The Little Ones

The Little Ones, a rather young band from Los Angeles, are currently on UK tour with 'The Boy Least Likely To’ and 'Loney, Dear’. Meeting them only a few days after their tour started, it was a good opportunity for us to find out who this band is, as their homepage says, (come from) "the land of White Noise, where there lay a vast corporate landscape, which seasoned every major highway and small backcountry road for as far as the eye could see. The world itself tilted off its axis while all the powers that be played an eternal game of tug of war. The Little Ones felt so insignificant against the bigger picture. There were no new tales to tell and they felt stuck right where they started. Until one day there was a spark. They found it right outside their window. It was the branches that pointed them in the right direction." Finding it difficult to interpret what this actually meant, we thought it was time to ask some serious questions.

Ed Reyes: Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar
Ian Moreno: Lead Guitar, Percussion
Greg Meyer: Drums
Lee LaDonceur: Bass/Keys, Backing Vocals
Brian Reyes: Bass/Keys, Backing Vocals


MN: How did you guys meet and what made you start a band?

Ian: Well, three of us are originally from Santiago, which is south from LA, but the band is now based in LA. I moved to there about 10 years ago. Edward, our lead singer, and I were in a band together prior to this, so the band just started with us two. We both had fulltime jobs so it was kind of difficult to put a band together, for 6 months it was just us. Then we met our keyboard player through my younger sister who he actually dates. He moved in with us and we started hanging out, became friends and realized we were into the same kind of music. We went on a search for a drummer and that lasted for almost a year so rehearsed with laptops and drum machines instead.

MN: So where did you eventually find your drummer?

Ian: One day, an old friend of mine, Greg Meyer, called me up out of the blue. We’ve known each other since we were 14 years old but haven’t seen each other for three years. He said he was moving to LA to go to school and he was bringing his drums, so we had found our drummer. But Lee, our keyboard player, had played both keyboards and bass, so we decided we needed one dedicated player for each, and that’s where Brian came in, Edward’s younger brother. He now plays the bass. And that’s us five.

MN: How do you write your songs?

Ian: Every time we added a new member to the group a new influence came in, and every time that happened we dropped our old songs and started writing new ones as a collective, so all the songs are written together. We all had to like them. For one year, we adapted a 'just write and don’t tell anyone policy'‚ until we finally started playing live.

MN: So if every member brought in some influence, how would you describe your musical style now?

Ian: (laughs) I'll give this one to Brian. Hardest question ever!

Brian: To break it down I think we cover pretty much all genres of music. It’s a sort of dancy/groove style. Someone once did a review in the States; and they called it 'sunshine’s sake'. I liked that! There you go, that’s our genre, 'sunshine’s sake'.

MN: Who inspired you?

Ian: (thinks) Hmm, tons of people. When we first started writing songs all of us were listening to Brazilian music, secondly Delia Movement, they are great! For us, the emphasis on beat and cool rhythm is essential; to be able to get people to move to music while you’re playing live is something that was really important to us, it’s just a fun thing. I think that earlier on when we started writing that was one of our biggest motivations. But we also listen to all the usual suspects like The Kings, The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Coming from California especially, you can’t get away from that.

MN: Have you been on tour in the States?

Ian: Yes. We’ve done two proper tours. In the major cities people know us but in many ways we’re still quite a young band in terms of doing live shows, I mean before starting to play live we’ve only been together for a year.

MN: Is this your first time in the UK?

Ian: Yes, Brian has been to Germany but this is our first time in England. It’s our first tour in Europe. We didn’t know what to expect really, many people told us people aren’t going to dance like in LA and that they will be analyzing us. It turned out that people were really cool in terms of dancing and in terms of response after the shows, so I think it’s been well received so far.

MN: Why the UK?

Ian: Our record label is from the UK, that’s probably the reason. There’s another one that we’re submitted for and that’s going to go to Germany, France and Spain and we’re really excited about it. We’re going to be more than happy to be there. This time we’re doing four shows in London, which is great, too! Two of them are actually at Scala, one is our CD release Party on in Feb at the Forum and we also play in Camden, Club Fandango.

MN: When is your CD coming out?

Brian: On January 29th. Heavenly Recordings will be releasing 'Oh MJ!’ on 7' vinyl, 7' picture disc and CD. The picture disc features a Stereolab remix of 'Oh, MJ' while the CD single also features a Crystal Castles remix of 'Lovers Who Uncover'. Following that, on February 12th, our 'Sing Song' mini-album will be released.

MN: I’ve seen that you have a video on your website. Is that your first one? And what does it say?

Ian: Yes it is. Basically the video captures exactly what the song is about and exactly what was first put on paper. It captures the essence of 'Oh MJ', in other words it shows all kinds of different people. If you see our shows in Los Angeles, there are all sorts of people, young and old and it’s all over the place in terms of our fans. I reckon it’s not just cool hip kids that listen to our music. What we do is a people thing, it’s not for any specific group, it’s for anybody. Our parents come to all our shows and really like it! I guess our music is some kind of social music. It’s for everyone to come and have fun, not be too serious and to let their hair down and have fun!