10 Years in the Making - Interview with Jordan from La Dispute on their ‘Rooms Of The House’ World Tour

It's not often you get the chance to interview a band that has been incredibly impactful for over a decade, not just for you but for many people who grew up with their music during crucial developmental years. For me, La Dispute was a gateway band during my time in the USA. Back then, I was playing in Emo and Indie bands, later joining a touring band heavily influenced by the sounds of Modest Mouse and mewithoutYou. My journey led me to discover La Dispute and their records 'Here, Hear Vol III', 'Somewhere At The Bottom of The River, Between Vega and Altair', and 'Wildlife'. I had the privilege of seeing them perform in various countries, from Toronto with Touché Amoré to an abandoned, burnt-out house in Wollongong.

Post-hardcore band La Dispute commemorates the 10th anniversary of their acclaimed 2014 album “Rooms Of The House” with a one-off Australian show in Sydney this November as part of their exclusive global tour. This tour will see the band perform the album in full, along with selections from their catalog. The Michigan five-piece band will perform at Sydney’s Roundhouse on Friday, 22nd November, marking the final night of their ‘2024 Five Nights Only Tour’ which includes stops in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Grand Rapids. These shows will not only be their only “Rooms of the House” anniversary shows but also their only remaining headlining shows for the entirety of 2024 as they continue preparations for a new album.

It was awesome getting to speak with Jordan from La Dispute, the vocalist and lyricist behind their impactful release made in 2015, the B-side released ahead of their ‘Rooms Of The House’ titled ‘Elster Stares The Desert Down’. We discussed their community back home, the influences behind this record, and the exciting tour ahead of them

Morning La Dispute, Where are you currently writing to us from? And who did we have today?

Hello and apologies for the delay. Been hectic over here in Seattle, where I live and am writing you from. You’re speaking with Jordan.

It was awesome to see La Dispute announce the ‘Rooms of The House’ Global World Tour for the 10-year anniversary, with a few key locations — Why did you only focus on London, Sydney, Berlin etc for this tour? – And with one show in Australia, why Sydney?

Having spent the better part of the last couple years touring for the belated 10-year of the LP that preceded “Rooms,” we decided to keep this run short, both to focus on writing a new record and to not get too caught up in the nostalgia circuit. Since we opted for a shorter celebration this go around, we wanted to focus on cities/countries that have played a particularly strong role in our history, and ones that gave people the option to travel a shorter distance given the limited amount of shows we decided to play. Some of them were fairly easy decisions—our hometown, for instance, and Berlin/London—and some we struggled a bit with. Picking one city in Australia was difficult given that Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth have always been important destinations for us, but ultimately Sydney made the most sense for everyone logistically. We’ll also be recording in Australia shortly after the show.

I imagine touring this way could be quite costly, but the exclusivity is really appealing. Do you find that people travel long distances for your shows? It must be amazing to meet people and hear stories from all over.

Touring is costly, for sure. And it was difficult to whittle down to so few shows, but every time we considered adding more it became harder to pare down because it felt like if we did another show in another city, then we should probably play another city nearby, and we would’ve ended up doing a full tour again. The hope was that people would travel, and we met a good number of folks at the first three European shows that had flown in or taken the train from other countries or came from fairly distant cities in the countries we played, and we know already quite a few people are flying in to Grand Rapids (where we’re from), which is pretty amazing on multiple levels. It was particularly difficult to not do more shows in the US, given how big the country is, and how many different cities have been important to us over the years, but we wagered that doing just the one in our hometown would not just make it the single most important one of the run, but that getting people to fly in from around the country to visit our hometown would make it all the more special for us and for the city. We’re putting together a travel guide zine for people who end up making that trip.

How does it feel to commemorate the 10th anniversary of "Rooms Of The House"? What memories from the recording or release of the album stand out the most to you? And who worked across the Production back those years ago?

It’s pretty incredible to reach any landmark, and to have people who still connect to the record excited about the shows is a difficult to articulate joy. Genuinely never looked ahead at any point in our career so these things have kind of snuck up on us. It’s a reminder of how important this has been to our lives and how content we are now having spent so much time and energy on it. 

We recorded the record with Will Yip at Studio Four outside of Philadelphia and the time surrounding it really stands out in my mind as both a fruitful and challenging one for us, that ultimately ended in a product we still feel precious about and pleased with. Will remains one of our best friends and someone I speak to regularly, and the majority of my memories around the recording center on time spent in and around the studio with Will, who was really instrumental in helping us achieve the vision we had, and who is generally just one of the best and hardest working people we know.

Will the shows be album only?, or will you be throwing some fan fav’s in there too?

The record is only a little over 40 minutes so we’ll be doing a long encore that spans essentially the rest of our catalog, including a deep cut or two, with some of the songs people love most live sprinkled in.

Reflecting on your journey as a band from Michigan, how do you feel La Dispute has evolved musically and personally since the release of "Rooms Of The House”?

Every era is one of growth, musically and personally, and our time spent post-COVID lockdown really cemented the desire to continue at it for at least awhile. It also really made us focus on what we each need to do individually and collectively to stay passionate and healthy about existing in an industry that can be challenging financially, emotionally, and physically. We communicate on a better level now in our mid- to late-thirties. We know what we need and want. In some ways I think having that forced time away has re-centered what La Dispute means to us, and what we want from it, so this most recent period of playing and writing has been one of the more exciting and easy creative periods we’ve had, at least since we all moved away from each other and to different parts of the world. 

​​A song that resonates with me is — Stay Happy There" seems to delve into themes of conflict and resolution? Which song off this record takes you back 10 years, and resonates with you the most?

Funny thing about going back to this record is how much of it resonates on a deeper level than it did when we wrote the record. Where “Wildlife” feels like a time capsule, “Rooms” feels almost prescient. Like the themes and stories on the record connect more to us personally after experiencing some of the conflicts and resolutions and collapses the record discussed fictionally. Hard to find a song that doesn’t feel personal now, despite the bulk of the record existing around characters I created. 

On a different personal level, the songs that do draw directly from real life events are songs that involve my family history (and Brad’s too, we’re cousins). I think more and more about what my personal history means in the context of present me, and listening back to those songs feels special in a way now.

I've always been curious about what inspired you all to start La Dispute. What were some of the musical influences behind your writing and sound? I've followed your music closely since "Somewhere At The Bottom of The River..." and have always wondered about your inspirations or influencing artists/sounds.

We were teenagers who loved At the Drive-In, Glassjaw, Refused, and those are probably the influences that shine through in our earliest writing, along with whatever hardcore was in the zeitgeist at the time. The bigger influence was probably just the bands we were playing with around the midwest, both musically and ethically. A lot of who we ended up being was informed by who we interacted with, engaged with, grew up with, and I don’t think we’d be the band we are now without those formative years playing basement shows in the Great Lakes area.

On a lyrical level, I was also pretty enamored with some music that might feel a little left field, namely Joanna Newsom, and I think that influence is pretty noticeable on “Somewhere” in particular. And we’ve all always been interested in grandiose, conceptual, involved projects—in music and in other mediums—which I think you can see pretty clearly in how we’ve approached our records since very early.

And.. where do you write, and build his lyrics from? Where does you draw inspiration from?

I try to pay attention to what’s happening around me more than anything. If you’re looking carefully at the world I think it’s pretty hard to not grab onto powerful moments, big and small, throughout the course of each day. Generally speaking I know what I want a record to be conceptually well earlier than we start working on it. More often than not the idea springs from a particular thought or line or theme. Once I’ve locked in on that it becomes sort of world-building—looking for things that attach alongside the original thought and stay with me over time. I also love to read and to interact with art in all forms. I don’t think there’s a better well for creativity than other people’s creativity, and seeing how other people accomplish their creative goals in their work helps me hone in on what I want to do or be as a lyricist. I think this is true of every one else as musicians too.  

What do things look like for La Dispute post global new tour? Are you working on a new record at all or keeping us on our toes?

Inadvertently answered this question before I got to it but yes, we are in the throes of the process right now and feeling very excited about the direction we’re heading. 

We love the local community at the end of the day - the people that we live next to, buy coffee from and support us with our ventures – I'd love to know some creatives, artists, bands from your community that we should be across, and what they do?

Completely agree. In fact, I think it’s the best part of being a musician in our little corner of the musical world, and the world beyond it. Our friend Luke plays in a band from Grand Rapids called Vagabonds who will be playing our home show in September. They also book punk/hardcore shows in West Michigan, where music is again really thriving. There’s a filmmaker in Grand Rapids we know a bit named Joel Potrykus who just released his most recent feature on the film festival circuit. All his movies are excellent, made independently and locally with people from West Michigan, and have really carved out a place in a competitive creative field. My favorite working artist in Michigan right now. Beyond that, there’s a ton of stuff going on across the state, in Detroit where one of our guitarists lives, and elsewhere. A band called Heavenly Blue we love, a band called Greet Death, and a ton more. To say nothing of the contemporary jazz and rap scenes. It’s really a great place for creativity.

Lastly, I saw you just released a new single called ‘Elster Stares the Desert Down’ – A B-side from Rooms of the House? Are there other b-sides from this era or is this just a stand-alone release?

No other b-sides from that session. In fact, that’s the only song we’ve ever left on the cutting room floor to date, at least after recording it. Just a stand-alone release, but we had great fun finishing it so many years down the line.

Well this has been lovely – hope i can make it out to the Sydney date later this year, and thanks for your time again, truly appreciate it

A pleasure chatting! Apologies again for the delay in getting back to you. Best to you and to yours.