{"id":2582,"date":"2018-07-16T04:22:38","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T08:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2018-07-16T04:24:15","modified_gmt":"2018-07-16T08:24:15","slug":"interview-sitcom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2018\/07\/16\/interview-sitcom\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Sitcom"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"responsiveVideo responsive-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4NQnNiS6gnw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WTBU DJ Danya Trommer spoke with Jake Lazovick, the mastermind behind Philly\u2019s indie pop project Sitcom. They chatted about Sitcom\u2019s latest albums, music videos, and Lazovick\u2019s furry companion. Check out the entire interview with bonus content here:<\/span><\/p>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2582-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"\/wtbu\/files\/2018\/07\/Sitcom-interview.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"\/wtbu\/files\/2018\/07\/Sitcom-interview.m4a\">\/wtbu\/files\/2018\/07\/Sitcom-interview.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Danya Trommer: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your latest album <\/b><b><i>Be The One You Love<\/i><\/b><b>, and firstly the album video Grassy Field On A Sunny Day. What was the inspiration behind that video and was it done in one take? Could you tell me a little bit about it, because it seemed very impressive.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jake Lazovick: That was done with Rich Smith, who I work with a lot\u2013he\u2019s a frequent collaborator. We knew we wanted to do some sort of album video, like longform to replace the album stream, and it was done in one take. \u00a0We just showed up and performed the whole thing on the field. It\u2019s over on Kelly Drive, this empty soccer field. We both had played around with picture in picture, so I thought it\u2019d be cool to have one camera moving around and one stable and play around with the HD footage and also the DV footage. \u00a0I can\u2019t really think of anything that\u2019s like major inspiration. I don\u2019t know, I had a good time doing it. It was really cold. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Oh?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah. We just shot the video for \u201cOrange Slice,\u201d the first song on the album, on July 1 and it was like 90 degrees outside, and the whole time I was thinking about the last time I was filming outside was the Grassy Field video and it was like 40 degrees outside, maybe even in the thirties. It was so weird, the weather extremes we film with. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So you just shot your video for \u201cOrange Slice,\u201d are there any other videos you\u2019re doing for the album? \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: No, I\u2019ve been writing a lot, so I\u2019m kind of moving on to the next thing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Oh that\u2019s awesome! So I saw that[in the description of the video, \u201cLarry\u201d is credited as \u201cEternal Boy.\u201d \u00a0Is that your brother? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: That\u2019s my dog. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Oh that\u2019s your <\/b><b><i>dog. \u00a0<\/i><\/b><b>Gotcha, because he\u2019s also mentioned in a verse on the last song on the album.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah, \u201cStill Alive\u201d. He passed away in November, he lived to be 17. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: I guess that\u2019s an Eternal Boy. <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I wrote a song called \u201cEternal Boy\u201d that week that he passed. \u00a0I don\u2019t know what to do with it yet, but I liked that as a credit and maybe it\u2019ll keep appearing or something. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So do you write about your dog a lot?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I have in the last couple of years. I had another band called Foozle, and with that band Larry came up a couple of times. Back then, a lot of the writing was about domestic life and about the suburbs, and I think that when I think about [that] I think about my dog.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Me too! So I wanted to talk to you about the whole theming of the album, because <\/b><b><i>Be The One You Love <\/i><\/b><b>feels very personal, at least that\u2019s how I interpreted it. I was wondering what you thought the unifying factor of all the songs on the album was. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Probably trying to self-actualize. Thematically I think that\u2019s what ties everything together; trying to figure out how to love both someone else and myself. Production-wise it was me trying to make pop music. I definitely wanted it to be polished and I thought more about the beats, which I feel like\u2013not that I\u2019ve gotten it out of my system\u2013but in the recent stuff, I\u2019ve been going back to just playing guitar. Yeah I\u2019m definitely playing the guitar a lot more now. \u00a0For 2 or 3 years I was really into drum programming and synthesizers and I think that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Be The One You Love <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the peak of that for the time being. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s going to go away; it\u2019s kind of like a pendulum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So you think your next album is going to be more guitar-based?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: It\u2019s looking like that now. I\u2019m unsure; I\u2019ve been trying recently to work without thinking about the result of anything. I just keep writing and letting things flow and when that\u2019s done, I\u2019ll reassess it. That\u2019s been something I\u2019ve really struggled with: jumping to like \u201cWhere\u2019s this going to be?\u201d, \u201cWhat\u2019s this look like in context with the album?\u201d \u00a0Now I\u2019m trying to take a step back and be more like \u201cWhat is this object of a song.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: That\u2019s super hard with to do with art I would imagine, not thinking about that final product. I had a question about a specific song. I was wondering if \u201cOh My Goddess\u201d is it a positive or a negative song?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: That\u2019s a good question. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: I know it\u2019s hard to put your songs into a box. <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I think if you\u2019re asking that question, you get it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: I was just wondering because there\u2019s those lyrics like \u201c<\/b><b><i>not growing any closer<\/i><\/b><b>\u201d and stuff like that, and I was like \u201cOh man that <\/b><b><i>hurts <\/i><\/b><b>but I <\/b><b><i>understand<\/i><\/b><b>.\u201d [Laughs] \u00a0So basically your answer is\u2013<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I think you get it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Gotcha. \u00a0So I noticed while watching you at the show, I immediately got\u2013especially when you were talking\u2013Andy Kaufman vibes. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I love Andy Kaufman. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>DT: I noticed he was mentioned in your lyrics for \u201cBe The One You Love\u201d along with a lot of your other idols seemed to be mentioned like Sting, Marvin Gaye\u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Sting the wrestler. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Gotcha, so not from The Police. Are you into old wrestling?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah, I like wrestling. I grew up watching wrestling. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Like Andy Kaufman!<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: I was wondering if first you could tell me about how those people have contributed to your art, and then also that song is about breaking away from idolizing people. I just want to dig deeper into the meaning of that song. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: For the first part, I think Andy Kaufman\u2013just as a figure\u2013has shaped the way that I think about art making a lot. He\u2019s been this constant anchor for me and something I can come back to and be like this is kind of what I think of as\u2013I don\u2019t know if perfection is the right word, but I\u2019ll just use that for now\u2013the perfect artist. What his work looks like, his way of thinking, I feel like there\u2019s a fearlessness with ending up successful, but still being like \u201cI\u2019ll just do my own thing.\u201d \u00a0Like, still experimenting even after the success, and having somewhat of a tragedy. The thing about those specific idols mentioned in the song is they all died young in tragic ways. Except for Sting, but he\u2019s in a different verse so it\u2019s a little bit different. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So you separated it by tragedy?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: It was just a different narrative path in the song. \u00a0rthur Russel, Marvin Gaye, Andy Kaufman\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Arthur Russel was the cellist, yeah?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Cellist, he made a bunch of other stuff too. \u00a0He died of AIDS in \u201892. Andy Kaufman died of cancer in 1984, Marvin Gaye was shot by his father. What I\u2019m trying to get to in that song, and maybe I\u2019ll explore more later, is seeking success and seeking fame. Like there\u2019s a 27 club; there\u2019s this \u201clive fast, die young\u201d lifestyle, where a lot of my goals in life were to get successful, and almost to have this fame, but also recognizing that the people that I idolize have all died at either the peak or right after. \u00a0Maybe there\u2019s something about living to old age without achieving the success that you think you\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Deserve?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I don\u2019t know about deserve, but what I personally thought I <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">would <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get. I might not see it, I might see it, it doesn\u2019t really matter either way. I think there\u2019s a line in the chorus like \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t want to be 97 regretting things that I thought about at 22<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d which is just to me like stuck in this loop of always trying to chase money or success or anything that\u2019s fleeting. I guess [it\u2019s about] just looking at my idols and being like what do I like about them what do I not like about them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Gotcha. I was wondering about \u201cStill Alive,\u201d because the way it spoke to me\u2013the way I interpreted things may be not what you meant at all, but I guess that\u2019s what the nature of art is. The way I interpreted it is kind of going at this art thing and just [thinking] \u201cWhat if I just went back?\u201d and gave up on it like it\u2019s been such a shitty or hard time. \u00a0Could you tell me what exactly the song meant to you? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: \u00a0It\u2019s just about struggling with the same things over and over again and figuring out how to live with the struggles. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: \u00a0So is it specifically with music or with your life?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: My life; I have OCD. I just accepted it within the last couple of weeks. I don\u2019t mind saying it in an interview; I\u2019m pretty comfortable with it. A lot of the things that I was trying to figure out on this album, I\u2019ve now been kind of looking at with a new kind of lens, just understanding this disorder that I have and how it\u2019s shaped my thinking. I think specifically when it comes to that song\u2013without specifically saying I have this disorder and explaining what OCD is\u2013it was me kind of talking around it. A lot of reevaluating my narrative constantly. There\u2019s lines about different junctures about being 15 and 21 and now I\u2019m 24 and always being like \u201cThings aren\u2019t right. \u00a0When are things going to be right?\u201d This constant search for\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Waiting for it to be right?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah. I think that\u2019s like the wrong attitude. Things aren\u2019t ever really right, they don\u2019t really fall in place like that. \u00a0So it\u2019s more about\u2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Framing?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah. Like the rigidity that I had set up in my own head, but I\u2019m learning how to let go and be a bit flexible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So, when you were writing the song, were you aware that you had OCD? <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I\u2019ve been off-and-on about it since high school. Now I\u2019m being more proactive about understanding it and understanding how to live with it, which has been working really well\u2013just more of addressing it head on. I didn\u2019t think I would need therapy in high school and even college. I just started therapy recently and that was when I was like \u201cOk I\u2019m going to deal with this.\u201d Before that I was like \u201cI can figure this out myself through writing songs,\u201d but there\u2019s a lot of loops that you create for yourself with this specific disorder. It\u2019s a lot of mental acrobatics that you put yourself through. So I think that song is addressing that without <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">addressing <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">it. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: I noticed that blue shoes have showed up in your music a lot. I know that refers to the New Balances that you wear\u2013<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Yeah, how\u2019d you know that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Because I\u2019m creepy. I was wondering why you mention shoes a lot. You also wrote about white Reeboks. Shoes seem to be a thing for you.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: It\u2019s what I had at the time. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: There\u2019s no symbolism?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: Maybe I like the idea of balance&#8230;on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s Up<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; I thought it was a nice narrative device. It opened up with \u201cWhite Reeboks,\u201d and halfway through there\u2019s the song \u201cBlue Shoes,\u201d<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the blue shoes are actually just the white shoes, but it\u2019s midnight so they\u2019re blue, and I was like \u201cthat\u2019s kind of quirky.\u201d It just comes from writing while I\u2019m walking. When I\u2019m walking around, or biking, or driving, it\u2019s noticing what\u2019s in my mind or what\u2019s in front of me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Gotcha. I noticed that a lot of your stuff is produced in Baltimore, and also I saw something was produced in Amsterdam. I just wanted to know the story of both of those places.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I went to school in Baltimore for four years. I\u2019m from Maryland originally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: How\u2019d you end up here?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I just moved here. \u00a0By car, I guess. [Laughs]<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So tell me a little bit about Amsterdam. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: It was a program with the school. We did a spring break trip to Amsterdam to go to Steim. \u00a0They have a bunch of synthesizers there, and it\u2019s like an electronic music school. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: Did you major in music?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I majored in sculpture. Though I took a lot of sound classes; that\u2019s how I learned Ableton. \u00a0When I started taking those classes is when I started working more in electronic music and beat making rather than playing guitar. It\u2019s been probably three or four years that I\u2019ve been doing that, and I\u2019m now just switching back to wanting to play guitar. So we went to Amsterdam for a little bit and spent some days working in that studio\u2013or school\u2013I honestly can\u2019t remember what it was. I was jetlagged the whole time and couldn\u2019t sleep. It was like four of us who came from my school, and I remember waking up at 5 a.m. and just walking around and meeting everyone at the studio. The whole thing is kind of a daze. But I like the songs I made there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: So on <\/b><b><i>Snow Joke, <\/i><\/b><b>I noticed all your lyrics are written in paragraphs and then everything after that is more traditional lyrical form.Why did you decide on that EP to write like that?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I think I saw a friend\u2019s album, and they had it written that way and I was like, \u201cI like the way that looks.\u201d I forgot that I did that until you just said it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>DT: It was very poetic. \u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JL: I\u2019ll take that into consideration. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Interview has been edited for length and clarity.]<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sitcom\u2019s music is available on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/sitcom.bandcamp.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bandcamp<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; WTBU DJ Danya Trommer spoke with Jake Lazovick, the mastermind behind Philly\u2019s indie pop project Sitcom. They chatted about Sitcom\u2019s latest albums, music videos, and Lazovick\u2019s furry companion. Check out the entire interview with bonus content here: &nbsp; Danya Trommer: I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your latest album Be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[26,134,29,446,378,445,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2584,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}