interview with loser cruiser
interview conducted by Joe McManus
photography by Sifa Gonzales (@sifa.graphy)
Close your eyes and think back on what it felt like to be held in suspension. Locking eyes with someone across the room, sitting next to your crush, dancing with someone you just met, the moment before your first kiss. Loser Cruiser doesn’t make songs, they create moments to be swept up in. Experiences that ask us to tear down our guard and feel the raw emotion that lives inside of us. Their first album called “Lcve” captures this in a way that’s very true to the style they’ve worked so hard to create playing shows across New York City. The band came together when Mackenzie L Friedmann, who sings lead vocals and plays bass, met Myrtle Anderson, who plays drums and also lends their vocals as well, and it wasn’t long after that Ryan Shapiro and Justin Humphrey joined them to add their keyboard and guitar to the mix respectively.
“It feels so fated that the four of us are together, we never had that moment of like ‘Oh man, we need this player’. When Myrtle and I met, it was like a dream of mine that I never understood how to actually make happen and it just started happening. And because of the inspiration of Myrtle’s music, it just started pouring out and we fill in each other’s cracks.” Mackenzie shared this with me as we set up for a sit down interview after their set at 18th Ward Brewing in Brooklyn. Although there were high hopes to complete a Q & A, the show roared on with the bands Lost Dog, Lolux, and Themme each taking the stage and delivering outstanding performances. We decided to indulge and take in the awesome live music, now wasn’t the time to sit and chat.
It was funny Mackenzie mentioned fate because as it stands, there is a history I share with the band that dates back to 2018. I saw them for the first time at a venue that I worked at in Woodside, Queens, and I was present for what the band fondly called, “Their worst show.” I can’t help but feel responsible because several stand up comedians went up and bombed before their set, of which I was one. And despite all of that, they still took the stage with grace and left such an impression on me that I knew that I had to reach out all these years later. They welcomed me with a warmth and kindness that reflects who they are as performers, thoughtful and honest. Hell, they even gave me a ride home.
The truth is in that time Loser Cruiser was on a path of discovery, experimenting and creating an intimate and harmonious sound. Justin and Ryan create an ambient sound space that Mackenzie fills with soulful vocals, and Myrtle keeps tempo even when the rest of us have forgotten that we’re all still in the same room and not high above the atmosphere. The resonance of the band’s backing vocals can be hypnotic, humming at a frequency that feels like searching for something you lost but trusting that you can find it again if you only keep looking. By the time the last note fades from the room, and we come crashing back onto Earth’s solid ground, there it is. Right where you left it.
I’d also be remiss not to mention Spencer Pond and CAVE DIVER who lent their vocals to their album, and Tyler Clayton Appel who played the saxophone on the album. There’s so much more to be said, why don’t we hear from the band themselves. The next weekend after the show, I had the chance to sit down with Mackenzie, Myrtle, Justin, and Ryan over coffee. Here’s what they had to say:
Lead vocalist and bassist Mackenzie L Friedmann
The album (Lcve) feels very cinematic, are there any images or scenes you thought of while making it?
Myrtle: Well, Ryan Justin and I do love films a lot. I think almost on equal terms with music. it’s kind of impossible for me to separate, like, making music without seeing the imagery because I’m not very like a words motivated person. I’m not a lyric motivated person in music.
Justin: I feel similarly about music where there’s a lot of things that influence how you visualize or internalize or associate sort of other sensory experiences while listening to music. To me it was a lot more about color like simplified visuals, like solid colors almost. The variations being the value and sort of the saturation of those colors. And then once we started recording then it becomes more of like a place you can feel something like the coldness in this place or we’re in a we’re in a quiet place or something like that.
Mackenzie: For me, of course, when I think of images I am such a word person. And every single line that I have pretty much has some kind of visual to me that’s very like particular about my life. Whether it’s a person or like me fainting in the bathtub or just the ocean in general. Or like something that Ryan told us he used to think about as a kid. Every time I hear an instrumental, even if I already have a poem written, it’s like I’m deciding what poem I think goes with whatever sonic idea is brought up.
Ryan: I feel like it in playing the different pieces and even in different sections, there is a space that I return to and I can’t define it as like an exact physical space but there is something special about it. I can’t define it as a specific color, but there is color. I return to these specific and yet not specific places every time. And so I feel like that’s where my playing is coming from. If you say a piece is very cinematic, it could also mean that it would lend itself well to film. And I feel like that is true of a lot of our stuff, because it doesn’t follow very standard formats of progressing throughout the piece.
Guitarist Justin Humphrey
What can someone expect from a Loser Cruiser show, and what’s something that they might experience that they wouldn’t expect?
Myrtle: There will be no talking. (laughing) There will be almost no break between songs. Our goal with any live show is to just have it be one long piece. And you will not know when songs end and start and you just kind of have to roll with it. If we do our jobs correctly, then it works out.
Ryan: I would say if you’ve never heard the songs before, maybe don’t try clapping when you think you should. You will probably feel really awkward. Just wait till the end.
Mackenzie: I don’t want people to clap after every song. It’s not necessary. I’d rather string it through so that the tension is held and you’re still in the world of it. Music is so powerful like that, there’s something about creating a tension and the manipulation of it, being able to release it. Where as if you have breaks in between that is like a complete release, so you have to build it up from scratch again. I think the ability to hold that energy and control it throughout the set is important.
Justin: I think we’re trying to engage with you, but we’re not asking you to do all the work. We try to make the tastiest stuff we can as far as sounds go and keep the whole performance as engaging as possible. So we don’t have to come get you. Also I think people are surprised to have such a sensuous experience at the show and be engaged in that way. Maybe people are not expecting to be allowed to walk in on their own accord.
Drummer and vocalist Myrtle Anderson
Is there anything about the first album that you’re particularly proud of?
Myrtle: I think what I’m most proud of is that if you come see us live and then listen to that record, you’ll get those emotions again. They’ll get those feelings and that intention will come across. We didn’t just want to name it “Live”, that’s why we went with “Lcve”, it’s a cheeky way of doing that.
Justin: “The chips the wax off the wood”, everytime I hear it it sounds perfect to me (from “Slowjam #2”). I remember mixing it and everytime it came up I was singing along to it. I’m really proud of the harmonies on the songs that we do on that record, they really do elevate the space that’s created.
Ryan: There is a song called “heron” and there is an ending to that song, which I felt was so impactful that I was pushing very hard and angrily to have that be the last moment in the album. Which apparently no one else thought was a good idea.
Myrtle: That’s not true.
Ryan: I don’t know, I thought it was shot down immediately. And at that point I felt like no one really understood the album like I did. (We all laugh) It’s interesting because actually that moment is featuring our friend, Tyler on sax, an amazing musician, amazing person, but that’s the only part that he’s on in the entire album. That moment that I feel most strongly about is a feature from someone that’s not even playing in the band at the time. It says something about all of us coming together to make something that’s sort of beyond us.
McKenzie: That middle section (on “heron”) is kind of my favorite moment. That was one of the first times that I actually liked the way my vocal sounded on this record. I went through a giant ego death with my voice because it was the first time that I really heard my voice recorded this well. And also I feel like me and Justin got to such a deep understanding of how that part is. We really understood each other’s timing just so perfectly, where we know exactly where everything is supposed to hit.
Keyboardist Ryan Shapiro
Have you ever considered pivoting to a Loser Cruise Line when you’re rich and famous?
Myrtle: Let’s be honest at a certain point in people’s careers the band cruise is definitely a smart move.
McKenzie: A band cruise?
Myrtle: Oh yeah, it’s a whole thing.
Justin: Like on a ship? Oh no, I won’t be there.
Myrtle: 2045, Loser Cruises.
McKenzie: I do like the idea of being on the water together though, I guess Justin will have to be virtual. (laughing)
Justin: I just have such a problem with cruise ships, they’re terrible for the environment.
McKenzie: We’ll go small scale, a sailboat cruise.
Justin: A sailboat cruise? Oh, I’m back on board now.
McKenzie: That’s what I’m saying, my mom’s the captain. We’re all the mates. Did you have that question written down?
What, if any, part of playing as Loser Cruiser feels like you’re living the dream?
Justin: Most of it.
Mackenzie: I love that question, I’m a little romantic at heart. I think I think of everything in my life as that because that’s how I want to function. We are genuinely getting to make the music that we want to make, we’re getting to share it, and it gets received in a way that’s giving that back to us.
Justin: I feel like when we get to play together, for me, it’s been a vacation from a lot of shit. When I come into this environment with these people that you’re hanging out with right now. That make me feel so human, make it feel so worthwhile to like, pursue the most human parts of yourself.
Ryan: I feel like for me, I can be a pretty socially anxious person especially within large groups of people. Being able to play with this band and see that there is communication between the band with a large group of people that is having a deep impact, that to me is really special because I don’t get that normally from other situations.
Myrtle: When you start learning about how people get to that, get to that thing of it, the dream state of it, and realize it’s not real. It’s not real. And and it never has been. That’s why they’re called dreams. They never really existed. And so more importantly to me than, like, living the dream is just taking into account that this is my life. It’s so cliche, that’s such like a Tumblr thing to say music is my life but at the end of the day I can’t stop it.
What’s next for Loser Cruiser?
McKenzie: The second record. We are very, very, very, very, very excited about it. It’s not the concept of a live record like “Lcve”, this is more of a recording project. For us, our strength is playing live. We’ve done that so much. We are those people like, yeah, it’s so much of the energy that we’ve discussed today, it has so much to do with the live interaction between all of us and that is like our super power. And now we have to figure out how to channel that superpower into the can.
Justin: We pushed a lot of the performances that we got on that first record because we’re prioritizing doing stuff live. For me, I’m really interested in pushing things in the studio and then seeing where they go. I’m pretty excited to try shit that might not work.
Ryan: I feel like we want to hold onto that organic feel but just digging into the parts a little more than we did last time.
Myrtle: The artists I’ve always liked a lot are people who are not afraid, and what I don’t want to be afraid of is that cycle feeling, “We have to make something like what we made before.” I want the ideas to come up and for us to work through them however we want to in the moment. So I mean I don’t exactly know what’s next, but there will be next stuff.
