Originally gaining popularity for their distinctive Southern Californian surf, garage and psychedelic rock sounds, Los Angeles band Allah-Las refuses to let any possible expectations hold them back. With a career spanning over twelve years and five albums, Allah-Las is no stranger to natural evolutions. Their fifth and latest album, Zuma 85, shows the quartet, consisting of Miles Michaud on vocals/guitar, Pedrum Siadatian on lead guitar/vocals, Matthew Correia on percussion/vocals and Spencer Dunham on bass/vocals, approaching a new era, one in which they place creative liberation above anything else. Drawing from a multitude of different musical inspirations and starting points, Zuma 85 is refreshing and expansive. With no shortage of shimmering and shredding guitars, lyrics full of melodic eloquence, drifting across oftentimes hazy instrumentals, Zuma 85 promptly delivers listeners to a feeling they’ll want to keep coming back to.
mxdwn had the pleasure of speaking to Miles Michaud shortly after the New Year, seemingly catching not only the reflective and introspective nature of the time, but an excitement for the unknown future.
mxdwn: Hi, good morning! How are you doing today?
Miles Michaud: Good morning, I’m good, how are you?
mxdwn: I’m doing good, thanks. I’ll just go ahead and jump right into it. My name is Riley and I am a music feature writer here at mxdwn. You all, Allah-Las, just released a new album Zuma 85 in October of last year. It’s your first album in four years. You’ve stated multiple times how this is a new era for you all, which is evident in just how sonically expansive this album is. We see you departing from your roots in garage, surf and psychedelic rock and drawing more inspiration from experimental and electronic sounds, along with some ’70s Lou Reed inspirations. What led you all to make this decision as a band to turn the page, and how does it feel to enter this new era of Allah-Las?
MM: I think that it was kind of a more natural progression than maybe has been let on. I think that we made the first three records like two years apart, and then the fourth was like two and a half almost three years apart. But I think that, with the amount of time that we got to step back from all of that with the pandemic. It just kinda gave us some space individually and collectively, like from the cycle of touring, making a record, touring, making a record. When we came back together all this time had passed and everything felt fresh again, and we didn’t feel encumbered by the expectations of an audience, or what we felt we needed to provide based on our history. So we just had new ideas, we’re into new and different things. Basically we said, “Whatever, like fuck it! Let’s just do what we like, let’s just be creative. Let’s not skip any ideas, anything that comes to mind we’re going to record it, we’re going to put it down and see what sticks.” And we did. We did that, and we had a great experience in the studio. It kind of pulled it out of us in a lot of ways, that space. Yeah, it was just a new kind of approach to making a record that we hadn’t had before and it felt really nice. It felt really liberating.
mxdwn: Yeah I was going to say with the pandemic giving you time to think about stuff and grow individually and come back to grow together, that’s really powerful. I feel like that’s something that a lot of people experienced in the pandemic, just seeing how having time and space could help people grow and how that helps when they come back together. Now that things are relatively back to normal, is this something that as a band you still prioritize, the individual growth as artists to make sure you keep things fresh when you come together?
MM: Yeah. I think, especially now that we’re a little older, all of our lives have changed, it’s not like when we started the band. We would hang out, the four of us, all the time. Always jammin’ and doing stuff. I have a baby now, Pedrum’s got his side project, Matt’s doing photos and Spencer is living on a ranch. We all live like an hour from each other. We get together a lot, we see each other out a lot. But yeah, we do kind of have our bubbles that we exist in and it does make it a little more interesting to collaborate and see what other people, what ideas they can bring to the table, and have those be different, something that’s completely out of left field. There’s something you would never think of, an idea that this person is having, because they’ve been doing different things than you. I like that and it makes it more interesting.
mxdwn: Yeah, I feel that is really how you push forward as artists, is doing something that is not expected of you. When you do continue what’s expected is how you get put into a box, just producing similar sounds when what you really want to do is expand. You mentioned how it was a more natural decision for you all to develop towards this sound, so do you see your sound changing again in the future?
MM: Yeah! We never, I’d like to reiterate, that we never sat down and decided like, “Oh, we really gotta change” or “We want this record to sound like this.” We’ve never done that with any of our records. I foresee the sound changing because we’re already listening to different things that were influences on the last one, and that will filter itself into whatever we create and whatever direction we move forward in. But I think that overall, we’re just more comfortable with doing whatever we want to do.
mxdwn: That goes perfectly with what I wanted to ask you next, which other artists do you see possibly influencing your sound in the future? What have you all been listening to recently?
MM: I don’t wanna lead on too much, but probably some more electronic stuff, some more dub and maybe just some more dancier stuff. But I don’t wanna lead too much cause maybe not {laughs}.
mxdwn: Yeah {laughs}, gotta keep things open ended. But speaking on the process of making the album Zuma 85, I did see how you all specifically came to the studio with a lot of riffs, ideas and unfinished songs, opting for a more organic approach and wanting to prioritize what happens when you come together physically to make art together versus having that set plan and expectation. Given that this was a very natural decision for you all, how do you think it impacted the sound and feel of the record versus things you’ve done in the past?
MM: It left it really open ended. We had a comfortable amount of time to just be in the studio. The studio we recorded at is up in Stinson Beach. It’s actually not there anymore, sadly, otherwise we would love to go back. But it was just a really beautiful environment and a great place to, I don’t know, not only make a record but to just exist in. We could hike down to the beach through the coastal rainforest in the morning and jump in the water, and I would just put on headphones and listen to things we had recorded the previous day, get ideas that way, and everyone else would do the same in their own capacity. Just, everyone felt there and present and contributing to something together as opposed to any one person, kind of, leading the effort or anything like that. And in that way everyone feels comfortable, included and contributing to an art project, whatever you wanna call it. I think that it pulls more ideas out of people, and they feel more comfortable contributing, and when that happens you get a better end result, a more diverse and interesting end result. Did I answer that question, I just completely went off {laughs}.
mxdwn: {Laughs} No, you definitely answered my question! I was actually going to ask you about your time at the Panoramic House Studio specifically. It’s a shame that it’s closed!
MM: Yeah, it is.
mxdwn: It’s actually really important, the environment that’s being made when you’re creating. It’s something that can contribute so much to the feel of the project. Having that open, safe space to create where everyone feels safe and comfortable is really important.
MM: Yeah, absolutely yes.
mxdwn: Zuma 85 was released on Calico Discos, your own label. How was that experience working in collaboration with Innovative Leisure? Did it allow for any more musical or conceptual freedoms?
MM: First, I mean we’re thrilled to be back with Innovative Leisure. They’re an amazing label and amazing guys. They have always been super supportive and have allowed us to basically do creatively whatever we see fit. So in that sense, it’s just something that we wanted to cultivate, to put records out for our friends. They were kind enough to allow us to basically put our name on there so that maybe we can get a little bit of an identity and people can associate the label with us and get that out there. But they’ve never been anyone to stifle us creatively, or try to lead us in any direction, so that’s the same. It’s the same experience on our end. But we just wanted to get the name out there a little bit, and they’re kind enough to let us do so.
mxdwn: That’s great! Do you guys see you doing more work with your label this upcoming year, are you hoping to get more bands signed on?
MM: Yeah we are, definitely! It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of extra work for us but it’s something that we would like to focus on this year. We do have a couple of things in that pipeline so those will come out soon.
mxdwn: Great! Having a career that spans over twelve years and five albums, do you have any rituals or traditions that you follow when you release a new album or reach a milestone such as making your own label. Did you all do anything special when you released Zuma 85?
MM: What did we do {laughs}? We like to go to Musso & Frank’s and have martinis and steaks, but that’s about it.
mxdwn: No, that sounds like a perfect celebration {laughs}! Speaking of, Allah-Las is distinctly Southern Californian. You all met and found your start as a band working at Amoeba Records. What does Amoeba mean to you all as a group?
MM: Full disclosure, I never worked at Amoeba. I’m the only one. I did apply for a job and I was told that they weren’t hiring any more surfers and that was that.
mxdwn: {Laughs}.
MM: But I think Amoeba still played a huge role in my life. It was the place that, when I would ditch high school, I would drive out there and spend the day flipping through the stacks and racks. It was basically another community that existed that I found comfort in outside of where I was growing up, the high school scene and everything like that. Amoeba in conjunction with the Echo Park music scene became the community and identity that I was looking for in an effort to escape what I saw as the monotony of the South Bay scene. So yeah, it was a community, and I think those guys obviously felt that way even more so. They made a lot of friends. The first show we ever played was through a coworker from Amoeba having a house party on Halloween. That was like two weeks after we started jamming together. We didn’t have any songs, we just kinda jammed in front of people and someone said. “Sounds pretty good,” and we were like, “Oh really? We’re going to keep doing this then,” and now here we are, fifteen years later.
mxdwn: Wow, that’s really special! Really special memories. I think what you said also just highlights the importance of, especially in today’s world where a lot of things have moved online, it really is important to have those spaces, especially musically, where artists can find that community and have those isolated musical scenes in cities. It’s really important to cultivate those spaces and communities.
MM: Yeah, I agree.
mxdwn: Well I just have one more for you. What are your plans for 2024? Can fans expect a full Zuma 85 tour? I know we talked about some future plans for your label but what can fans expect from this new era of Allah-Las?
MM: The early part of the year we’re focusing on writing and getting some new recordings done. Then we’re going to be touring in April in the Eastern half of the United States and then probably some touring later in the year as well. I think the primary focus is getting new recordings done and hopefully having a record out for next year. We don’t want to wait another four years.
mxdwn: Well, it wasn’t really your fault. You know with COVID it was really hard to get stuff through.
MM: Yeah, true.
mxdwn: Are there any plans to continue your music podcast Reverberation Radio? I know a lot of fans are hoping that it makes a comeback in 2024.
MM: We need to do that. We’ve let it go by the wayside for too long now. We basically need to reformat it and figure out a way to make it so we’re not just spending money doing it. But we’d love to get it going again. Yeah, it’s something that we’ve talked about a lot. That’s one of the goals for this year as well.
mxdwn: That’s great! Well, that’s all I have for you today. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me, it was a wonderful conversation.
MM: Thanks, I appreciate it. It was nice to meet you, take care.
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