THIS IS A DIRECT CONTINUATION FROM MONDAY’S INTERVIEW. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE FIRST PART, CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Yesterday, Lego Indiana Jones gave a barnstorming final performance to a packed house at The Grand Social, Dublin. This the second part of our exclusive interview with the trio, which was to be released after the show as not to spoil any of the gig’s elements beforehand.

In this section, the band discuss their ideas for the last show, their plans moving forward, the band Last Apollo and getting them to open for them, the emotion of their music, and more.
_____________________________________________

Yeah, unless you’re George Lucas. [They laugh] One thing I wanted to ask was, yeah, so your swan song as a band is coming up. I was wondering why Lego Indiana Jones is calling it a day?

Pierce: Em, basically, I’m going to Canada for a year, so it would be impractical for the band to continue. I’m always going to keep making music. I feel like…it’s a complicated thing. Like, “Lego Indiana Jones,” as a name, is going to have to leave, anyway, I think, ‘cause of legal reasons, and I’m going to have to go away for a while, and the album’s going to be out, so we’re not going to be…I’m going to be wanting to make different music, anyway, so this is like…The project, by definition, is kind of done. What we set out to do is done. Whether or not we’re going to…I’m going to keep making stuff. We’ll probably work together again in some capacity on something, it just might not necessarily be called Lego Indiana Jones. Well, it can’t be called Lego…but, it might, like…I don’t know. You get into kinda of the idea of “What is a band?” If it’s just these three people, like, we’ve made this thing, it can’t be…in order for it to continue, in order for Lego Indiana Jones to continue, we’d have to make the exact same album again.

Thomas: Yes! In part, because, actually, the idea of the thing was that it was meant to be, like…it was conceived to make the album, and now that the album has been made, the thing is done, you know?

OK.

Thomas: And, like, it was meant to be a little side project for the band that me and Tom were in, beforehand.

Pierce: Yeah. It was meant to be just, like, a small side project, basically, yeah.

Thomas: Yeah.

Pierce: But I’d love to continue making more music in the same…Like, there’s no…it’s not like, “Oh, this is the last album you’re ever going to hear that’s, like, this kind of idea by these kinds of people,” it’s just the project is finished. It’s done its job, which is good. And, again, I’m going away for a year, in exchange. I might make music while I’m over there and stuff, but would it have to be…it would just be, like, a solo…maybe I’ll meet some Canadians who are good at making music and make stuff with them, but, you know, it’s on…it’s finished now. Yeah. Whatever happens, we don’t know yet. That’s the far future, so…

It’s entropy.

Thomas: And me and Tom will be, I think, kind of doing in a live band for a singer, as well, which is going to be cool, as well.

Yeah. So, what are you guys going to be up to – if you could maybe expand on that, then – when Lego Indiana Jones calls it a day?

Thomas: Oh, well I’ve been writing my own music for a time. I think I’d like to play guitar on the next thing I do, and try and be a frontman and sing and stuff, ‘cause that would be interesting.

Pierce: Yeah, you should make an album where you’re the frontman.

Thomas: Thank you. Just because I haven’t done it, and I think it might be…I’ll get better. I mean, what I love is I love assisting people, and, like, kind of collaborating, and supporting and stuff, because then I get to watch the thing happen, because I’m just a big fan of music, and I like music, and I like how it sounds, but if I do the frontman thing for a bit, I’ll probably get really good at that, as in, you know, helping people out. So, that’s what I’d like to do.

Pierce: [To Tom] What do you think…? Do you have any plans, like?

Tom: Well, I’ve got…I’m in another band, where I’m, like, writing stuff…

Pierce: Oh, yeah. Of course. Yeah.

Tom: …so, I’m kind of similar to what you’re going to do; I’m probably going to start singing and dancing and playing guitar.

Pierce: Tom is an excellent songwriter, actually.

Thomas: Tom is a very excellent songwriter.

Pierce: We did a song that he’s written at one gig, and I played drums for it, actually, and I can’t play drums, so it sounded really, really interesting!

Tom: Yeah, because I’ve been playing guitar longer than I’ve been playing drums, so it’s been very fun. I’ve had a really good kind of time playing drums in bands, and I’ve learned a lot from that, but I’m ready to kind of do my own thing now, I suppose.

Are you all self-taught or were you formally taught?

Tom: I’m self-taught.

Pierce: I did grade in piano. I finished my grade at, like, a couple of months ago. I spent, like, two years on it, because between COVID and being not actually a very good classical pianist, it took a long time. But yeah.

[To Thomas] And for yourself?

Thomas: I took some lessons when I started playing guitar, which was when I was, like, fifteen, sixteen. I didn’t really pay attention to them, very much. I would say I’m…I wouldn’t…everything on my instrument, I would say I’m self-taught at, but I’m in college for music, and I think that kind of takes away the qualification for being self-taught, even though we don’t do performance and stuff, we do a lot of theory, and that informs everything that I think about music, which I love. I love studying music, it’s fantastic.

Perfect. And then, for the actual last show itself, so it’s coming up on the 15^th. Last Apollo – who I think I saw supporting…I think it was Sprints at Whelan’s – I’ve seen them before. They’re really good.

Pierce: They are. They’re really good.

So, yeah, just talk a little bit about the last show, then. What can people expect if they pop along and so on?

Pierce: Well, shoutout to Last Apollo. Shoutout Lucy Rice. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” I wrote after Tom and I went to a Last Apollo gig…

Tom: I did not know about that.

Pierce: Yeah, no, I did, yeah! This is a bit of a…

This is the exclusive! [Laughs]

Pierce: Yeah, yeah. Just, there was that specific…yeah, I think, the way Lucy Rice writes music is really cool, and I was like, “I want to make a song that sounds like that!”, so I made one. I started writing “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and I stole, like, an Erik Satie thing or something…

Thomas: Yes! Yes!

Pierce: …and then came out with that.

Thomas: The Erik Satie thing!

Pierce: The only Erik Satie thing!

Thomas: Yeah, yeah! The only thing he’s ever done! [Laughs] Do you know Debussy once wrote a letter to someone else, ‘cause he [Satie] was eligib…like, he was going up for, like, a grant, and he said, like, “Don’t give this to him. He’s an idiot and he’s never done anything worth anything”? He’s so cool! I have a collection of his letters at home, and, eh, he was such a weird guy. Like, there’s so much stuff in the collection of letters that I’ve never found on the internet about him. Like, he had a cult and stuff. Like, he’s a really fucking interesting guy! And then, like, he only ate white food, like fish.

Tom: That’s right!

Thomas: And, also, he didn’t own a piano, so he’d go to – I think this is, actually, very well-known – he used to go to a hotel to play.

Pierce: Yeah.

Tom: He used to walk for miles.

Thomas: So cool. Yes, walked for miles. And he only ever loved one woman, his whole life.

Pierce: See? Working under restrictions, you know?

Thomas: Huh?

Pierce: Working under restrictions…

Thomas: Yeah. And, also, Last Apollo were kind of also, like, a big, “Oh!”, like, eureka moment for me and stuff. Because I remember we were going to some gigs together, and I think we saw Last Apollo, and we were like, “Oh, so that’s the kind of stuff that you can accomplish if you’re really organised about your music-making.”

Pierce: Yeah, that’s the thing, like, they’re all just normal guys that we kind of know.

Thomas: Yeah.

Pierce: Well, I mean, I don’t know them, but they’re in college with us, they’re our age, they’re just normal people, and it’s like, “Oh, this is, like, an amazing band that, like, loads of people just love. You can actually do that.” [Laughs]

Thomas: Yeah, if you’re intentional about it.

It’s so insane, like, you just meet some of the best musicians you’ve ever seen in your life, and they’re just like, “Yeah, I guess I’m OK.” [Laughs]

Pierce: Yeah.

Thomas: Yeah.

Pierce: But the last gig, anyway, is like…What is there to say about the last gig?

Thomas: Not much, I guess.

Pierce: It’s going to be big. It’s going to be cool.

Tom: It’s going to be crazy.

Pierce: It’s going to be The Grand Social, which I like as a venue.

Thomas: Yeah.

Pierce: A lot of people have mixed feelings about The Grand Social. I think it’s really good. The guy who owns it is a really cool guy. Or the guy who…manages it? Whatever Keiron’s role is.

Thomas: He’s a nice fella.

Pierce: He’s a really cool guy. [Editor’s Note: According to his LinkedIn, he’s The Grand Social’s booker, not the owner. I did a module on journalism throughout my four years at college, in case that note didn’t make it apparent] Em, but…I don’t know. The gig will just…it will be cool. It’ll be the same kind of thing. We’ll maybe do one or two covers, to kind of, you know…

Thomas: Yeah.

Elongate the set? [Laughs]

Pierce: No. Well, yes, but also, just, like, meaningful covers, like.

Tom: Yeah!

Thomas: Yes.

OK. Sorry to be so cynical. [They laugh]

Pierce: Oh, not at all. I don’t know, if we have the album mixed by that stage, we’d like have a few, like, CD-Rs, to kind of merchandise. Maybe, like, make some handwritten art on them and stuff. But I’m excited for it. It’s going to be really cool. I hope lots of people will come. Simone, who made all our posters, did a great job. She’s our entire marketing team.

Thomas: She is. She is.

Pierce: She’s the vocal sample on, eh…

Thomas: “Find Me Now.”

Pierce: “Find Me Now,” yeah. And she let us stay over in here place, ‘cause she lives in Drogheda where we recording the album, so…But yeah. She’s done a great job making the posters and…

Thomas: And she’s also done all of our live videos.

Pierce: Yeah.

Thomas: When we did our first…eh, the first two gigs we did, I think, were actually shot by other people. But, I thought it would be really great if we could have videos done of all our gigs, because I think that’s a great resource to practice to, and I also noticed, like, there’s bands like black midi and stuff, like I got really fanatical about them because of the live videos that just random people had done of their, like, whole sets, because then you can watch and you can see the little details of how song has evolved. So, I found songs of them playing Schlagenheim in 2017, and then working up to their recording in 2019, and after that…Anyway, like, I just thought that would be a great resource to have. So, we got Simone to come to all our gigs, and paid her to record them, and we’ve put them up on YouTube, which I think has also been good because people have been able to engage with the songs and, like, listen to them, and there’s people who know the words, and, like, know which parts to expect, which is really cool.

Pierce: It’s really nice. When me and my friend, Ronan, were in the same course and we were studying for our exams, he’d be listening…he’d, like, have the videos on in the background while studying, and I was like, “Oh, my God! That’s so cool! He’s just listening to my gig! That’s so nice!” And, yeah, it is a good promotional thing, I suppose, the videos, so…

Thomas: But, yeah, shoutout Simone. She’s incredible. She also does some…just because, I mean, she likes the music and we’re friends and stuff, she does so much work, in terms of editing and stuff.

Pierce: And Tadhg, as well, is now…

Thomas: Yes.

Pierce: … second-in-command, in terms of cameras. He’s also really sound. Lots of nice people. And Ais [Flattery] is going to be doing the lights and stuff, right?

Thomas: We had our friend Ais do lights for Whelan’s, and they…like, they did an incredible job. But they do…they’re studying in The Lir, and they know how to do proper, like, LX stuff, and they were showing us the lights plan that they have for The Grand Social, where, like, in “Thank You, Elijah Wood,” they’re going to have the first half of it be…[To Pierce] Is the…Clementine’s hair in the first half of the movie orange or green?

Pierce: Oh! That’s very clever, yeah.

Thomas: Whatever. Like, the first half of the song is going to be orange, then the second half turns to green, because, in Eternal Sunshine, her hair changes colour.

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Thomas: Like, stuff like that. Like, just really fucking great…Yeah, I don’t know. I love people. I love people and what people can do together.

That’s great. Yeah. And I think, Lego Indiana Jones, rest in peace. One of the most interesting bands I think I’ve seen all year.

Thomas: Thank you.

Pierce: Thank you.

I’m being sincere in saying that; I’m not being facetious. Is there anything you’d like to say before we wrap up, or anything?

Pierce: Do you have anything, Tom?

Thomas: I’m not sure. I’d love to keep talking.

Pierce: [To Tom] You have many thoughts in that skull of yours.

Thomas: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go on. Talk.

Pierce: You have over 1,000 thoughts.

Tom: I have 1,001.

Pierce: I’ve heard all of them.

Tom: I have over 700,000 thoughts.

Be free to express any of them here.

Tom: Give me a topic.

Pierce: Em…shit.

Finality.

Tom: Well, I just think it’s really nice that…I’m just really glad that we made it into an album, you know what I mean? Because I think it’s just a really nice thing to say, “This is what I did when I was nineteen,” you know? And I suppose it’s probably good for you, Pierce, to finally sort of be finished with all the emotional stuff that you’ve put into this album…

Pierce: Yes.

Tom: …in a way?

Pierce: No, definitely. It is…there’s…I want to write…all of those songs are mostly – with one or two exceptions – about the same kind of things happening at the same kind of time. “People Like You” and “Find Me Now” are from my last band, when I was, like, seventeen, so that’s like stuff that I felt when I was seventeen and still kind of feel when I’m on stage, and it’s not that I, like, still feel particularly heartbroken about it anymore, but it’s, like, I’d like to get over it. I kind of have gotten over it, the songs were getting over it, and I’d want to close the book on that, and write stuff about new things; new things that are happening. So, it is nice to kind of have…especially since…with our last band, we never really released anything, we just had demos. So, it’s good to kind of close the door on what we did as that band, as well. It’s a nice salute. It’s a salute to all of the things I did do when I was a teenager, and it’s nice to finish that and to move onto new things, and I think it’s good timing that I’m going to an entirely different country now [Laughs] to work on a completely different life, essentially, so…

Can I ask, do you feel that performing those songs feels like opening old wounds?

Pierce: Eh…no. Em. No, it’s actually…it more feels like listening to someone else talk about a similar experience, and being able to say, “Yeah, I know how that feels,” and kind of relating…it’s kind of…you get to…this is the other thing, is you get to a point where…I was reading this in…Jonathan Franzen, he’s an author. He wrote about his going away to the island that Christopher…or what’s his name? Alexander Selkirk, who’s he? Who’s the real guy? Robinson Crusoe. He went to the island that Robinson Crusoe was based on, and he was talking about how the reason he did it was…he’d written a couple of novels and he kept going to interviews and talking about them, and they were all really personal, and he did so many interviews and talked about so much personal stuff for so long, that it just became mechanical. His, like, emotional memories were just boring now, and I don’t want to get to that point, but you can get to that point. I am reaching a limit as to how much I can actually feel from stuff that I’ve already gone through. But I think the important thing is that it does feel like just relating to somebody else. I want people to hear it and go, “Oh, I understand how that feels.” I want…or more so, I want people to hear it and think…feel like it’s me saying, “I know how you feel. You’re not alone,” that kind of thing.

Thomas: I would imagine if we were to continue, we would also probably stop performing those songs altogether.

Pierce: Yeah.

Thomas: Because I feel like they’re done now.

Pierce: Absolutely, yeah.

Thomas: I think…yeah. I imagine we would probably…I don’t know. If we were going to continue, I think we’d probably shutdown shop for a few months and write loads of new songs, and just do them, instead. Because, I mean, that’s the fun thing about an album cycle.

Tom: Yeah. I found that as time has gone on, the songs…the performances of the songs have actually become more emotional.

Thomas: Yes.

Tom: I suppose because I understand it more, and I know the lyrics better and all this. But it feels like there’s a weird sort of…very nice kind of symbiotic relationship between all of us, where are performances are actually getting more and more intense.

Pierce: Yes. Oh, completely. Like, I’m not getting bored of anything.

Tom: No, no, no! But I think it’s kind of interesting if your kind of vocal is detached, whereas we’re all kind of feeding it up, you know?

Pierce: And the other thing is, songs are meant to be ambiguous so that they can apply to life situa…So, like, I’d be experiencing new stuff now that lyrics that I had written when I was seventeen somehow relate to. Everything kind of comes in loops, so I can be singing and think…I’ll be thinking about something completely different than what I thought about when I was writing it, but it still applies. So, I would still often feel…but it wouldn’t be opening old wounds; it would be dealing with new ones.

Sure. So, the songs have to be kind of adaptable to new scenarios?

Pierce: Yeah. I think the reason people like the songs is because they’re able to apply them to their own lives. So…

Sure. Yeah. And then, also, I’m thinking, in that time difference…I mean, we’re only talking about a couple of years, but, at your age, those are such significant gaps of time, you know what I mean?

Pierce: Yeah, exactly.

So, it feels like…I don’t know. There’s a big difference between being, like, say, seventeen and nineteen, than being twenty-seven and twenty-nine, you know what I mean? So, do you feel as your own personal growth still comes – and you’re still coming of age – that you’ll ever look back on these songs, as being something…I don’t know…being something that you wouldn’t write? I guess you can’t really predict it; it’s entropy, again.

Pierce: Well, no. Like, if I was able to do these songs when I was, like, thirty, why would I bother doing them now, you know? The fact that they’re transient is why we’re doing them.

Thomas: A friend of mine…I was texting a friend of mine about the last show that we’re doing and the fact that we’re not going to do anything else, and I remember she made the most amazing play, and everyone was crying at the end of it, and I was sad that she hadn’t recorded it. But then I got it…I mean, it was about the ending of things, about transience and stuff. It was so wonderful! Em, and the… – Gracie, by the way. Shoutout Gracie – but I was texting her about it, and she was saying…I think she said that she was really pleased that the last show would be…everyone knows it’s the last show because it really shatters the illusion that you can…like, people who are there are going to appreciate it as a final thing and a transient thing.

Right.

Thomas: And I think she used the phrase that it’s like shattering the illusion that you can, like, hold a performance. Even if we do video it – which it will be video’d – you know, you’re never going to get to see us again. And I enjoy that. I enjoy that it’s going to be…like, and I really enjoyed that about the last few months, knowing that we’re going to end, is that everything is so transient, and we can really enjoy it. It’s difficult to be ungrateful, I think.

And it’s ceremonious then, you know what I mean?

Pierce: Yeah.

It’s not like, I don’t know, “Oh, we just kind of faded away” or whatever, you know what I mean? And I do get what you’re saying about that appreciation. Do you guys remember the band Bitch Falcon? I remember seeing their last…

Thomas: Sorry? What were they called?

Bitch Falcon.

Thomas: Bitch Falcon?

Yeah.

Thomas: No, I’ve never heard of them.

Yeah, they were really popular back in the [2010s]. They were kind of, like, a postpunk band. They did their final show at Whelan’s, and it was like 400, sold out…

Pierce: Wow.

Thomas: Wow.

…it was so cool.

Thomas: Irish band?

Yeah, yeah.

Thomas: Yeah, OK.

Yeah, and it was so cool. But I remember being at it, and the one thing I noticed was that they weren’t very sentimental; it was just like, “It’s just another show.” Do you guys think there will be sentimentality on display, or…?

Pierce: I would like it to be sentimental, in a sense. I don’t want it to be, like, over the top, like [Putting on a mopey voice], “Oh, you better be all really sad…”

Thomas: [Copying Pierce’s voice] “Yeah, guys!”

Pierce: “…because you’re never going to hear this again! ‘Cause we’re the best band ever!”

Thomas: “It’s our last summer!”

Pierce: I’m like…

Tom: I do want it to be like that.

Pierce: I want to make a little video show, that goes on in the background.

Tom: Oh, yeah. Big eyes. Tears. Crying.

Pierce: No, no, no! It’s, like, gameplay of Lego Indiana Jones, DS. This is kind of a spoiler; I don’t know if I should be saying this.

Thomas: Actually, yeah. This is a spoiler.

Tom: …you get video of Lego Indiana Jones gameplay, but you’re just jumping into a pit?

Pierce: I don’t want to spoil it!

I can redact this part, if you want.

Pierce: OK, well, I’ll tell you…

Thomas: You have to include “Redacted.”

No, I will. I will.

Pierce: I’m thinking about having Lego Indiana Jones, DS, and you get to 100% completion…

Right, and all the coins come down.

Thomas: Damn! That’s awesome!

Pierce: …and then you exit to the main menu, and you click “New Game,” you know? Because it’s really, really cheesy, but that’s what’s happening, really. That’s the vibe that I want people to get, is that we’ve done something and now we’re going to do something new.

Thomas: That definitely is how we feel.

Tom: Yeah. I think we should have it be really cheesy.

Pierce: Yeah. I think it should be cheesy, but not, like…intentionally, like, “Oh, look at this!” rather, “Genuinely, you should all be extremely sad. Everyone should be crying.” I think if people do cry, that will be nice, you know? I like that it would be meaningful to people, but we’re not going to go out of our way to manufacture emotion.

Tom: Tears. [Laughs]

[Aaron and Thomas speak over each other and enter into another “No, you go on” loop]

Thomas: I also think that none of us have a single negative feeling about the thing ending, because we all know that we’re going to do fun things afterwards, that will be good. Like, we get attention for this, I guess, but I don’t think any of us feel dependant on the attention, so we’re happy to move on, you know?

Lego Indiana Jones’s album will release soon, but the name that the project will be under when it does is still undetermined. Follow their Instagram, YouTube and SoundCloud pages to make sure you don’t miss out when they announce it!

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.