At 9 p.m. on Tuesday, the only sign that Danny Bobbe, Jon Perry, Greg Katz, and Harlow Rodriguez—more commonly known as LA Font—would soon be onstage is Bobbe restringing his guitar. They’re in the green room of The Echo, waiting to play their album-release show, drinking a PBR. The past year has been spent creating eleven tracks for Diving Man, their sophomore LP, released Nov. 19. Now, to commemorate its finish, LA Font took over The Echo, disco balls and gold-jumpsuit-clad dancers in tow. But before they hit the stage, we got used to their dry sense of humor while discussing their views on their music, each other, and Justin Bieber.
LA CANVAS: Tell me about the new LP. What separates it from your first, The American Leagues?
GK: We tried harder. That’s definitely true. That’s the most succinct way I can put it.
DB: We tried like ten times harder. We didn’t have any Internet content when we started off as a band, so we wanted some YouTube videos. So we went to a studio with some videographers to create some YouTube videos. And it was all low-lit and all the footage came out really, really crappy, and we didn’t want to use any of it. But the tracks we recorded—all eleven of them—they were okay. So we made our first record and it turned out okay. But the new record, we had four days, so it was four times as good.
JP: Well and  there was a decent amount of prep with a good producer.
GK: Yeah, Eric (Palmquist) is the dude. Without Eric, it would have sounded the same as the first one.
LAC: And what’s the group dynamic as you’re writing?
DB: Well I’m leader, and I don’t really care about anyone else. I’m captain, and CEO, and Chairman of the Board. I’m VP too. I’m Sarah Palin and Rob Ford and Justin Bieber and Rihanna.
GK: It’s an honor to be playing with Justin Bieber. With his rippling abs, his incredible songwriting talent, his…pants. Also his very brotherly relationship with Usher.
LAC: I’ve been listening to Diving Man, and I heard that it’s autobiographical. It’s quite the sad song. I like it, but how’s life going?
DB: Ha. Things are going pretty well now. You know, life has its ups and downs, but you caught me at a bad moment. But, overall things are cool, and we love it out here.
LAC: So how’d you decide to create this show to celebrate the release of the LP?
DB:Â It’s definitely a home court advantage, playing at The Echo. It’s the best venue, the best neighborhood that we all associate ourselves with. We also have our practice space around here.
LAC: Got any pre-show rituals?
DB: Well right now I’m changing these stings. You’re not supposed to change them at the last minute, but if it’s between having your guitar go a little flat or breaking a string, we’re gambling on the guitar going a little flat. But no, the real ritual is making Greg write out four set lists, one for each member of the band.
GK: I Â look forward to it. This one got custom art.
JP: I see that. I like what you did with Fine Lines. It’s a cocaine nose job. That’s clever.
