{"id":48910,"date":"2015-04-04T08:28:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T13:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=48910"},"modified":"2015-06-08T18:31:24","modified_gmt":"2015-06-08T23:31:24","slug":"audio-interview-with-luke-sheafer-of-me-like-bees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/audio-interview-with-luke-sheafer-of-me-like-bees\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke Sheafer of Me Like Bees"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Anabel Dflux<\/span>
\n– Senior Photojournalist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Senior photojournalist Anabel DFlux caught up with Luke Sheafer of Me Like Bees, an Indie Rock band out of Joplin, Missouri. The two had a delightful phone chat about the band’s music, The Ides<\/em>, and what fans can expect next from these indie mavericks!<\/p>\n

::: Listen to the Interview :::<\/center><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Connect with the band here: <\/p>\n

http:\/\/melikebees.com\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/melikebees\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Me<\/p>\n

Interview Transcript:<\/p>\n

HRH: Hi, thank you so much for talking with me today! How are you? <\/p>\n

Luke: I\u2019m very good! I just got off of work actually, so that\u2019s good! <\/p>\n

HRH: For our readers who aren\u2019t familiar with your music (YET), can you give me a quick run through of who you are? <\/p>\n

Luke: We are Me Like Bees from Joplin, Missouri. We are, basically, an alternative rock band. We kind of sound like Modest Mouse- the indie rock thing. We\u2019ve been at it for about five years! <\/p>\n

HRH: That\u2019s quite a bit of time! <\/p>\n

Luke: Yeah a little bit! But we\u2019ve been in our current form for about three years.<\/p>\n

HRH: What pulled you towards the indie genre of music? <\/p>\n

Luke: It was kind of what I was listening to, what all of us were listening to. I think our sound is kind of a combination of what we all have listened to and been influenced by. <\/p>\n

HRH: Who are your biggest inspirations, and why? <\/p>\n

Luke: I really like- actually he\u2019s kind of a common influence from all of us- I really like Jack White. Especially when he was in The White Stripes. Something very raw and nasty about their music that I was really drawn to when I first started playing. I think what I was listening to in college is when I started playing music, so I connected with him. <\/p>\n

HRH: I think both of their bands kind-of bring an \u2018out of the box\u2019 artsy-ness to their music as well.
\nLuke: Yeah! It\u2019s thinking outside of the norm for sure, and we try to do that too. <\/p>\n

HRH: What is your music philosophy, or is it just to be out-of-the-box and bring an honest nature to the songs?<\/p>\n

Luke: Yeah, I think our philosophy is just to work hard at writing until we like it. Not necessarily try to tailor to for anybody else, but keep working at it. Don\u2019t let something be \u2018good enough\u2019, keep working at a song until you really like it. <\/p>\n

HRH: That kind of attracts like-minded individuals as well, because when they listen to the music, they can relate to it. <\/p>\n

Luke: I would agree with that! I guess it\u2019s a natural byproduct of that is that you do find people who like weird music- or, not \u2018weird\u2019 music even, but just, different than first chorus first chorus, that chorus, and stuff. <\/p>\n

HRH: Who did the album art for The Ides? <\/p>\n

Luke: Our bassist Nick Bynum did actually, he did all of the artwork inside. The picture is actually a real picture, it\u2019s not a stock image or anything. Our original bass player\u2019s aunt is the one in the middle of that picture, and it was a war protest during Vietnam. That sign that says \u201cThe Ides\u201d now on our cover, actually said \u201cMake Love Not War\u201d. It was an anti-war parade that she was going to. It\u2019s kind of an eerie photo and we really liked it. The first time we saw it, we thought \u201cwe should make that the album cover someday\u201d and we did. <\/p>\n

HRH: It\u2019s very unique! <\/p>\n

Luke: Yeah! <\/p>\n

HRH: I love the artistic, honest, and down to earth nature of your music videos. Which video was the most fun to film, and why? <\/p>\n

Luke: I really liked just filming our title track \u201cThe Ides\u201d most because it was simple, but it was really fun. — I really like it because it\u2019s just us playing a song, we\u2019re not all together but, you know —. It was a really fun shoot too! It didn\u2019t take very long, just a few hours but I think it came together very well. <\/p>\n

HRH: Yes, it\u2019s very put together! I like the little quirkiness that was in it as well, with the three dimensional overlays and whatnot. Your lyricism is positive, even though it tackles darker subjects. What made you want bring optimism and humor into your music? <\/p>\n

Luke: Hmm\u2026that\u2019s kind of an odd question! I try to be positive, I write all of our words, because I think I have a pretty positive outlook on life. Even with the dark stuff, tragedy like that. For me personally, I\u2019ve dealt with a lot of the stuff and I don\u2019t think it should define us as far as our experience of people. Tragedy should be the benchmark of who we are, but something that we have to deal with in time. I try to be pretty honest with our lyrics, but I think the positivity is just me talking about the way I think of those subjects. <\/p>\n

HRH: What has been your favorite show to play thus far, and why? <\/p>\n

Luke: Oh man\u2026 we\u2019ve played a lot of shows! <\/p>\n

HRH: That\u2019s good! <\/p>\n

Luke: Haha I know! You mean, of all time? Like, ever? <\/p>\n

HRH: Yes! Like \u2018ever, ever\u2019! <\/p>\n

Luke: Ever, ever? Our favorite show we have ever played? Oh man\u2026 for me, I don\u2019t know why it is, but there was this one show in Colorado Springs. It was a pretty small venue, probably only a few hundred people fit in, but it was just packed. The crowd was just insane! They were insane long before we ever got on stage- and there was just ruckus and it was great! We were playing with Never Shout Never and Man Overboard. That was just a great crowd! <\/p>\n

HRH: We like great crowds! Do you have any upcoming tour plans? I saw a few dates on your website. <\/p>\n

Luke: Yeah! We are talking to a couple of booking agents. We are kind of taking a minute before we start booking anything, getting our bearings again. We want to work with the right people so we are weighing our options as far as that goes. So that is where we are at. We have some festivals booked in Kansas City, Indiana, in Denver, just a few festivals. Right now, any other possibilities are hush-hush, we aren\u2019t announcing anything yet. Just stay tuned on it! <\/p>\n

HRH: What can fans expect next from you?! <\/p>\n

Luke: More music, for sure! It has been almost two years since we\u2019ve released our record. We\u2019ve written a lot of music, we\u2019ve recorded three songs with a producer named John Feldmann in LA pretty recently. So hopefully we will release that, but besides that (that\u2019s already recorded), we are looking at recording a full length. Definitely more music, that\u2019s where we want to head next! <\/p>\n

HRH: I am sure more info will be announced soon! Thank you so much! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Anabel Dflux – Senior Photojournalist — Senior photojournalist Anabel DFlux caught up with Luke Sheafer of Me Like Bees, an Indie Rock band out of Joplin, Missouri. The two had a delightful phone chat […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12393],"tags":[9214,7556,203,11055,11053,9722,11056],"class_list":{"0":"post-48910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcint2015","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-indie-rock","10":"tag-interview","11":"tag-joplin","12":"tag-luke-sheafer","13":"tag-me-like-bees","14":"tag-the-ides"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}