Lava Children – “The Green Word”

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Taylor Clark and Sherri West are The Lava Children, two musicians from Tulsa who create a wildly unique blend of anarcho-punk and psychedelia. They took time off of recording to discuss their musical influences, the beauty of their hometown, multi-instrumentalist Harry Partch and Colette.

EM: Both of you are from Oklahoma and have worked on music in Los Angeles. Tell us about your hometown and what life has been like on the west coast.

Tulsa has certainly improved over the last decade. There are more musical venues and decent restaurants now. There seems to be a more cohesive music scene as well. Los Angeles obviously has its extreme pros and cons…We lived in Altadena at the foot of the Angeles Crest mountains surrounded by weird trees and wild parrots. We also met many creative and friendly musicians while we were there. The downside was having to spend so much time in a stinking car!

EM: Which neighborhood do you most identify with?

Downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods are easily the most appealing parts of Tulsa. There are several beautiful Art Deco buildings here and plenty of trees around as well. It’s a very bike-friendly area and fairly untouched by the grotesque onslaught of chain stores and strip malls.

EM: When listening to your music, it’s hard to pinpoint exact genres or references, and that’s probably the point of the project. What did you grow up listening to and enjoying?

Taylor: All kinds of things of course… in high school, I was into the Minutemen, the Butthole Surfers, lots of punk and noisy psych type stuff. Since then my tastes have expanded in all directions. I’m sure it all finds its way into our music.

Sherri: Crass, early Pink Floyd, Funkadelic, Bauhaus, Bongwater, etc.

EM: Describe your songwriting and recording process. Is there a lot of preparation involved or do you jump right in and improvise?

We usually spend a lot of time refining each song and give each other lots of high-fives. The mini LP was all recorded in a garage in California. These days, we are working on new songs with our drummer Dylan Aycock.

EM: Tell us about the founding of Lava Children. How did you get together and collaborate on music?

The Lava Children came together in Los Angeles as a group of transplanted Oklahomans. We had all known each other since high school and found a lot of common ground musically. The first lineup, the one on most of the mini-LP, also included Dustin Bowlin and Michael Dixon. We also played live with Eric Potter and James O’Toole, two Los Angeles wizards.

EM: What are your current bedside reads or listens?

Taylor: I just finished Matter by Iain M. Banks… I liked it! Sublime Frequencies stuff has been in heavy rotation for me. It’s a label that puts out collections of popular and folk music from the far reaches of the world. Bizarre and inspiring! I’ve also been enjoying the Intelligence and the Killed By Death compilations.

Sherri: The last few weeks, I found myself drawn to books that are more pastoral and “girly” in nature… I Capture The Castle, Claudine At School, Emily Of New Moon, The Girl Of Limberlost, etc. I listen to copious amounts of B grade horror movie soundtracks from the sixties.

EM: What’s the greatest item you’ve found at your local garage/estate sale?

I found a record by Harry Partch for a dollar at a garage sale here in Tulsa. It is an amazing experimental record from 1953 on swirled green vinyl that I have since found to be very rare and collectable. It’s called Plectra & Percussion Dance and the music is all played on Partch’s bizarre and beautiful instruments. I have no idea how such a strange record ended up in that stack of generic easy listening albums…

EM: Which projects are you currently working on and how far away are you from any plans to tour?

We are hard at work on new songs and playing out around here currently, in preparation for our east coast tour with Black Moth Super Rainbow in late July. We have also been collaborating with our friend Most Trusted Replica.

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For more info on The Lava Children, visit http://www.myspace.com/thelavachildren

via Abe Ahn, 4 June 2009 9:50am | |