Written By Cary Barnhard

Besides being founder of the great band, Veruca Salt, Louise Post is one of the coolest people on the planet. Heat Beat had the incredible luck to catch Louise in the recording studio.

HB: You're recording a new album now?

LP: We're recording an EP. It's called, "Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things".

HB: How's that going?

LP: Oh, it's going great! I'm so excited about it! I just finished the final vocal yesterday. It's been a long process. So, it's already in the mixing, but I had to finish this one vocal and one guitar part on one song. I finished it, I'm really, really psyched. I'm just really glad to be releasing something and touring the States for the first time in a few years.

HB: How is the new stuff different than the stuff we've heard before?

LP: It's hard for me to classify my music and my development, but I think it's similar, because it's still me. It's just where I'm at now, which I think is a different place. When I wrote "Resolver", I was coming from a place of two like wildly enormous break ups and I was writing from that head space. Trying to make sense of that, I had suddenly found myself an adult without really having the tools to be an adult. I was kind of like, "What the hell's going on?" and I was writing from that place; just trying to find a resolution through writing songs. That's always the best remedy for me, writing songs. But this one I sort of hit a spiritual bottom and saw myself sort of wondering if I was going to continue writing music or what I was going to do. What came about is I realized this is what I do, this is what I I have to do in order to make sense of my life and be fulfilled. So, I'm sort of re- launching the band and I'm really excited about it and really happy to be writing songs. It's like a valve opened and I just feel like writing like crazy and I couldn't wait to get to the studio. I've just been working really hard to get this EP together. and this tour together. I don't know if it's more positive, per se, but it's definitely me coming from a good place.

HB: Is that why it's been so long between albums, you were working on a new perspective?

LP: Yeah, definitely. I was writing a lot of music and doing demos, like maybe three or four songs at a time. I wasn't very focused during that time, so I was just sort of not dealing wit it for the next few months and then come back to it again. So I didn't have any real continuity and focus about my music. Over the past year it's really come back, and there's sort of a resurgence of creativity and excitement in doing what I do. I think probably every artist, musician, sculptor, painter, writer, whatever, has to step away from their work for a while and gain a new perspective.

HB: You're working with Rae Dileo. What does he contribute?

LP: Rae is the best engineer I've ever worked with. I met him when he was working with Filter and he's now working on the new album for Richard Patrick from Filter and the Dileo Brothers (Ironically Dileo is their last name as well) from Stone Temple Pilots. Their band is called Army of Anyone and Rae is engineering that record and Bob Ezrin is producing. I met Rae through Richard in Chicago two years ago and we always talked about working together. I just really liked him. I saw how he worked and admired him a lot. I started working on demo sessions with him last winter whenever we were both available. I asked him to produce this album because I think he is a worthy producer. He's got great vision. I think we speak the same language; he understands what I mean by certain sounds. He's always kind of one step ahead of me. He's really good at soundscape ideas, adding depth and texture to music. He actually has a few records of his own that are kind of trancelike. It's also his energy and just his person that I really like. He's very level. He doesn't make it about him. He's not a drama queen like many producers are.

HB: You worked with Bob Rock at one point?

LP: Yes. Bob Rock, who is also not a drama queen! He's a great producer, really awesome to work with.

HB: I associate him with a different type of music than yours. What led you to working with him?

LP: Well actually, we always wanted "American Thighs", our first record, to sound massive. It didn't end up sounding that way. It sounded like an Indie rock record, which in hind sight is sounds exactly like it was meant to. We were not musically ready to make a really big record, and I think that's part of the charm and innocence about it. And the second record, we were touring with Live and PJ Harvey, and the sound person would ring out the PA with "Enter Sandman" from Metallica's Black Album, and we were just so blown away! And one night we were catering and we were like, "What sounds better? Nothing!" We decided that we wanted Bob Rock to make our record. We had a meeting with him and we got along famously. We really wanted to make a big Rock record with him, which we did!

HB: This is dumb, but I have to ask. Did you see the new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"?

LP: No I didn't. I saw the trailer…and I'm such a fan of the old movie, and I love how human Gene Wilder was. It kind of turned me off to see Johnny Depp from the trailer, which is not very fair to say because I didn't see the movie and he may have brought a lot of depth to the character, but it just seems very cartoonish to me. I had a lot of movies I wanted to see and that just wasn't one that I really wanted to get to. But, I probably will rent it!

HB: I thought it was good, but not as good.

LP: It's funny that what I saw from the clips and stuff, the character of Veruca Salt was very much like the original.

HB: Yeah. Really not much changed. They had squirrels instead of geese. Hope I'm not ruining it….

LP: I heard a criticism from someone saying "Why did they remake it? What is the point?" I guess for me it would be that there are a legion of children who have never seen the old movie because it brought me so much joy as a child.

HB: Were you just in a movie?

LP: I had a small role in an independent film called "The Still Life".

HB: Was that your first time acting?

LP: Actually, I wan in a theater company in Chicago before I was in the band. It was called Crime Productions, John Cusack's theater company. I did that for a year and a half. It was basically improv; really just Punk Rock theater, really awesome. It was so challenging that coming off of that being in a band was so simple, there was nothing scary about it. Improv is like writing your own script spontaneously. Having lyrics written down and I could memorize was totally easy compared to that