Interview: My Lady Four

Sean recently spoke to Brian Schwarz of Minneapolis five-piece, My Lady Four.

Schwarz spoke about the bands beginnings, their recent album, 'Everyone Pays The Gatekeeper' and its follow up and more.

ATP: Who are you and what do you do in My Lady Four?
Brian: My name is Brian, and I sing, play piano, and guitar.

ATP: Whats the story of how My Lady Four got together?
B: Well, I started the band a little less than a year ago when I posted an add on craigslist, looking for a new drummer. Carp was one of the first to respond, mentioning at the bottom of his e-mail, "I promise I won't kill you". Since then we have found every member to date on Craigslist, and we've tried out over 300 people.

ATP: What bands have influenced the sound of My Lady Four?
B: A whole list of bands have influenced us. A few of the major ones are The Beatles, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Brand New, and Jacks Mannequin.

ATP: How would describe you're sound to people who have not heard of your band before?
B: Hah. This is always a tough question to answer. We've been told we sound like Kings of Leon meets Panic! At The Disco, but we range from sounds as piano driven and soft as The Fray, to as hardcore as Emery.

ATP: I understand your new album, 'Everyone Pays The Gatekeeper' is the first part of a two part series. Would you like to expand on that?
B: Absolutely! :) We wrote an album that works on multiple levels, and is not just a collection of 8 songs. There is a story that accompanies the album, posted on our myspace site, and included in the booklet of our album, that people can read to get a better understanding of what the album is about, but what makes it so unique is that the story/album/lyrics are as much about My Lady Four the band, and about me, as they are about the main character, making it very accessible.

ATP: Can you tell us any details of the 2nd part?
B: Haha, I'll try and keep that mostly quiet for now. I can tell you the new album is titled "In This Life Or The Next", and it will express a different side of us than this album. Everyone Pays The Gatekeeper tends to be dark and ominous, while In This Life Or The Next has happier overtones while still tending to feel tense and slightly unsettling.

ATP: How was it working with producer Jordan Schmidt?
B: Working with Jordan was awesome! He's a really down to earth guy, and he takes his job very seriously. We actually thought we would butt heads a lot while in the studio, but it ended up being the exact opposite. We worked together very well.

ATP: Jake Scherer (of New Medicine) makes a guest appearence on the record. How did that collaboration happen?
B: New Medicine, formerly A Verse Unsung, was actually the first band we ever played a show with in My Lady Four, and I've had a ton of respect for Jake ever since. We've kept tabs on one another and when I was in the studio I offered it up to Jake, and he chose to participate and support us.

ATP: You're currently on the Have Your Cake and Eat it Tour. How are the shows going?
B: All the shows so far have been excellent, though I'm really excited for our upcoming east coast dates! We haven't gotten too far from the midwest for the first month, and getting out to the east coast is going to be a blast.

ATP: What can people expect from these shows?
B: Our shows are very high-energy. We are performers, first and foremost, and we believe in playing shows that people will talk about for a long time after. So we try to make every show we play, no matter how many people show up, the best, most exciting, and most entertaining show we've ever done!

ATP: Other than the new album, what does My Lady Four have planned for the future?
B: At this point we will be touring full time from here on out, so we plan to move through a lot of college campuses and high schools in the days to come! Speaking of which, if anyone wants us to come out to their high school or college, send us an e-mail at MyLadyFour@yahoo.com and we'll try to make it happen!

ATP: Would you like to say anything else?
B: Other than that we do a weekly chat on Tuesdays at 9pm cst through Stickam. So if anyone is ever wondering what we're up to, tune in and find out! :) And thank you Sean for the interview!

'Everyone Pays The Gatekeeper' is available now.

My Lady Four on MySpace

My Lady Four track, '...Sometimes the Beat Eats You' is just one of 51 songs included on our Autumn/Winter 2009 Compilation, which can be downloaded here.

Sean Reid