Interview

Even though I grew up around Philadelphia, this was my first trip to the North Star Bar, a seedy but charismatic little place with a rug on the back wall that's probably older than my parents. When I arrived I spotted Daniel Murillo, the lead singer of Lorene Drive, who stood out in the crowd wearing a pair of unabashedly white jeans. We headed over to his freshly cleaned van to start my first interview ever.

EP: So you are the lead singer of Lorene Drive..

Daniel: Yup.

EP: Alright, I guess I just want to begin by asking how the band got started. I think I read somewhere that you guys met up in high school together?

Daniel: Yeah, basically we were all in bands when we were younger, just playing punk music and as time went on we were the guys who were still doing it. Then we stole Chris our drummer, from another band, because he was so good at drums- and you need a solid drummer to sound good. So once we got him we changed the name to Lorene Drive because we were chilling on Justin's street...

EP: Yeah, I read about that somewhere actually...

Daniel: I thought of it and I was like what do you guys think about "Lorene Drive," this sounds kind of weird...but this was before there were a million "drive" bands...this was about four years ago now, so that's how we got the name.

EP: So why did you decide to sign to Lobster Records, were you approached by any other labels?

Daniel: They seemed like the label that was the most stoked about the project. They were more into it than other labels, other labels were kind of like, "Yeah you guys sound good," but it just didn't seem like they were going to get us in with the producer we wanted to go with. You know, like they just wanted to put out some shitty little EP or something...so it seemed like Lobster cared about the project, so we went with them.

EP: So, how's this tour been going?

Daniel: This tour with Emanuel, The Audition, and My American Heart has been awesome. All the guys in every one of the bands are like our best friends and we've toured with all of these bands before. So coming on this tour already was like a bunch of brothers meeting up again, and we have a blast.

EP: Yeah 'cause I was going to ask who set it up, or how you all knew each other..

Daniel: Yeah we're just all bands that have had bad luck in the past, with crashing and whatever...like My American Heart, they crashed a long time ago when we were first supposed to go on tour with them. So the day we were heading out towards where we were going to start the tour, we find out that they crashed- so that was shitty for them and us because our tour was cancelled. And then Emanuel crashed later too, so that's why this tour is called "The Curses Tour."

EP: Hah I get it now...so you've been touring a long time now..

Daniel: Yeah we've been touring about two and a half, three years now- mostly it started out with us on our own, booking it ourselves. But since the record's come out we have a booking agent- Eva at Fata booking, that's actually out of here in Philly.

EP: Anything crazy happen during this tour? Any crazy groupies?

Daniel: Ahh yeah the other night we played at The Norva, a really nice venue and there was a jacuzzi in the back and some drunk girls...everybody was trying to get them to take their clothes off and they were just showing their boobs and stuff but it was like whatever, I have a girlfriend so I was just like, "Oh man..".

EP: How do you like to spend your free time when you're on tour?

Daniel: I like to spend my free time watching HBO in a hotel room. Seriously, I'm getting older, I'm 23, and most of these bands that we're on tour with- like My American Heart is nineteen and shit, so is The Audition and they all like to party. And that’s cool, I did too when I was around that age, not that I'm like way older but I don't know, I'm getting more like I really just want to chill and relax lately, so that's just what I've found myself enjoying.

EP: Has it been harder to go away and leave your friends and family on tour since you're older now?

Daniel: Nah, I'm so used to it now that it's just part of my life. I have a girl at home I've been with for- it will be 3 years in July, and yeah it sucks, it's hard on both of us but she has her ambitions and goals, and so do I. So we're both just doing our thing and when I'm at home I live with her and we're always on the phone eight hours out of the day so it's all good. My family really believes in what I'm doing..

EP: Yeah I was also going to ask if your parents were supportive of you having music as your career.

Daniel: Yeah, my dad is who got me into music, and my mom is the one that let me take out the acoustic guitar from the attic and start learning how to play.

EP: Alright, I guess enough about touring...okay so tell me about making your album "Romantic Wealth," who produced it?

Daniel: His name is James Paul Wisner and he's an awesome producer. He's worked with so many amazing people, like Gatsbys American Dream- actually Gatsbys was the band that turned us on to him. We were playing some shows with them and we asked them "how did you hook up with James?" and they told us, "Dude, we just sent in some demos and he liked our shit," so that’s how they did it, and then so that’s how we did it too. We sent him some demos and he got back to us saying, "Hey do you guys want to do this?" And well actually at the time we weren't signed so we were like, "As soon as we get a record deal we would love to work with you." He's done Underoath, Dashboard, and Further Seems Forever, so he has a lot of experience. It's definitely cool to have him helping you make your album because if you have any questions you can just ask, "Hey James, what do you think about this?" He's just so knowledgeable.

EP: So you're going on the Warped Tour, right?

Daniel: Yeah.

EP: Are you excited about it, or are you one of those bands who hate the Warped Tour because it can be so difficult?

Daniel: It's half and half, you know, a catch twenty-two definitely. You're making so many fans and that’s always awesome, but yeah it's very hard work. You have to get there really early and you can't leave until late. You're driving all night and it's just constant, like a big blur. When it’s all over you're just like, "Ughh, just one big long summer day."

EP: I saw that you're actually canceling some dates with As Cities Burn because of Warped Tour?

Daniel: Yeah, wow you're on your shit, that’s cool. Yeah, our management thought that would be better for us, to do more of Warped Tour because that's more of our crowd. And you know I felt bad because As Cities Burn are like our boys, we used to tour with them back before both of our records came out. But we're still stoked that we're going to do some dates with them, those guys are amazing.

EP: I guess there's just a couple more questions, how do you feel your sound has evolved and changed since recording your EP, "Savan in Super Pursuit Mode"?

Daniel- oh that stuff, Savan stuff- I wish that shit wasn't even out actually. I don't even know why it's out. I'll go to record stores and our new full length isn't even there but our EP is and I'm like, "Goddamnit." But whatever, we recorded that ourselves in our garage, it's just really low budget shit. And you know, the new album is a million times better, more of what we're playing now. So yeah, if you see Lorene Drive in the store, buy the beige album, not the blue one.

EP: What are some of your biggest musical influences?

Daniel: So many...when we're driving we all listen to a lot of classic rock. I love Queen, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles, those are my favorite bands. But of more modern music, we love Refused, Blindside and Juliana Theory...and the list goes on and on. There are just so many awesome bands, it's hard to say.

EP: Have you guys recorded a new album yet, or are you going back into the studio soon?

Daniel: We are going into the studio in August to do a couple of songs, just to start shopping, because we're going to try to put the next record out on more of a bigger label.

EP: Like a major label?

Daniel: Yeah well maybe...we don't know if we're going to do an indie label with an upstream to a major, or maybe just go straight to major. But we'd kind of rather not do that yet because we still want go grow and do more touring and make more fans out there. Just to have more people know about us instead of going right up there to a major like that...but we'll see what happens.

EP: Anything else that you would like to say to your fans?

Daniel: Thank you for supporting us and believing in us, and we love you guys.