Last month we had the honor, privilege, and time of our life (pun intended) at the pop punk/emo/alternative rock festival that has taken the world by storm over the last three years – When We Were Young. The fest’s über-current presence in today’s music scene mixed with the appreciation-based nostalgia for the soundtrack of many of our youths is something we thoroughly enjoyed reporting on and something we are very, very, very thankful for.
L.S. Dunes have officially surpassed the label of ‘supergroup’ and permanently made their mark as a wholehearted band of today. The band set out to become the sum of its parts and has achieved that fully. When they first started, people would constantly refer to them as the band with members of Thursday, My Chemical Romance, Coheed and Cambria, and Circa Survive. Now, people just know and love L.S. Dunes for L.S. Dunes. Why? Because they’ve made some of the most intense and catchy punk songs of the last decade.
Past Lives, their debut LP, dropped on November 11, 2022. It was one of the most dynamic and all-encapsulating records of the year. Songs like “Permanent Rebellion” and the title track are furious instrumentally, vocally bold, and consistently at a fast pace. Other tracks, like “Grey Veins” and “Blender,” prove the band has that rhythmic rock grind that everyone loves. Overall, they’re one of the most creative and innovative bands in the scene currently, and we’re so glad to be friends with them.
L.S. Dunes was not only playing When We Were Young Fest this fall, but they also used this season to announce a new record. Titled Violet, the band’s sophomore album will be out on January 31, 2025. The new singles, “Fatal Deluxe” and “Machines,” are out now, and they have fans clamoring for more. On site at the festival, we caught up with the full band. We discussed the new album, our connection to their latest music video, and even the festival itself.
We’re at When We Were Young Festival and a lot of you guys are playing two sets today. How are your anticipation levels?
Frank Iero: For me at least, and tell me if I’m wrong, but once you get the first one out, it’s like a feel no-pain kind of thing. All the nerves go out on the first set. It’s kind of nice to have a double header sometimes; get all the weird anxiety and stuff that happens in the morning out, then the rest of the day is, “Oh well, I already did that!”
Tucker Rule: I think they’re both equally as important, but the first one you do is the most important one then, you know what I mean? Then you get it done and you shift into this whole other box that you have to focus on. It’s kind of a weird headspace to be in, but it’s going to be fun.
Travis Stever: It’s interesting to me, because I still get stage fright a bit, and I welcome that. I think that’s helpful to me. I’ve always felt like that’s a motivation to go a little crazier. That’s the one thing – when we played, I did have that stage fright element in me and I won’t have that as much for the next one, so it’s an interesting dynamic. I’m going to try and have stage fright again [Laughs]. Can you guys keep scaring me?
Your new album, Violet, is out in January. How are you feeling about that, too?
Anthony Green: Very excited! We love playing the new songs. We’re stoked.
On the “Fatal Deluxe” outro, we just saw the whole crowd building and jumping around.
TS: That’s something we added! That’s not even on the song – that whole outro thing.
FI: We tend to do that, though. That’s the great thing about music, right? Even once it’s recorded and “done,” it’s never really done. You always add, evolve, change, and grow. Music is alive. It’s still doing that thing. It’s rare to have it this early on, like before the record even comes out. Shit – we should do it back and record it again, do other things! You’re going to have that in every song on the record, though. I think that’s one of the greatest things about being in bands, but especially this band.
AG: That’s my favorite thing about this band – everybody’s willingness to experiment and try things. We had like two practices and we were able to do some cool new shit that made us all excited to play.
TR: Sometimes we’ll talk about it and then just go play it. We don’t rehearse it. “Let’s extend this part, blah, blah, blah. Ok, got it?” Then we just do it! It’s pretty awesome to have people you trust where it’s, “Alright, I’m not going to run this at all,” and then we play it in front of 20,000 people.
Locked in!
FI: No net! No fucking net!
The Aquarian did a cover story with Tucker, Tim, and Frank right before Past Lives dropped. Since then you guys have tripled your fanbase and pretty much all of your numbers have gone up. Can you tell me about the pressure of album two?
FI: It’s wild, man!
AG: The pressure from this band comes from all of us just wanting to do the best for each other. There’s no talk of numbers big or small. This band was born out of us just wanting to make stuff we really liked because it was hard to do that everywhere. We’re continuing to do that. It’s like, “Fuck, we didn’t even know we could write a record that made us feel that good together after the first one.” It’s pretty cool.
That is incredible! I do want to ask about the album cover. It’s ominous and beautiful. How did that come to mind?
FI: It is. Gordy [Gordon Douglas Ball] is an amazing artist and a good friend. I think he’s going to be part of the thing where we have a growing artistic relationship together where we collaborate on a lot of things. We’ve done it three times now and I think that he just gets us.
TR: We set him up for complete failure [Laughs]. We were like, “We don’t know! Make something!”
FI: That’s a fun feeling: give another artist your art. “What does this make you feel? How do you interpret this in your medium?” See what comes back and if it connects. Somehow it just fucking works.
TR: We gave him the record and we gave him the lyrics and were like, “What do you think?” That’s what came out. It’s all very organic.
FI: We love that! He’s a partial member [of the band].
AG: The weird thing is that every single person feels like they are alone and isolated in their stress/problems. That little guy, that little person alone, every single person feels like that – completely alone. But, they’re all the same! We’re all going through it.
FI That ocean is populated with boats with one person in it. We just don’t see each other. How fucking weird is that?
There’s an ocean in all of us!
AG: Every person feels like that person. We don’t feel unified by that. There’s a magic about that isolation. It’s not unique – it’s what unites us.
Photo by Mando Hundreds / When We Were Young
It’s sad, but also optimistic at the same time. Of course, we’ve got to talk about the importance of Riot Festival while in festival mode. You guys have played every single one.
FI: It’s like a birthday party for us, man! It’s so fucking rad. We played our first show ever there. It’s one of our favorite festivals of all time – it just really is. To get to do the first show there, I was nervous as shit. We had never played a show. We had maybe two or three practices all together, if that! How we wrote the record is how we were practicing for it. Then every year after it’s always been a great fucking show.
TS: It really has!
AG: It makes sense, too, when you think about it. The band started as a celebration of live music. To have its birthday and its induction to the world be that fest, it’s a lynchpin. It’s something that makes sense when you think about what this band is.
Riot Fest is such a genre-less festival. You have a rap artist, a country artist, a folk artist, a punk band all at once.
AG: It’s people who love live music.
TR: We’re such a small blip on that festival, but that blip means the most to us. It’s so cool to be a part of it.
FI: It’s just run really well, too. It’s created well, run well. Chicago goes so hard!
AG: New York and LA get a lot, but Chicago is also a music town! It’s always been that way.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk with me, talk with The Aquarian! My last question for the Dunes – “How Dare You” and “Benadryl Subreddit” are not on the new record. How come?
FI: We never stop writing. We didn’t have the time to work on a record, but we had this minuscule amount of time where we could do something in the studio. We wrote songs specifically for that experience. That was a stand alone EP on its own. “Can we record together in a room? We have never done that. Let’s try that.” It was never thought to be included on the record.
TS: “How Dare You” is very similar. It was a song that we had left over and didn’t finish. It was a leftover song musically. You [pointing to Anthony Green] went in and wrote to it afterwards. We had that song and we all still loved what it was. That was from the beginning.
AG: Dude, the week that we were mixing the new record that’s coming out now we were sending tracks out for new songs. The band’s output is not necessarily related to an album cycle. We just like putting out music when we can.
TR: We’re super lucky because we don’t have a lot of time with each other, but the time we do have, we make the most out of it. Literally lemons and lemonade. It’s still fun; not the pressure of “Oh, we’ve got to do this now.” It’s like, “Ok, who’s got a riff?” Then it builds in a fun way.
TS: We’re not chasing making it good. We just want to create stuff we’re happy with.
AG: I hope to be making music for as long as we can.
PRE-SAVE/PRE-ORDER THE NEW L.S. DUNES ALBUM, OUT 1/31/25, HERE!
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