The San Francisco Bay-area group French Cassettes issued its latest album, "Benzene," earlier this month and will play several regional dates this weekend with gigs in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
The band's Lorenzo Scott Huerta recently discussed the creation of "Benzene," how he feels about playing festivals and his first gig.
The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How do you see "Benzene" as being different from past French Cassettes releases?
Every once in a while, we go through our old hard drives. We look up old songs that we never finished. That, honestly, was the case for this album. At one point I made a list and there were 30 songs. I thought, "This is way too many songs. We're not trying to make another 'White Album,' why are we doing this?" We chiseled it down to what you hear on the record. This is different than the other records because there was intent. We'd say, "We're going to make this cohesive album." We'd write them all together. This one was, "Let's go through the archive and see if we can make sense of it."
Were there ideas that you had forgotten existed?
[Laughs.] Not to sound too dramatic, but I never forget a song. I always remember my songs. It takes my bandmates so much time and effort to make [the music] sound how it sounds that I want to make sure [the songs are as good as they can be]. I don't throw stuff at the wall and hope it sticks. I only offer a song if I think it could be a really, really good song.
There are songs on this album that I didn't even imagine I would sing. There's a song called "Normal Day" and on the outro … I imagined Rufus Wainwright singing the outro for me. That never happened. Maybe one day.
You're playing Elsewhere Fest on your current run of dates. What's the importance of a gig like that for you, where you're playing with multiple bands and maybe reaching a different audience than you normally would?
To put it cheesily, we're just happy to play. Truly. To be invited to any kind of festival where the crew is nice, the bands are nice, we're just so grateful for that opportunity. It does mean a lot to us to play with bands that we appreciate, but, also, the most important thing is that everyone's nice. [Laughs.] We've played festivals where that is not the case.
I've been playing music for over 20 years now, and, honestly, I can say wholeheartedly that one of the best parts of my job is when I get to rub shoulders with other bands that are nice and really talented.
You said you've been doing this for about 20 years. At one point did it become apparent to you that music was the thing you were going to do?
You used to be able to go to a drugstore and have a DVD printed. Our very first show is printed on DVD. It's in my cabinet right now. I was 15, and I was dressed like Green Day. We played Sublime, The Strokes, and we played one original. The reception was so good that I said, "I have to do this. I have to keep doing this." That was the moment.
The times that you've seen that video over the years, have you been impressed? "Hey, we actually were pretty good. People weren't just shining us on."
Except for the fact that I was going through puberty and my voice cracked during "Santeria." But, other than that, it was a really good show.
