from the world pretty much burning down while you were trying to record the new album, was your approach similar to recording previous albums? Do you have a go-to method?

AM: Yes. We recorded the drums before Corona.

SL: We tracked the drums in late December and were planning on doing everything at our studio. The only thing weird during this was the mixing and mastering process. We Produced it and mixed 90% of it in our studio, and then our friend Josiah Mazzaschi helped us mix and master the final finishing touching. We couldn’t be there.

AM: With little tiny notes, it was hard not to be there, since it was a thousand notes back and forth and we had to e-mail. He’s great, but we’re very specific with the vision we have for things. It’s like our baby. We had a day where we did a six hour Zoom session and then it was done. 

HMS: It does seem easier to do if there’s video working in isolation. Otherwise it’s endless e-mailing.

SL: By the end, I didn’t mind not being there. It was interesting to hear someone else’s take without us being there. We got some cool things out of it that were a little unexpected.

HMS: When you say that you had Produced your work in the past, how far back does that go, and how did you pick up those skills?

SL: All four of us have been doing music in different forms for 15 years now.

AM: Before we met Mike, he was Producing different artists. He was the one engineering.

HMS: Oh cool!

SL: I used to play in a band where I Produced a few of our releases. I got to work with a Producer that showed me some things. A lot of it, really, is knowing how to work the mic and how to Produce yourself as a performer. Knowing the sound that you’re trying to get and how to get that out of the equipment you’ve got. It’s a million little things, but you’re never done learning. The greatest Producers in the world are still learning things.

HMS: Oh, I think they’d agree with that. The best ones are the ones who say that they are still learning things.

How important have live shows been for you in the past, not only financially, but emotionally?

AM: I love performing. I’ve always been a performer. It’s been hard.

SL: We’ve seen some of our favorite places go away during this time.

HMS: Oh no!

AM: Whatever closes, I know that things will be rebuilt eventually. But the gut-wrenching thing is that I really like going to this place called The Satellite, and it’s been changed into a restaurant. That kind of thing sucks.

SL: The small to mid-sized venues in LA have all closed. All the placed we’ve played. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Even when things open back up, none of those places exist anymore. We’ve got our studio, and we’ve had concerts there, so I think we’re going to make it a regular thing when we can do that safely.

AM: We try not to think about it too much, but I’m just hoping for things to be rebuilt.

SL: A lot of things are moving forward, socially, and culturally. I think we’re evolving at the moment. I think new places will pop up.

HMS: Hopefully people will step in where there is opportunity and need. Using the studio is a great option.

SL: I think there’s going to be a lot DIY stuff.

HMS: I’ve spoken to several record store owners lately who have, or are building, small stages to use their shops as venues. Maybe more people will do that.

SL: That would be awesome! We need them as much as they need us.

AM: A part of this for me is also going places you’ve never been, meeting people you’ve never met.

HMS: Actually traveling, imagine that! You all are very active online and making sure that you’re talking to your fans. Instagram seems like a big part of your lives.

AM: I don’t know what we’d do without something like Instagram right now as artists. Whether I think it’s amazing or not, we need to have it. There’s no running around giving people flyers right now, it’s all on the internet. When it comes to putting up artwork, I’m glad there’s somewhere to do that. It’s like a fun collage.

HMS: In my mind, when I think of Instagram, it’s like a poster for a gig that’s always changing, for a particular band. I think it can be helpful.

SL: It’s definitely a younger scene to be on, too. Younger people connect with our music for some reason. [Laughs] They are so nice. I wish there were more shows for younger audiences.

AM: Anytime we’ve played 18 and up shows, they’ve been really fun.

SL: They love it. I don’t know why there aren’t more 18 and up venues.

HMS: It reminds me of the history of Rock ‘n Roll when really young teenagers had a big hand in changing things. Well, if we have more gigs in record stores, younger audiences can come.

Do you think that the songs you’ve been writing during this period feel or sound different because the world has been changing, or do they build more out of your past work?

AM: A bit of both.

SL: I think they are a little darker. I’m not sure about the sound, but topically, lyric-wise, it’s a little bit darker.

AM: Life always affects the work that we do. I think our work has to do with us, personally, but it also is about making up a kind of combined world for our songs. We can’t make the world go away or live in a happy bubble or something. That’s not who we are. I think anyone who writes anything right now will be affected by things.

HMS: It’s like the invisible extra element right now.

SL: I am curious. I think there are going to be some interesting albums and movies, if any movies can be made. The band White Denim have a new album that just came out that you should check out. They wrote and recorded it during this time, and already put it out. It’s ridiculously good.

HMS: Most of the albums being released right now were nailed down before the pandemic, but some people are recording and releasing during this time. It’s fascinating. Music historians are going to be looking at that someday.

AM: Really big artists like Pop stars, are interesting to watch right now, because everyone is on their own right now. You know it’s going to be more “real”.

HMS: There are a lot of interesting singles coming out right now, too. Some of them do feel like a departure, a shake up, from what those musicians usually do.

AM: It feels more authentic.

SL: Alannis Morisette’s album made Alex cry the other day.

AM: She was singing to her daughter.

HMS: Oh, yes, I saw that one. That album is blowing up! And also, everyone’s crying at the drop of a hat right now. It’s a thing.

Do you have any more messages for our readers?

AM: Look out for our album coming out early next year, and we’ll have a video coming out before too long!

SL: We definitely will be doing more playing online. We’re getting our streaming game together.