The Union Line interview

Interview by: Rian Borland


Grown from the soil of Orange County barely a year ago, The Union Line has taken the indie music scene by storm. Rather than the hard-core music the Orange County scene is used to, this band has an older sound with a touch of the 60’s and a Western-flare. The Union Line was born when Adam, Richard, and Tony were bored one Friday night and decided to head over to Stage One to jam. They wrote the song “Catapult” and decided to get their friends Johnny and Jordan on board. After writing several more songs they played their first show on February 22, 2008 at The Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest, California.

Soon after that they began recording their first album. The self-titled album was released on September 5, 2008 at The Mint in Los Angeles and kicked off their first tour with good friends, Local Natives. The very day the boys returned home from their West Coast tour they began plotting out the next adventure, a National tour.

The Union Line may be a fairly young band, but they are definitely making huge strides already. With interviews on KROQ and Rock n Roll TV as well as a feature on One Little Indian’s website, this is definitely a band to keep your eye on. They’ll be heading out to Austin to play at the famous South By Southwest music festival before heading up the West Coast for another tour. The Union Line already has a National tour, self-released album, and over 90 shows under their belts and nothing’s stopping them from achieving more. Be sure to check out their myspace for when they’ll be in a city near you!

What are some of your influences when writing music?
Many things influence us when we write our music. It could be anything from our mood, to what's in our CD player at the time

How did the band form?
It was a dark BORING friday night in mid January when Tony, Adam and Dickie decided it would be a good idea to jam. We packed up the little gear that we had and went to Stage One to "mess around" That night we basically wrote catapult. We were so stoked on the sound that we decided to get Johnny and Jordan in on it. We practiced a few days later and wrote A Boy And His Harp and Rich Man's Tune. After that, we knew it was meant to be

If you could tour with any band, who would it be?
Hmm... There are a few bands that we would like to tour with. Touring with Wilco, Richard Swift or Fleet Foxes would be amazing. To be honest though Local Natives are the best band EVER to tour with!

Who writes most of the songs? Is there 1 mastermind or is it a collaboration?
We all write the music for the most part. Dickie and Jordan are usually the ones who come with the initial idea. Then we jam it out and go from there

What is the best city to play in?
Ok so we've pretty much played every city in the US (or so it feels) We had tons of fun in New York, New Orleans, Chicago and last but certainly not least Hattiesburg. Ever heard of it? Ya we hadn't either! We rolled in around 8pm and it looked like a ghost town. We didn't see one person or car on the streets. 10pm rolls around and we were sitting in an empty venue thinking "well, another night by ourselves" All the sudden its 10:30 and there's 200 people waiting to get in! That was one of the most fun shows we've ever played!

www.myspace.com/theunionline