Interview: Log Flume
Brendan Armani Discusses His Band & The Philly Guitar Pop Scene
Philadelphia might just be the capitol of modern guitar pop.
The local scene is home to several Remember The Lightning favorites, including 2nd Grade, The Tisburys, and Hurry, among many others, but it seems like I week doesn’t go by without adding another name to that list. Most recently, I’ve fallen for the powerpoppunkgeekrock of Log Flume.
“I think the city’s affordability and proximity to other major cities brings a lot of musicians here in general. There’s also a certain spirit to the city that seems to fuel people’s excitement about watching and making music,” Log Flume guitarist/vocalist Brendan Armani told me for the interview below.
“There are tons of house venues and a good number of local bars and performance spaces to have shows, so it’s a good ecosystem for a strong scene.”
As a testament to the ever-expanding Philly scene, Log Flume has put together a killer bill of local talent for a one day Popadelphia festival on July 19th.
“We try to throw power pop-centered shows every now and then with similar bands in the area, and we really wanted to go big with this mini-fest of sorts that we’re calling Popadelphia. Our friend Tyler Asay of the Tisburys actually suggested the name after writing the article Popadelphia Popnation for one of RTL’s quarterly guitar pop journals,” Armani said.
“We’re very excited because it’s the venue we initially met at. So kind of a full circle moment to come back to play two years after we started the band there.”
I connected with Armani by email to discuss Log Flume’s 2024 album Splash Hits!, his thoughts on the Philly guitar pop scene, and what’s next for him and the band.
Brendan Armani Interview
I'm fascinated by the steady stream of great guitar pop coming out of that town. Any idea why that is?
Brendan Armani: Philly is an incredible place as far as guitar pop music goes. Besides the Popadelphia bands we’ve got 2nd Grade, Hurry, Mopar Stars, Benny P, The Blackburns, Fair Game, Pontiac Flare… the list goes on!
It’s a bit of a mystery to me why there’s so much guitar pop here in particular. I guess in some ways the groups influence each other—other local bands certainly influence us at least and keep us excited about making this kind of music. It’s not like there are power pop shows every weekend like there are with other genres, but given the decently small size of the fan base of this kind of music in general we’ve got a lot of it going on in Philly.
We try to contribute to the scene by throwing power pop centric shows like Popadelphia. Not only are they fun to play, but I have a blast watching the whole bill when we have them. Book the shows you wish you were seeing (or something like that)!
To my ears, Log Flume's sound marries a few of my favorite musical styles—anthemic power pop, pop punk, and '90s-influenced geek rock. How do you describe your own music?
Brendan Armani: That pretty much sums it up! Put shortly, I describe it as power pop with some punk sprinkled in. But you hit the nail on the head with what we have out on our debut record Splash Hit! at least.
Some of our collective favorite bands are Guided By Voices, Teenage Fanclub, Big Star, The Pastels and The Byrds. I personally am a huge fan of Weezer and bands in that universe (like That Dog, The Rentals and Ozma), Ramones, and grew up on the pop punk of the ‘90s and early 2000s. So a mesh of all that is my influence on the group, and comes through especially in the songs I contribute.
One of my favorite tracks from your 2024 album Splash Hit! is the lead off track "Angel's Flight." What's the story behind that one?
Brendan Armani: I was listening to a lot of Teenage Fanclub when I wrote that one if you can’t tell. I was also reading a lot about ancient civilizations at the time and the song is kind of about the ebb and flow of things around you at the point of history you happen to live in, and the resilience of humans—we’ve been through some crazy stuff, but we’re still here and kicking!
This is also the only song on the record that wasn’t mixed by friend of the band Arik Viktor of Creep Records. We got our other friend Matt MacNeil to mix this one, who is a great artist from Toronto that we met at the Guided By Voices 40th anniversary shows in Dayton, Ohio a little while back. Gives it a little different sound from the rest of the album!
I've also had "On The Spaceship" on repeat recently. What was the inspiration for that one?
Brendan Armani: That’s our former lead guitarist Paul’s one song on the album. It’s a rocker, I love it! That one was the most collaborative in terms of the song structure—he came to practice with a verse and a chorus, and we worked out the rest of the parts on the spot together. It takes some fun turns that the other songs don’t because of that!
I think the song is kind of about the flakiness of setting up shows and being in the DIY music world. But I’d have to ask Paul for the real story!
"Surfer On Acid" has a great '90s lo-fi vibe to it. Scronky's vocals and the guitar solo really make me want to hear it live. Is that one regularly featured on your setlists?
Brendan Armani: Yes! We play that one at every show, so if you ever get a chance to see us live you’ll certainly hear that one. Let Scronky sing!
If I got in the tour van with Log Flume, what would I be listening to?
Brendan Armani: If it’s me picking the music it’d probably be a Beach Boys record accompanied with me telling Brian Wilson stories (RIP!). If it’s Scronky, it’s XTC with Andy Partridge stories. If it’s Gabe, he’ll play prog music with stories about random ‘70s prog bands while the rest of us complain that we’re tired of listening to prog. We haven’t toured with our new guitar player Nich yet, so his choices are yet to be revealed!
When can we expect new music?
Brendan Armani: We’re actively working on our second album and hope to have the first single out soon! Instead of recording it in my basement, we’re recording it with Mike Bardzik over at Noisy Little Critter studio in Downingtown PA. He’s recorded a lot of stellar artists we like such as Hurry and Spraynard. The songs are turning out pretty great so far!
We’re going to try to pitch this one to some labels which we’ve never done before. Depending on how that goes it might affect the timeline of the releases a bit - we shall see!
More Writing About Philly Guitar Pop
Instant Nostalgia (Revisited)
Our semi-annual Remember The Lightning: A Guitar Pop Journal is on an indefinite hiatus, but we’re really proud of the four volumes we released. Today I’m sharing my exploration of Philadelphia’s 2nd Grade, the cover story for Volume 4. —S.W. Lauden
Interview: The Tisburys
Philadelphia is a hotbed of guitar pop activity these days and The Tisburys are one of the bands leading the charge.
Interview: Matt Scottoline
Summer is here and with it comes a wave of excellent new guitar pop releases.
(literal) music to my ears