LYLVC building community with 'Starless'

Raleigh's own hybrid rock/hip hop group, LYLVC, recently wrapped up some tour dates playing with Butcher Babies, Eva Under Fire and Jeris Johnson.

The band is out touring behind new single "Starless," which features Saliva's Bobby Amaru and is a song about finding the hope in darkness and previous single "Barely Human," which deals with the ruins of civilization.

Last week, Rock Life caught up with LYLVC vocalist Alyse Zavala and rapper Oscar Romero.

Rock Life: You've been out on the road. How have the tour dates been going?

Alyse Zavala: We went to Shiprocked in the Bahamas with Halestorm, Motionless In White, From Ashes to New and a bunch of bands. Then immediately after getting off of the ship we went straight out on a six-week tour with Butcher Babies, Eva Under Fire and Jeris Johnson. It's been a long six weeks, but we only have 3 dates left.

Oscar Romero: It's been going amazingly! We've been playing to some great crowds. This is our first time out with Eva Under Fire, Butcher Babies and Jeris Johnson. We actually just played an incredible show in Oklahoma City where it was completely packed to the brim. It's been a lot of fun.

We've actually seen a lot of people from Shiprocked out there as well as a lot of long time fans who have been with us for awhile. And then this tour has definitely introduced us to new people who were fans of the other bands. It really has been amazing.

RL: Have fans been responding to the new single?

AZ: It's crazy! I was very surprised that everyone knew the lyrics to our new single "Starless". It was just released on March 10 and they were all singing along. It was kind of mind blowing. I was super excited.

RL: Alyse, how did it feel to be out with a package of strong females?

AZ: Awesome! It's been really crazy. Eva Under Fire had to drop off the last half of the tour to prepare for their tour with Five Finger Death Punch, but being on stage with them was super cool. Butcher Babies' Heidi is just a force to be reckoned with on stage. I think it's really awesome to see how empowering these women absolutely are!

And LYLVC too! Come see us live! We definitely kick people in the face.

RL: You've played with a lot of well established acts. What's been the biggest thing you've taken away from watching them live?

AZ: I mean, we're already a force to be reckoned with. Our live set is crazy. We climb light towers and lift instruments above our heads. We're head banging and grabbing and pushing each other. There's a lot of energy in our sets and we always try to be a really hard act to follow.

I think the biggest thing for me when I tour with these other bands is just getting to know them as friends and building that camaraderie with them has been really great. Just hearing how they got signed compared to how we did. It's been really great to hear their stories. We're actually on the same label as Butcher Babies now.

RL: You got to tour Europe recently. Were you surprised by the response?

OR: Yeah, I think it was a bit of a surprise. We just didn't know what to expect in Europe and the fact that we were touring with Biohazard and Life of Agony, some old school hardcore dudes from our era. People coming out to these shows were very much not expecting what we bring to the table as a band.

I will say definitely starting out the tour was kind of a learning curve. We were just learning and getting our feet wet overseas. Just learning the crowds and figuring out how to get over with these crowds who were not necessarily prepared for what we bring to the table.

I think a really cool thing that we learned from the experience was that sometimes we have to just let it go and be willing to experiment and be creative and let everything just kind of fall apart to figure out how to put it all back together. We started out going about the show how we had in the past, but eventually we could see how the crowd was responding and what songs worked or didn't. We started going crazy on stage mixing up the songs and engaging in a whole new way. It was fun and an incredible opportunity for us. By the middle of the tour we got comfortable and started seeing a lot more fans and had a blast with the other bands who are now lifelong friends

RL: And how did the collaboration with Bobby Amaru come about?

AZ: Bobby and Saliva are both on our record label Judge and Jury. It was started by Howard Benson who produced Three Days Grace and Seether among others. He and the drummer Neil Sanderson started the label and Neil heard our song and got goosebumps and loved it. He was just floored by the message and story behind it. They wanted to help us get our name out there and help us increase our listeners by teaming us with Bobby and his huge fan base.

RL: And how did the track come together?

OR: The song kind of started 7 years ago. I made an attempt at my own life in a dirty hotel room in Wilmington, North Carolina. I had gone there on my 25th birthday with a pill bottle full of Xanax and a fifth of Jack and had told noone where I was. I was ready to just lay it all out and fortunately, it was a big failure for me that obviously I'm very grateful for.

This song really is kind of my story for the first time talking publicly about what happened and how I went through that struggle. I wanted to tell that story because I know so many people who deal with mental health issues or are close with someone who does and have suicide involved in their lives. I have felt that pain.

Being in that position specifically myself means I know the false sense of hope that can come from the idea of lifting that weight off of your shoulders and letting everything go. It can feel peaceful, but it's a false sense of hope. So what I wanted to do with the song was to have it be that testament that I know absolutely what it is to go through that. I wanted people to know they are not alone. There's a community of people who understand. It's incredible to watch that idea come to life and see the community that is being built around it. It's been really beautiful.

RL: The music community has really been a driving force behind removing some of the stigma of mental illness.

OR: Yeah, absolutely! It's an important thing to me that we tell our stories. It's what Alyse and I try to do a lot with our songs and our music.

RL: The video for your last single "Barely Human" was striking. Do you think visually when you are writing?

AZ; Yeah, we like the songs to tell a story and we're painting stories in our heads. "Barely Human" is very visual. It starts off in "a sky where the sun has died..." It's post-apocalyptic; past the point of no return. It's very visual and talks about a world where we're all half human and half robot. It's about how we're going to fight to survive. Some people support going full AI where we just turn off our emotions while others say we need to hold onto our humanity. We have to hold onto our empathy. That's what the song is.

RL: And what is next?

AZ: After this tour we have MMRBQ with Godsmack, Alice Cooper, Everclear and others in Camden, New Jersey. We're also playing Rocklahoma, which I'm super stoked about because it's huge. And we're on a really big stage too. Then we typically tour in the Fall.

I think the biggest thing that we need to do in the meantime while we wait is just to see how "Starless" does. I'm really excited to see how that grows and builds radio-wise and what kind of opportunities it brings us because "Barely Human" brought us so much. It got us Shiprocked and the Butcher Babies tour. It was in the Top 40 on the rock charts and got our name out there. I'm excited to see where we go from here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QWvthCZ5yo