Extended Q&A with Iggy Cosky of The Lollipops

Dive: Were you trying to put that charming lo-fi into your album Pop Narcotics?

IC: I was really working with what I had. I only had one microphone and a Digitech piece of crap guitar pedal and a crappy bass along with a guitar that always went out of tune, but I had all these ideas. If I had proper recording equipment like preamps and all these mixers and microphones then it would definitely sound better.

So with Pop Narcotics I was more domesticated but with Your Royal Masochist & The Love Crusades it was different. I was actually homeless last summer, so I would sleep on my friends’ couch and when they went to work I would just record in their living room or bathroom, and then would go to my other friend’s house and use their piano in their living room. So the creative process was really different for that because I was in a different environment every day.

Dive: How do you think that contributed that environment contributed to Your Royal Masochist & The Love Crusades?

IC: I was in a different environment every day so I was inspired to record with what was around me. The songs are way more manic, they are just manic bursts of energy as I was trying to write dancey lo-fi pop music. But the fidelity man, woof. It is really tinny, it is like a song you wrap up in aluminum foil and that’s what it is.

Dive: Are you going to get rid of that tinny sound in the re-recording?

IC: The crucial thing is not to lose that but it’s a matter of recapturing the energy that is in the songs. So you hear demos and sometimes they go into a studio and they really materialize that vision and then tend to lose that energy they had. That is what I am afraid of, I don’t want it to be stale or two-dimensional.

Dive: Once Pop Narcotics came out it caught a bunch of buzz locally. Did you feel a pressure to keep making songs or support from the local community?

IC: I had a lot of support from the local community and pressure put on myself. All I got to experience this past year was endless support from people and the rest was just pressure I put on myself in my head. I am putting all this pressure on myself with The Lollipops to continue writing pop songs, so I am starting multiple side projects this summer. The Lollipops are still my main baby but I am starting a punk band called The Idiots and it is going to be insane — it’s going to be like Jay Reatard with The Stooges.

Dive: So other than a possible cease and desist, what is the next step for The Lollipops?

IC: Just keep putting out material and continue to be prolific. I’ve already released like 70 songs this year and total that is about three records, so I want to continue to release around three albums a year. What we have to do next though is continue to play outside of Raleigh but keep our home base going because people really support here and we are greatly appreciative. But also go out there and pay our dues on the road.