Introduction
Formed in 2020 The Lovelorn have managed to create quite the unique sound! With blow your face off riffs, commanding vocals and energetic grooves. The Illinois-based band have released two albums so far.
We at Fox Reviews Rock believe both albums are excellent! Enjoy the interview and tunes below! All answers provided by Keagan (Singer/Guitarist) unless specified.
Interview
Did you get your name from the 1927 Silent Film? If so what made you choose that as inspiration? And if not where did the name come from?
The Lovelorn – The band name actually came from a line from a show that I was watching at the time called “Kids on the Slope.” The main character is talking to his mother about a girl, and he says “That’s right! I’m lovelorn.” It was the first time I had ever heard the word and when I looked into it’s meaning, (unrequited love), it really struck a chord inside.
I think everyone has felt lovelorn at a point in their life, so I knew that was the name I was going to use. I didn’t know there WAS a silent film with that name. I’ll have to watch it!
What’s been your best moment as a band?
The Lovelorn – We all agree that it’s the time back in March of 2023 when we played a venue called “BookClub” in Chicago. It was our second time playing there, and the audience was just KILLER.
It’s the first time that we had ever gone to another city and played for an audience who knew the lyrics to our song, “Love Myself.” The crowd was so attentive and truly invested in our performance, and hearing our song sung back to us was the best feeling in the world.
What made you release a live version of ‘At the Stake’?
The Lovelorn – “At the Stake” is a really cool, acoustic moment on the album, but we don’t perform it that way at shows. We’ve made “At the Stake” a huge, emotional, full-band moment in our sets and we wanted people to be able to listen to that moment outside of shows too!
We saw that you formed in 2020 , how was it like forming a band in the midst of a pandemic?
The Lovelorn – Difficult in the sense that we weren’t able to show off or perform any of the material we were working on. But I will say this; being forced to stay inside made the writing process itself really nice.
Being able to focus on creating a killer debut record with no expectations was a lot of fun. Also, at that time, The Lovelorn was ONLY John (drummer) and myself, so we needed time to get a full band together anyway! Haha
In what ways is your second album “Witch House” different to debut album “May You Find Worth In The Waking World”?
The Lovelorn – “MYFWITWW,” in my opinion, is much more of a “blues” record. As where “Witch House” is more of an evolution into an alternative-rock album with ELEMENTS of blues.
“WH” was the first album that we made that had all four members in the fold, (Ricky on lead guitar and Harrison on bass) so the writing, the sound, everything about “WH” feels like a step-up.
What is your personal favourite song on Witch House and why?
Keagan: “Mine is definitely Sunkissed. I think it’s my best written song lyrically and vocal melody-wise. It’s a hard-hitting song with romantic lyrics and prettiness scattered about.”
Ricky: “Witch House for me. At the end of the day, I think it’s the best guitar solo I have written”
Harrison: “My favorite song is “Ghosts in the Garden.” The chorus is hot, super fun to play, and is a blast to do live because it makes me want to dance!”
John: “Witch House is my favorite song. It has my favorite groove and drum fills I’ve written.”
We are really loving the artwork on your albums , who comes up with the ideas for these?
The Lovelorn – For “MYFWITWW,” the cover was complete happenstance! That is actually a zoomed in shot of me holding my hat during our promo photo shoot. The framing of my hands with the hat, and the flower in the middle was just TOO good NOT to use and we felt the vibe of the picture really matched the dreamy album title.
With “Witch House,” we had much more of an IDEA of what we wanted to do but didn’t know exactly how we wanted to execute making a cover to match the title name. But I was scrolling through Instagram one day, saw that photo, and immediately said to John “I want that picture. That’s the cover.”
John actually knew the woman who shot the picture, Morgan Myatt, and when we reached out, to our pleasant surprise, she let us use it!
Snuck in just before the end of Witch House is “Ghosts In The Garden” which is a personal favourite of ours. Would you be able to go into a little more detail about the song? What is it about , what inspired it?
The Lovelorn – Fun fact: “Ghosts in the Garden” is the LAST song we wrote for the album and we actually wrote it like, a week or two before going into the studio to record everything! “GITG” focuses on the theme of not being able to let go.
With the title, I wanted to parallel this theme with the imagery of ghosts roaming around a garden: haunting a time or space that you have no business in anymore, no matter how that moment made you feel before.
Even on the debut album there is references to Witches. Can we ask where this connection came from? Witches brew is a fantastic song btw!
The Lovelorn – I love all things “from beyond the grave,” occult, macabre, etc., so at the time of writing “Witches Brew,” I just wanted a song that embodied my love of all of that. When it came time to creating “WH,” I really wanted to expand on those themes and create a “concept” record revolving around it, while also paralleling it to my real-life thoughts and emotions.
Also with me being such a horror fanatic, I wanted our band to have an album that could potentially become someone’s “Halloween tradition,” as silly as that might sound!
Fun fact: The bridge for “Witches Brew” when I say “Wouldn’t you like to live deliciously?” is a variation of the line spoken by Black Phillip from the movie “The Witch” when he says: “”Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?” I told you I love horror! haha
If you could change one of your songs now that its out there in the world , what song would it be and what about it would you change?
The Lovelorn – Other than small EDITS to recordings or takes we threw down, there isn’t anything we would change about the songs themselves. The songs are like time capsules, and we really enjoy going back and listening to them to reflect on where we were at that time.
You guys are from Illinois, what bands from the surrounding areas inspired you the most?
The Lovelorn – There are too many bands doing too many great things around here for us to only pick a couple! We are inspired by all the bands making strides with their art!
If you could describe your sound to an alien , what would you tell them?
The Lovelorn – Whatever response gets us out of being probed.
If you could play a show anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
The Lovelorn – We’ve all thought it would be awesome to play at “Red Rocks.” It’s just such an iconic venue with an amazing musical history.
Would you prefer to be able to breathe under water or fly?
The Lovelorn – We’d prefer to fly. It’d make travelling to shows a whole lot easier.
If you could pinpoint one thing about The Lovelorn that makes you different to other bands, what is it?
The Lovelorn – Our work ethic. We are so critical of our own art because we care so much about it, so anything and everything we do is analyzed until we feel as though we’ve made the best possible song, which ultimately evolves into the best possible album we could make at that point in time.
Can we presume we might be getting album 3 in 2025 or will there be a slightly longer wait this time?
The Lovelorn – That is a safe presumption! We are actively working on a new album and are so excited to share what we’ve created. It may sound cliché, but we feel that it is our best work. And don’t worry, no witches on this album!
You can cast a spell (just like a witch) what does it do , and why?
The Lovelorn – We’d cast a “support The Lovelorn” spell which makes everyone go and listen to our music!
You have a brand new single out! Can you go into a little info about the song , maybe explain what its about and why you wrote it?
The Lovelorn – Yes! The new single is called “Foster Me,” and it’s actually a song that we had written for “Witch House,” but felt it didn’t quite fit the vibe we were going for on that project.
Since it’s a “WH” B-Side in a way, a lot of lyrical themes match what was happening on that project, but presented in a “poppier” way. We have always loved the song though, so we wanted to give it an official release as a way to close the chapter on the “Witch House” era as we move forward with our new project!
All rights to the songs used in this interview are retained by The Lovelorn. This website claims no rights over them. All photos were provided by The Lovelorn and were taken by themselves.
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