The Ladybug Transistor are an indie-pop band from Brooklyn associated with the Elephant Six Collective. The band’s current line-up consists of Gary Olson (vocals), Julia Rydholm, Kyle Forester, Michael O’Neill, Eric Farber, Mark Dzula and Jeff Baron.
They have had 7 albums, the latest being, Clutching Stems. This was released by Merge records in June of this year. About the album:
“Clutching Stems, a stunning collection of potent refrains and brought-to-one’s-knees ballads. As ever, Olson is in fine form; here, his lyrics compel, detailing an overarching search to find one’s voice in the face of moments that knock the wind and words right out of a person. These are stories of humbling heartbreak, profound longing, undoing distress, nagging regret, and coming-of-age awakenings-all set to invigorated pop arrangements featuring backing vocals by Frida Eklund”
But you can judge for yourselves as well, because the band will be playing some UK dates v. soon; the most notable of which is the 15 year anniversary party for Fortuna Pop records on 3rd November in London. You can book tickets here.
The Interview: The Ladybug Transistor, their artwork and influences
MM: How did you come up with the ideas for your record sleeve artwork and who was involved in the creative process?
Olson: Well, the cover photo is from Brighton Beach, which is an area of Brooklyn with a large Russian community… Little Odessa some say. We were originally going down there to do some ambient recordings for the intro section of Oh Cristina. The song is set in a sort of Soviet Brooklyn so we wanted to include some authentic sounds effects. We hadn’t planned on doing any photos but the opportunity struck when we spied a red “NO SWIMMING” flag poking out of the snowy beach. At that point we had been desperate for a cover photo so it was a relief to find something that tied into the theme of the album. Julia’s red gloves say a lot! Like our previous albums, a lot of the package is photographs… I take a lot of pictures when we are on tour. We had a lot of help laying it all out with our dear friend Drue Wanger.
MM: Have the new members of the band added anything in terms of the artwork?
Olson: They are strictly on the musical side of things!
MM: What inspired the artwork for your latest release ‘Clutching Stems
Olson: Like I mentioned earlier, the cover photo was completely unplanned, but we had a bit of luck on that visit to Brighton Beach. I think the photo compliments some of the songs on the album, “Breaking Up On The Beat” and “Oh Cristina” in particular. Cristina is about a girl who comes from the apartment complexes that line beach over there. I was also wanted some consistency with our last two releases. They both use long shot photographs on the cover and very simple typeface and fonts… There’s something about that uniform format that I like. The back cover of Clutching Stems was shot in a very ornate tunnel by Amy Linton.
MM: What’s the story behind the cover for The Albemarle Sound?
Olson: The photograph of the group is from an area of Prospect Park called the Vale of Cashmere (which is also a song title from Albemarle) that is not too far from my house in Brooklyn. I think all of the photos for that package were from that shoot. The image of the figures that lays on top of the cover photo is from a painting we found on a repair shop wall in Venice Italy. I still have no idea who the artist is or what the scene is supposed to depict but we did notice a few costumed characters around Venice while we were there. Michael Barrett who drums on some of the Albemarle recordings drew the cover titles and did a great job with the lay out. We were inspired quite a bit by the artwork for Jan & Dean’s “Save for a Rainy Day”. Dean Torrence did the design for that album and even had a company called Kitty Hawk that designed some classic album sleeves back in the day. We got a very nice letter from him after we sent him the album!
MM: Tell me about the music video for 2007′s Always on the Telephone. Was it fun to make? Have you made any videos since then?
Olson: Isobel Knowles made Always on the Telephone for us. She’s a wonderful artist and animator from Melbourne Australia who’s made some amazing films:
A lot of the clip was shot around Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn and at Ft Tilden in the Rockaways. Floyd Bennett was an old airport and Tilden is a former military base. Both are now national parks and offer a tremendous amount of open space considering it’s New York City. It’s a very scenic area with old airplane hangers and overgrown military bunkers. It’s been left alone for the last 30 or so years so the nature has really taken over. The summer we shot the video there was a privately owned blimp that would take off from Floyd Bennett twice a day so we made that my mode of escape at the end of the video. I also managed to crash a car into the side of an old military barracks. Thankfully no one was injured!
Always on the Telephone is our only official clip to date but we have one nearly finished for Breaking Up on the Beat which should see the light of day very soon.
MM:Whose record sleeve artwork do you admire?
Olson: Anything that’s just a beautiful photo or crude and handmade. Any of those early Fall LPs or Clean records I love all of the collage things that David Feck does for the Comet Gain records. Today I was admiring the sleeve for Großes Wasser by Cluster which is wonderful in it’s simplicity.
Clutching Stems is available to buy now her
And this is me: www.montymanatee.co.uk
