The members of Chicago post-punk band Lifeguard are having a universal teenage experience.

They meet up for lunch between classes and ride the train around the city together after school. It’s the quintessential suburban American life; complete with biking to each other's houses, thrifting and watching movies. Except unlike you and I, they aren’t spending their weekends in the woods smoking weed out of an apple, or terrorizing the staff at their local Applebees. Asher, Isaac, and Kai have instead been busy touring America (to be followed by Europe and the UK) with their friends and cultivating a community within the Chicago DIY scene, and their influence is being felt worldwide. 

Listening to Lifeguard transports you back to being pushed against the stage at a sweaty DIY show in the best way possible. Their music is youthful, energetic and intentional, channeling the nostalgic sounds of bands like Dinosaur Jr and Fugazi while still remaining distinctly their own. They give a shit, putting all of themselves into the band and everything surrounding it, creating a sound that encapsulates this youth collective that they’ve played such a major role in creating. 
I got to chat with them about Planet of the Apes, the diner options around Chicago, and the importance of bringing people together through music.

So you guys shot some press photos today, are you all in Chicago right now?

Kai: Yeah, at my house

Do you guys live near each other?

Kai and Isaac: We’re neighbors. 

Isaac: Well not direct neighbors but I can bike over so I feel like I’m in a suburban TV show

Asher: I’m a little bit further away but I can also bike over.

I love that. So what have you guys been up to? You signed with Matador a little over a year ago, how’s that been?

K: They’ve been awesome, super supportive of all of our ideas. 

I: Yeah. We had heard from our friends Horsegirl about the experience and that it was pretty positive and then once we got picked up, I was surprised at how nice it was. Honestly they want us to make whatever kind of record we wanna make. I really don’t feel pressured to be making something more commercial and we had been pressured to before. 

That’s awesome. Do you guys have any plans for the summer?

I: Yeah, I guess probably by the time this comes out it’ll be announced that we’re doing Europe and we’re doing the states, touring

Damn, this is your first time touring in Europe right? I saw you did a tour in the states last summer. 

A: Yeah we’re doing Canada as well. On our states tour.

You guys have created such a cool community within the DIY scene in Chicago. You did all of that during Covid right?

K: Yeah, yeah, I think it came out of necessity for community and wanting to have an image outside of Chicago as genuine creators of music. So yeah, it was during the pandemic. I don’t always think of it as starting during the pandemic but I guess that’s a big reason why it was so important to happen for us.

I mean if there was ever a time we needed community, to feel connected to the people around us, it was then.

I: During the pandemic is when I feel like everyone’s musical projects were established, but after that era was ending, after we played our first show after Covid, I think is when the seriousness of the whole thing emerged. I remember before Covid there was all of this DIY stuff that I was a little young to be entering, but still kind of for one reason or another, so much shut down that we had this gap in music to hop in locally too. So I think there was something missing and we were trying to fill that roll. 

K: During Covid was when I dropped out of high school and that was when I was like, I’m gonna do this full time career shit and that’s for me when it was like, this is a serious thing that has significance in the world. It's important.

That’s sick. I’m assuming you’re all pretty close outside of the band?

A: Now Kai goes to college like two blocks from our high school and so we eat lunch with him. 

I: This is honestly maybe one of our closest years, I would say.

That’s so cool. That’s the type of friendship everyone wanted to have, riding bikes to each other's houses and eating lunch together between classes. 

K: Yeah, it’s beautiful. It's a beautiful city to be friends in.

I: Yeah and we’re all downtown, it’s perfect, I don't know, like movie shit.

K: Yeah, this year we're all downtown and we just take the train to someone's house and, ya know, write music. It's been awesome.

I: That's how the records been. Every Monday and Thursday we eat lunch together, if we can, and then–

A: And then we go write two songs 

K: Yup, and then you record it and then you have a record and that’s how you make a record

I: Yeah, that’s why the name of the album is “train in chicago after some lunch” (laughs)

That’s sweet. 

K: Yeah.

What do you guys do for fun? Apart from music? Do you go to Applebees? Or diners? Or do you have better taste than I did in high school

A: Our diners here are shit. 

I: Yeah.

K: Yeah, they’re really expensive.

I: Yeah, it's like, where’s the $2 pancakes.

K: Diner grill is still awesome.

A: That is true. Just limited seating. 

K: Yeah. Victory Grill, I dunno, how cheap is it?

A: Victory grill is good, but it's not like, breakfast.

I: No, no that's like late night shit.

K: Yeah, I mean we got like Red Hot Ranch and stuff but that's not an egg place… 

I: Yeah I would not wanna eat eggs there.

K: Anyways, yeah, I make zines and solo music, we all make solo music, and we all make visual art too. That sort of thing.

I: Yeah, if I’m not making music with Lifeguard I’m at home making music on my own, and if I’m not doing that I'm on my computer in Blender making 3D models.

K: But for music!

I: Yes, for music.

So it really is all music. 

K: Definitely does revolve all around music, largely. As much as we could try to deny it, yeah it really is all about music.  

A: Yeah.

I: Yeah I can’t even play video games anymore. Somethings wrong.

K: There’s no time, there’s no time.

A: We go to the thrift store. We go to the movies, I really like going to the movies.

I: Dune 2! You see that shit?

K: We’re really into, like, the Planet of the Apes movies. We watched all of them. 

I: We’re so excited for the new one.

A: Yeah there's a new one next month and we’re gonna see it. 

I: Opening night we’re flying to LA. 

K: Dressed up as monkeys, sorry, as apes, not monkeys. We’re just normal friends, we do that. We eat burgers and watch movies.

A: We eat burgers and watch movies about apes.

K: But yeah, we make all of the art together. We have specific tastes about art, so we've always made it ourselves. If you write all of the songs, and production wise we try to be pretty hands on too, if you're gonna do all of that why not do the art too.

A: Yeah, have your hands involved in the visual side of it. It's so important. 

I: I'm always surprised when I see a record that feels like such a complete idea, and I find out that the cover is not by the band. It's like, how did someone else see this vision that well? How did they know it fits, and it's just some, like, design company. Its like, what the fuck? I feel like I'm the only person, or I’m one of three people, who can make the album cover for Lifeguard. 

It definitely shows. I love all of the stuff you do with Hallogallo, all of the zines are so cool. Could you tell me a little more about that? 

K: Its funny because we did an interview like 3 months before I started the zine, and it was in a zine, and they asked me if I ever thought about making a zine, and I was like, yeah i dunno, I don't need to do that, and then covid happened and i was like oh, yeah, i desire connection more than anything in the world and i'll do anything to have connection with anyone. That was a big part of creating it. But then it was just like falling in love with zines. I mean I've always loved zines, and they're such an interesting way to communicate.

I just fell further into the culture of zines, and also the community it builds from just people sending in letters and seeing people really connecting with the zine was really cool. And then I started the tape mail order thing, so people could order exclusive music or whatever. And that's still going on. I'll just get nice letters and nice drawings and art from fans which is really cool. That's definitely a big reason I keep doing this, because it's like, oh yeah, people connect to this, all around the world.

One of the last issues I did, some young people from Portugal really connected with the zine and reached out, like, we’re doing this thing that's directly inspired by what you're doing. And I was like, oh that's really cool. They're doing their own youth collective/zine/music thing in Lisbon and it was just really cool to see globally, seeing the youth community over music and stuff and that's definitely always been what is driving me.

It's so cool to make something people can hold in their hands. Something that isn't on your phone or on the computer. There's something so special about that. 

I: Yeah you can just send shit into the void, but then it's nice to know that if everything gets wiped from our, I dunno, data centers, that there's still something out there, you made your mark on the world. The future humans can dig that up, ya know.

A: Something else about that too, that's really cool that happened like a month or two ago, the three of us interviewed someone from this band called Limbo District, which is a band from Atlanta in the 80s, but the thing is there was no information about them anywhere, so the zine and the interview kind of served as a way for us to learn about something that wasn't even online at all. It was one of the most inspiring things I've ever done, the interview, specifically, and I think a zine is something that lends itself to that type of theme as well.

K: Yeah I think the format of a fan zine or an interview zine can directly connect to all of these themes because it's talking to other people who have created, the direct inspiration you get from talking to someone, especially in the case of Limbo District, they were an early queer band in the context of the 80s and aids and everything, it was a very inspiring and emotional story. And I think those are great experiences to have. Like Eleanor, Asher's partner, just did an interview with Lætitia from Stereolab, and that was really awesome, super inspiring too.

A: It's a really good interview.

I: Yeah, it's a great interview.

K: And I think just connecting all of these things, it can all be connected to being young and making music, or larger themes of capitalism, or whatever. It's all super relevant. 

I: I think in all of the interviews we’ve done, or at least as we’ve kind of gotten better at it, the lens has kind of focused in more on, like if it's some old band, instead of talking about the same old shit like how they make the music or what their writing process is, it's more interesting to hear about the ethos of the music or the idea of the scene and of the community.

There's been a lot of stuff that we've gotten out of people in interviews that I haven't really seen before. I just interviewed this band Ultramarine from the 90s and kind of the same thing happened to me where I just felt like I had read all of these interviews online and then I was like, this all just feels really new, and i'm learning something about the people.

A: It's the type of thing that comes across best in a little paper book you read.

K: Yeah, I think the format of a zine just lends people to be more comfortable in expressing things and sharing. Because it's like, you're not gonna say something super deep in, like NME or Stereogum. I mean maybe you will but I feel like it's more likely that someone will feel comfortable enough to say something kind of profound in a zine. Because it's usually more of a chill conversation.

A: It's just easier to relate to something like that.

I: I also think there’s something about all of the artists being interviewed by people who are artists, it changes the whole thing. We’ve been interviewed a million times and we know all of the questions that we hate being asked, so I think there's a certain nature to the way we've been doing interviews that I think a lot of the people that we've talked to have connected with. If I were interviewed the way Hallogallo has done interviews I would really appreciate it.  

K: Well yeah, I mean we’re all fanatics and we all ask, like, not Nardwuard level questions necessarily–

I: That shits creepy.

A: But like, research because we like it.

K: Yeah, it’s from a point where it's like, I am being clear that I am a huge fan of your music, and I also make music, and you inspire my music and you're gonna know that but it's gonna be chill.

Are there any questions you hate being asked? Does it get old having people constantly asking what it feels like to be so young and getting compared to bands like Fugazi?

I: I think we’re done with the comparisons to Fugazi specifically, and Unwound. I think there's other stuff in there now. I guess when new singles come out people will be like, yeah, i hear other things in this music.

K: I just think every band has been influenced by Fugazi since, like, 2005. 

I: Yeah, I mean, theyre fucking great. And whatever.

K: I mean, the thing you don't want in an interview, sorry this is getting meta, we've had interviews in the past where it's like, you're not listening to me. Youre reading from a script or a teleprompter. When it's not a conversation and it's just like, ok that's interesting, what shoe size are you. You're not elaborating or working with what I'm saying. You don't want that. We can work with any question, we can turn it on its head.

Okay can you guys all close your eyes and point to who you think would win in a fight.

[Asher and Isaac point to Isaac. Kai points at himself and goes “oh wait” and switches to Isaac.]

K: Everyone says Isaac. Isaac is just kind of like, shockingly strong.

A: I mean we’ve done arm wrestling.

I: We’ve done the arm wrestle. 

Okay and last thing I wanna know, what's the last thing you searched on Apple Music or Spotify or whatever. No cheating. 

I: Ugh that’s embarrassing.

A: Oh no that's good.

But seriously no cheating.

A: Oh, the last thing I searched is not that interesting. Because it's a band that we’re playing with tomorrow. They're called Re-TROS.

I: This is lame, um, okay,

K: What is it!

I: Its 1969 by Boards of Canada.

K: Why is that lame?

I: I just, like, wish I had something better.

K: I have the Supremes.

I: Have you heard the song Racoon by DJ Assault?

I’m pretty sure my sister just saw DJ Assault in Brooklyn.

I: I fucking love DJ Assault. This guys so cool.

K: Oh my god it's this song!

A: It's the racoon out there song.

K: Yeah he uses a sample of a lady saying racoon out there.

A: It's like a 911 call about racoons.

K: It's a great song.

I: And there's like, no melody at all. It's just toms. Which I guess is melodic. It's sick. I played this for both of them and they were like what is this shit? And I was like, just wait. 

K: Yeah we’re all expanding each other's musical horizons. 

What are we gonna do with our 6 minutes and 25 seconds left? Um, what are you guys doing later tonight, after this?

A: We’re trying to go to a show but we have to practice. 

I: Yeah we have to practice for our show tomorrow. We haven't played since, like, two weeks ago. Um, that's not true.  

K: I have to make like a wooden–

[Isaac gasps]

I: You have got to see this!

K: It's not done!

I: Where is it?

K: I’m making a wooden vespa for my art class. I gotta paint it still. 

A: It's awesome. 

I: He was painting it with oil paint.

Kai then got oil paint from the vespa on his pants. They said they were going to try to get that out and have curry for dinner.