Happy now? Luke Spurr Allen, lead singer/songwriter and founder of the Happy Talk Band
(photo: Durado Brooks)
Talking the (happy) talk: Luke Spurr Allen
Interview by Paul Oswell
Luke, thanks for (happy) talking to us. Low Shoulder is your great new album - what inspired a new release?
Hey! Thanks! So, yeah, I had a tough couple years with the pretty chaotic dissolution of a 15 year marriage, the suicide of one of my best friends, crusading defence attorney Billy Sothern, and the death of my father. All that along with the chaos of a global pandemic and the pitfalls of being a blue dot in a red state. I've been working as a private investigator for the last six years. Mostly insurance fraud cases. Running surveillance in rural areas can get pretty dull. Songs just came to me. I even kept a ukulele in the car and strummed through new material; making me the least cool P.I. in the history of the industry.
There's a fun cameo from Ani diFranco, who provides backing vocals on the track Bucket of Water - how did that come about? Are y'all friends?
Yes! Ani has been living in New Orleans for a number of years. Our boys are around the same age and I'd see her on the playground back in the day and we'd talk. I've known her husband Mike Napolitano since the nineties. We recorded the new record in their beautiful home studio, The Nappy Dugout, way uptown just past the parish line. We needed a background vocal on 'Bucket of Water' and she was into it. She's great, down to earth and funny as hell.
I think it’s the first full HTB release since 2010’s Starve A Fever? I know you released a solo album (2017's Pothole Heart) in that time, but did the band still theoretically exist? Were you all still playing live at least semi-regularly? Was life just getting in the way of recordings?
Life always gets in the way of recording. I always have plenty of material, but justifying the money and time it takes to go into the studio is hard when you're raising a kid. Pothole Heart was going to be a solo project, but ended up involving the whole band. I should have just released it as a Happy Talk record. We were still playing out on the regular. After that album, Casey McAllister (keys) and Mike Andrepont (drums) moved and Bailey Smith (guitar) left the band. We found a new drummer (Jeff Massey) and started playing out as a four piece with me on vocals and rhythm guitar, Alex McMurray (lead guitar) Steve Calandra (bass) and Jeff on drums.
You describe yourself (or you quote someone describing you) as “a dark and wry atlas for the coming times: easy listening for the dystopian funhouse on the horizon” - one of my own favorite musical tropes is happy music with dark lyrics, is that always something you were drawn to as a songwriter?
Yeah, I think so. At least the dark lyrics. Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave were huge influences. My solo music was musically moody too. When I put a full band together, some of those minor keys went major, and when you're playing a New Orleans bar at midnight on a Tuesday, you've got to get those off-duty line cooks and strippers dancing, right?
I was the eldest sibling and I always envied the kids at school with older brothers or sisters - they were listening The Ramones and Lou Reed while I was listening to bad pop, like they had this secret fast track to good taste. What were your early/formative musical memories?
So, I'm the youngest, by seven years, of four kids. I'm the whoops at the end, and suspiciously enough, the only ginger. My parents listened to classical and easy listening jazz, but my siblings were listening to Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel. Nothing quite as edgy as VU or the Ramones, but still pretty good stuff. One of my earliest memories was when my parents were out of town and my sisters had a party. I was curled up by the stereo speaker, way past my bedtime. Simon and Garfunkel's The Boxer was cranked up loud and I can still feel and hear "Lie le lie (boom) lie le lie lie lie lie le lie..." And even though I was like maybe four or five years old I could really sense the gravity of a lyric like "I am leaving, I am leaving, but the fighter still remains." My best friend Peter had an older sister who got us into some metal. So, I was listening to Maiden, Dio, Ozzy too. We were both acolytes in church, so this felt pretty deviant. We hid those cassettes from our parents.
How did you find the other members of Happy Talk Band? Has the line-up changed over the years? I know the New Orleans band scene can be fluid, people popping up in other people’s projects, cameos and collaborations...
In 2001, I played a solo gig at Dragon's Den. It was a two for one saki night and someone gave me a couple of valiums, and I was feeling no pain. The mic wasn't grounded right and I kept bumping into it and getting shocked and saying "fuck" everytime it happened, but continuing the song. Two of my friends, Andy Harris and Bailey Smith were at the show and told me we were starting a band, and I said ok. After a brief stint with a Lafayette bass player, Alan LaFleur, we met Michael Lenore and he joined the band on upright. At some point, we saw Daniel Johnson cover a song from South Pacific called 'Happy Talk' and that's where we got our name. And the rest is very, very minor history.
I was re-listening to 2004’s Total Death Benefit recently, and the d.n.a. of Happy Talk Band seems really strong from the beginning - like, there’s an evolution that you can hear up to Low Shoulder but the bones and character of the band are always very apparent. Would you say that’s true?
Yes, I'd say that's true. It's strange hearing my voice get deeper and raspier over the years and hear the lyrics lose some angst and gain some acceptance. But yeah, it's all still there. I'm the only original member left and I've written all the songs, so these albums are pretty much just dogeared journals of the last quarter century. And I've always played with people who are close to me, who share the same experiences, drink at the same bars, who stumble home on the same streets, who witness the same ridiculous New Orleans disasters, and carry the same stories.
‘Americana’ is a word that's dropped a lot when people write about you, but even more specifically, your catalog is almost Louisiana-na (clumsy but you get the point). You seem to be generally inspired by documentation of local characters and personal events, perhaps akin to someone like The Kinks' Ray Davies? I know you also like street photography - has this always been a thing for you, inspiration from your environment and people that you observe?
Absolutely. And yes, Kinks are a big influence. Ray was dating my boss's friend and was a regular at Circle Bar when I was working there. Brilliant, funny guy. I carried my beat up 1978 minolta with me from bar to bar, mostly on Decatur St. This is before everyone had a camera in their pocket. I'd take photos and scribble lyrics on napkins and drink whiskey and do enough cocaine to kill God and talk about VERY IMPORTANT THINGS, and occasionally succeed at falling in love, and ride my bike home at sunrise. That's a good point, though. The songs that came out of those days were snapshots. Little, messy vignettes. Louisiana-nah-nah-nah. And working behind the bar all those years gave me access to endless, unfiltered stories whether I wanted to hear them or not, like a secular confessional booth.
Your son Arlo is also a very talented musician and keyboard player - am I right that he’s becoming more involved with the band? That must be very satisfying, sharing a passion like that - I can’t think of that many inter-generational acts.
Yeah, Arlo's great. He started showing interest in piano when he was four. I taught him what I know, which isn't much. We started getting him teachers and it turns out he has perfect pitch. He plays on four or five songs on the new record. He's twelve now, and learning to produce his own stuff. I can see the two of us doing a duo project down the line.
OK, if people want to hear more and support Happy Talk Band, tell us where we can see y’all and where we can buy your new album. Thanks so much for talking to us, Luke, here's wishing you all all the best with everything!
Sadly, no touring is on the horizon in the near future. Our record release party is on Nov 16 at BJs Bywater. You can find us at my website lukespurrallen.com and the new record is up on Apple Music, Spotify, Youtube, and Bandcamp. Thanks!
