In Focus: L.A. Exes
We had the chance to chat with the upcoming American indie-pop band L.A. Exes, who are fresh from releasing their debut single this year and are gearing up for another release this week
Left to right: Steph, Jenny, Sam and Rachel. Photo by Molly Adams
If you enjoy the kind of music you can have a dance to, while pondering the existential questions that life has to throw at you, then I highly recommended you check out L.A. Exes.
As a quintet, or as they describe themselves ‘queertet’, L.A. Exes are a fairly new band, having only just released their first single, Temporary Goodbye, in February of this year. L.A. Exes perfectly pair ‘60s style upbeat music with heavier, emotionally vulnerable lyrics. A concept that they 100% nail on Temporary Goodbye.
L.A. Exes is made up of drummer Steph Barker, singer and guitarist Jenny Owens Young, singer and bassist Sam Barbera, and guitarist Rachel White.
Each member has found equal amounts of success in their respective solo careers. Jenny has worked on her own albums and tours since 2007, as well as making podcasts ‘Veronica Mars Investigations’ and ‘Buffering the Vampire Slayer’, which discuss the TV shows Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode by episode. The latter featuring an original song written by Jenny, inspired by the events of the episode covered in the podcast.
Sam has worked in the music industry for the same amount of time as Jenny, having ventured into electropop with her project BEGINNERS since 2014. In addition, Sam was also a member of the indie-electronic band Malbec and the hard-core garage punk band Holy Fever.
Steph and Rachel have similarly enjoyed their own successes. Steph having toured with the likes of Kate Nash, while also having her own musical project, Baby Bulldog, and Rachel having impressively engineered for Panic! At the Disco and Weezer.
I was lucky enough to get the chance to talk with both Jenny and Sam about L.A. Exes, their influences, inspiration, and plans for the future, as well as gain further insight into where the idea for their formation came from.
Jenny recounts how, “We had met, at Jake’s house a while back. [Jake] had a big house in Silver Lake where he was always having parties every weekend. I would say 60% of Jake and his wife Kate’s friend group are queer women. So, there was always a gaggle of them, and I met Sam in that fray. And then, a little while after we met, Jake proposed the idea… we should make a project. We should try writing some songs, you, me, and Sam and just see how it goes; you know, he had some sonic ideas, and I had been working with Jake in the pop writing front for a while. He's a dear friend, and I was super stoked to give it a spin.”
Another aspect core to the band’s identity is that all the members are queer women. While this wasn’t the initial idea, both Jenny and Sam describe it as being a “happy accident”. More so when Steph joined late into the project, also a queer woman.
It was clear when speaking with Sam and Jenny that this aspect of the band had heavily influenced their creative process. They both pointed out how being queer helps within the writing room and how many of their songs come from them just talking about their lives and experiences.
Sam speaks about how “everybody actually can just be full-blown queer. Because then you get all these funny jokes and I think a lot of the writing and stuff is queer by nature. Because Jenny and I, or Rachel, or whoever… We’re sitting in a room, and we’re telling our stories and we’re going, ‘Oh yeah, write that down, say that’. And it’s actually just our lives, so it is queer in nature because we’re just writing about our experiences, but it’s also fun to have something that we all can relate to”.
This gives L.A. Exes an incredibly personal aspect to their music, one that many will find solace in. Telling stories based on their own experiences, thoughts, and feelings. Particularly as stories and insights from queer perspective have historically been erased from mainstream popular culture.
Temporary Goodbye perfectly juxtaposes its melancholic lyrics with a boppy, upbeat and funky sound. I personally interpreted the song as being about the need to escape from life when it becomes too overwhelming.
Sam describes the song like that “between stage”, referring to the fact that it is not the point where you want to kill yourself, but where you know you need to make a change because it has all become too overwhelming. As Sam says, “you can’t take another minute but you’re not at the point where you actually want to kill yourself”, much rather you need to “disappear and hit pause on everything but there’s nothing you can do”. Jenny describes it as one of those moments where you would “sell your soul for an eject button”.
It was this juxtaposition between lyrics and music that made Jenny most excited about writing for L.A. Exes. In her own words, she has spent the majority of her career writing more downbeat songs. “I had been writing largely sad songs about my feelings”, she recalls, “whereas, getting into this band it was like, ‘oh, we could talk about stuff like that’. But also it could just be solid bops; finding a way to bop to the sadness”. Jenny describes this as “fun because one of the hardest things in the world is writing a happy lyric, without feeling like a total Ding-Dong; being able to have that bop, have the exciting up-tempo good times… ‘60s sonics… feel-good music paired with the existential crises and questionings”.
Fans of their work won’t have long to wait to hear more as L.A. Exes are currently hard at work on two new singles: West Keys and Skinny Dipping. The latter of which will be released this week and is sure to cause a stir in the music scene.
Jenny mentions how West Keys is a song that tells the story of Sam’s break-up. West Keys being, as Sam describes, “an aspirational break up song that is one of the rare ballads”. Jenny recalls their first day writing together; Sam had walked through the door and told them she’d just gone through a break-up and how the band was quick to find a way to channel those feelings into “beautiful art”.
On the contrary, their next release, Skinny Dipping, Sam explained was “inspired by these ruckus-filled, largely queer-based parties that Jake used to have all the time. They had this amazing house with a sick pool and hot tub, and we’d go skinny dipping there”. During the discussion of the song, though, Jenny was quick to point out very firmly how she had never been in Jake’s pool or even been skinny dipping.
I hope this has given you some insight into who L.A. Exes are as a band and as individuals, and where the ideas and inspirations come from. I highly recommend you check them out, they are the perfect band for dancing the bad vibes away or when you want to feel less alone.
It was incredibly clear from speaking to Sam and Jenny that they are both extremely passionate about L.A. Exes and are excited to be able to use their music to share their views, all while expressing themselves and their experiences in a way that they hadn’t before on their previous music projects.
L.A. Exes will be touring as soon as the world allows, and I am eagerly anticipating the release of their debut album and will definitely be giving Skinny Dipping a listen when it comes out this week.
The future is looking bright for these four.