Local H Singer Speaks Out
Though their recently album, Pack Up the Cats, has been a hit with the critics, Chicago's two-man band Local H still finds itself in an awkward place. Happy, but awkward. "As the record was getting ready for release, a lot of the people we were working with were worried about their jobs," singer Scott Lucas tells Wall of Sound. "That's totally understandable, but it's bad timing for us." Local H is signed to Island Records, one of many labels involved in the Universal/Polygram merger of recent weeks. Though their own future is secure, Lucas and his comrade Joe Daniels have seen many of their longtime associates laid off. "We got a call a while ago, telling us that we'd still be there, so we weren't too worried," says Lucas. "But everyone we've always worked with is gone. It's really tough."
On Feb. 11, he and Daniels will kick off their new tour, in Knoxville, Tenn., beginning the thrashing of the new record. "We're good at it. If we have to be a live band that flogs their record into the ground, that's cool. For me, that's what I like in a band. Our tours are where we sell records. That's how we turn people on to us, one at a time, on the road."
Of course, a long time on the road has to be a little different when there's just one other guy in your band, but Lucas says he and Daniels still get along. "It seems normal to us. We get more stuff, after all. There's more space, more beer. The concert riders go farther with just two of us." But, he adds, if there's a fight, it isn't spread out between additional people. "I'm sure we're not as violent as the Gallagher brothers, but if a fight comes along, it gets pretty bad. But me and Joe just end up having arguments about stupid stuff. I've talked to other bands, and they'll have arguments about the music, or what songs they want to put on the records. We never have those kinds of fights at all — ours are completely stupid. But as far as the music goes, we never argue. We're just on the same page with each other about that."
Wall of Sound