Alan Sparhawk of Low
“Come see me when Low plays”, goes the lyrics from a “That Dog” song. Which, it turns out was not about a member of Low, but about their cute sound guy Chris. Or at least that’s what Alan Sparkhawk says. Low played the Independent on Satureday night. They've been coming to San Francisco for over ten years, and are known for their reductionist yet unpretentious sound. Low has been one of the most labeled bands ever (even SFist isn't innocent on that count). Add that to Alan’s breakdown last year, and the replacement of long time bass player, Zak, and articles about Low seem to write themselves like rock and roll Madlibs, with lots of adjectives to describe pretty music, religion, marriage and breakdowns. If all those interest you, pitchfork has a good recent interview with Alan. If you’ve never listened to Low, their newest album, Great Destroyer is a good place to start, although it’s not entirely representative of their work.SFist caught Alan on his way to San Francisco to play at the Independent last Saturday night. He answers our questions about being Low, and playing in San Francisco below:
Where are you right now?
On the 405 in LA. It’s rained been raining here, but the traffic isn’t bad.
How much time have you spent in the Bay Area?
We’ve been touring since ’93-94. I think we went through San Francisco on that first tour. We played at the starry plow in Berkeley. Maybe we played at a laundry mat. We’ve been coming back just about every year, year and a half. San Francisco one of the best towns to play in the world. One of my favorites for sure. There seems to be a good attitude about music here. In New York life is just too intense, there is too much going on, and everything is more expensive. In San Francisco they have a better perspective about what they like what they don’t and what they get out of a show. I don’t know, it’s a great city. Isn’t as intense as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago once we get there it feels a little more familiar, people react genuinely. In San Francisco there is no pretense. It’s not like “you’ve got to be good you’re in London-- I don’t want to get too excited, I’ll only cheer at super hip shows”. We like to play New York too, lots of good shows. It’s just that people here are more honest about the experience and have less pretense. You feel it when you play.
How do you pick up on that feel when you’re performing?
The room, the sound, the dynamics. The people are huge. I don’t know the ebb and flow of tension and release. In an ideal situation it flows more. Not so much quiet or cheering, whatever you’re laying down seems to be absorbed that comes back to you kind of reassuring that the music is where it needs to be.
How does your interaction with the audience affect the experience?
I hate to admit it, because it makes me sound like we thrive on approval. But music is more three dimensional, it’s hard to describe. It’s kind of like, when you hear yourself play a note and you can hear it going through the room across the air and you’re hitting all the those ears it’s really strange. I’m happy to admit a better show is one where the audience is where the crowd is in harmony going on. When half the people are talking it takes away some of the possibilities. It’s nice when it’s quiet and intimate and people can actually hear.
Favorite venues?
GAMH. But we’re not playing there. We’ve played there the last 6 or 7 times in San Francisco, maybe a good thing to change up. Denver: Bluebird Theater. It reminds me of GAMH. It has a certain size and feel. Union Chapel, it’s a big Unitarian chapel in London, all framed in wood. It’s an ideal place for quieter music. We’ve had some of our biggest shows there, it’s memorable. There are lots of different places.
Favorite song to perform.
It varies. When we have a new song to play, it’s fun to fiddle with it. After playing certain songs for a while and struggling to get it as tight as possible it gets old. With new songs you have more freedom. Sandinista, it’s a new song with violent past. Songs from Great Destroyer-- Kissing is Fun: it’s a slow build, our most trance-ical dynamic song. Unless we completely botch it it’s usually a high point. Most the time it’s new songs, that’s pretty typical. We’ve always looking forward to what we’re doing next, probably more than most bands.
Do you respond to requests during shows?
Sometimes. When people get out of hand they’re usually requesting a bunch of different songs. It would be hard if it was just one song. People yell out stuff and sometimes we can play it right off the bat, but sometimes not, we’ve got too much stuff to be able to play it all.
Are you surprised by the songs that people like?
Half of the people that make requests want to hear a few kind of poppy songs, with a lot of harmony and melody. The other half ask for obscure noisy songs that are just going to make people uncomfortable. It varies sometimes you feel like singing it.
What places do you like in San Francisco?
Castillito! It’s the one that always gets the award for best burrito town. Definitely Castallito. It’s a little more local, there’s not a lot of effort to bring in the tourist. We’ve been going there for years. Where we live, nothing that comes close to the taquerias here.
What do you recommend there?
Super burrito: beans, rice, avocado—it’s got to have avocado and sour cream. We’ve been going there for year. There’s also a an Indian place in the Tenderloin. It’s really good, we’ve been there twice. Indian and Mexican for sure is what we don’t have at home so we usually go for that.
What do you do when you’re in the Bay Area?
We have a friend in Oakland from Duluth that we go and visit and we went to Gillman a couple of times over the years. We saw the end of “Neurosis” there once. We used to go visit Voodie (no idea how to spell) from American Music Hall. He worked at guitar shop. He’s an amazing concert. We go to Muir woods. I wish we were big wine drinkers, we could go to Napa. I guess we could go do that, go be drunk. Normally, we just get in, hope our friends show up, get good food, play the show, and get out the next day.
How long are you usually on tour, do you get sick of it?
We’ve cut it [touring] back to 2- 2/12 weeks. It used to be three. Yes, we do get sick of the tour. It always happens at different times. I was sick of being in the van for a while, but we were having good a time. We were on TV this morning. On a local Fox station in San Diego, it was unnerving. I don’t’ know if it’s because it’s 11 in the morning, or the cameras, or being interrupted to do second takes.
Every once in a while you’ll realize you’ll walk out on stage and realize you’re not completely there. Eventually you find your place, do the show, and push yourself a little bit. When I can tell we’re just phoning it in, it drives me crazy. When I feel that I get a little too erratic, do things differently. Sometimes that’s good, sometimes it’s just a matter of throwing a wrench into your machine and seeing the different things. We’ve written songs that we can sing just about anywhere. Just do the best we can. If it’s a good night it’ll be good.