Liars Channel L.A.-Inspired Paranoia on 'Sisterworld'

It's hard to think about the world being a lonely place these days, what with the Internet and all. But for Los Angeles art-rock act Liars, they've been dealing with themes of isolation and dislocation for the majority of their nine-year career. On the trio's fifth studio album, 'Sisterworld,' that dislocation seems more heightened than ever before, with creepy marching songs like 'Here Come All the People,' rhythm explorations of 'Proud Evolution' and jarring guitars of 'Drop Dead' and 'The Overachievers,' which all work to create an overarching feeling of extreme paranoia.

"I think once we decided to move to L.A., we laid those ideas over the landscape and things really started to pop," guitarist/vocalist Angus Andrew tells Spinner. "Because this is an interesting city and I think a lot of the ideas that we've been dealing with seem to come to a real fruition."

Specifically, Andrew says the majority of the population has no affiliation with Hollywood, yet that association the world has can create a pretty confusing place to be. "Obviously people think it's about Hollywood and rich people and beauty and that sort of stuff," he says. "But that is such a small element to what L.A. is. It's interesting in how different than New York City it is. New York, to me, has a very distinct identity or personality. There's something to connect with, whereas in L.A. it's so radically decentralized and hard to put your finger on where you're supposed to be drawing that identity from."

"It's amazing to me how people come out to be an actor and really strive to do that," he adds. "But you have the largest pool of rejected people in any city in the world. Their dreams might not have come to their full fruition as they were expecting or promised."

'Sisterworld' is out March 9 on Mute Records and Liars will debut their new five-piece touring lineup later this month in Austin at SXSW, a place we're sure that Andrew will feel comfortable in because he left us with some food for thought: "I was living in Berlin before and it's amazing to me that I can say this, but I feel like L.A. is the scariest place that I've ever lived."