Look Mexico released a new album today, To Bed to Battle. And not only did the band allow Buzzgrinder to stream the whole thing, but the guys were also kind enough to take over posting duties for the day. That means we get to continue recovering from SXSW while they have to work.

On this tour we’ve run into our friends from the Philly band Hop Along more than a few times so we decided to test our interview chops from the other side and talk with their guitar player/vocalist Francis Quinlan on behalf of Buzzgrinder. Here we go.

You recently released a three-song 10-inch and are currently out on the road supporting it. How many dates do you have left?

I think we have six including today.

Where are you headed?

We’re going to Birmingham today then headed to Nashville, playing The Rabbit Hole, then Bloomington, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philly and maybe Brooklyn but that one hasn’t been booked yet… We’re kind of figuring it out. I’m usually really lazy with booking, I feel like it’s always right around the corner and I should have got on it sooner.

Are you looking forward to any of those in particular or did any of the past dates stand out?

I don’t know, we played a pretty sweet BBQ yesterday. It was a really, really small show but people were receptive and they fed us, and then we had ice cream… I shouldn’t really make that my reason. We sold out in Baltimore at Hexagon, it was really cool and we probably played our best. We were just talking about this, we can’t really pick a favorite. Every night has something about it that is really appreciated. Austin, the day where we had two shows was pretty wild. Free pizza every day. Four days of free pizza.

What about future plans?

We’re going to be writing and recording when we get home. We’re working with Joe Reinhart from Algernon Cadwallader, they have a really sweet studio space in North Philly…

Is that the place we went to?

Yeah! Big Momma’s Warehouse. You were there.

Awesome. Those guys played right before us at Harvest of Hope.

Oh yeah, we’re really excited about that. I think we’re going to try recording one song at a time. I was talking to Joe about it and you know, The Beatles did it, so… haha. We’ll probably start with acoustic songs, we want this one to have more of a mix on it

We’ve played with a lot of bands and on the way heard various anecdotes about how it is to be a female musician on the road, being treated like the merch girl, things like that. Have you encountered any situations like that, that are unique to being a woman in a touring band?

Well sort of. This whole experience, I think that we’re pretty unique because I’ve watched a lot of bands who started out being bands and their dynamic as opposed to ours. With Hop Along, it was my solo project for almost five years before it was a band. People have known me longer for being solo so I am rarely kind of… put to the side, or that other person. If anything I think that some people are put off because we’ve got a lot louder.

We started out as a folk thing and we get a lot of trash talk on the web, but I don’t think I’ve had any real obstacles. The only thing I don’t like is people tend to compare us to other bands with female singers, just because they’re fronted by women. I’d much prefer they compare us to bands where I can actually see the comparison. We’ve got The Cranberries, “Alanis Morissette on a really bad day,” haha. I like Alanis Morissette, but we don’t sound like that at all.

No you don’t at all.

We got compared to Explosions In the Sky once, and I got really excited about that. We’ve been lucky, none of that really sexist stuff. Which is nice.

Definitely. So, you share some of your band members with other bands. Does that make scheduling tours or recording time more difficult?

Yeah actually we actually just talked about this, too. Everybody in the band except me has other projects that they are also focused on. It’s cool because they can bring those experiences and where they came from to this band. Mark used to play in a band called Hey Hey, which is a much more dance-oriented thing and now he’s playing with Kelly and the Ruths and playing drums for Netherfriends on their next tour… I think that helps us. I take a long time. I’m always writing new stuff and new types of songs. Dom in a band called Elevator Fight and has a solo project called Dragon Zord which is a very different feel from Hop Along. Eric plays drums for Dr. Dog, and you know, everybody is pretty busy. I’m a house painter.

You have another job?

Haha, yeah I don’t live off of this quite yet.

Pretty close?

Oh yeah, so close. Yeah but it’s good. It’s like I said, we’re not a normal band. We don’t really get to practice, we don’t have a designated practice space. I’m in and out of the city a lot. But I’m used to writing on my own at first, I think it helps to have that stage before I come into the room. I don’t jam well. I’m always jealous, everyone else in the band can go into a space for an hour and F-around and make it sound good. I just can’t do that, I have to go by myself and think and play.

OK one more. You and your bandmates were the first to turn me and my band mates onto Wawa. Explain?

Uh oh! Am I doing a Wawa promo right now? My reasons for loving Wawa are very weird. Everyone else loves it for the sandwiches and that’s cool, you can make your own sandwich. The Gobbler is my favorite, but it’s only in season for part of the year. I think that’s cool because you’d get very sick if you ate a Gobbler in the June. I go to Wawa for the coffee. I make a very strange… coffee mixture. I want to do a video sometime to show the process.

The next music video?

Yeah yeah, like how some websites show bands cooking different recipes.

Yeah we did that once.

Yeah! Like that.

I think Fake Problems did it once, too.

Yeah, but I think they did something really complicated. I just want to mix my coffee. You can’t eat a volcano burrito every day, but this is just coffee. Oh and the meatball sub is very good at Wawa. But you’ve got to get the melted cheese. That’s crucial.

I think that’s all I have.

Really? That’s it?

Yeah, at first I thought about writing an essay about Wawa, but then I realized it would be better to just slip it in here.

I think it’s pretty amazing how Southern bands and Western bands… They eat Wawa and they just can’t get over it. I guess there’s just nothing good after Virginia. I can’t dig the Pilot.

Yeah, it’s not that awesome.

You guys have to work on that. Even Sheetz would be nice.

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