Luca Maoloni is truly an unusual dude when it comes to these here circles of peoples in local bands. As majority stockholder architect and baffling multi-instrumentalist of The Old Soul, he's released a self-titled album which is dropping jaws and filling underwears all over the place for its sheer scope in terms of melody, harmony, arrangement, attention to detail and willingness to embrace the truest and most satisfying hallmarks of the pop music dream. You don't hear records this accomplished and thorough very often, even [especially?] on the world stage. To have it brewed, fermented and distilled in your own backyard, well... fuckin' A. Luca is an outspoken, unabashedly opinionated mang as well. In many ways he's an Anti-Indie Rock figure And let me tell you, from someone who is too old for cliquish teen beat flash-in-the-pan horseshit in the independent music world, that is a breath of fucking fresh air too. Hey, this opinionated thing works!

Andrew Lloyd Moseby talked to The Man in a no-name café over "espress," in a truck navigating a blizzard and in ALM's apartment over a beer, in that order - about the things, what is good and what is simply unnecessary, in this labour of love we call being in a band.

[Luca playing some new demos] So y'know what we're gonna fuckin' do man? Two records.

ALBUM? One a band thing, and one Luca.

OH YEAH... WHO IS THIS LUCA JOKER? He's a fuckin' prick I tell you.

WHERE'D YOU RECORD THIS STUFF? At Andy [Magoffin]'s. Good old fuckin' Andy's.

OH YEAH... WHO IS THIS ANDY GUY? You know, I love this stuff like this - bass, drums and piano. Right now I'm just gonna leave it like this. Ben Folds Five, man. Ben Folds Three, man. My ears are fuckin' freezing. Hey I got a toque, all right!

LET ME ASK YOU ABOUT "RIVER OF DAUGHTERS" (FROM THE OLD SOUL) Okay.

WHEN YOU USED TO PLAY IT IN WHITE STAR LINE, THE LYRICS WERE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, AND NOW IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU JUST WENT THROUGH THEM ALL AND CHANGED THEM BASED ON SOUND OR TONE TO MAKE NONSENSE POETRY. Yeah.

IS THAT WHAT YOU DID? That's pretty much the whole record, except "All My Godz." Every lyric was written while I was recording the vocals - whatever sounded proper. That's just what I figured out after I changed everything and looked at it.

THAT'S WHAT WEEN DOES - THEY NAME THE SONG AND THEN WRITE THE LYRICS FOR IT. This stuff [the demos] is incoherent right now... before the trumpets, autoharp... a choir singing... I think I'm gonna trade in all my CDs for tapes.

[...] (after unprintable shared tirade) I dunno, man. There's a lot of animosity between bands it seems... especially if you're not part of the right clique.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME. I know, it's like, fuck! Then they'll judge you on anything, like, "you shouldn't practice, you should wing it, off the cuff, `cuz that's what we do"... someone once said that to Jay (Anderson, Old Soul drummer). From then on, they couldn't even look at each other. They're like the two babies in The Simpsons.

THAT'S JUST PEOPLE BEING DEFENSIVE BECAUSE THEY'RE THREATENED. Some people see a band playing pop songs and they get intimidated by it, man. Why? You may not like it, or it may not be your cup of tea, but don't get intimidated because we practice a lot and try to make a cool song. We're not trying to show you up.

IT'S NOT ABOUT THEM ANYWAY. And that's the problem with all these bands which are all about style and the new wave resurgence - you know what it is? People who can't play instruments and who don't know how to write a song trying to make music. And their excuse is, "it's Art." Dude! Fucking practice!

LEARN THE RULES BEFORE YOU BREAK THEM. Absolutely.

BY WESLEY J RAMOS