Get To Know: Levitation Room
Los Angeles psych rockers Levitation Room released their debut album, Ethos, in 2016, and have since toured the country on those songs; performing at SXSW, recording a Daytrotter session, and even venturing into Europe at one point. On Friday the 13th, the group stopped in Chicago to perform at the annual Warble Daze festival, and I got the chance to get to know them a bit. After winning over the Chicago crowd with a mix of their old and new tracks, Levitation Room talked to me about their new music, aliens and paranormal sightings, Chicago deep dish pizza...and a few other topics. If you want to know what you can expect from the band in 2018 and what they get up to on tour, here are seven facts you need to know to get to know Levitation Room now!
Photo Courtesy of Levitation Room. Levitation Room is Julian Porte, Gabriel Fernandez, Johnathan Martin, and Chris Mercado
They Almost Got Abducted by a UFO Once
If you ask Levitation Room if they believe in extraterrestrial life, their answer will most definitely be a yes. In fact, the band have even had an alien encounter themselves. Lead singer Julian Porte recalled said encounter with aliens during a past tour, saying, "We saw UFOs in Arizona. Like straight up. We were coming from San Diego and we were gonna play a show in Phoenix. We were passing through this really flat terrain, really desolate land, you know. It was getting late because we were having van trouble, and we were late to our gig. So we’re hauling ass through the desert, and then our drummer’s girlfriend was like 'Hey what’s that light in the sky?' And we looked over to our right, and there were these orbs of light just suspended in the sky. A few of them would appear and they would just kind of hoover and do these formations or whatever and then disappear. Then we were kind of freaking out about it, but they disappeared and then all of the sudden this huge mothership started blinking all the way around." While Julian says they were all screaming and hysterical after witnessing a mysterious sphere light up like that, he also said some of the locals made them doubt their story a little bit. "We can’t say for sure," he says. "Afterwards we stopped in this gas station and there were some locals standing there. I was like 'Hey guys do you know what those lights were?' They were like 'Those lights? Those were just flares!' Flares don’t do that shit man…" This supposed alien sighting happened a little over two years ago when the band were on their way to SXSW Festival for the first time, and the band members all remain confident that something strange went down, regardless of what the locals said.
They're Prone to Ghost Attacks, Too
Believe it or not, the alien encounter isn't the only strange experience that the group has had while on tour. Prior to the interview officially being on the record, the band divulged a bit about their evening the night before Warble Daze. It's all just hearsay, but it seems that the Friday the 13th date of Warble Daze lived up its spooky expectations, when the band's bassist Chris Mercado experienced a spiritual sighting in Springfield, IL. The band had been staying there overnight after playing a show on their way up from Chicago, and Chris described a sensation of being dragged out of bed by a ghostly figure. Chris also described the sensation as being "punched in the face by a ghost."
While on the subject of ghosts and being scared, the band discussed some of their favorite scary movies. Guitarist Gabe Fernandez says, "I like ones that revolve around mental asylums. People being tortured and shit. House on the Haunted Hill...It’s cheesy and starts getting scary towards the end." Julian also chimed in, saying, "I like ones where it’s not far fetched. Like someone breaking and entering into your house and slitting your throat. Cause that’s realistic. That’s totally plausible."
Lead Singer Julian Porte Never Planned on Singing
Although Julian is and always has been the lead singer of Levitation Room, he says he never wanted to sing in a band when he first got interested in music. He recalls the early days of playing music with Gabe, saying they've known each other since freshman year of high school. "We actually started a band together. We were really into punk rock, so we started with this punk- Iggy Pop- Stooges-New York Dolls kind of sound, " he continued. The band, called The Hits, broke up eventually when Gabe quit because he didn't want to play punk forever. Down the line, both Gabe and Julian got into different styles of rock music, including psych rock, and started working together again.
"I met up with [Julian] randomly, and I was like I’m still trying to start a band, and he was like well actually I’m starting a band," Gabe says. Julian also reminisces about the early days, saying, "At first all I wanted to do was play a guitar. I didn’t want to sing. I didn’t pick up guitar until way later. Even when we were in a band when we were younger, I just sang. I didn’t know any instruments, but I eventually learned how to play harmonica and then guitar followed. Then I started busking and being a street musician, doing a kind of Bob Dylan act on the street. Then I was like I need to get to a broader audience, and play electric guitar. I was trying to think bigger. That’s when we started talking like yeah, we wanna start a band, let’s get together." Gabe also mentioned that they had auditioned several other singers, but none of them seemed to be the right fit except Julian.
Their Keyboardist is in Multiple Bands
The band also say that while their sophomore album is well on the way, they still need to finish up recording. Glenn Brigman, who usually tours with the Levitation Room as a keyboardist, also does their recording. Glenn also happens to be in a few different bands, including Frankie and The Witch Fingers, who he was on tour with during Warble Daze. Gabe talks about what's next for the band and the album, saying, "We’re gonna get pretty far out for it. We’re gonna do a lot of planning for that. Hopefully once Glenn gets back by December or November, we’ll really just jump on recording. We’re gonna try to gig but maybe not too much. Just try to get more things done for the album."
The band also played a couple of the new songs live at Warble Daze, which they've had in the set for awhile, but they won't be giving too much more away before the album is done. "We’ve had [the new songs] in the set for a while. Sometimes we can’t contain ourselves and we just wanna start playing new stuff because you get bored of the old stuff. A lot of other bands or band managers will tell you to refrain from doing that because you want to keep people guessing what your next step is. Or what your next work will sound like...People will start putting stuff on Youtube even when a song isn’t done yet but it’s like you just can’t wait," Julian says.
They Want To Make a Living, But They Don't Care About Fame
Gabe and Julian say that the balance between new and old songs in their set isn't the only perfect balance of the group. Talking about the lessons they're learned in their years together, Gabe says, "There’s a fine balance. I would say I know a lot of people try to take me for it. I try to be the organized one in the band. Getting our ducks in order. Julian’s very good at trying to bring in a very free flowing environment and creativity. That’s just been a good balance. The Yin and the Yang. At the same time we could both carry each other’s weight if we had to. We help each other out. There is no head of state. [Julian and I] started the band, but these guys are just as involved and part of it."
Echoing off of that sentiment, Julian adds, "Everyone is really chill. We’re not out of this world eccentric and trying to do loads of drugs you know? We’re serious about this and we love what we do. This is passion. This is the strongest conviction we have. We want to..." he pauses before adding, "We don’t really care about getting fame, we just want to make this a living. If we can do that, then we’ve reached our goal."
Our Favorite Bands Are Their Favorite Bands, Too
Levitation Room put on one of the best shows at Warble Daze, so it's no surprise that they also have a great taste in music. The band admit they have "iPod Wars" sometimes while driving, but they all generally dig the music one another plays. "Usually whoever’s driving is allowed to take over the music," Gabe says. He also says that one of his personal favorites of 2017 is the collaboration between King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard and Mild High Club. "That album was really good. I haven’t really kept up... I try to keep up with little nuggets of modern time, but as of lately I’ve just dropped the ball on that. So that’s probably the only one," Gabe continued.
Julian also expressed his fondness for King Gizzard, saying, "King Gizzard blew my mind live. We played with them in Austin for this Psych Fest. I kind of dismissed them cause I didn’t know who they were. Everyone kept talking about them, and I dismissed them cause they had a stupid name. I thought it was a stupid name, so I right away was being judgmental. But just by chance, I was outside tripping on mushrooms and-" Gabe interjects to say they walked into the show late, but they were still just blown away. "They do this thing where they break down their set and do a really cool jazzy thing with flutes," Julian continued.
The band also shout out Babe Rainbow and our pals Post Animal, both of which have played with Levitation Room this year. Talking about the West Coast run they did with the latter, Gabe says, "They were stoked to be in LA. They had a lot of friends. And they just went super freaking hard. We were like this is day two for us… But they had all their friends so it was like of course they’re celebrating that they made it into LA. That was a really fun night. After that it was like good shows but we were just kind of taking it easy. Then it was cool to drive through the West Coast and show them the ropes."
They Didn't Come Up With Their Name on a Trip
Just kidding... Although it took them a while to come up with the name, Levitation Room got their name almost exactly how you'd expect if you've listened to their music. Starting the story, Julian says, "I think a lot of great ideas derive from altered mental states. I don’t think you can really deny that. A lot of great people who wrote some great fucking books or have done amazing fucking things... It may sound cliche, especially in this psychedelic rock and roll world, but I mean, that’s how the name came about. We had a mushroom trip and we were in our studio. In our studio we had this little platform. It wasn’t very big, just something to stand on. I was standing on it, and I was in the middle of tripping and I felt like I was floating. It just kind of clicked. At at first I thought the word Levitation, and someone already had the name. From the 90's, there was a shoegaze band called Levitation." Since that moment of realization came to Julian while he was levitating in a room, they decided to add Room to the name, and the rest is history.
Photos of Levitation Room at Warble Daze
