Time for today’s BotD, all the way from Ohio…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Cincinnati, Ohio. Midwest, babies!
How did you meet?
Kirsten and I went to the same all girls high school and we met freshman year in gym class, when we bonded over our sick pink Chuck Taylors. Chris lived in the same neighborhood as Kirsten, so we met him around the same time. I before I met Chris, he would be the only person who commented on our high school band’s Xanga page (I’m talking pre-MySpace days y’all).
How long have you been playing as a band?
About 5 years.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We played a few shows with the name Sweet Teeth before we discovered a really horrible Australian band with the same name. After that, I suggested the name Leggy, which had been a fake band name me and my younger sibling had used when we were pretending to be a band when we were kids. I guess Leggy as a band name had been latent in my brain ever since childhood. I’m glad we changed it ! Leggy is way better than Sweet Teeth.
What are your influences?
Collectively, a mix of contemporary pop mixed with classic rock and a lot of 90s grunge and punk.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
I would love to be a pop star; if I could make pop music and play it live I definitely would. I don’t know how to do that, beyond just playing an electronic tracking and singing on top of it (which has never seemed appealing to me). However, I do know how to play guitar, so that is how our songs came to be. If you can imagine self aware pop music performed via a punk medium, that would be an apt description of Leggy. Also, we’ve been doing it DIY for 5 years now and have lugged more gear, played in more houses, and slept on more floors than most pop stars ever will!
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Almost all of my lyrics are relationship centric, though not necessarily in a romantic sense. Interpersonal relationships cause the most intense and visceral feelings I’ve ever felt, and those feelings are the most important to capture and express in my opinion. Most of my lyrics tend to leaner towards the darker side vs being light hearted.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live shows are pretty high energy. Yes, people mosh. A recurring comment from people who have just seen us live for the first time is that they didn’t expect us to be as loud or fast as we are. I think our number of live shows is probably in the 400-500 range. We stopped keeping track in 2016 and it was in the upper 200s then.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Chris (our drummer) threw up on himself mid-set and kept playing (granted it was in a extremely hot and crowded basement, and it was also in his previous now-defunct noise band).
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
I played a beautiful beach babe Telecaster and use a lovely Vox combo amp called a Night Train.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are currently on a tour in the UK with our labelmates Personal Best! It’s been a blast so far ! Before meeting up with them, we were ing our pals The Spook School on their farewell tour, which was one of the biggest and most special honors in our career as a band.
We are also doing a few shows over here with Pile after we part ways with Personal Best. Super fucking excited. I also would love to plug our album “Let Me Know Your Moon” which is only six months young ! It is chock full of lush punk bops, if you follow me.
What are your plans for 2019?
We have been touring a lot this year leading up to and following our album release. After we get home from this tour, I want to focus on working on all the songs we have started through out the year – they are weird and fucking great and more experimental but also more pop than our previous stuff if that makes sense? I am very excited. Be on the lookout for some new tunes in early 2020 hopefully ! We are also moving from Cincinnati to Chicago at the end of the year, something I am super looking forward to.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
My ultimate dream would be for Leggy to open for Lana Del Rey, St. Vincent, or The Distillers. I love them all so much. I’d have Gully Boys from Minneapolis open the show. I just saw and met them recently and they absolutely destroyed it. Someone snap them up and sign them ASAP please!
Leggy: facebook | twitter | soundcloud | bandcamp
