B Y SUE ZA LO K A R
S T A F F W R IT E R
itchie Young was bom and raised in a
Republican family in Bend. He played
a little music is school, but he will tell
you he was “horrible.” Though he plays
guitar and sings lead vocals for his band,
Loch Lomond, Young admits he identifies
more as a producer than a musician.
In many ways, although he is just over
the Cascades, he is worlds from where he
came from. He splits his time now between
touring Europe with the band he started 10
years ago with a friend, Rob Oberdorder
(Ages and Ages) - and living in Southeast
Portland.
Live performances range from Young by
himself to a full band and any combination
in-between.
Ten years and many incarnations of the
the band later, Loch Lomond has returned
home to Portland from the 2014 tour and is
awaiting the release of its fifth album.
The band is doing a w inter tour of the
West Coast of the United States with The
Vaselines — an alternative rock band from
Glasgow, Scotland, who gained notoriety
(after they broke up) when Nirvana covered
two of their songs on the “Incesticide”
album (1992).
Loch Lomond and The Vaselines play the
Doug Fir on Sunday, Jan. 25.
R
Sue Zalokar: Loch Lomond is a tender 10
year old project. Tell me the origin o f the band
name.
Ritchie Young: I wanted to call the band
The Mountains but there are tons of
“mountains” bands. We ordered some reel-
to-reel tape on eBay and it had a sticker on
the box that said Loch Lomond.
Mn
old
was it German?-- nuns singing. We sampled
that in our first record.
S.Z.: CtfWizradme - there seems to be quite
a lot o f that in the band.
the
R. Y.: It’s because there is no core, core
group. Well, there is a core group, but we
pull members in and out over the years, so
they don’t feel pressure to tour every tour
or do everything that the band is doing.
It seem s like a large family reunion -
some people can show up and some people
can’t. Some people are having babies, some
people are doing other things.
S. Z.: You play violin, but as a mandolin ...
R. Y.: I don’t play violin. I just fake it. I
should just get a mandolin. It’s kind of
embarassing.
S. Z.: B u t it's quirky and it has a distinct
sound..
R. Y.: Yeah, I’m trying to get that pitz
sound out of i t ...
S. Z.: Pitz?
R. Y.: Pizzicato. I haven’t played the violin
for a while, actually. I write using a lot of
different instruments, but live I play guitar
and sing.
S. Z.: Did you play music in school?
R.Y.: I was awful. I’m not a musician. I
more like to produce stuff. If someone were
to put the most basic piece of sheet music
in front of me, I wouldn’t ...
S.Z.: There are (at least) two kin d s of
musicians though. There is the classically
trained musician who came up playing and
reading music and practicing. And then there
are people who can intuitively hear patterns
and make patterns. Those skills are equally
important. So, how did you come to music
then, or how did music come to you?
R. Y.: In high school I got grounded for
having a nail gun fight with my friend in
wood shop class. And I hit him above the
eye and I was grounded for the entire
summer. My dad had an acoustic guitar
upstairs, and it had a Neil Young book in it.
S. Z.: Voila! You’ve said you had a weird
childhood. What was weird about it?
R. Y.: I was a weird little kid, yeah.
S. Z.: You were diagnosed with ADD as a
kid.
R. Y.: I’m almost 40 now and it’s much
better now. There is still a lot of e n e rg y ...
As a child, my family lived right on the
woods. So, my friends and I created a kind
of fantasy land.
S. Z.: You seem to live in a surreal, ethereal
world, and in listening to your music,you
have some remarkable dreams - many of
which have become what you’ve called “simple
songs that the band fill and color in. ” Talk
about creative process.
R.Y.: Every song is totally different in
how I go about creating it. The ones that I
try to force are always awful. The ones that
See YOUNG, page 9