Lorne Behrman is a throwback NYC punk rocker with his feet firmly planted in the future. On his full-length debut, A Little Midnight, he takes the magic of records like Lou Reed’s New York and updates it for a modern audience. Lorne recently took some time to talk about this release and his career so far.
Please press the PLAY icon for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Lorne Behrman –
On his creative team for A Little Midnight – The same people as last time, Matt Chiaravalle is the producer, he’s done Joe Bonamassa,Warren Zevon, The Sweet Things, The Stitches, he produced it, he plays keys, he plays bass on it. Then Hector Lopez, who has worked with Alejandro Escovedo and was in The Sweet Things, plays drums. I’m doing all the guitars and vocals and songwriting. :45
On the theme of moving past trauma on this record – When I did the EP, I never intended to put that out in some ways. I was so vulnerable and it was a painful process to put that out and record it. Not because it had anything to do with the recording, just the nature of the subject matter. I felt much lighter when I put it out. A lot of this record was written as the EP was being recorded, and so I was letting go a lot of feelings, and as you said, moving on, moving forward, my life. There’s definitely a lot more hope. Hopefully, there’s fun on it, it’s very cathartic for me. So it was definitely a moving on from pain and stepping into the light from the darkness. 1:40
On if he tried to capture a certain time and feel on the record – It’s funny, I’ve been living in New York since 1997, so 25 years. I grew up in California, in suburban Glendale, and I always romanticized New York. It was like a utopia for me, just the art and culture, all the records, I love all the Andy Warhol, visual art, the books, everything seemed to come from this gritty utopia, like a dream place for me. So I internalized. I would buy every record I could that I thought came from there, and sometimes it would be like a record, they came from Detroit, to me, it was all this gritty vibe. I would read all the books and stuff. Since I was a teen, I’ve been obsessed with New York culture from the 70s. I think it’s kind of seeped into my DNA. Most times, I’ve been writing music for years, I was trying to go for a sound. I was like, “I want to do something like Johnny Thunders”. When I wrote that EP, I didn’t think anyone would hear it, I’m just gonna peel back the artifice, just kind of reveal who I am. It was more about what I was going through internally, and people came back to me and said, “Oh, it’s very Lou Reed-esq, and that was really an accident. And a happy accident. I love Lou Reed, I love all that music, that’s my favorite music of all time, and in the studio, It was very natural. Both Matt and I come from the punk rock scene and come from all those records you mentioned. Those records are our favorite records, so it was very organic. We weren’t trying to steer it. It just came naturally. We weren’t trying to steer the ship to any specific destination, that’s just the way it came out. I think we learned a lot on the EP. By the end of the EP, I found out who I was, and so we definitely went in with that confidence in this record. 3:18
On the record feeling like a modern-day New York – That’s one of my favorite records of all time, and one of Matt’s favorite records of all time, so you have great ears.. We love that record. I think the thing is that a lot of people love artists who can get boxed in to “make it sound a l0-fi”, or “make it sound like it came out 20, 30 years ago”. I’m not that way. I want things to sound as good as they can. We both were united in that way. Why don’t make a record that maybe thematically and musically could have been made in the 70s, but sounds like today? That’s kind of what we did. So yeah, you’re very perceptive. 6:01
On preferring to write short songs – Well, I really always love the Nuggets compilation and those guys, they would take two minutes or minute and fifty seconds and say so much. A whole romantic relationship would go by. Even the early 60s music, it was like these little soap operas and they were done in two minutes. So that always appealed to me. I am a very hyper-energetic person, I like things just to be quick and concise. The idea of being concise really appeals to me. I remember Iggy Pop saying, in our view, if he had over 20 words in a song, it was too much, and so I always love the idea of that, and the band The Minutemen, make it as tight as possible. Not every song needs a bridge or a guitar solo. As a writer, I don’t wanna bore you, I don’t want to waste your time. I want to give you a feeling and then it passes, no need to dwell on something, so I love tight, tightly composed things… I think also it’s 10 songs in 21 minutes, which is like a Ramones thing. I love that. Look, just give me 20 minutes of your time to take you through this journey. I grew up loving singles, 45s, 7-inch singles. Sometimes, I would not buy the album, I want just the singles. So we’re definitely in a singles mindset these days, so it’s kind of like a little bit longer, it’s 15 minutes longer than a single or whatever 7:25
On paying tribute to classic album covers – Well, it’s funny, for the Don Henley one, it was just I remember that my mom had. the cassette and I remember I loved that song, “Dirty Laundry”. That was my first solo thing and thought it would be kind of funny to do that, and I do like the Eagles I love Don Henley, love all that. Then with this one, I was actually like, “Maybe I’ll do it, the Johnny Thunders thing”, where I’m solo and sitting in a chair. We went to the photo shoot and I’m just not that guy, I’m just not. So we were just doing some photos, and so randomly that one came up. I showed it to some people I know in my circle and they’re like, “You should go with that as the cover, it looks like Damn The Torpedoes“. I was like, “You’re right”. I love Tom Petty, I love the fact that his music was uplifting and his vocal influenced, to me, his rhythm guitar playing and the whole band. Everyone plays just the right minimal parts. He kind of rides that line being a singer/song writer, and a pop artist. That attracts me in a way, having mass appeal but still having that integrity and that intimacy. 10:28
On if he’s become more comfortable being a live front man – Yeah, I am. It was very scary for me. I played lead guitar for 30-something years, and I’ve always been the guy that’s in the back, and I’ve always enjoyed that. I’ve always wanted to be like the Ron Wood or the Keith Richards is to the Mick Jagger. My solo thing was like an accident in a way, because I was thrown out of my last band, The Sweet Things, and we’re friends now and everything, it’s totally fine, I love those guys. But it was like, “What do I do now?” I just didn’t see joining another band. (I had) to step up and do it. It was very hard for me. I think I maybe had a false start with that EP. Not with the EP in general, but for the first show, it was a trio and I went out there with these really heavy songs and I just. didn’t know who I was or what to do. Am I a maudlin, sad artist? Am I happy? Who am I? So I did that, and then this record is really uplifting to me and we had so much fun doing it, and so I was just like, “I’m gonna see, I’m gonna put out feelers for a band”, and all of the sudden, I have a seven-piece band of friends, really. Something clicked for me, we’ve done about four shows. We did our first show a few months ago, and it just felt like I felt natural. I just felt I found myself, it was like I sit here, I practice singing, playing with a guitar standing up, practice with a metronome. I just keep doing it every day and something clicked and playing with these guys, we rehearse once a week. It is like a band a lot of ways, but it’s still me, (if) people hate the songs, it’s my name on it, but those guys add so much. I feel like I found myself. I feel like I found the guy I’m supposed to be, which is just me. It turns out that I can show up, I just be who I am. I think I tried my whole life to be somebody else, I wanna be this cool guy, I wanna be Keith Richards, I wanna be blah, blah, blah, Johnny Thunders, and now I’m just saying “I’m me”. I guess people say “Lou Reed” with the vocals or whatever, but I love his stuff, but I’m not him, I love him, I’m not anyone, I’m just this person. I just, when I let go of trying to be something and the anxiety of it and just showing up, just be like, “It’s gonna be what’s gonna be”, things came together. The band is Ray Mazza on drums, I’ve known Ray for a long time, he can play anything, he’s a great drummer, and Steve Dios on guitar, who was actually the drummer in The Sweet Things for a bit, he’s a great guitar player, and he’s a great singer too. Matt Dougherty is our bass player who played with Ray for a while, so they have a relationship. Steve Masso, who is an excellent songwriter singer, who had a cool career in Nashville, he plays keys and back-up vocals. My wife turns out is a great singer, she sings back up with me and my friend Paige (Campbell), was in the awesome punk bank called How Tragic sings. It’s kind of like a family, we rehearse and we all go together, there’s a lot of laughter and it feels like a band, but with a different dynamic, because it is my songs, my music, my name. 12:15
On touring plans – I wanna do it all. I’ve toured before and I do it all, I just me right now. I have a record label, Spaghetti Town, Mitch (Schneider) as a publicist has been so helpful to me, and I have some friends that advise me, but it’s just me kind of figuring out, “What do I do next?” Which is cool, so I need to figure out what that next leap is. We have another show in November coming up, which I’m not sure I can announce, but a cool opening slot. I’ll play anywhere, I will go anywhere, any time, any way, and so I’m just kind of put it in the universe, touring, playing everywhere. Yeah, for sure. 16:12
On upcoming plans -The next one is written, I’m going in the studio on November 16th, I think it is, and I’m gonna start recording it. I’m gonna keep doing this until the wheels fall off, which is until I die. I spent my whole life as a lead guitar player, and in that way, I define myself as kind of a gun-slinging guy. I wanna play lead, I wanna play fast, I wanna be that guy that’s dangerous. I guess I just realized that I’m a songwriter and I still practice guitar, I love guitar, it is my life. But I realized that that’s what feels like home for me, and I love writing, I love writing songs. As soon as that EP was done, this album was basically written, and as soon as this album is done, this next album is done. So I just wanna keep doing it and we’re gonna keep playing. We have some new songs we’re putting in the set for the show which is on Friday, the 16th, the day the album comes out. So I just wanna keep writing, I also wanna keep growing. One thing that I’m trying to do as a musician is to take that perspective that we have. that 70s punk, protopunk, whatever you want to call it, and add to it. I like so much stuff and that can kind of co-mingle with that, I love soul music, I love our old R& B, I love jazz, and I love folk, I want to see if there’s a way we all can live together. So I think that this first record has some of that and the next record has that, it has a little bit more of that, and I just wanna keep growing. 17:27
