Image via Britt Haefeli<\/p>\n
Q+A with Britt Haefeli on the band\u2019s new single, playing shows in Nashville, creating custom merch, and the Pittsburgh folk scene<\/p>\n
It all comes natural for the folk band The Laurel Lowlifes<\/a>. The five piece band have been making a name for themselves through their foot stomping high energy shows, from the WYEP Americana Fest to the Three River Arts Fest to shows in Nashville. They have an honest approach to playing live, showing excellence in their craft, and having the best time.<\/p>\n Over a phone interview, I talked with singer songwriter Britt Haefeli about the band\u2019s new single, playing in Nashville, creating custom merch, and the Pittsburgh folk scene.<\/p>\n Band members: Britt Haefeli (Vocals), David Powell (Guitar), Jack Hill (Mandolin), Dan Miller (Upright Bass), and Brenden Beaver (Drums).<\/p>\n Shows in Pittsburgh<\/p>\n Josh: You guys have done a lot in just a couple of years since the band formed.<\/p>\n Britt: Yeah, it\u2019s wild and really awesome.<\/p>\n Josh: I saw you play at the WYEP Americana Fest last fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n B: Yeah, that was a really cool gig. I went to Montour High School, so it was really great to go back to a town that I lived in for a little bit in high school. We actually played our very first Laurel Lowlifes gig opening for Palmyra. It was a really neat full circle experience.<\/p>\n J: Any shows that stick out that you\u2019ve really enjoyed?<\/p>\n B: One of my personal favorite gigs that we\u2019ve ever done was a dollar dog night at Bottlerocket last summer. It was a Monday night. There were easily over 100 people in that building! It was just a great high energy space where people were just having fun with us.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nashville DIY scene<\/p>\n J: How was playing in Nashville?<\/p>\n B: Yeah, so last summer, we got an invite from our band\u2019s management company, to an Americana fest at a venue called Joelton Hardware. It\u2019s a really neat spot. They have an outdoor stage. We actually got to do a couple of really neat DIY shows. I think that the hidden gem of Nashville is their DIY scene. We did a house show with my buddy Bronwen Fair. She\u2019s an amazing musician in Nashville. We played our final song, \u201cAin\u2019t No Grave,\u201d and one of the neighbors set off fireworks. That was a really neat experience.<\/p>\n Original songs<\/p>\n J: How did the new single, \u201cAquarius Problems,\u201d come about?<\/p>\n B: So that song is written by our mandolin player Jack Hill. What\u2019s really cool about The Laurel Lowlifes is all of us are singer-songwriters, so we all bring in different songs and pitch them to the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n J: It feels like it\u2019s recorded live.<\/p>\n B: Yeah, Ben, our producer, was working with Red Caiman Studios, and I remember when we went in for this tracking. We told him that we really wanted to try to do live backtracking as much as possible, because there\u2019s just a different energy, especially being in more of the folk Americana scene.<\/p>\n J: I love the song, \u201cAugust.\u201d<\/p>\n B: I think I wrote that one in like maybe 10 minutes or so. Just one of those where you sat down and started the first line of lyrics and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh yeah, ok, I\u2019ve got the direction of where this song is gonna go.\u2019 It was kind of inspired by letting loose and letting yourself have fun.<\/p>\n J: Any songs that you like to play live?<\/p>\n B: I really like that we play \u201cNo Wind Resistance.\u201d That\u2019s a song that David wrote. It\u2019s raunchy and it\u2019s fun. I get to do some really fun harmonies. One of my all time favorites that we do is our cover of \u201cAin\u2019t No Grave.\u201d It\u2019s such a classic folk song and Jack\u2019s vocals are bone chilling. Sometimes our bassist Dan will bust out the bow on that one.\u00a0<\/p>\n J: It looks like everyone\u2019s having the best time.<\/p>\n B: Thank you. Yeah, Dan, our bassist, says it all the time. I\u2019m in this to connect with why I love music. That has been the spearhead behind the Lowlife project. We take ourselves seriously and we are all serious musicians, but at the end of the day this project is for us to be able to have an outlet for this style of creativity and have a way to have personal growth in music that isn\u2019t reliant on, you know, viewers and streamers and and all of these things that I think can really weigh down the music industry. We\u2019re gonna let this be what it is at all stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n J: The business side is tough.\u00a0<\/p>\n B: I\u2019m the business person who\u2019s constantly like, \u2018OK, well, you know, it\u2019d be cool if, if we did X, Y, and Z, to you know, maybe get some money or try this.\u2019 I think it\u2019s a good balance with everyone involved. I think we all can kind of tend to share hats.\u00a0<\/p>\n J: I know that it takes a lot with booking shows and promo and doing all the behind the scenes work.<\/p>\n B: Yeah, and I do love our merch. I hand print and block all of our merch. So, I carve every design by hand. Every single one gets hand stamped and hand pressed. I\u2019ll fight AI to the day I die. I love the idea of every piece of merch that someone gets from us.\u00a0<\/p>\n J: How do you find the time?<\/p>\n B: Um, ADHD hyperfixation goes a long way (laughs). A lot of very long nights. Especially before we hit a tour. I\u2019ll just go ham for like five days straight leading up to that gig where I\u2019m pressing 100 shirts and just getting them done. And then we show up to the gig and the guys are like, \u2018How are you doing?\u2019 and I\u2019m like, \u2018I\u2019m alive.\u2019<\/p>\n Pittsburgh folk scene<\/p>\n J: Pittsburgh fans have really gravitated towards your folk sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n B: Oh yeah, for sure, folk has such a special community here, and I think the Pittsburgh music scene in general, has just been such a welcoming space to all of us. The folk scene here is really something special.<\/p>\n You can check out The Laurel Lowlifes, especially their latest song \u201cAquarius Problems,\u201d on streaming platforms<\/a>! For the latest on the band, follow them on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Check out last month\u2019s band of the month here!<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis content was provided by a local, independent contributor to Made in PGH, a lifestyle blog.<\/p>\n \t\tTags: \t\t\t\t Josh has been writing for Made in PGH since 2018, where he writes about upcoming events. He\u2019s a Point Park University graduate and teaches high school English. In his free time you\u2019ll find him playing guitar and writing new songs.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tImage via Britt Haefeli<\/p>\n
Image via Britt Haefeli<\/p>\n
Image via Britt Haefeli<\/p>\n
Image via Britt Haefeli<\/p>\n
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