io echo
interview by swindle
Io Echo is a band made up of the things I feel the current music scene should be focusing on. Creepy tones, raw lyrics, melodies, and grooves to make your hips move to, along with some stupendous artistic vision, the occasional bat, and above all else, magnificent hair! Recently named Deli Magazine’s “L.A. Band of the Month” and having the honor of “Song of the Day” on FM 103.1, this five-part band is definitely beginning to take listeners by storm. Personally, I can’t seem to get “Addicted” out of my head, and in turn, tend to get out of my clothes when listening to it, but hey, that’s just me. I love music that gets me rowdy enough to strip to, who doesn’t like that, right?
The lovely lead lady vocalist, Io, chit chatted with me recently on cake, blood-sucking mammals, myths and music. Guitarist and producer Leopold was at hand, chiming in now and again for some kind of relief, though from what I can’t imagine, as interviewing Io is more than a joy. Read away!
SWINDLE: Any major influences in your work? Musically or otherwise. I don’t like to limit my interviewees. I prefer food references. Please throw some of those in there too.
IO: Ha. Well hmm let’s see. Red meat? Jk. Red wine maybe.
SWINDLE: Yes, I did see the large cup of wine Tomi served you. Or maybe that was for herself? She likes to steal wine.
IO: She is super sneaky with the wine indeed. I grew up listening to what my parents listened to. It was pretty varied though. A lot of classical music, Beatles, Enigma.
SWINDLE: I quite like her sneak attacks though. She told me about the story of a Tomi imposter phoning Leopold with their dying last breath. I am doubting if it’s an impostor or she’s just sneaky and imitating that kid from the grudge.
IO: Ha! Yes. That was really funny. Now, sometimes we call her up and just make that sound. When people in the room hear us, they’re like “wtf?”
SWINDLE: I can’t see why. It’s such a common noise. Just don’t go walking backwards down stairs or nothing. Anywho, you recently got to go on tour with She Wants Revenge. Any special adventures in travel to share? I saw a picture of pie from that tour. I reallllly like pie, though I am slightly partial to cupcakes.
IO: Yes! Well, it was a cake, you see. That tour was astonishingly fun. Justin and Adam 12 are phenomenally gifted and generous.
SWINDLE: Wait! Did She Wants Revenge bake you a cake?!
IO: Well, our last night on tour, I sang the last song of our last set, and all of She Wants Revenge and their crew came out on stage, and Justin Warfield and Adam 12 made this extremely nice speech to the crowd. It was so thoughtful. And the cake had writing on it, which was basically “SWR hearts Io Echo.”
SWINDLE: And then threw cake in your hair?!
IO: HA! Exactly. No, just kidding. They handed it to me and I ate it.
SWINDLE: You should have rubbed a bit on Adam 12’s shiny bald head.
IO: I should have smashed it in Leopold’s shiny face and then started a massive food fight.
SWINDLE: Haha. I can only imagine the ruckus you two must have caused on tour if food fights were really that common.
IO: Btw, how disturbing is Leo’s icon?
SWINDLE: I know. He has the same fascination as Tomi does with the Mac Photobooth mirror effect. She’s shown you her vagina/butthole pictures made out of her neck and lips, si? Disturbing to say the least. Not a part of her anatomy I ever wanted to know existed, bless her.
IO: Extremely disturbing. Leo’s looks like the Elephant Man.
SWINDLE: Hahaha, yes! At least it’s not his genitalia. Well, I’ve never seen the elephant man’s genitalia. I’m just assuming it doesn’t look like that. Well, praying actually.
IO: Why, you and the Elephant Man got a date?
SWINDLE: Hahaha. Well, no. Just prepping myself for any blind dates, ya know. Note to self: Do not agree to any blind dates put on by Leopold.
IO: HA! Don’t agree to anything put on by Leopold. Just kidding. He is funny though. His signature, like when he signs CDs and whatnot , is his initials and then an unhappy face.
SWINDLE: I can’t see Leopold as a very unhappy feller. Maybe it’s because I tend to bump into him at times that involve alcohol? For me. Not even for him. People maybe seem happier to me when I have some wine in me. But he does seem quite warm. Though he does owe me ten dollars for forgetting my name.
IO: If that were the case, he would owe into the millions. For someone so smart, he can’t remember a single name.
SWINDLE: Haha. Awkward transition, ready? We really love mythical creatures. GG has this borderline obsession with unicorns. They’re kinda our mascot. What mythical creature would you be and why? What about the rest of your band-mates, specifically Leopold and Michael, as I have met them and want to really figure out their creature counterparts.
IO: Magnificent question!
SWINDLE: Sanks!
IO: Leo would be the Easter bunny.
SWINDLE: Wow, Leopold, I had no idea. Pastels, eh?
IO: Just kidding. Um…I think Leo would be a sphinx because he’s a bit mysterious and doesn’t say much unless he needs to.
SWINDLE: Ah, very good analogy!
IO: Michael Edelstein would be a dragon because he SLAYS women. Girlies love him.
SWINDLE: Oh, that is an analogy that is highly applicable to so many of our lovely male friends, haha. I hope he’s the sparkly kind of dragon. Not those nasty smelly kind that hide in caves or anything. Or the valiant kind like the one in “Dragonheart” voiced by Sean Connery.
IO: If there were a dragon who wore glasses and seemed totally harmless and then ravaged you when you least expected it, that would be Edelstein. And I, well…I’ll leave that up to you. But I’ll tell you one thing: I’m more vampire than mermaid.
SWINDLE: Ooooo! Maybe a siren would be good for you. Or a mix between a siren and a harpie. No wait! Siren and BAT! You and your bats. You lead men to your smooth beautiful voice, then kill them with your fangs!
IO: I would gladly be a siren, thank you kindly for the suggestions. I love bats, they are so charming. I call Leo “bat”, or “tab”, which is bat backwards.
SWINDLE: I love bats as well. I have a few on my arm and may put one on my leg. There’s this cave in either Texas or Mexico, I can’t remember which, where there is a population of 4 million bats! The temperature in the cave is over 104 Farenheit because of their body heat alone, and you have to wear a special mask in there because the ammonia level is so high due to their…guano. Sorry, the bio nerd in me is coming out.
IO: How fascinating! Bio nerd away! Did you know there is a bat around the size of a jelly bean? Tiny bats! Microbats!
SWINDLE: Bats being brought up and such, though I may have an inkling as to your answer, what is your favorite classic villain/monster? (No offense meant to any of you bat lovers, they are in no way villains, and definitely not monsters, in my eyes. Any animal that lives purely off nutrition from blood, as some bat species do, are in no way monsters, but fascinating and wonderful and worthy of my envy!)
IO: Hannibal Lector, I think. He’s so smart. I love him. Leo’s favorite is Hillary Briss from “The League of Gentlemen.” Also, I love the witch from “Return to Oz.” Did you ever see that movie? She plays a mandolin. Haunting stuff.
SWINDLE: No, I did not. My favorite witch was the one from “The Witches.” Same actress as played Morticia Addams. I am dumb and cannot remember her name to save my life!
IO: Oh the Road Dahl book? That’s a good one. ANGELICA HOUSTON!
SWINDLE: YES! I knew it was Angel-something. But she isn’t my fave villain. My favorite is a tie between Nosferatu and Darth Vader. Ok, ok, what’s playing currently in your itunes/ipod? Wait, is it presumptuous to assume you are an apple baby? Maybe you’re into PCs, right? What’s that other PC mp3 player? Zune? Whatever. What’s on your “playlist,” to be P.C.? (har-har)
IO: Haha. The new Portishead, actually. I think it’s very strong, especially the first song, I have it on repeat. And when we played this benefit show, Adam 12 dj’d and set the mood with it before we went on. I really like the new album, it’s good.
SWINDLE: Oh, I’m so in love with them, I haven’t even heard it yet. Jealous. What’s your biggest current musical guilty pleasure? I’m personally super into Rhianna right now.
IO: “Toxic” by Britney Spears is a genious song, I don’t know how current that is though. Leo says he doesn’t like the term guilty pleasure because it implies you’re not allowed to like what you like. I think “Toxic” is one of the best pop songs of all time.
SWINDLE: How would you describe your music in three words?
IO: Uh, umm…Leo?
LEO: “Buy it now.” Or perhaps “Turn it up.”
SWINDLE: Haha, yes indeed! What’s the main attitude or emotions that seem to accompany your music?
IO: I’m drawn to things that are delightfully spooky, but also I think that there’s a degree of, um…definitely some of the songs came from a place of heartache and some of them came from just certain realizations I’ve had and working through to get to them. Paranoia. A vehement allergy to apathy.
SWINDLE: What does Io Echo have in store for us expectant purveyors of the L.A. music scene?
IO: We’re joining the Von Bondies on a couple of tour dates on the west coast, we’re really excited about that. And we are working on a collaboration effort with She Wants Revenge which is almost done. They invited us into the studio and we are really excited about it cause they’re both so awesome, and we’re just seeing what is happening and it’s going really well. When it’s done I will at least put it on the myspace page and release it through there. I really have to finish the lyrics, nothing seems good enough for me right now.
SWINDLE: Would you feign any interest in providing music for GG videos for us lovely to get naked to? Cause I can completely envision myself stripping down and doing a rowdy burlesque to “Addicted” and “Enter to Exit.” Maybe I already have in the privacy of my own beaudoir, hrm…
IO: That’s actually really funny, cause we’re had a few myspace messages of what people like to, um, get intimate to. And at the end of the day, we want our music to illicit a reaction in people, and that’s one of the best ones we could ask for. But yeah, if you guys wanted to use our stuffs to edited videos, we would be more than flattered.
SWINDLE: Alright, any shameless plugs you want to put out there?
IO: Well, I’d like to plug GodsGirls for being so awesome, and also thanks to Tomi for putting us in touch and such. She does all of our artwork for our album and videos, so people should definitely check out tomimonstre.com!
And by GodsGirls, man, go check out their music, and get your hips a-shakin, and maybe even your clothes a-droppin. Hott ladies, send video evidence of such to Annaliese, she’d appreciate it, I’m sure.
www.myspace.com/jgvellum
www.io-echo.com
