I recently spoke to Keith Latinen of Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) about their current tour, juggling running a label with being in a band and Pluto.
Hi there, Empire! Empire! I Was A Lonely Estate!
For the record, who is Empire! Empire! and how did the band come about?
Empire! Empire! is me and my wife, Cathy. I’m Keith.
It started out as my solo project and when our old band called Anna
Flyaway was on the verge of breaking up, I put all my eggs into this basket and
finished our first EP. We were working
on both my solo project and Anna Flyaway EP at the same time and when the
writing was on the wall that that was going to end, I shifted my entire focus
to Empire!. Naturally, when we decided
to start playing live shows, Cathy joined and we went through a long string of
members before we ended up with just the two of us again.
How would you describe Empire! Empire! in a few words?
Pretty boring ;)
What can we expect from your UK and Ireland tour?
This time around we brought our friends Warren
Franklin (Warren Franklin and the Found Fathers), Barry Mielke (Driving on City
Sidewalks), and Stewart Oakes (Joie De Vivre) to play our missing pieces. All three have filled in for us before, so we
have a pretty large list of songs we can choose from. We’ve been playing a good mix of them every
night, so people who have been kind enough to see us more than once on this
tour should hear a few different songs every show.
How does it feel to be playing overseas and knowing that you have fans from
so far away?
It feels amazing!
It’s sometimes hard to believe that we are able to do something as grand
as this for something as silly as being in a band. This is our fourth
international tour and every single one has been a lot of fun. We planned this with less ground to cover so
that we could see a lot of the sights the UK and Ireland have to offer, and so
far we’ve gotten to do a lot of that.
You've done quite a few splits this year, with bands such as Two Knights,
Driving On City Sidewalks and Mountains for Clouds. What is it about splits
that you enjoy? Is it that you have a preference for working with other bands,
or is it just more convenient?
I really enjoying sharing that bond with another
band and being on a split with them is like being their siblings in music. You are a part of their catalog and they are
a part of yours. I love that. It’s also amazing to give your fans a chance
to hear the bands you love on the same release, and for the same to happen with
the band(s) on the other side of the splits.
I wouldn’t say I have a preference with working with other bands [over
doing individual releases] or that it’s more convenient or anything, because
we’ve had many, many releases with just our name on it. I just fell in love with the idea of splits
when I was 15 and it never left me.
What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Well, there isn’t much time left in this year by
the time we get back, which is crazy.
This year went by so fast! We are
planning the rest of it by writing for our next full length. We have a lot of work to do on it left. We had hoped to be all done with it by the
end of this year, but time got the better of us so we just have to redouble our
efforts and get this thing going again.
How do you find balancing the work with running Count Your Lucky Stars and being in Empire!
Empire!? Is it hard to find time to write songs and and still have the ability
to focus on the label?
Actually, that is a big reason why the album
isn’t finished- though not the only reason.
It is incredibly hard to find time for both the band and the label, and
we both have other jobs too. The best
thing to do is to specifically set aside time to write every day or so, but
that time is usually stolen by something more pressing. We have about three songs on guitar written
so far, but that’s it.
What do you think of the current shape of music?
I’m not sure if I can answer that, per se. We live in a very small world,
musically. It’s a small scene and
everyone is probably like one or two degrees separated. As for where our scene fits into a global
scene and by-in-large the shape of music in general, I honestly don’t
know. I would say it’s probably a very
small footprint at best. I feel like our
scene is something where either you know it or you don’t- but if you do know
it, you seem to know everything about it.
Which makes it sound inclusive and not welcoming, but that is the exact
opposite. Everyone is very open and even
if you have never met anyone at a show you are attending, they make you feel at
home.
I’m not sure if that answers the question, as it
is a very large and encompassing one.
Maybe this is a better answer:
Music will always be a force in our lives. There will always be pop music with certain
trends that shift and change, but I doubt very much that you will find a lot of
cross-over from our scene to that. Pop
music is doing fine; it’s never not going to do well. It seems to be shifting back to the boy
band/pop star/diva era again. I’m
curious to see if it ever finds its ways back to bands in the way the 90s saw
Nirvana, Gin Blossoms, Third Eye Blind, etc.
What bands influence Empire! Empire!? Who do you personally listen to?
The bands that really speak to me are Death Cab
for Cutie, Mineral, Promise Ring, Appleseed Cast, Knapsack, Get Up Kids,
Colossal, Penfold, Pedro the Lion, Benton Falls, Pop Unknown- stuff of that
ilk. A good portion of my playlists will
still include that, I don’t expect that to change much.
What's your favourite album of all time? And why?
I guess if I had to choose one, it would be Photo
Album by Death Cab for Cutie right now. There
are a few albums that will always be my answer to this question, but this one
currently edges the others out. I love
the drum work on the album. This era of
Death Cab drumming is a huge influence.
But really, everything is beautiful- every melody, every lyric, every
bass line. I love that it wasn’t afraid
to be repetitive. It’s one of those
less-is-more albums, which is what I’m hoping we can make our new album.
If Empire! Empire! was a planet, what planet would it be?
Ummmm… Pluto?
I mean, it isn’t even a planet anymore, but it used to be classified as
one. We are a dwarf planet, relegated as
a second-class being. Haha, how’s that
for emo? No, no, just kidding- I don’t
know how to answer a question like that.
Final words?
Thanks for the interview! We are about to port into Ireland so I have
to wrap this up. Hope to see a lot of
people on the rest of this tour.
Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate) are currently the touring the UK and Ireland, with The Reptilian. Check their site for dates.
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