Larkin Poe are a roots Rock-n-Roll band infused with an awesome blues influence from Atlanta, Georgia. Fronted by sisters Rebecca Lovell on vocals and electric guitar and Megan Lovell on vocals and Lap Steel guitar, Larkin Poe are set to release their upcoming album Venom & Faith on November 9th.
After opening the Saturday Bourbon and Beyond festival main stage with a rocking and energetic set, Side stage Magazine sat down with Megan and Rebecca to talk about their musical influences, their upcoming album and their upcoming fall tour.
Side Stage Magazine: We’re not going to take up a whole lot of your time because we know it’s a busy day for you and you have other people to talk to today. So, one of the things that you said when you were up there (on stage) today was that your dad was playing “Black Betty” in your home. A lot.
Rebecca Lovell: Yes. Oh, yes.
So one of the things that struck me was that that was good parenting (laughs). A lot of us get our love of music from our parents. Was it always in your home and you just absorbed that and said “We gotta do that?”
RL: We were so fortunate to grow up in a home of music lovers. Both our mother and our father were constantly playing music in the house. Mom, whenever we would roll around in the minivan – we’d have our Baby Mozart and Baby Bach tapes playing, and then our dad would pump in Black Sabbath and Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin.
Megan Lovell: Oh, yeah.
RL: So for us it was just the vocabulary of growing up. I mean, learning Queen lyrics, like, trying to sing along with Freddie Mercury are some of my earliest memories. And I don’t think our parents would have ever anticipated us being professional musicians because they’re both actually doctors in the medical field. So to have a couple of throwbacks that are out entertaining on the road, I think was a big surprise to them.
ML: Our parents have been very supportive of us.
When you chose to cover Black Betty, was it a memory from growing up and you thought “We need to put our interpretation on this song?”
RL: Yes. I mean, for us, listening to Ram Jam’s version was for me, I thought, the quintessential version. And it wasn’t until about a year and a half ago that I realized firstly that they didn’t write the tune, that it was a Lead Belly tune. So in the last, I would say two years, we’ve done a lot of digging deep into the music of the south, specifically Delta Blues and sort of understanding that what we perceived as American Rock and Roll is all lifted from those deep roots in the South and so getting to hear Lead Belly’s version of that song, and realizing how important it is to keep a genre alive by adding new chapters to the story. You know what I mean? You know, like wanting to be women fronting a blues band in the 21st century and what does that sound like for a blues band. So to do our own version of Black Betty kinda summed up our mission statement as a band, you know?
I was reading the commentary you wrote about the songs from the next record. I don’t have my notes so I don’t have the song title, but you wrote about a song that originally was very stripped down and when you heard it you thought “We need to do a Larkin Poe take on this.”
RL: I’m thinking Skip James “Killing Floor Blues”
Yes!
RL: Oh, my God. You listen to this man sing this song and you have never had your heartstrings pulled so hard, you know? And so for us, we fell in love. I think that’s probably our shared top artist – the way he sings, Skip James. And so we recorded that song and built up a backing track with a very organic sound with, like, slamming doors and stomping on hardwood floors. And that for us is just, you know – you’re just in a playground of sound.
The thing with music is that it transcends the artist and can be given to others to interpret and spin it through someone else’s eyes and ears and audiences get it in a new way. When you both are digging deep into the roots of music, there is so much to choose from. How does one song pop for you versus something else?
RL: I love this question. I mean, for us, we’ve spent so many years of our music making careers as being side guys. I mean, we’ve toured with Elvis Costello with his band. We’ve toured with Kristina Bush of Sugarland with his band. We’re touring with Keith Urban as part of his band right now. So we’ve learned to be musical chameleons and I think what we’ve learned most recently is what it means to be Larkin Poe. And the way that we learned that was doing just what you’re speaking about- getting into the kernel of the song, taking it from someone else and figuring out around that core of the song how to rebuild it in your image. And I think for us, we’ve done this 3 or 4 times a week for this video cover series called Tip of the Hat, and we work-up covers of songs that speak to us and I think it really has informed us about who we are as Larkin Poe just by being able to dig into other artist’s songs.
ML: Over and over we’d have to take a song and interpret it as us and it’s been such great practice to figure out what that is. And coming out of that experience and making our record Peach, suddenly we had it down. Oh, we know what we sound like. And so Peach was just the 2 of us. We self-produced, we played all the instruments on it. And so I think it was the 1st record that people heard it and were, like, “This is you”, which has been so amazing for us.
The sort of culmination of your evolution as a band?
ML: Yes, of course.
The new record is Venom and Faith. Is this a continuation of that feeling that now we know who we are?
ML: It is. So, Peach was half original, half covers and we knew going into Venom and Faith that we wanted to take the same process, but include more of our own songs. And so Venom and Faith is mostly originals with 2 covers. But it’s definitely a continuation of Peach.
And that’s coming out in November and you’re still out supporting Peach. That’s kind of unique for a band these days to have a fresh record out and then another coming out.
RL: We’re insatiable. We can’t stop. Our poor management! Our poor management. Love ’em, love ’em to death. They’re very patient with us because we – we were actually homeschooled as kids so we were allowed to work at our own pace and we’ve carried that ethos into the rest of our lives.
And your pace is turbo drive?
RL: Yes, yes. We like to keep it fresh.
I have to tell you, one of the things that you cover that I really loved is “Wanted Woman” It’s got such an awesome vibe.
RL: Thank you, thank you. But we actually wrote that one.
You did? Oh my God, it has such a familiar feel to it.
RL: Yes! I wonder, who would you think wrote that song? Now, we’re interviewing you!
You’re asking me something I can’t quite put my finger on I’m embarrassed to say.
RL: No, because I can see that being a lot of different people because that was one – actually you always hear “because you’re a wanted man” and I thought it would be so funny to be a wanted woman and the double entendre is great. When we submitted that song for our record – so it’s basically 2 songs, Wanted Woman and then there’s a little fast punk to it at the end and that’s called “AC-DC”. So our manager thought it was an AC/DC song. He was, like, I’ve never heard this AC/DC song before. We were, like, laughing.
Yes! That’s where I got it wrong too. Thanks for explaining it to me. It could be their song.
RL: Thank you. I appreciate that. Because we wrote AC/DC, we were on tour and we wanted something uptempo. We were staying with some friends in the UK and they had a little back garden garage. So I went out there was, like, “We need to write something fast” so we wrote this little tune called AC/DC. It’s kinda about power, like plugging in, you know? And the next day we were like “Let’s work this up, guys. Let’s go!” And that was our new show topper.
The new album, Venom and Faith is coming out November 9th and you’ll be doing a headlining tour. We saw you’ll be playing Lexington.
RL: Are you gonna come? The Burl. Come see us and bring friends!
Oh, you bet. We’ll be there.
RL: We’re very excited and we’ll be playing new songs there as well. We feel very fortunate because between now and the end of the year – we always think we’re going to have time off and then we end up not having time off, so we’re super excited to do headline shows in the US, Europe and the UK for the new record which comes out in November. And then in the winter we’re going out with Bob Seger. Super excited!
Part 2 of the retirement tour
RL: I really hope he never retires because that man puts on a powerful show.
Thanks for giving us your time today. We’ll see you in Lexington.
RL: Thanks for helping get the word out and preaching Larkin Poe. We appreciate the support.
