For those of you who don't want to listen to the podcast - here's a transcription of our interview with Greg Roth, Gimmer and the lovely Voxxy Vallejo on NWCZ Radio. Also we put in some links to make things easier.
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          Intro: WILD PLACES (Song Plays)

Greg Roth: That is a very dark and haunting tune by Latitude x Longitude. And that was what? Wild Places?

Rebeqa: Yes, sir.

GR: Wow, you guys really create some amazing soundscapes and a very minimalist approach. Very atmospheric, its like your songs are mini movies, We were talking earlier about how yours is the kind of music where if you’re driving down a dark country road after midnight....”

Voxxy Vallejo: It definitely creates a mood.

Rebeqa: We’re just trying to keep you awake while your driving along that road.

GR: Yah, or scared!

Rebeqa: Whatever keeps you going, right?

Ben: Interestingly enough I used to commute 80 miles a day on two really long dark country roads and so I’m totally down with this. This is great!

GR: This is driving after midnight music for sure. It’s beautiful. And you’re a trained vocalist. You have an amazing voice.

Rebeqa: Well, thank you. I have a degree in Vocal Performance.

GR: Where did you study?

Rebeqa: Wheaton Conservatory outside Chicago.

GR: Wow.

Rebeqa: It was a very classically-oriented program -- which was excellent and I got a wonderful education -- but I had to go moonlight at local jazz clubs. I sang a lot of jazz at the time. Actually I got the chance to perform with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble under William Russo, who has since passed away. It was pretty epic. We performed a piece by Duke Ellington, a song cycle called “Sacred Songs”, I believe. He wrote it for the Chicago Jazz Ensemble so they owned the song cycle and are the only ones that perform it. That was an exciting experience. I didn’t tell my voice teacher, but she found out -- that didn’t go over too well.

GR: It’s a very minimalist kind of approach that lays a great musical canvas, and then with your voice over the top of it...it seems to me that you have a wide variety of vocal colors from which to draw -- to paint this beautiful musical, visual piece.

Rebeqa: Well thank you. I can also say that working with these guys is awesome.

Ben & Spencer: Awwwwww!

Rebeqa: I know, group hug.

Gimmer: Otherwise you’d have quit by now.

Rebeqa: I know. It’s going...just ok. (joking) We leave space for each other. I know if I’m taking over the higher part of the song that everybody will just let me have that space and we all pick different areas, different planes to be in, but we trade off. Its very much a conversation. So it gives us a lot of freedom to go through and have that dialogue in the songs -- trading off colors. It’s very enjoyable.

Ben: I just like it because I get to play lots of notes in this band. (laughter)

GR: And yet it doesn’t sound cluttered. Lots of notes but it’s not cluttered, and you’re voice weaves in and out in between. It’s wonderful. How do you guys approach writing? Do you guys get together? Do you come up with the initial melody? How does it work?

Rebeqa: Well, most of this album was actually written by Spencer and I. Long distance I think, right? He was in Texas for a while and I was in Seattle and there was a lot of recording back and forth, and then getting together and being like, “Ummm, some of this is a little weird in person. We need to change that.” (laughter)

Spencer: I think a lot of Rebeqa and my initial relationship when we started writing songs was trying to figure out a common ground for us. As she mentioned, she has a lot of the classical background, and I have more of a draw toward rock. I guarantee you we wrote, what, thirty or thirty-five songs? We just had to scrap stuff left and right that did not jive with what we were looking for, and we performed for a year just as a duo. And THEN we created an album, and THEN started working with a band.

GR: Wow, wow. It’s amazing -- kind of a yin and yang approach to song writing and really dark atmospheric themes. This next song reached out, grabbed me and made the hair on my arms stand up: Suicide by Annie.

           SUICIDE BY ANNIE (Song plays)

GR: You know that song would really lend itself to a very interesting video. Do you guys have any videos that accompany any of your songs, because it seems like they’re just made for videos.

Rebeqa: We do have some videos up on YouTube. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SMY0CfpsPQ) And with this song specifically we also have a graphic novel of the song using the lyrics as the writing and a sort of altered photography for the graphic. It features Spencer as “The Stranger” and myself as “Annie.” I’ve heard comments that it “will probably give me nightmares.” (laughter)

GR: Where can you find that? On Youtube? Your website.

Rebeqa: There’s a preview up on YouTube with slide of the spreads and then the graphic novel itself you can get on our website, www.latitudexlongitude.com. Well, technically it’s not for sale just yet, we’re featuring it at our CD release next week.

VV & Gimmer: Wow, awesome! Looking forward to that.

GImmer: Let’s talk about that. You’ve go your CD release coming up right?

Ben: Yeah, the 15th of July.

Rebeqa: At Cafe Racer.

Spencer: Also, it is free admission, so, just come on in and help support us. It will be great!

Rebeqa: We were able to finish this album by the support of pre-sales with people who have been following since Spencer and I started as a duo. So the CD Release is kind of a “Thank You” to our fans who’ve helped us get this far. It’s actually a “CD Release and SWAG party.” So were hoping people come out who bought our album and we can be like, “It’s free admission. Come on down.” Those who haven’t bought the CD yet, you can get a copy there.

Gimmer: How many tracks do we get on the CD?

Rebeqa: There are nine tracks on it.

GR: Talk about that a little bit, because that’s an interesting, refreshing approach to making a record. How, what was the process for that? What did you guys do to raise the money and make the record?

Rebeqa: Well, it was done pretty much through the pre-sales and we offered advance downloads for when we finished the record. Now that we have the disk they will also get the disc. We had the tracks recorded but we didn’t have everything mastered -- just kind of sitting in limbo, and we hit a wall and it was like, “Oh, man we need to just ask for help.”

Ben: Because [Spencer & Rebeqa] boot strapped the original tracking and stuff. Right? You just kind of paid for it out of pocket and stuff?

Rebeqa: Yeah. Then we got wonderful, wonderful people who came in and helped us out saying, “I’ll do it for a t-shirt”, or “I’ll do it for whatever you guys are drinking in the studio” kind of stuff. We are very thankful.

VV: That’s old school.

Gimmer: So when people come to the CD release party there are actually going to be able to GET a CD, right?

Rebeqa: Yes, sir.

GImmer: Because, you know, people sometimes put on CD release shows...

VV: Without product?

Gimmer: “Wow, great CD guys!” and they’re playing a burned copy...and that’s the only one under the roof. (joking)

Rebeqa: On no - we are releasing it into the wild. It’s going to be free range out there.

Gimmer: Well, you know, you’ve gotta be prepared for that kind of stuff.

GR: It seems like this is a record that... well, it’s a brilliant record... it’s a record made by your fans and there’s a certain ownership that these fans must have in making this record and I think, in some ways, they’re your executive producers.

Ben: Absolutely.

GR: That’s a great way to engage your audience. Do you use the traditional -- or now traditional rather -- social media mediums? Facebook, twitter and all that? Talk about that. Tell people where they can find you.

Rebeqa: We are on Facebook and Twitter and Myspace as well - just search for “Latitude x Longitude”. On Facebook and Twitter you can find the most updates - we are very active on there.

GR: So www.latitudexlongitude.com is your website so folks can go out there to access your videos and get your music, they can purchase your music.

Rebeqa: facebook.com/latitudexlongitude, twitter.com/latitudexlongitude, myspace.com/latitudexlongitude

GR: What’s coming up after the CD Release?

Ben: I’m currently in the middle of booking the “Tiny Little Town Tour.” We are all from really tiny little towns, and I don’t know about anybody else...

Rebeqa: Represent!

Ben: Yeah, there’s almost no music out there in the tiny little town where I grew up. You had to drive 30 miles.

GR: Well, your music is geared toward small town, midnight driving music, if you will. But it’s also a very big sound. You guys, absolutely, put together a brilliant piece of work here and I’m looking forward to hearing more of this

Ben: Thanks for having us.

Rebeqa and Spencer: Thank you.