Lois & The Love are devoted to a certain kind of extreme―they want to make work that makes you feel, and maybe even makes you go grab a guitar and make a band of your own. The London-bred foursome released their debut album, Love Is Louder, in the summer of 2014, and with the LP, they helped prove that during a moment when DJs are being shuttled around like rock stars, and hip hop’s stronghold on the culture stays ever tightening, guitar rock may actually be alive and well. Taking influence from the electronic genre-mash of Blondie and the near-mythic energy of the early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lois Winstone, along with Dean Sharp, Eddie Banda, and Oli Longmore, has crafted an album that furthers the already deep history of London’s music culture. In an intimate talk with NOTOFU, lead singer Lois Winstone discusses the band’s influences, the state of London, and why you won’t catch her watching the X-Factor anytime soon.
Where were you born?
I was born in East London in March of 1982. I’m a fire sign, baby. Aries.
Oh great, I’m a pieces.
Oh good, you’re a water sign right?
Yes, water sign! How would you describe the city’s cultural scene?
I would describe London as a very prosperous city. For me, it’s been a wonderful, positive city to grow up in. It’s quite similar to New York in a lot of ways. It’s a city of angels―dark angels and good angels. For me, it’s this immense energy that I’ve always felt, from the time I was growing up in North London, to when I really threw myself into the culture. Because it was really booming in the 90s, you know? It was coming up.
Have you ever been to New York?
Probably about ten years ago, so it’s been too long. And everything is changing, isn’t it? That’s how it’s starting to feel in London and probably everywhere now.
Yeah, I think a lot of people would say the same about New York―that it had some sort of resurgence or peak in scene again in the 90s.
Yeah, exactly. And I’m a little bit worried about London right now, because there is just so much property development happening everywhere. And a lot of my artistic friends are moving to Berlin, just moving out. So there isn’t enough live music venues around anymore―it’s all just slowly evaporating because of property development. You know it’s quite worrying.
Will this affect this kind of work that comes out of the city?
Yes, well it’s kind of drowning the culture a bit. I love London, I love this city. It’s my city, but growing up it felt more edgy and more full of life and different cultures. It felt like a different universe.
Sure, well music is such a big part of what makes cities function, and what makes them so idiosyncratic and interesting to live in.
Right, well it’s one of the capitals of the world in music. And there are just so many different influences. I mean, on my side―I’ve just moved into a studio in East London, and my friends who are from India or the North Side, they’re making their own beats, their own songs. They’re all just such tough cookies. So other cultures, punk cultures, for me The Clash, The Sex Pistols, all of them had an amazing influence on me.
Sure, the antiestablishment movements.
Yeah, but even when my dad would take me to see the ballet, or when I would listen to Queen. I’m so influenced by all of the different elements of the culture. Fashion and Wivienne Westwood or Malcolm McLaren.
A lot of boys!
[laughs] A lot of boys! You’ve got the Beatles as well, David Bowie.
Well a lot of those bands, from The Clash to the Sex Pistols and plenty of others―a lot of them were responding to London and to the established order. How do you feel about so many artists leaving London instead of creative art that responds or rebels?
It’s sad, really, that people are moving away. But I don’t think they’re deliberately leaving. They’re being pushed out, you know, because artists simply can’t live in London anymore. It’s been made so expensive to live in, and all the people that have a lot of money―I mean, I’m not going to get too political, because I don’t really believe in politics.
What do you believe in?
I believe in equality, and I do believe that all the people that create this magic that holds such massive influence over us, they’re moving because they can’t stay. I’ve got a gig in Camden coming up [on 30 January] at the Foundry, and the Foundry use to be a poetry spot in East London. And now it’s a pastry shop! I mean, what do you want? Poetry or a pastry? It’s just bizarre!
Would you say any of your music is responding to that? The frustration or even just the need to create vibrant culture?
Yes, absolutely! Because we give a shit! I was watching James Brown on the Internet last night, and deep in all the Motown records, and it’s just such a great energy and vibration going on in the sixties and seventies, even in the nineties. A lot of it has to do with rock culture as well. And there are too many people right now drinking too much, going through memories. There’s a real poison now, in my kind of neighborhood, and it has a lot to do with how we’re feeding the minds of children.
Like competitive reality television?
The X Factor, yeah. I find it quite disturbing, because it is a competition, but our children are watching this and thinking that these people are our heroes. And they’re not, they want to get record deals. They want to be molded into something. They’re not given the freedom to create a rock band of their own. I knew that I didn’t want to lip sync to a CD player, I wanted to go out and make my own band. Hopefully, other people will be influenced to go make their own bands and write their own music, instead of watching karaoke.
For you, it’s not about competition.
No, it’s not about competition; it’s about self-expression, connecting to our higher powers and the vibrations going on up there and down here. Whether it’s positive or negative, it’s just about the ying and yang of it all.
Well what about the ways in which the industry is changing? Making money has become profoundly difficult for musicians, so in a way even traditional models aren’t easy routes to success. Or is that not really your notion of success?
When I went into music myself, I didn’t go into it for the money. The awards won’t just come, you have to be passionate about it first. My girl said to me once, “never be ashamed of what you’ve made if you’ve worked hard for it.” Obviously I don’t write songs thinking, “I’m going to make a ton of money off this song.” I do it because I think that it could change the way people think. I’m not preaching, I’m just saying “this is how I feel.”
How did you get involved in the band? You described it once as something of a ‘fluke’―is that true?
Well I’ve been in bands for years. My guitarist, Dean Sharp, he is one of my oldest neighbors, I’ve known him since I was four. He’d moved to Australia for a while, and then happened to run into him in Camden and found that he was in music and had been into bands like The General and others. And I realized I just had to jam with this guy, since I’d already felt so comfortable with him.
Were you singing at the time?
I was doing back-up singing, but I realized that I wanted to be in front, and I decided simply to stop thinking about it, but to get up off my ass and just do it. And then Dean knew Ollie (sp???) who was from Camden, and he’s a real passionate London boy, and we started that. And Eddie, our drummer, kind of fell into our laps. And it all just took off from there.
Did you and Dean have similar music taste when you were growing up?
I use to be very into techno, house, garage. A lot of UK radio at that time really, especially in North London. My dad [English actor Ray Winstone] was in this film before I was born, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. It’s about this punk rock band trying to break into America, and there are so many hidden messages in that film that really inspired me.
Is punk a sort of throughline of the LP, Love Is Louder?
Part of my first album is really rowdy. It’s filled with a lot of anger, and I wanted to put that energy into it. I was hoping that it would be positive, but the energy that came out was angry, angrier than I expected. But that’s what comes from experimenting.
So how would you describe the album―in three words?
Brace Yourselves ― oh, but that’s two words, isn’t it? Bring On America. Or Here We Are. Yeah, that, I like that: Here We Are. Tell them that―you can put that. [laughs]
Okay, Here They Are: Lois & The Love’s album, Love Is Louder, is available now.
