Louis XIV are no longer asecret!

Thu 18th May, 2006 in Features

“I’m so sick of people whinging about being “indie”. I’m not indie, I make music, and I want that music to be heard by as many people as possible…”

In Australia, you could be forgiven for not having heard of Louis XIV. Despite their debut album coming out over a year ago, they’ve gotten precious little airplay, save for their big single ‘Finding Out True Love Is Blind’. All that is about to change however, as the group get ready to wow Australian audiences for the first time. With the tour less than a month away, I spoke to Brian from the band about touring, recording, and why the concept of “staying indie” makes him mad.

In terms of touring, you’d be hard pressed to find a band who works hard than Louis XIV. “Lately, we did France, Germany, England, Scotland, basically all over the UK, plus all over Europe.” I go to ask a question, but he’s not done yet. “That was the last big tour, before that we did a US tour, then before that another big UK tour, five US tours, Canada, Mexico, basically all over the place.”

So where is he now? “I’m sitting in my living room, drinking wine.”

Louis XIV will be touring Australia for the first time in June, and it’s going to be their first time in Australia. “Yeah, in terms of the band, I have no idea if we’re big down there or not. I don’t know if we have any radio airplay, if there’s a buzz about us, or anything. We’re going in cold, we’re just going to play some music, have some fun, and do our thing. I’m expecting nothing, and I’ll be thankful for anything.”

Their album The Best Little Secrets Are Kept is the first international release for the group, after self releasing their self-title debut (through their own record label Pineapple Records). For the major release, they signed with Atlantic Records, but for Brian, there were no qualms about signing with a major label. “I was basically distributing albums from my bedroom. I was printing out the labels on my computer, and posting CDs out in the mail. That was fine for five or six albums a week, but suddenly we were sending out 300-400 albums a week. It was too much. So when we decided we wanted to put records in stores, suddenly all the major record labels wanted to know us. We weren’t worried about money, we just wanted someone who would let us keep control and be ourselves.”

“We signed with Atlantic for distribution, but I have no worries about being with a major label. What could possibly go wrong? We definitely wouldn’t be any worse off than when we were on our own. I’m so sick of people whinging about being “indie”. I’m not indie, I make music, and I want that music to be heard by as many people as possible. I don’t care if you’re black, white, young, old, cool, uncool, part of the scene or not. I’m not making music to harbour it in my house, and keep it to myself. I’m passionate about the music, and I want to play it to you, and hear your opinion, good or bad.”

If you’re going into stores to pick up Best Little Secrets…, you can probably recognise it by the naked woman (seen from the rear) on the cover. Brian says that’s one of the reasons they went with Atlantic Records. “It was a big question for us, absolutely. But we really wanted to do it. We called the Vice President of Atlantic, and we told him we wanted to put a naked woman on the cover of our album. He said there was no way a major record label was going to release an album with a naked woman on it, and middle America would never buy it.”

So how did they convince Atlantic to go ahead? “I told him that was crap. Roxy Music released an album, through Atlantic, that had a near naked-woman on it, and that was the last major label release to do so, so that was something we wanted to do. And he ended up agreeing.”

Best Little Secrets… also had a couple of tracks (‘Louis XIV’ and ‘God Killed The Queen’) which were on their earlier, self titled debit album, but Brian says they never thought about re-recording them for the new album. “No way, we didn’t want to change anything. You’re never as happy the second time you record something. We like to go in spontaneous, if it’s too rehearsed, it feels sterile. All the little things, that make it great, they happen spontaneously. We kept those two songs, because they were the first ever songs we wrote and recorded as a band, so it felt right to include them for everyone to hear on the international release.”

I ask Brian what it was like to record the album. “It was fine, there was no pressure on us or anything. We really wanted to make something that was different to everything else on the radio at the time. When we formed, that was really what we wanted, to try and give people something different. There was noone doing what we were doing in March 2005. All the record companies were basically finding a hit, and then other bands were copying that hit for a year or so, and everything started to sound like replicas.

“To be honest with you, we didn’t actually think anyone was going to get what we were doing. We didn’t think anyone would dig it at all. I mean, there’s noone else on the radio with lines like, “We don’t have to go to the pool if you want me to make you wet.” (from ‘Pledge of Allegiance’). So now that we’re selling records, we’re really stoked.

And the future for Louis XIV? “We’re recording our new album, it’s pretty much finished now. We could have it out by June, but its going to depend on the atmosphere, we may have to hold it off till towards the end of the year.” And can we expect to hear some of the new tracks on the Australian tour? “Yeah, absolutely, there’s a couple of new songs in our set list for down there.”

“After that, I guess it will be tour tour tour, record record record. With our record label (Pineapple Records), we’re actually thinking about throwing open our doors, and signing some other bands. We’ll be looking for stuff that reminds us of us. Not so much musically, but in terms of creativity, bands that being original and different. I mean, that’s why we started our own label in the first place, because noone wanted to go near us. The business is just so jaded these days, if you don’t have a hit, you don’t have a chance. Well, we did okay, so now we’re looking for other bands, so we can give them that chance too.”

Louis XIV’s Best Little Secrets are Kept is in store now.

Tour dates:
June 15 – The Zoo, Brisbane
June 16 – Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne
June 17 – Rebel Rebel, Home, Sydney