Clouded Dreams: Interview With 800beloved

When the chance to add 800beloved onto the lineup for the soldout party at Santos on Aug 5 occurred, we jumped at it. I, personally, have been a huge fan of 800beloved since their moody, atmospheric and brilliantly well-written debut Bouquet, an album so timeless it should be canonized. The band's latest, Everything Purple, is another collection of shimmering anthems that  warm and freeze the heart. 

We tossed a few questions the way of 800beloved's Sean Lynch. The origin of the name,  the first album he purchased and more, as well as a stream of the new album's title cut, under the jump.

Soldout: Talk about the formation of 800Beloved. How did the band start and how did the name come about? How many people are in 800beloved in the studio, and what's the touring setup like?

Sean Lynch: The project started in late Summer 2005 following my ending work in a previous group, under a moniker I had been recording under for several years. 800beloved was taken from a seven digit toll free number for a funeral & cemetery service conglomerate (1-800-beloved). I was looking for a name that could cover the polarities in my songwriting and the "800" fused with a sacred word such as "beloved" provided the right irony and friction to not pin the project down to one sound.

The attendance in the studio has varied album to album. The first album, Bouquet, was recorded over three years time with few contributions from others. I began tracking the eleven songs in September of 2005 with Jon Elkas, the first of several former members. Other musicians came and went... I finished it alone. The second and newest album, Everything Purple involved co-production and engineering support from our current drummer, Scott Masson of the groups OFFICE & Glossies. Anastasiya Metesheva, our bass player, performs on a number of tracks from both albums.

Today's incarnation of 800beloved is Anastasiya, Scott, Eric Wilson on guitar and myself. Our touring setup has been cut down to the essentials... drums, two guitars, a bass and a variety of FX pedals. For the past year we've avoided using synthesizers live because they've never settled or sonically translated well within our live sound.

Soldout: What was the first album you recall buying on your own?

Sean: It was either "Lies" by GNR or Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" single. I must have been eight or nine.

Soldout: We're  particularly intrigued by a photo posted recently on the 800beloved Facebook page, of a piece of tour merch--a USB drive in the shape of a pill. This sort of item is both brilliant from a marketing perspective and a great piece of design. Did you design it yourself, and how did it come about?

Sean: I had heard of other bands leaking recorded material in electronic storage formats and liked that it provided an easy way for us to customize the contents and that we could do most it in house. During our earliest shows we used to throw out candy during our set, hoping to offset the audience's focus on our dismal sensibilities and bring to mind that we were in fact playing pop songs and very much interested in pop culture's "sugariness." So it only made sense to have a USB shaped like a pill or piece of candy. I simply got a company to print "8OOmg" on the device and Anastasiya and I, along with a few friends selected a bunch of candy that would look like aspirin or other medications if taken out of context and placed in a baggy.

In addition to the songs on the USB, we included Jpegs of Anastasiya's artwork, seperate lyric sheets for each song and a Quicktime video of us putting the "Black & Blue Pill" release together. It sold well and was a way for us to increase the chances of the song files being shared. Shortly after this we we're approached by Moodgadget to release our debut.

Soldout: There's a definite contrast between Bouquet and Everything Purple as albums but in our minds it can be heard no better than comparing the two opening tracks. Is "Everything Purple" a true love song in your mind?

800beloved: Everything Purple

Sean: Yes. Though, in my hopes "Everything Purple" is much more than a love song. The words within that song hint towards the origin of the entire album and certain discoveries I had made in my life. It was written as the prelude for the remaining eight songs as a way to provoke the listener to ask, "What does that even mean, (you're) everything purple?" Several hints are fixed within the lyrics of the preceding songs (and credits) of the album that would bring the picture into clearer focus. Although Bouquet and Everything Purple sound entirely different musically, they share imagery, blurring their differences, or the darkness & lightness from one record to the next.

Soldout: What are your top 3 albums at the moment?

Sean: Good "albums" are hard to come by these days. At the moment, anything by Grouper is on repeat, and songs by Walls, White Rainbow and other music that isn't as fixed in pop format as my own.

Soldout:Favorite books?

Sean: I haven't read them yet. I really should read more. The Holy Bible and The Stranger come to mind... I've been reading The Picture of Dorian Gray at the suggestion of a woman who reads much more than I find time to.


800beloved play the soldout showcase at Santos Party House in NYC on Aug 5. Doors at 7PM. Tickets and info here.