More Than Just a Bun: Rock Out to A Love Electric at This Weekend's Beijing Burger Fest

We're convinced that the cornucopia of food (well, mainly burgers) available at this weekend's Beijing Burger Fest will for many be sufficient inspiration to get them through the weekend, or at least provide the foundation for a good nap. But so as not to have thousands of sleeping patrons dotted around Galaxy Soho, we've also prepared a variety of entertainment to keep you perky even if you're bogged down by burgers and beer.

A Love Electric is just one such band that will be on hand this Saturday to help you kindle your meat sweats through the epoch-old medium of dance. Led by the Minneapolis-raised guitarist, singer, and composer Todd Clouser, A Love Electric formed in Mexico City after Clouser moved there in 2011 and met drummer Hernan Hecht and bassist Aaron Cruz. They still live in the Mexican capital to this day, and as a testament to their friendship, live only a block apart.

A Love Electric's jazz-charged catalog is a source of unending surprise. Unlike some brands of neat and tidy rock, the trio prefers to alter and reconstruct their songs every time they play live. Regardless of which genre you would use to describe A Love Electric, the synergy of storytelling and muscular guitar riffs will leave you dancing the burger calories off in no time. We spoke to Clouser about their history, their inspirations, and their expectations before they kick off their China tour.

TBJ: It’s become so common to now define bands as having a mixed or eclectic style that it has started to lose its meaning. Saying that, listening to your various albums, it would be nearly impossible to tell it's even the same band on each, which in my mind is exactly how you'd define mixed! The most accurate label for your music might be “creative rock.” In that regard, when making an album, do you intentionally think “Ok, this album is going to be like this” or do you just follow your gut instinct?
Todd Clouser: Honestly, I would like to make a record that is more conceptual or cohesive but Psychmonde turned out this way – and I do like the record – really as a result of how it was recorded. I started with these songs in a studio in New York, maybe just a few weeks after we'd released Son Of A Hero, and I thought it was going to be a duo record with Billy Martin. As time went on I didn't really know what to do with the songs and I brought them to Hernan Hecht's studio and he started working them, and they became clearly A Love Electric songs, but it wasn't initially imagined to be that. Time went on and songs like "Both of You," and "Information Blue," got added.

I think also at the time we recorded we were exploring a lot of different things and not sure if we were a rock band or jazz or spoken word, and not really conscious of trying to define it ourselves. Really none of the genre stuff is a conscious consideration for us – asides from after the fact from a marketing standpoint where we do run up against people having a hard time communicating what we do. But yes, Psychmonde did make for a varied record, really with the concept that each song was honored as its own entity as opposed to a clearer big picture aesthetic.

And, really we like all kinds of music, and I think we like the challenge of integrating these songs and styles into our show, sound, life.

Rather than encapsulating an emotion or a feeling, your lyrics project a vivid scene or an entire story. What are your lyrical inspirations?
I grew up inspired by the words in songs – folk music, delta blues music, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Hendrix, Gil Scott Heron, early hip-hop from Wu-Tang Clan to NWA, some grunge music – and have always felt a responsibility to try to write lyrics that come from as sincere of a spot as I can get to. I try not to write words just to fill up the spaces, and I try to write about experiences, people, places in a way that can surprise me and perhaps a listener as well. I think it's not necessarily the route I would suggest to everyone, but if I'm not really challenging myself in what I'm writing, I feel bad. 

Inspiration is everywhere. For me, the challenge is taking the time to recognize it, then develop and consider the idea. I don't always accomplish it.

How did A Love Electric start and what’s the story behind the name?
Years ago I moved to Mexico and was playing in jazz clubs, at events around Los Cabos, and writing. After a couple years of that, and amidst changes in my personal life, I started to play on the Mexican mainland and tour the US again. I have always wanted to be challenged so I would search out the best creative musicians I could get in touch with, and a friend in Guadalajara mentioned Hernan Hecht (drums) to me. I wrote him an email and we started playing on little tours and eventually, he suggested Aaron Cruz (bass) come play with us.

From the first show, I knew it was going to be a band. Everyone is a creative, an artist, and ambitious with how they play, and we all get along. We have played a thousand shows by now, the three of us, running around, and we are better friends than ever. We are still getting towards our best music.

Did you all start your music careers as jazz musicians or was it a different genre that lured you in?
All of us have backgrounds in jazz music, and despite A Love Electric being a rock band on records, when we play live, the spirit of jazz dictates what we do more than the records do. We don't use a set list, we play the songs differently every night, solos and forms change, and often times all the songs run into each other. That spirit of jazz, of discovery, and improvisation is what allows us to keep doing this and be inspired every time out. 

At the beginning we played all instrumental music – there are a few old records from that period – 20th-Century Folk Selections and Entre: Selections in Garage Jazz. With time we wanted to explore the songs I was writing.

What do you think you would be doing if it wasn’t for music?
Personally, if it wasn't music I would be writing. At this point, it is pretty hard to imagine doing much else. 

Hear A Love Electric at The Beijing Burger Festival on Sunday, Jun 17, and at School Bar the same evening. 

More by this author here.
Email: tautviledaugelaite@trureun.com

Photos: Jesus Corneho, Michael Dunham