On Henry Rollins' Music Suggestions And Seeing The Support Bands

When kink.fm in Portland asked Ben Schneider what he can't stop listening to, the Lord Huron frontman singled out our very own Alex Cameron's Jumping The Shark album. "The way I heard him, actually, was Henry Rollins has a radio show here in LA," Schneider illuminates, explaining that the Black Flag frontman played a song a week from Cameron's album on this show. "[Rollins] has — I think — really great taste. And I love his radio show. He plays a lot of old punk rock and unknown sorta avant-garde music... I like to go and take drives through LA on Sunday nights and just listen to who he's playing."

"It's a very inspiring place for me and I guess that's why I've stayed, because it's never dried up in terms of being able to surprise and inspire me."

As well as listening to the radio, Schneider says he's fan of just fronting up to random shows at "grimy clubs here in LA". We discuss the importance of getting to venues in time to see all the support bands and Schneider gushes, "I'm so glad that you say that you do that, because I know that was huge for us in our early days, you know? 'Cause we were doing support tours and stuff." Because "every band has to start somewhere", Schneider opines, "You might see the next Rolling Stones opening for who-knows-who."

On the city he currently calls home, Schneider shares, "I've been here in LA for over ten years now, which is crazy. When I came here I thought I'd be here for a coupla months." He's learned to embrace the "weird", however, adding, "It's a very inspiring place for me and I guess that's why I've stayed, because it's never dried up in terms of being able to surprise and inspire me." Schneider estimates he moved from his home state of Michigan when he was "about 21, 22 maybe". And from there? "I spent a year studying in France, moved to New York for about six months and then came to LA."

So when did Schneider first perform in front of an audience? "It was my seventh grade dance and there's actually some video footage, I think." We take it Schneider has had a good look for it on YouTube, then? "Ha ha, no, I haven't. You know, two of the guys who were in that band are in the band today so it's pretty amazing; three of us are still playing together."

This long shared history "makes touring a lot easier", Schneider admits. "I think you see a lotta bands sorta break down because of just the natural strain it's put on relationships in this kind of life, which is totally understandable." When asked whether the band share hotel rooms while on tour, Schneider tells, "In our early days... It was the five guys in the band and then a sound guy, and my sister was our kind of first manager so she would travel with us. And we were all jammed into one van with all the gear and we would sleep all of us in one room too; we'd bring, like, an air mattress and a cot and there'd be two people in each of the two beds and then three people on the floor." Fingers crossed none of them snored, then? "Two of us do snore," Schneider confesses, "but we've since been put into a room by ourselves in sort of this quarantine area. But we only did that for about two tours and then we decided it was worth the investment to get another room."