Interview with Poor Old Lu
This interview appeared in the may/june issue of 7 Ball magazine.
The transition from young man to adult has never been an easy one. Growing up in the public eye must even be harder - insert any child star you can think of here. Poor Old Lu, much like the characters in the Narnia Chronicals - from where they get their name - are young people thrown into some mature situations. With A Picture of the Eighth Wonder, Poor Old Lu reflects on the reality of their awkward growth by emplying new recording approaches, and reflecting the life-changing experiences which have taken place with the band of late.
"The new record is very different than anything we've ever done," declares guitarist Aaron Sprinkle with a modest understatment. "We've changed a lot of the way we write songs. I don't know if you'd say we're maturing, but we're experimentong with different styles of doing things." One of the area of change took place in the writing of the material. "We did a lot of writing in the studio. We went in mostly with just ideas and rough arrangments of the songs, and we pretty much wrote it in the studio, so everything on the tape is real fresh and new."
In the studio, the band slowed the tempo of some of the songs, giving them a different emotional outlook than some previous recordings. "The whole record has a sort of melacholy feel to it," Sprinkle continues. "Some of the songs even border on sounding eerie in some spots, but in a good way."
"I don't want to say it's more depressing," adds singer and lyricist Scott Hunter, "and I don't want to say it's less sure or less positive, but it is a bit more confused. The albums's a bit more honest and realistic." The record has this feel, both because the band has gone through many great testimony-producing trials, but also the members have gone through some expected growth spurts (as all humans go through). These changes are the kind that not only seperate men from the boys, but also transform the boys into men. Since their last album, Sin, their have been two marriages and one birth, and a whole lot of unedited reflections on these new experiences.
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