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I met Lukas Effman in 2011 at our internship in advertising — the ‘Glory Days’ as I like to say. I’ve kept up with him over the years, and thank god I did because he is now the lead vocals for the band, East Love. Last week I was able to sit down with Lukas and fellow band mate Rob Fink to talk more about their band, how they formed, where they come from, and where they draw their inspiration from. They just released a new song called “Straight Lines” and are playing on July 16th at The Marlin Room at Webster Hall, so check them out. We will be spending a lot of time with these guys over the next few weeks, so check back here for updates. My interview below:


The Soul Dynamic | All right kids, here we go. How did East Love form? Were you all friends before?

Rob Fink | I’ve actually answered this question a few times, so I can take this one. So Lukas and I actually started playing music together in 6th/7th grade. I started playing guitar when I was like nine years old, but Lukas is actually the one that got me to start singing. Kind of pressured me into it haha, but in a good way.

Lukas Effman | It was more of a “This is going to be great — let’s do it” vs “You have to do this!”

RF | Haha, fair. So we continued to play together through middle school and high school. We did these charity shows in Westchester, played at Rye Play Land in 8th grade, just little shows like that. Jumping forward to our senior year of high school, there was this thing called ‘Senior Options.’ Normally kids would do internships and such, but we were able to play music for ours. Still not sure how we pulled that off! Our ‘project’ was to write and record four original songs – we actually called ourselves “Senior Project.” We worked with Lukas’s cousin Scott, who is now a professional music producer out in L.A.

LE | Quick side note on that. As far as timing goes… Our “Senior Project” was playing and recording our music for two months, but my cousin happen to be in Manhattan at SAE Institute during that time studying audio engineering, and for his final/senior project he was able to use us. So it was like the stars aligned. Led to a lot of very late and strange nights, but it was great.

The Soul Dynamic | Awesome!

RF | So that was really fun, and he was meant to be in this business. He is extremely talented and made us sound better than we had ever before. Now he has come a long way, because we are talking eight+ years ago. But anyways, then all four of us went to different colleges and really didn’t play music for the first few years of school, which was hard and a source of frustration.

The Soul Dynamic | Yeah of course.

RF | I then joined this band called Red Giants senior year as lead singer with a buddy of mine, Alex Utay, who is an electric guitar player. It was fun, got me back into the swing of playing music. After we graduated we all moved back to the city. We started picking it up again, playing a few acoustic shows at a few bars. It was mostly just Lukas and myself, but then our friend Matt, who is a beat boxer and played with us in high school, joined in. There is going to be a lot of entering and exiting so bear with me.

LE |Its very dynamic.

The Soul Dynamic | Haha ok, I’m with you.

RF | So we then added Alex Goldstien, who was part of the original high school crew as well.

SD: The electric guitar player?

RF | Haha nope, it’s confusing.

LE | There are two actually guys named Alex in the band, and both of their birthdays are today. So we are not making this easy on you haha.

The Soul Dynamic | Haha, ok ok, got it.

RF | Ok so at this point it’s the four of us back together playing. Recording cover videos, putting them on YouTube, but we aren’t really a band. We started a Facebook page and called it “A Good Time,” which was never intended to be the name of our band just a place where we put all of our stuff up.

The Soul Dynamic | Cool, got it.

RF | So then Alex Utay, the electric guitar player, did a video with us, and in my opinion it’s one of the best cover videos we have ever done. We had a show at The Studio at Webster Hall and we had him come up and play one song with us. The general vibe from people was that electric guitar added an awesome new element to what we already had, and they wanted to hear more of it.

LE | For us it made us a “real band” if that makes sense. Took us out of the pure acoustic and into something different. It gave us a fuller sound, gave people in the audience something to rock to.

RF | From that point we started thinking of ourselves as a more legitimate band and fell under the name “A Good Time” or “AGT” by default. We brought in a drummer, but he couldn’t dedicate enough time to the band, so we mutually decided to go separate ways.

LE | Wait, wait let me jump in here. So we bring in a drummer and start going through not really an identity crisis but more of feeling out what we are doing. Who are we, what do we really want? We saw this band Minor Soul, which I will get into in a little, but they had this thing called a Cajon which is basically a wooden box. We saw it and were like oh that’s pretty cool, sort of a happy medium between a beat boxer and a full on drum set. So this guy Evan who happened to go to college with Rob and is from our hometown, started playing the Cajon with us.

RF | I think the next defining feature is our Gramercy Theatre show.

LE | Yes, yes. So we have that, and have a good sound. And we realize that at this point we have an audience, we have people that actually want to listen to us. But when we opened for The Heydaze at Gramercy, we started to really feel the energy that a full drum set can bring. Their sound is big and poppy – lot’s of energy. So after that show, we decided to transition from the Cajon to drums. The Cajon was great for us at those smaller shows, but we wanted to take things to the next level.

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RF | So this show that we have coming up on July 16th at The Marlin Room at Webster Hall is our first big show since the Gramercy show, and our first with a full drum set. We will also have someone playing keys with us. So yeah six-piece band.

The Soul Dynamic | Nice!

RF | I think this show realistically is our debut show as a full band called East Love.

The Soul Dynamic | Awesome. So why the name East Love?

RF | I think we each have a different answer to this…

LE | Honestly I’ve thought a lot about this. Every band name, taken out of context sounds strange. Even the biggest names like Maroon 5 or The Red Hot Chili Peppers, sound weird without the association of the band and their music. The Red Hot Chili Peppers could have landed on something like The Green Bell Peppers, but that sounds weird right?

The Soul Dynamic | Haha, yeah.

LE | So we put a lot of thinking into this and wanted something that was unifying but also something that we are proud of. If this name is going to stick with you and your music, you want it to be something you can stand behind.

The Soul Dynamic | That’s smart.

LE | “East,” comes from a few things, we are all from the East Coast, grew up here. We live in the East Village now. Then you think of a general vibe of the music and I like to think it’s pretty warm. We focus a lot on harmonies, and so forth. So that is where the “Love” component plays a part for me. Not lovey dovey — but more warm, positive. That’s at least where I come from.

RF | I feel all of that obviously, but one reason I really like the name is that it doesn’t mean one specific thing. Like I said before, I think everyone in the band would have a different answer to this question. Another important factor to me is that back when we first moved to the city we were always playing music at Lukas’s apartment on East 13th Street with our good friend Jonny who has since passed away. So I wanted to tie it back to him somehow, someone who was not only our best friend, but also was a huge supporter of our music from the beginning. I don’t have an exact definition of why Love, I guess it just comes back to the feeling and vibe we’re going for.

The Soul Dynamic | Definitely. You don’t need a definition at all. I love when bands have meaning behind their name, stands out. So what are the future plans for East Love? You both have other jobs in the city as well, but at what point do you reach that threshold of going in full time.

RF | It’s funny because after you ask a question, I’m like is Lukas answering or am I?!

The Soul Dynamic | I think both of you should jump in at the same time and make it super difficult for me to understand.

LE | The beauty of that is if I hop in and then he hops in we will harmonize…haha. The threshold for me is when we make this EP, we’re aiming to release it here in two months.

The Soul Dynamic | Still working for your cousin?

RF | Haha no, no. With that band Minor Soul that we mentioned before. They self-produced their albums and have done the same with one other pop artist band before. So we worked out a deal with them, and in turn became very good friends with them. Minor Soul consists of two brothers, Jack and Max Wagner — so yeah that is who we are recording with.

The Soul Dynamic | Cool, cool.

LE | And when I say release the EP, all of the songs on there are in various stages of completion. We just need to finalize it.

RF | We released “Little Less” about a month ago, and have another single “Straight Lines” coming out soon, Tuesday June 30th (Today).

The Soul Dynamic | The video for “Little Less” is really well done!

LE | The beauty of this band is that everyone brings something to the table. Logistically, creatively, etc. Alex Goldstien actually works in TV Production, so he made the video. Downside of that is that his schedule is crazy. He’s actually in Cuba right now.

The Soul Dynamic | Holy Shit.

LE | Yeah and it is his birthday today. Haha, crazy. But then Rob over here acts as the manager — handling everything. But going back to what you were saying before, about future plans. When I hear the term “Record Deal” that kind of scares me a little bit. I don’t know enough about the music business side of things to speak on it, but I know it is tough out there. That being said if someone were to come up to us and say they love our sound and want to pair us up with, I dunno…‘band x’ that would be great. You know ‘band x’ would have a lot of traction, and they are someone that I’m into. I would be like yes let’s do it. That would be my threshold, where I would have to make the choice of music full time.

The Soul Dynamic | Yeah, you have to be super careful these days in the music industry. Especially with what digital has done.

RF | I think the beauty of it, and maybe I’m just telling myself this, but this is extremely fun right now. I would be hesitant to say that my goal is to in 6 months or a year to quit my job and really pursue this. I’m way more comfortable telling myself that I’m going to keep doing what I am doing and whatever happens…happens. Obviously there might be a certain point where something does happen and I would need to make that decision — and if it were compelling enough I would have to really think about it. I just don’t think we are there yet, and honestly I try not to think about it, haha. If that makes sense.

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The Soul Dynamic | Yeah it definitely does. Ok so last question, and we always ask this to bands, what inspires you guys?

RF | (To Lukas) You got this.

LE | Dude what do you mean “You got this”? Haha.

The Soul Dynamic | Haha, it’s a big question?

LE | Questions like this go into the same category as like “What is your favorite movie?” What is your favorite song?” Like, I don’t know, give me a break. I like everything!

The Soul Dynamic | People have said everything before, that’s a thing.

LE | I think speaking as far as inspiration goes, there are certain artists that we listen to and just really like their sound. Personally as far as artists go, John Mayer is awesome. James Morrison is great as well. I feel like there is an over arching theme of simplification when people think of an acoustic artist, not to say that these artists I mentioned are purely acoustic, but there is an association with it that I don’t think is that always positive. But for me I love, not only the sound but the clever and different approaches that they take. As far as specific inspirations for me its artists like that… ah, it’s hard for me to answer.

RF | Here, here. Let me start talking and you can think about it.

LE | Haha, ok.

RF | With me, I definitely don’t have a thought out answer to this. I have a million different things going on in my head, so I’ll try to make some sense of it. I have gone through a range of musical influences – all over the map. Ranging from your most basic acoustic unknown artists to phases where I was really into rap and hip-hop, which I don’t really listen to at all now. I’ve gone through the dance music and EDM phase, and again I don’t really listen to that stuff anymore. I think right now I am finally at a point where I have landed back into what I actually relate to music-wise. All that being said, that foundation that I’m talking about has a range of artists there. I appreciate artists such as the Ernie Halters and the Eric Hutchinsons of the world. Or this new guy Taylor Berrett who is just starting his music career. I definitely respect guys who focus on writing good songs, don’t really bother with the bells and whistles. Unfortunately sometimes those bells and whistles really help out in terms of commercial success. But purely in a musical sense I draw a lot of inspiration from there. Taking a step forward I have always been into bands like Guster or Dispatch where there is a foundation of acoustic instruments and tons of vocal harmonies, BUT they are aren’t afraid to venture into a more pop-oriented song structure. I like good songs that not only grab you because they are catchy, but because they make you think. Same thing for movies, etc- I like things that make you think.

LE | On that note, “Straight Lines” definitely goes into that camp about making you think. What I will say is what Rob said about Guster. And some people will say “Oh…Guster” like “typical,” but they are one of the few bands that I’ve seen live that are the same if not better than they are on their album. As a musician that is something that I could not appreciate more.

RF | To me, a spot on live performance justifies that a band has really earned their success. And that they deserve it.

LE| Exactly! This guy, Ernie Halter that Rob mentioned before – his voice is incredible! I was listening to him at one of his shows recently and I couldn’t stop beaming. I was smiling the whole time. It was like butter, like meat falling right off the bone haha.

RF | If you can evoke that emotion within someone who is listening to you play music, you have won.

You can catch East Love and the Soul Dynamic July 16th at The Marlin Room at Webster Hall. We’ll be rocking out in-depth coverage as they get ready for the show. Their latest single, “Straight Lines” dropped today.

CF

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