The accepted wisdom on LA is that it’s so big and spread out, people form enclaves in order to survive. Everyone has their own little pocket of the suburbs, with their favourite taco place, their favourite seedy bar, the friend’s place where they play at drunken parties, and Kuehn tells me that this is definitely true of him and the rest of Fidlar. “You can feel separated from the madness if you find good places to hang out,” he says. “We’re based in Highland Park, which is on the east side of town, and it’s spread out enough that it doesn’t feel crazy or claustrophobic. That’s where our studio is, and where Zac and Brandon live together. My brother Max and I live together in Mid-City, which is more central, not east side but not west side either. There’s a lot to do. It’s nice to be by the water, but you can go into the city.”
On the subject of younger brothers, I’m curious about the degree of sibling rivalry in Fidlar. Max Kuehn, the band’s drummer and Elvis’s younger sibling, has quite a devoted internet following, and is something of a ginger sex symbol. I ask Elvis if his brother’s raw redhead sex appeal drives a wedge between him and the rest of the band, but he assures me they’ve all learned to live with it. “I’ve been playing music with Max since we were 12 and 13,” he says. “We’d sometimes get in crazy screaming arguments, and we still fight, because we’re brothers, but there’s more respect now, it’s more professional. If he fucks something up in the show, I’m not going to give him shit now, whereas I would when we were younger.” Over the years, the two have learned to give each-other space. “When you spend a lot of time together, you want to make sure you respect each-other, and you don’t get used to being dicks to each-other. I’m glad that we can be in a band together and not hate each-other. We can make it work.”
Elvis met the rest of the band when he was interning at Kingsize Soundlabs, the Silver Lake recording studio that has hosted such bands as The Jesus And Mary Chain and Rilo Kiley. “Zac was interning there at the same time,” he says, “and we got to talking about music. He played me some of the songs he was working on, and we would jam in one of the studios when there wasn’t a session going on.” The two hit it off, and decided that the time was right to start a band where they could write their own songs rather than play other people’s. “We really hit it off,” he continues, “and so we started recording demos on nights when there wasn’t anything happening in the studios. We’d get drunk and jam. Zac’s roommate Brandon would come in to play bass with us, and he ended up in the band too. I’ve always played with Max, so he was a pretty obvious option for drums.”
The video for Fidlar’s song Max Can’t Surf features Max playing all of the other band members, and thrashing away at their various instruments. In one scene, the name Fidlar is clearly visible, tattooed above both his knees. Having your band’s name inked on your body is pretty serious business … however, Elvis tells me that the video isn’t all it appears. “Those tattoos aren’t actually real,” he says. “Zac has the band’s name tattooed on him, and because Max was playing him in the video, we figured we had to draw the same tattoos on Max for the sake of accuracy.” Since the video, though, Brandon and Max have both gotten Fidlar tattoos – Elvis remains the one hold-out. I ask if there’s a lot of pressure for him to get one, and he laughs. “No, there’s not really,” he says. “A lot of people ask about it, but it doesn’t bother me. I mean, first of all, I wouldn’t get a band tattoo … it’s lame when people get their favourite bands’ names tattooed on them, so I wouldn’t want to do it with my own band!”
BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN
