AM & Shawn Lee is a collaboration between London-based multi-instrumentalist/producer Shawn Lee and Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter AM. Their sound is a blend of European and disco influenced dancy beats, which is lucky for LA-based dance fiends because the band is heading to Echo Park this Friday.

Their performance at the Echo is part of a current tour to promote the release of their latest album entitled "La Musique Numerique." 

"La Musique Numerique"

"La Musique Numerique," the sophomore album for AM & Shawn Lee, has received vast praise from fans and music critics alike. The album features airy club songs like "All the Love", "Two Times", and "Special Disco".

Neon Tommy's Ashley Riegle had a chance to speak with AM & Shawn Lee by phone this week as the duo prepared for several California shows. 

You’re playing in LA on Friday. What are you most looking forward to at the show? What should LA fans anticipate?

SL: It’s fun for us to play the new album. This is the first tour we’ve done so everything’s real fresh. And you know, the new songs are really fun to play. We’ve got a nice four-piece band and we’ve got a new drummer which is really good. He’s the best drummer I’ve heard actually so, if you’re coming to see us play you’re going to see the best show of your life. And I have a new guitar which is pretty sweet, which I’m playing on this tour. It’s a really sexy black guitar you’re going to see that. But yeah, we have fun. We’re going to get down. 

Is it fun when you guys are in the same place? I understand AM lives in LA and you live in London, Shawn Lee?

SL: Yeah I live in London and everyone else lives in LA with the exception of our drummer who lives in Long Beach. 

That’s pretty unique. How does that international blend influence your music?

SL: Yeah I mean, I’m an American, but you know I’ve lived in London for 20 years. Both AM and I are into a lot of European music so I think the fact that I lived there for so long, I’ve discovered a lot of this music living there and being a little bit closer. But I think we’ve met in the middle musically. We have a lot of mutual reference points, we both love a lot of Italian and French music, and we originally bonded over that really because we’re both into that kind of soundtrack. So, it definitely has an influence on what we do. 

Logistically, how do you collaborate? 

SL: It’s all the internet, man. A lot of times, I start the tracks with drums and percussion and whatnot and I just send him the files over and he writes songs and plays instruments and just does his thing on top, sends it back to me, and I play a bit more, and mix it. You know? That’s how we mostly do it. Other times I might send a slightly more finished type track. But yeah, we send it back and forth. It’s completely modern. But I think that we have a lot of trust and eveybody’s allowed to give 100% to what they do. I’m not stifling him and vice versa so I think it’s a real…even though we do it in that way it’s still very organic. Each of us brings what we bring to the table 100%. So it’s really just simple and straightforward, really. 

So do you either of you ever sleep?

SL: (Laugther) AM sleeps more than I do but… funnily enough there’s an eight hour time difference between London and L.A. so it’s like when he gets up in the morning, I’ll have something for him to listen to. So, it works out pretty good. I’m ahead, so it puts me a little bit ahead of the game. 

You have a fascinating accent, I have to say. Do you get that a lot?

SL: (Laughter) Yeah, I do. People talk about my accent. It’s a sort of weird hybrid of London and Midwest and West Coast.

From my reading, you guys both have middle America or Midwestern roots?

SL: AM lived in Oklahoma when he was younger and my dad’s from Oklahoma, so we know a lot of the same places, same restaurants, same stores. We’ll be like, "Hey do you remember Spencer’s gift store?"

It’s sort of a unique background considering how European and disco-y your music sounds. How has that Midwestern bond and your shared roots influenced your musical style, if at all?

SL: I think it definitely influences what I do. You know musicians from the Midwest are very solid and there’s a really sort of deep roots to the playing. I think it’s very grounded and very earthy. It’s not like all flashy, you know what I mean? It’s not Hollywood. So I think I have like a real strong traditional kind of roots thing which I inherited from being in the Midwest. And then obviously moving to the big city as well… I think it’s just more kind of straight forward in some of my thinking. A little bit more kind of grounded. I mean what I say and I say what I mean. So I think it definitely influences me as a person and as a musician. 

Where’s your favorite place to put on a live show?

SL: In the States I really love San Francisco, I love Seattle, I love Chicago, those places are always great. We always have fun in LA as well. I mean New York it’s fun to go to. New York is kind of a tough town. You never know quite what to expect. I think when you play big cities, often it’s in the big city where they’ve seen it all before and so sometimes it’s hard to get that love in the big cities. They’re not as hungry. They’re more like ‘I’ve seen it all before’, they’ve got their arms closed. So New York and London, places like that, sometimes you don’t get a lot of love. They stand there and they talk and their arms are folded. But, being in those cities is amazing though, so it’s like a double edged sword. 

Other places I like... I love playing in Paris, and Barcelona’s always great and Tokyo’s always cool. And sometimes London. 

Do either of you freestyle in the shower?

SL: Do we freestyle in the shower? In what way? I don’t always wash the same part of my body first! No, I think we’ve both probably have sang in the shower before. Most definitely, man. Maybe throw down a little rap and a little NWA, maybe.

If you could collaborate with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?

SL: Wow. Dead or alive. When you say dead, it’s like, endless, endless, endless. In terms of dead—Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, the list is endless, Curtis Mayfield. In terms of living, Jack White, MF Doom or Doom, as he’s now known. To be honest with you there’s so many talented musicians out there that I would love to do something with. A lot of them are dying now, unfortunately. A lot of the older generation are dying. From the 60s and 70s it’s like everyday they’re dropping. So the days of that can disappear quite quickly. 

But I think Jack White would be mine. 

For people who don’t know about your music yet, aren’t familiar with you as a band yet, what would you like them to know about you? Your musical style, definitely the latest album, but also where you think you’re going musically...

SL: That’s a good question, where we’re going because in a way I’m not really thinking about it. I think the thing we talk about now maybe is like we might go a bit more guitars on the next record and less keys. Because we went more keys and less guitars on this one. But I don’t know whether that’s going to happen or not. We just often times do what feels natural and good at that time. When we’re touring, we’re looking for music, so often times that music sort of influences what we’re going to do, or we talk about certain sorts of drum beats that we want to create. 

I think it will be a logical continuation of what we’re doing, but I’m not exactly sure what it’s going to be. I think both records- I love both records we’ve done so far. I think the first one was slightly more 70’s with touches of the 80’s. The new album is more like 80’s with 70’s touches.  

In terms of the new record, I love it, I’m very proud of it. You know, it was so easy to do, to be honest with you. We’re just doing what we’re doing and it’s natural. 

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What are you doing in the next couple days to prepare for your LA show?

AM: We’re playing every night. We played Wednesday night in San Francisco, Thursday at the Hammer Museum and Friday at the Echo and Saturday night in San Diego. So we’re just playing every night- we’re in tour mode! The routine is the touring routine: you show up in the next town and play and try to squeeze in a little something if you can, a little coffee or dinner at some cool restaurant in that city. 

For fans who have never attended one of your live shows, what can they expect, not musically, but aesthetically in terms of lighting, costumes, set design…what’s the vibe that you try to go for?

AM: Well, we don’t really have a light show or projections or anything, but we really want to expand into that realm. Hopefully before long we’ll be able to start doing that stuff. I’d say it’s just going to be really lively and exciting. It’s four guys up there just sort of maxing themselves out in terms of instrumentation. We’re passing instruments around. It’s not easy music to play. It’s fun to listen to, but it’s actually deceptively complex in terms of the parts. The whole thing’s pretty challenging, but the goal is to make it look easy and make it look fun. 

Anything else you want to share with people who make be thinking about coming to one of your shows?

AM: I hope people come to the shows. Touring doesn’t happen all the time, so there’s only a few chances to actually catch us. So I would just encourage, if you’re even thinking of maybe coming to a show, just push through and make it happen because it will be worth it. 

AM & Shawn Lee are playing The Echo in Echo park 6/28 at 8:30pm. Get tickets here. 

Click here to download "La Musique Numerique" on iTunes.

Reach Staff Reporter Ashley Riegle by email. Follow her on Twitter here.