Featuring former members of such bands as Jemani, Cycle, and 420 Outback (among others), Augusta rock band L.i.E. is a hard-hitting mixture of influences that fuses thick rhythms with infectious yet sometimes odd melodies to create a sound that, despite an often frantic nature, flows as evenly as the music of any other band in the area. While members Brint Lollar (guitar) Dale Lowe (keyboard), Josh Newman (guitar), Tony Miaco (vocals), and Jo Bone (bass) may have made marks beforehand, the five may have found their unified calling in L.i.E.

LL – So first off tell us about these two upcoming CD release shows you guys having coming up.

MD – The Sky City show was put together to be as different as possible… to do something to catch people’s attention and hopefully bring the different scenes together to celebrate. When I joined L.i.E., I barely knew anyone on the scene, but had recognized Brian Panowich of 48Volt (who practiced in the same place) from the Coffee Shoppe days on Gordon Hwy in the early 90s. When I visited the 48Volt website, I read what he’d written about the “lines in the dirt” drawn based on what music you listened to and how none of the cliques would intermingle. When I read this to the rest of the band, they all immediately wanted to do a show with 48Volt. So when we were ready to schedule our CD release, they were the first name to come up. We had been playing exclusively with other rock and metal bands and wanted to do something different and have people scratching their heads. Rebel Lion came about because Josh and Brint both worked with Salim, and he was pretty excited about trying to bring rock and rap together again.

TM- It’s all about symphonic connections…unity through music. We’re musicians and like more than just what we play. For the other show, we wanted to stay heavy for the majority of the Sector crowd and asked some of the younger metal bands if they’d like to join us.

LL – Now what was the reason(s) you decided to do both an all-ages show AND an over 21 show?

TM – We think our music is accessible to all crowds that enjoy heavy music. The younger people really like the heavier music we do, and the mainstream fusion is appealing to the bar crowd. We also have a wide age range in this band, and our guitarist has a lot of young friends that can’t see L.i.E. anywhere else except Sector. And we wanted to do a show where we could include some of the younger bands that we knew and wanted to play with us like Blood of an Empire.

MD – My first gig with L.i.E. was at Sector 7G, playing for about 5 people. We didn’t play Sector again for about 6 months when we hopped on the 4th anniversary show with 9 other bands. That night the crowd was much much larger and we got a great response. That lead us to think that we could be successful there if we worked to get the word out, and I’ve been impressed with the response so far. Several individuals have commented to us…”Where did you guys come from? How come I never heard of you?”

LL – Speaking of the CD, you titled your debut disc “Eviction.’ Why such an ominous sounding title?

TM – We were evicted from our rehearsal space with no notice the week we started recording. So we were “homeless” during the recording process.

LL – Now I know you guys sometimes get lumped into the metal category but after listening to the CD I gotta say you guys are definitely not merely a metal band. What exactly is L.i.E. musically?

MD – We are a mixed bag of influences that often do not intertwine but somehow manages to get all of the influences out in the songs. I personally love extreme metal, and symphonic and progressive rock like Yes and ELP but rarely listen to mainstream rock. Josh likes Incubus and Deftones and has been influenced heavily by a lot of local bands such as Thinfin, Estrela, and dieAgnostic. Tony likes Dog Fashion Disco and Mr. Bungle and tends to lean toward experimental music. Jo Bone has played in hippie jam bands and pretty much listens to everything. D.Lo is into heavier music like Protest the Hero and stuff like Tori Amos, Dead Can Dance and Fair to Midland. And Brint won’t commit to telling us anything about his influences. He just waves his arms around and says…”um…well, I don’t really know.” We just try to make each of our songs unique among the others. For writing, we just try to go with whatever idea is presented by whomever and then start adding.

TM – We like being a soundtrack band… producing a bunch of different songs with one overarching idea in mind. We each have our core influence but most of us like to branch out. We also wanted to set up this band so that we could play pretty much whatever we wanted from the start.

LL – The CD has a few, dare I call them this, instrumental sort of segues. Any particular reason for those?

TM – Tracks such as u.r., Before the Fall, and Lollipops and Fishing Lures serve as intros to the songs they precede.

MD – When we decided to record, we totaled up the running time, and it only came to about 50 minutes. Since a CD can take up to 75 minutes before you start having problems with replication, we wanted to give people that were paying for the album as much music as possible for their money. We had extra material that wasn’t part of a live set so we included them for something extra to add a bit of flavor. “Running in a Circle” was something that was posted on the band’s website for a long time as a short 1:20 guitar piece so we looped it and added a meandering orchestral classical arrangement over it.

LL – You also have the song “RE” on there twice, once in “L.i.E.” form and the other as a (cleverly titled) RE-mix done by members of lokal hip hop group Rebel Lion. How’d that come about and what was it like working with those guys?

TM – Our guitarist Josh works with Salim of Rebel Lion and they’d been talking about collaborating on a song for a while.

MD – Along the lines of filling up the album with “bonus” material, I’d suggested we do an electronica version of one of our songs. RE worked well because it was short and lended itself to hiphop verses nicely. Salim, Marco, and their producer Jeff of Bonafyde Beats came over one day at laid the vocals down. They were very organized, well-prepared and professional…and had their verses done in advance and rehearsed.

LL – “Gone Today”, a song written in memory of Augusta artist D.J. Casey. What prompted you guys to create this tribute song?

TM – The story goes… L.i.E. began as Lost which featured L.i.E. guitarist Josh Newman. Casey was DJ for the group. He was involved in a 4-wheeler accident that put him in a coma for a while. Basically, Casey was going to take over lead vocals of Lost but after the accident, Josh asked me to fill in the spot since it was assumed that Casey’s condition would not improve. However, after I joined, Casey came out of his coma but was unable to perform and eventually passed away. The theme of the lyrics was taken from comments on Casey’s mother’s blog while he was in the coma so it actually is not about his death but about the feelings everyone had thinking that he was brain dead while in the coma. It’s all a bit surreal.

JN – Also, Casey was working on an early version of the song, which was of course without a title at the time.

LL – So it has been said that artists are their own worst critics. Let’s let you guys be the rock critic and tell us what you feel are the strongest points on “Eviction.”

TM – For me, Heir to Ruin is my favorite track being that it was a song half-written in the studio and we had no idea how it would turn out. As for the production, I think we were able to capture a unique vibe because the engineer, Chris Osbon, was working out of his element and had no preconceived notion of what we should sound like nor had he ever recorded any harsh, screaming vocals. Overall, I would recommend Control for a general audience because it has a blend of the harsh elements with the melodic and spacey aspect to the band.

MD – EGOMACHINE! That brought in some of my favorite styles…thrash with some of the odd time feels. Focusing on the overall feel, the strongest point to me is that the album varies from start to finish and includes everything from hardcore and thrash to radio friendly alternative rock to classical symphonic and hip hop.

JB – My picture on the back cover (just kidding, Jo isn’t here.)

LL – With so many local bands recording out of town lately, what made you guys decide to stay in Augusta and record with Chris Osbon?

MD – Everyone works full time and we weren’t able to schedule a block of time at say, The Jam Room. We also knew that we weren’t going to be able to do this quickly with some songs requiring several guitar tracks and the vocals alternating between natural and harsh. We needed to take our time, and Chris Osbon had been friends with Josh through a common association with DJ Casey, oddly enough. Since Chris doesn’t operate Factory Studios as a full-time, all-day business, it was easier for us to schedule a couple of days a week in the evenings.

TM – And we knew of his reputation with In Like Flynn.. We knew he was a serious musician and had the means, had the time, and had no idea what to expect from us so it was a bit of an adventure.

LL – Alright, so what can Augusta peeps expect at these upcoming CD release shows?

TM – For the Sky City show… celebration of different musical styles and showing off some of the variety in Augusta music. Nothing from Rebel Lion, L.i.E., or 48 Volt is contrived so people will get an honest, from the heart show..

MD – For the all-ages show at Sector, expect face-crushing metal. We’re going to stick to our heavier material. We’ve got two great young bands in Blood of an Empire and Aralic and some friends from Savannah, Brokn Tyme, who have opened up some gig opportunities for us down there. Not to take anything away from the bands that have good draws at Sector, but we think we can bring something they’re not used to seeing there and hope they latch on.

BL – Me jumping and falling.

LL – And for those who can’t make the shows, is there any way to get a copy online or through you guys?

TM – WWW.DISCOVERTHELIE.COM will link everyone to our website where we have portals to cdbaby.com who carries physical CDs in stock and then the site also has links to iTunes, Amazon.com, Shockhound, Digstation and at least a dozen other online download stores as well for those who do the mp3 thing. We’ll also have CDs and shirts with us at every gig we’re playing in and out of town. If anyone wants a copy but can’t come to a show and doesn’t want to go through the online… we’re even cool with arranging to meet them.

LL – Any last parting shots for the readers out there?

MD – Mainly, I’m just happy to be able to get out now and contribute to the music coming out of Augusta and thank everyone for not only allowing L.i.E. to play but for supporting our efforts.

TM – I’d like to see more people in town that aren’t involved in the scene going out and taking notice of what Augusta has to offer… which is a lot. Our CD release show lineup is just the tip of the iceberg. There are metal bands that will melt your face, experimental music that competes with national artists, and basically, if there a type of music that you like… I guarantee there’s a band in Augusta that will suit your desires. Get out of the Regal Cinemas. Turn off the TV and the video game.

LL – Cool! Thanks guys!

L.i.E. – Thank you indeed.

Check out L.i.E. live

May 14th – acoustic at Hot Topic in Augusta Mall

May 15th – over 21 CD release at Sky City w/ 48Volt and Rebel Lion

May 23rd – all ages CD release at Sector 7G w/ Brokn Tyme, Aralic, and Blood Of An Empire

To hear and find out more visit http://www.discoverthelie.com