When Autolux performed at UCLA in 2004 in support of Elvis Costello, the crowd booed.
“I was playing songs slower because I knew the booing would start. But we smiled; we didn’t care at all,” said Carla Azar, drummer and vocalist for Autolux.
This negative reaction to a critically lauded band could’ve been due to the fact that the crowd was composed of mainly 40-year-olds who weren’t expecting to hear Autolux’s progressive sound. Nonetheless, external obstacles haven’t gotten in the band’s way. Autolux’s personal vision and hopeful expectations for the future function as the band’s primary motivations.
“We try to make music we love and we push and challenge ourselves,” Azar said. “We can’t look outside ourselves to figure out what we’re going to do next. You got to go on your instinct.”
Autolux will return to UCLA tonight, this time as a headliner playing to a much younger crowd. The show, the final one in the Student Committee for the Arts’ Free Concert Series, will begin at 7 p.m. at Tom Bradley International Hall.
Since the band’s 2004 debut, “Future Perfect,” Autolux has toured extensively with artists ranging from the White Stripes to the Shins to Nine Inch Nails. Lately, however, the band has been most concerned with recording its upcoming album, scheduled for release in midsummer.
“The band is much stronger in a lot of ways, (such as) from touring. It’s hard to judge your own work, but some people say (our new album) sounds like a progression,” Azar said. “It’s not a complete departure. We’re not putting out an electronic record.”
Though the new album will not be done in a drastically different style, Azar has different ideas than labeling the band’s sound as space rock, noise pop, garage, post-rock or other related categories the band is typically pigeonholed into.
“It’s music. It’s good music. I just want to be classified as that,” Azar said. “We experiment with noises and sounds, but we are a pop band. It’s not like we’re an experimental band and defy all sense of melody. Hopefully, it’s reckless pop.”
Though she remains tight-lipped about the name of the upcoming album, Azar’s disclosure of a new song’s title may provide some hints.
“One of our (new) songs is called “˜The Science of Imaginary Solutions,'” she said.
While it is possible that this song may reference the imaginary, Azar’s convictions about the changing state of the music industry heading into the future are wholly realistic.
“I think that major labels are going to be coming to an end in the future, probably sooner than everyone thinks,” she said. “The days of corporations controlling what’s put out and what’s said is coming to an end.”
Though some musicians may cower in fear over such statements, Azar is adaptive and equipped with solutions for the future.
“I also think that record buying as we know it ““ CDs ““ probably won’t be happening,” Azar said. “Maybe (album) artwork will have to be stronger (so) it’s worth buying, rather than a piece of plastic that’s better to download.”
While the prospects may look bleak for major record labels and their affiliates, Azar reasons that these changes are beneficial to music as a whole.
“I think it’s all positive. Bands on smaller labels are starting to take over a bit more,” the vocalist said. “Major stations and MTV, you don’t need those things anymore. I don’t even know if music is played on those stations. Really good music can be heard because of the Internet.”
Though the band hails from Los Angeles, the easy accessibility of Autolux’s music via the Internet is something the band does not take for granted.
“L.A. is a tough crowd because it’s such a jaded city,” Azar said. “There’s more pressure.”
While the band is regularly associated with the city, Azar stresses that Los Angeles is just a location. Rather than a mere reflection of the band’s exterior surroundings, Autolux’ songs are actually transient musings from within.
“We live here, but I don’t know if we have a sound that has anything to do with it,” Azar said. “We’re three people moving through space. We could be anywhere. We’re everywhere even though we live (in Los Angeles).”
Despite the band’s last unsatisfactory experience at UCLA, Autolux’s optimistic mind-set about the future is something that seeps not only into its music, but also into the band members’ enthusiasm to perform. While the show will feature new songs, it will also fittingly showcase the embodiment of Azar’s other solution for bands dealing with declining album sales.
“Bands are going to have to know how to play live,” she said.