On Saturday, Demon Lover, along with their self-described best friends Old Lights, will release the first in a series of monthly 7″ records care of Tower Groove. It’s 7 bucks ahead and the shit gets kicked starting at 9pm. More info here.

When Demon Lover shuffled onto scene awhile back, I couldn’t decide if these guys were mixing a potion meant to cast out ghosts of the past or to stir ’em up. Turns out it’s neither. What Demon Lover is doing, though, is molding a musical space that’s new and confounding and special in this sensitive old city.

JJ Hamon of DL answered a few of my questions via email since I was bedridden this week. I think you’ll find his responses enlightening and hilarious, and definitely hungry for more. And if we’re lucky at all, more is just what we’ll get from Demon Lover.

How did Demon Lover get involved with Tower Groove? What are the advantages of being part of the collective?

I’m in another group with Adam Hesed and Anne T-kach (and Sammo!) called Magic City so I got to watch the two of them and [Jason] Hutto stumble upon the idea and talk about it for 2 days before all the bands that were on last year’s 2xLP jumped on board. It really was only about two days…

The advantages include hearing about half the bands shows before they have them, watching Fred Friction drop a bottle of Stag he was holding upside down over his head with his mouth and catch it in his hand without losing a drop, free pictures by Theo R Welling for life, and hopefully some form of camaraderie between people putting out music in St Louis.

Why did you guys and Old Lights end up on the same release?

We’re best friends. We play similar styles of music, we both have Hamons [JJ is the Demon Lover, Kit is the Old Light], and Andy and David [Beeman] are like brothers. You should see the two of ’em hugging and kissing when they’re together (’cause that’s what brothers do). It just made sense. The idea for the TGR Singles Club was that the band that originally appeared on the 2xLP got to make a list of new groups they would like to do a split with. I had heard that Old Lights was going to ask Tef Poe, but I used my sibling abilities to weasel my way in and make them feel insecure as to whether they were good enough to even ask a St Louis luminary like him. It worked; sorry Tef.

What was the recording of the 7″ like?

Demon Lover made a few recordings last fall, but hadn’t put any of them out. Andy was living in Iowa for most of the year so Sam and I drove up to visit and work on some new songs. Before we arrived Andy said he had 6 new songs, but when we got there and started trying to play together it was like a couple of pen pals who finally meet in real life and don’t know how to interact with each other in any other way than by the written word. When the ice did finally thaw, we had about a song and a half. This is the half.

I invited my friend Mitch over to help me record some sousaphone on the track to spruce it up, but instead we drank some beer and talked about our feelings.

Truthfully, I worked very hard on this and am very pleased to say this is the most interesting thing I’ve put on vinyl. Jason Hutto gave me a big compliment by saying “I’ve listened to that track several times now and thought ‘What drives a person, or 3 people, to record something like this?’.”I’m sure that a compliment isn’t how he intended it, but for someone who has heard a lot of recorded sounds to actually stop and wonder…You should watch the movie, you would understand better.

So when did Demon Lover “officially” become a band?

The Piggs® 1982.

How is Demon Lover unique among other music projects its members are or were involved in?

In 2003, I was in Australia and played a few folk shows with a Christian “recovering lesbian” (who, luckily or unluckily for her, had a gorgeous “recovering” roommate) and a handsome, sweet-talking (completely unluckily for him) mandolin picker. Our cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” predates the Counting Crows version, but does not predate all the thousands of other folkies who found truth in those lyrics. Demon Lover is like the Two Keys Ensemble with 1/3 the talent and 3/2 the vocals (put that in your mathematics rock pipe and smoke it)…

…More laughter and smiles.

You all are a group of experienced musicians that presumedly know each other well. To what extent do your live shows involve improvisation?

Depending on the show, 30-87%.

What’s next for the band? You have a couple recordings out there on Soundcloud/Bandcamp…any plans for an EP or an album?

You haven’t asked what’s in the past. Well, you sort of did but I didn’t answer (as it was in a different vein). The answer is fucking.

Fucking is in the past and babies are in the future. We were very excited to be nominated as Riverfront Times’ “Most Fertile Band of 2012” and now we will be adding all that joy to our lives in the forms of [babies] number 3 and 4 respectively to the DL crew, coming this spring!!!

Besides that, I finished mixing a cassette for Manic Static earlier this week. Hopefully, that will be released in the next month or so. I’m finishing up a slightly different digital version for Bandcamp. It is all over the map and I’m very proud of it.

There is talk of another 45 and several other EPs/completed works in the near future: Demon Lover Takes A Ride On An Escalator, DMNLVR, Airtight Slipknot, a Prince covers album, etc. You see, lots of thoughts, not a lot of action [laughs]…actually it’s a ton of action and we’re all excited to be making sounds.