Limbeck: Point, click, rock

Limbeck connects through its photo-inspired music

By Mike Prevatt

The members of the Orange County, Calif.-based act Limbeck are musicians and photographers, and recently they also became heroes...sort of. While frolicking in the ocean during a stop in Florida, lead singer/guitarist Robb MacLean and guitarist Patrick Carrie saw a woman struggling in a riptide, and they ventured into the (shallow) water to help her--as did a lifeguard, who eventually pulled all three of them out of the current.

"It was kind of embarrassing," says MacLean. "But not that embarrassing because we're not, like, macho guys. Well, Patrick says he is."

One of the other less-distressed band members grabbed MacLean or Carrie's camera and snapped a shot of the scene. There are photogenic bands and then there's Limbeck, whose members like to be behind the camera almost more than they do in front of it, and not just for posterity, either. Whether it's taking a shot of an expansive vista while driving through the country or of their fellow bandmates sleeping on a plane, MacLean and Carrie make their photography an integral part of Limbeck's aesthetic. It makes up the crux of the content on its website (limbeck.net); it decorates the postcards included with its second album, Hi, Everything's Great; and, most interestingly, it inspires the lion's share of its songs. Photos taken on the road, at home or elsewhere make for useful reference points for the band's songs.

"If I think of something I want to write in a song about," says MacLean, "and I can find a picture from that time, or if I have a picture from that time that was mainly really good, or sometimes really bad, I can like remember a lot more details when I look at the photo, and keep my mind in the same place and make a more complete idea of the song--and a more coherent song, which is good, too."

This is not to say the musicians take snapshots in order to create their straightforward, melodic, Americana-leaning rock songs (think Old 97s, Ryan Adams and Teenage Fanclub). MacLean, who recently set up a website (becivil.net) to hock his prints and was recently profiled in the Los Angeles Times, was a photographer before he was a rocker, the former coming earlier and more naturally to him than the latter. But when his songwriting chops began to develop as naturally as his pictures did, he had a lifetime of mementos from his primary hobby to serve as his muse.

"I did start doing a lot of [photography] during family trips when I was younger," says MacLean. "I'd be in places I was interested in and didn't grow up in. I drove around and took as many pics as I could in California, too. Even the boring stuff is interesting subject matter to point your camera at; it's not your everyday life. That inspires me the most--to take pictures on the road and then write a song about it later. I rarely take a picture intending to write a song."

In following the standard indie rock ethic, MacLean is just plain nervous about how he promotes his artistry, whether it's using his photos to promote the music or his music to promote the band. Recently, Limbeck started streaming Hi, Everything's Great on its website, and the move is a carefully strategic one that it hopes will net more fans.

"It's definitely good to have the record online," says MacLean. "If they're willing to check out the site and they can do it for free, maybe they'll listen to it and then buy it later. Maybe they'll just listen to it for free and then come to our shows later--that would be fine, too. That makes them feel like you're not, like, selling it to them. I don't like to sound like I'm selling the record."