Love Hate Affair

One listen to its ethereal and melancholy '80s-influenced rock and music lovers may find their relationship with Love Hate Affair to be far more one-sided than the band's name implies.
Anyone who connects with the music of Morrissey, Joy Division and Depeche Mode likely will be enamored with this four-man rock act composed of San Antonio and Austin musicians.
The title of their new six-song EP is more revealing than the band's name - "Alkalinity."
It's apropos as the youthful band members create an identity and find a balance between the music they love and the original songs they play.
Love Hate Affair - singer John Shaw, guitarist Adam Zuniga, drummer Devin Anderson and bassist Armando Raymos - arrive for a late-night gig Friday at the Mix.
Zuniga, who lives in S.A., has spent the past few days trying to get a 1973 Telecaster ready for the show. With an array of effects pedals, he plays a huge role in generating the atmospheric textures onstage and in the studio.
"We're trying to create an album that would be something that we ourselves would want to listen to," said Zuniga, explaining that certain beats and electronic synth pulses onstage are preprogrammed and computer generated, too.
That means that even at a small venue like the Mix, Love Hate Affair sounds very close to its excellent new CD, which is an instant time-travel delight.
"We didn't really set out to make a retro-style album as much as we wanted to make an album that sounds like the bands that we love. We're more concerned with, 'Does this sound cool to us?' "
The chemistry comes across as natural and genuine.
"It doesn't even have to be spoken: 'We need to sound circa 1986.' It's all unspoken. That's why it's so hard to describe," Zuniga said.
Love Hate Affair's members - just kids when Morrissey was first moping around - draw on music that left a lasting imprint from an early age.
For Zuniga, that album was Depeche Mode's "Violator," which came out when he was a teenager.
"That was the first cassette tape that I ever bought," he said. "Every once in a while, a great album at a very pivotal part of your life will make such a long-lasting impact that even if you go beyond and do other things … that album stays on your heart."
"Alkalinity," recorded at an Austin home studio (Test Tube Audio) with engineer Kevin Butler, reflects those influences.
At Love Hate Affair's last appearance at the Mix, that venue's young crowd appeared to be intrigued by the moody, if danceable, electro-pop rock. It's all original music, though the band has been toying with giving Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians' "What I Am" a cool New Wave makeover.
"Audiences have really surprised me because they really understand where we're coming from," said Zuniga, who also has a solo project - the Adam Zuniga Project - that has a new electro/Latin/lounge album, "Discoveries."
Frontman John Shaw is the focal point onstage and on record. He writes the lyrics - and formed the band.
"Me and Armando both shared a big interest in the whole New Wave scene, the sound. We kind of connected on that and some post-rock, Interpol-style stuff, too," Shaw said. "I was into that when I was very young. Decades later, I started discovering a lot of that music again."
What is the appeal of that '80s sound?
"I like the blend of the indie-guitar sound with the electronic music, with the keyboards and vocalists like Morrissey and Dave Gahan and (Ian) Curtis," Shaw said. "I don't even know if I'm there at all, but it's just a heavy influence for me."
He doesn't consider Love Hate Affair to be a retro band.
"I would say we're influenced by bands from that era, but there are new bands that we are into," he said.
Though his lyrics build on themes of isolation and heartache, there are moments of sunshine.
That's where the EP's title comes in.
"It represents a measurement of balance," Shaw said. - By Hector Saldana Updated 9:14 pm CDT, Tuesday, October 23, 2012

If Love Hate Affair has a future as successful asshole rock stars, then they’re hiding the seeds of assholedom really well. For starters, they express love for Saytown rock flavor, giving props to Pop Pistol, Ledaswan, and Girl in A Coma. But the band has also given away an estimated 2,000 copies of their debut EP Love Hate Affair.

“It’s our first set of music and we’d rather people get to know the music rather than … buy it,” John Shaw, vocalist and guitarist, told WOAI’s The Garage. “It’s kind of our business card to the world.”

The Current struggled to interview Shaw (vocals) and Armando Raymos (bass) over the phone. The South Texas atmosphere was unusually cockeyed, drenching our calls (and re-calls) in copious static. Nevertheless, Shaw and Raymos gave great phone interviews, if not because they’re nice guys, then because much is coming together for this young new wave band.

Love Hate Affair formed in 2009, pulling players from both the Austin and San Antonio scenes, before quickly recording a self-titled EP and embarking on their inaugural interstate tour last summer. They made it to Hollywood and NYC. Then they came home to play local shows, appeared on WOAI’s The Garage, and returned to the studio for their follow-up. Shaw admitted that things are moving fast for the band.

“I thought it was a blast,” Shaw said of last year’s tour. “`Like a` vacation playing music every night. It was `us` getting to know each other very quickly, in close quarters of course. There are things you like and don’t like about one another, but overall it’s predominantly nice.”

The band had the expected vehicular hardships and the member who partied a little too heavily. No bother. They made it back in one unit, finding an opportunity to bond over the car breakdowns and get a replacement for the drunken ruffian. Hell, when I asked Raymos to discuss how or if Shaw pissed him off over tour, Raymos said, “He and I get along best.”

With 2010 in the rear view, both members displayed confidence in the year ahead. While a new record is a few months behind schedule, Shaw displayed no worries about not having finished yet. “It’s just a matter of … taking time to be proud of it,” he said. “I’m trying to let it happen in its own way.”

The new disc will be something of an expanded edition to the EP, with the original tracks re-mastered and new material incorporated into the set. This one will cost money, but the band is planning to make free Love Hate Affair music a tradition in the form of future pro-bono singles. Once the record is complete, Love Hate Affair will return to the road.

“Portland, Oregon, or Seattle, Washington, would be pretty good for us,” Raymos said. “That’s probably something we’d want to put on the books.” •



Love Hate Affair - By Adam Coronado

http://www.myspace.com/undertheradarmagazine - Under The Radar Magazine

Music calender. Pick of the week. - Publisher

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/MusicListings?StartTime=2009-09-18 - Jessica Evans