College Sound: Little Lo freezes to record album

With write-ups in local music publications such as Austin Writes Music and The Austin Chronicle, Little Lo has garnered the attention of music aficionados.

They ranked second in this year's Austin Music Awards for "Best New Band" without heavily campaigning for people to vote for them.

"We did talk about it online... At least to centralize all those votes if anyone was going to vote for us," said Ryan McGill, guitarist/vocalist. "We definitely could have done a lot more than what we did."

"But this is maybe more organic," said Bailey Glover, vocalist/pianist. "We didn't push it. It just kind of happened."

Doug Freeman even made a small reference to the Grammy-winning Arcade Fire in a review about Little Lo in The Austin Chronicle.

All this for a band that hasn't celebrated their first anniversary. Little Lo formed last summer, and to some of the members, all the attention comes as a surprise.

"That's awesome. I didn't know that our name was everywhere, because I don't follow that stuff," said Ian Rogers who plays mandolin and saxophone for the folk pop band.

"We hear the same things over and over again," said Josh Mead, the bassist. "That we have this almost family-like relationship on stage, where people notice that it's more than just trying to..."

"...put on a show," said Glover.

"For us, it's more of reacting with each other," said Mead who is also a general studies major at ACC.

For the moment though, it is all about the live show, because it's the only way fans can take in their music.

"That's why it's so weird that we get as much recognition as we do right now," said McGill. "Because our only recording right now is one demo we did. It was a quick recording that we did in the living room."

That four-song demo is only available online through Bandcamp, but the band's debut EP will be formally released as a physical CD.

The new EP, which is currently unnamed, was recorded in the house McGill and Rogers live in and is over 50 years old.

To avoid unwanted background noises, the band turned off the refrigerator and heater during the recording process. However, they recorded during their winter break.

"It was really cold. I had multiple layers on," said Glover.

Luckily, the heater only affected the one room they were recording in as the microphones led to the computer in another room.

"Everyone collected in my bedroom," said McGill. "All the people in there would be nice and cozy and warm, but then when you walk out here, it'd be really cold. I did board up the windows, but that was to keep street noise [from] getting in. It helped with temperature stuff."

Now that the band members got through the cold winter days, they are now in the process of adding the finishing touches to the EP for a June release.

"I've been mixing it and tweaking the final touches on vocals and stuff. It just takes a really long time," said McGill.

But Little Lo is ready to get their CD in people's hands.

"It's going to feel really good to get something out," said Mead.