Exclusive Interview with BURN THE LOUVRE

The Hamilton, Ontario-based indie duo “Burn The Louvre” is made up of Jordan Speare (vocals/guitar) and Sean Cooper (guitar/vocals). Engineer and producer Mickey Ellsworth recorded, mixed, and mastered their debut LP Silhouettes, which is scheduled for release in 2022.
Years before meeting Cooper, Speare began working on Silhouettes. For the first time ever, he decided to record as a “solo artist,” and he asked his friend Andrew Billone of Silvertone Hills to play lead guitar and bass on all 11 songs on the album. He also asked Stephanie Deshane, a friend and fellow musician, to join him on the fun duet “Alison,” which features a charming back-and-forth.
Late in 2018, after Jordan & Mickey finished recording Silhouettes, he got a message from guitarist Sean Cooper. He was responding to a Kijiji ad for “Musicians Wanted” that Jordan had neglected to remove.

The ninth single by Burn The Louvre from their debut album Silhouettes was just released. “Easy” is a melancholy singer/songwriter song. The conclusion of an ongoing on-again, off-again relationship served as the inspiration for this song. It is a summary of how, despite appearances, human relationships are rarely as simple as they seem. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:

1. Can you tell us a bit about where you come from and how it all got started?

BURN THE LOUVRE: Hey Illustrate Magazine! Thanks for having me! So my name’s Jordan Speare (vocals/guitar), I’m one half of Burn The Louvre with my friend Sean Cooper (guitar/vocals). We’re from Hamilton, Ontario in Canada. I originally started Burn The Louvre with my brother Dylan back in the early 2010’s. We released 2 EPs together, Post-Romance EP in 2014 and We’ll Be Just Fine in 2017. Shortly after we released that 2nd EP, my brother decided that he didn’t want to do this anymore…so I was kind of forced to start over from scratch. After my brother left, I went through a few different lineup changes that hadn’t worked out, so I ended up working with the most excellent Mickey Ellsworth recording our debut LP Silhouettes in 2018 by myself with help from my friend Andrew Billone of Silvertone Hills, which is a dope band by the way, go check them out for sure [laughs]. Andrew played lead guitar and bass on all 11 tracks on the album. I also got some help from my friend & fellow singer/songwriter Stephanie Deshane, who sang with me on “Alison” and really made that song what it is. So, Mickey and I finished recording Silhouettes at the end of 2018; a week or two later I got an email from guitarist Sean Cooper. He was answering a Musicians Wanted ad on Kijiji that I had forgotten to take down after getting disappointed so many times from other musicians earlier that year [laughs]. We ended up getting together for a beer and we hit it off, so we got together to jam the following week and we’ve been getting together an average of once a week ever since. Working with Sean has been great and I’m looking forward to releasing our new music that we’ve been working on together within the next few years.

2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?

BURN THE LOUVRE: Well, I started out playing the drums as a kid and into my teens and played in a bunch of really mediocre high school & college bands [laughs]. I didn’t even take up guitar until I was 20 years old and sick of playing the drums, so I kind of taught myself and then took some lessons here and there from my buddy Dave Lindsay and the great Matt King afterwards to work on my technique and bless them, they even tried to teach me theory [laughs]. I learned a lot from Matt especially, he taught me sound technique. I’ve taken some online courses as well through the National Guitar Academy to try to brush up on some theory. Mike Kennedy is the fucking man. I even signed up for some online courses for a little while and took that Tom Morello guitar course. I mean, we live in a world where you can get video lessons from Tom Morello! Moral of the story here, in my opinion, it’s a good idea to learn from different people in different ways. I try to stay very open-minded in that regard.

3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences and why the name ‘BURN THE LOUVRE’?

BURN THE LOUVRE: So I grew up with a lot of The Beatles and bands from that era through my parents. My parents both have a massive record collection and my Dad has a nice stereo system, so my brother and I grew up with music playing in the house all the time, which I feel was very important. As I got older I really started to develop my tastes. Now my three main lanes are: female singer/songwriters or female-fronted bands like Lana Del Rey, Phoebe Bridgers, Alexandra Savior, Caroline Rose, Metric, Alvvays, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Kills, stuff like that; hardcore punk bands like Single Mothers, PUP, White Lung, Bully, bands like that…and really good hip-hop like Mos Def, Kendrick Lamar, Black Star, Run The Jewels, Jay-Z, Childish Gambino, The Fugees…I really respect all the hip-hop artists out there who have something to say. The name Burn The Louvre actually came from a Fight Club quote! I don’t believe it’s in the movie, but it was a quote in the book. I’m a big fan of the book and the movie is actually my all-time favourite, so it felt very appropriate to name my band after a Fight Club quote [laughs]. The thing I love about a name like Burn The Louvre is that it can be interpreted a few different ways. It can be viewed as a call for “down with the upper echelon”, but I like to interpret Burn The Louvre as “people don’t care about art anymore, humanity doesn’t deserve art. If art is so “unessential”, then let’s just burn The Louvre down and see how we feel about it.”

4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?

BURN THE LOUVRE: I don’t know if there’s anything in particular, it would definitely vary from song to song. Especially on this album Silhouettes where there’s a pretty even mix of happy songs versus sad songs. There are a few punk influenced songs on this record, there’s one song that features the ukulele, another one’s got a cowbell in it [laughs]. Not to sound like one of those pretentious musicians, but I just feel that one of your jobs as an artist is to try to create a diverse discography for your audience while also trying to maintain a distinct sound. Which in our case is a unique brand of stripped down indie rock mixed with some folk tendencies. The great thing about new records though is that you can always change that sound as you see fit moving forward. So while Silhouettes is Burn The Louvre right now, our new music that Sean & I have been working on is very different. Which is one of the most exciting things about music, right? The possibilities that come with artistic growth.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as FOLK?

BURN THE LOUVRE:

That’s an excellent question. As I had mentioned earlier, I didn’t even take up guitar until I was 20 years old and sick of playing the drums [laughs], so I kind of taught myself with some help from some good people along the way, of course. I think if anything though, starting out on the drums meant that rhythm guitar came very naturally to me and it didn’t take long for me to get a good handle on singing & playing at the same time. While I’d like to think I have my own style, which I am constantly trying to improve upon, I definitely borrow from other singer/songwriters or guitarists that I admire. I feel there’s definitely some Joel Plaskett in there, some Sam Roberts, maybe a little Beck. I’d like to be able to play guitar like Blake Lee one day, I love what he does for Lana Del Rey’s music. I really admire guitar players who can dictate the mood of the music without necessarily having to “show off” all the time. I’m definitely not a flashy guy.

6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

BURN THE LOUVRE:

It’s funny, because these songs on our new record Silhouettes, which we’ve been releasing this year 1 song per month, they all just so happen to be about ex-girlfriends or women I used to know. It just kind of happened that way, it definitely wasn’t planned. So most of these new songs on Silhouettes are love songs in some capacity. While love songs are nice, I am really trying to move away from them and write about some different aspects of my life and things that are happening around me. Most of my new songs are very anti-capitalism and I’d like to think of them as some form of commentary on what’s going on in the world right now. I do think that artists & musicians have a certain duty to try to contribute to the bigger picture when they’re creating their art. The best art is honest, and while I don’t have anything against love songs, I mean, having said all that, I still have a couple more love songs leftover that I will probably record and release one day [laughs], but in respect to most of my new songs that I’ve been working on, I really am trying to write more openly about my thoughts on the current state of our planet and hopefully contribute to that bigger picture.

7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?

BURN THE LOUVRE:

Music honestly hasn’t given me anything back [laughs], not yet anyways. I operate as a DEY musician, as in Do Everything Yourself…so naturally, I’ve invested an enormous amount of work into Burn The Louvre, over the last 5+ years in particular. There are very few areas I will actually outsource work to a professional, mainly when it comes to recording/mixing/mastering. My friend Mickey Ellsworth, who handled all of those duties on this new record Silhouettes, did an incredible job and I will definitely be giving him a call when it’s time for us to record again. And I also got some help from my friend John McKnight who developed the website that me & my best friend Austin designed. But for the most part, I do almost everything else myself when it comes to my music…so I’ve got a few more EPs that I want to record & release within the next few years and then when I turn 35 I’m going to sit down and reassess whether it’s worth continuing doing this or not. I don’t want to be one of those guys in his 40’s playing music just for the sake of doing it. I want to get this to a point where it’s profitable enough for me to retire from my job early. If things don’t work out the way I’d like them to, at least I know I can walk away from this with my head held high knowing that I did everything in my power to try to make Burn The Louvre successful.

8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?

BURN THE LOUVRE:

That’s a really great question and unfortunately I don’t have a good answer for it [laughs]. It really does vary from song to song. I’ve had some songs where I’ve had the music and the chord progressions written and ready to go, but struggled with the lyrics until something happened and inspiration hit. There’d be some cases where I’d get lyrics written very quickly and already have the melody in my head and I’d just have to try to transcribe that on the guitar afterwards based around the melody. Every song is a little different for sure. Sometimes I’ll finish a song in under an hour and sometimes I’ll leave it for months and then come back to it and finish it off later. Inspiration can be tricky for sure, but the one thing I will never do is rush a song or force something that isn’t there. I’ve always operated as more of a lone wolf in regards to collaboration. Even when my brother was in the band, we would each have our own songs written and we would basically just edit each other’s work. If he were stuck on a line here or there or he’d tell me what he’d want me to play on the guitar etc. – Sean and I operate much the same way. He has his songs, I have mine and we try to edit each other’s work and compliment it as best we can.

9. What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?

BURN THE LOUVRE: My brother leaving the band is still one of the worst moments of my life. The years of uncertainty and rebuilding that came afterwards was just a massive amount of work for someone to do by themselves, which was made harder knowing that although I was making all this positive progress – by myself, no less – to an outsider looking in, it appeared like I wasn’t doing anything at all during those couple of years while Burn The Louvre was inactive. So rebuilding this project from scratch after my brother quit was easily the most difficult thing I’ve had to endure while doing this.

10. On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?BURN THE LOUVRE: Honestly, I don’t think I’ve had my big proud, significant moment yet…more like a lot of small victories here and there, you know? The radio play is always very appreciated, the blog write-ups and the interviews (thanks again Illustrate Magazine!) are always appreciated…I guess, just the fact that anyone is taking enough of an interest in what we’re doing to come to one of our gigs or write about us or give us a spin or even something as simple as adding us to your playlist, every small victory definitely helps when you’re an independent musician and of course my hope is that one day eventually all of these small victories will add up and some bigger opportunities will come from it. Regardless, I’m going to keep working at this until it doesn’t make sense to me anymore, but it has been extremely encouraging to see all of the new listeners discovering us this year. I’m hoping we can build off of this and Burn The Louvre can have an even better year in 2023. In the meantime, please check out our debut LP Silhouettes which is available everywhere November 29th 2022!