Joel McConvey met Stephanie Earp in 2000, when she challenged him to defend his negative review of her band. Four years later, they would ironically form a group of their own. In the space of a year they have built a strong live following, released an EP, and learned to bicker less often. Matt Blair spoke with the group about their unexpected success.

Your name doesn't sound very optimistic.
Joel: The best part about the whole name thing is that originally, for our first show, it was Stephanie Earp and the Lost Cause. We were supposed to play with Matt Barber, and then Matt Barber backed out, and so I ended up being the Lost Cause. The whole idea was that it was this tossed together show, with people who'¦
Steph: '¦Shouldn't get along, and wouldn't be able to make it to rehearsal. We came by this name utterly honestly. If you'd told me that we were going to still be playing, and playing as much as we are, and not killing each other and actually having fun, I probably wouldn't have believed it.

And now you're writing new material.
Steph: We're about two thirds of the way there with writing. I don't want to say it's more lighthearted, but it's less morose. It's more fun to play.

Your live show does sound much more uptempo than the record.
Joel: There's more energy. As we learn how to play with each other, the parts balance out. It did start where it was like, 'œHere're my songs, and you play on them.'? And now we have this space that we both play in, where we play how we play.
Steph: I can anticipate what he's going to like, too. I'll definitely find myself, while I'm working on parts at home, thinking about whether Joel's going to like a part and want to play to it.

When did you start to think that it could actually work?
Steph: For me, it was when we were recording [the Memorial EP]. We booked three days to do it, and I thought there was no way in hell this was going to work. I thought it was actually going to end the band. But we sounded better than we'd ever sounded in rehearsal, and that's when I started to think that it would really actually fly. And the record's done better on radio than I thought it would.
Joel: It wasn't so much that it started to get successful as it started to get fun. It's very cool to have people like it, because that makes me enjoy it more. But I'd like to get to a point where someone else loads my gear.

Within the indie scene, it seems like it's taboo to talk about success and money.
Steph: It's not that this is not an art form. But of the art forms, is it the one to take so seriously that we can't talk about making money from it?
Joel: Everyone in our generation that I know thinks office jobs suck. Why wouldn't you want to be a musician, and make a living from that? I can't imagine a better job.

But isn't a refusal to talk about money and success actually a refusal to take your band seriously?
Steph: There's a fear of ridicule, the idea that somebody could be laughing at you for taking it seriously. I'm definitely coming to terms with the fact that I wanted something so badly, and it didn't work. When I was between bands, I thought it was over, and I thought it was rather embarrassing how aggressive and ambitious I'd been, considering it went nowhere.
Joel: Yeah, but your old band sucked hard.
Steph: They were all great players. They were all working very much under my directions. I take full responsibility for the sucking. We were a fun party band, but it wasn't as I thought it was. I took it really seriously. And I take this really seriously too, but I'd like to think that this is a little bit more worthy of my attention.
Joel: I don't take this seriously at all.

By Matt Blair