Look Mexico Interview: SXSW 2010

Posted on Mar 14th 2010 8:25PM by Donna Rodgers
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Spinner caught up with Look Mexico lead singer Matt Agrella, as the group makes its way back to home base Austin in time for SXSW. The recent release of the band's sophomore album 'To Bed To Battle' is keeping them in the refitted, green fuel-powered, full-of-good-vibes van they often call home. "We've got everything in here," says Agrella. "There's even a fax/scanner/printer for me to send professional documents while we're on the road. We have a coffee maker, and we used to keep a rice cooker. We love to tour, and we love SXSW. This is our third!"

How did you start your group?

Six years ago, our original guitarist, Dave (who's no longer with the band), introduced me to Dave Pinkham at a Sea and Cake show. Ironically, Dave Pinkham is with the group now. Josh and Michael were introduced through another friend. We all kind of met while we were in college at Florida State University. We were definitely more fancy-free at the beginning.

Where do you like to play?

We're Florida boys, so we love to play in Florida, all over the state ... Orlando and Tampa, especially. We live in Austin now, and we love to play there ... (and) in L.A., San Francisco, Portland and New York. We've played in houses, basements, churches, clubs, venues large and small ... our bass player Tyson introduced us to a small bar called The Inbetween, the dive of all dives, a tiny bar that is a long bar and a couple of chairs. It's between two other, larger bars. We also played at a very upscale Irish pub and restaurant recently, where we followed an authentic Irish band. We wondered how it would turn out. It was great!

I should mention how we get around to our gigs. We load all of our stuff into our van. It's a kind of airport shuttle ... that I got on Craigslist. It belonged to a guy who'd received it as a donation. He runs some schools in Haiti. Before that, it was a bus used in Katrina relief. We had to rebuild it, replace the floors -- we have laminated floors in here now -- and we had the veggie kit put in so we can run on green fuel, but we figured the karma was good ... It's our home away from home.
How would you describe your sound?

I like to think our sound is always developing, and I think we've developed a texturized and layered lyrical sound. I made that up in the moment! We are a guitar rock band with hints of classic rock and tendencies of capturing 1960s and 1970s guitar tones.

What are your musical influences?

We listen to everything: rock and roll, punk rock ... and we strive to have our music, vocals and instrumentals all saying the same thing. Some of the groups I like to listen to are from the time we were kind of developing our group, like Wilco, Radiohead, Jimmy Eat World, Death Cab for Cutie and My Morning Jacket. My Morning Jacket is probably our favorite group right now. We love their music.

How did you choose your name?

Nothing too exciting. It's word play. None of us are from Mexico.

What's in your festival survival kit?

This is our third time at SXSW, and we are bringing no preconceived notions. We know there are people who talk about performing magical shows that put them into the top leagues right away, but we believe progress is more gradual. That's how we see things. We're open to all the possibilities.

What are your musical guilty pleasures?

Hip-hop! We love to listen to Jay-Z.

Beatles or Rolling Stones?

Beatles.

Did you have a first celebrity crush?

Reese Witherspoon, because she's got everything.

What's next for Look Mexico?

After SXSW this year ... we are headed to the West Coast, then a Canada tour. We'll get to Mexico, I'm sure!

Donna Rodgers is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.