Culture
Anthony LaMarca of The War on Drugs talks touring with The National, balancing a setlist and changing songs up live
By: Nicholas Kobe
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CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio (WOUB) – The War On Drugs has carved out a distinct place in modern rock, blending heartland rock influences with expansive, ambient soundscapes.
Fronted by Adam Granduciel, the Philadelphia-based band has garnered critical acclaim for albums like Lost in the Dream and A Deeper Understanding, the latter of which won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. Their music explores themes of longing, isolation, and personal growth, set against lush, cinematic instrumentation.
A key component of the band’s sound is guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca, whose contributions add depth and texture to their sonic palette. On Saturday, The War On Drugs is set to perform at Bossom Music Center (1145 West Steels Corners Road) as a part of a tour with The National and featuring support from Lucius.
WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe interviewed LaMarca, and you can find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
Nicholas Kobe: If you had to describe The War on Drugs in one sentence, what would you say?
Anthony LaMarca: I dunno. That’s basically an impossible thing to answer, I dunno.
Fair enough. So, I’m calling you ahead of your tour with The National. What are you looking forward to in terms of going on that tour with that band in particular?
LaMarca: I think it’ll be fun to be out with not only them but also Lucius. We haven’t really done a tour like this where it’s the same three bands throughout the entire tour. Obviously we’ve done plenty of tours with us and an opener, but I think it’ll be fun while we’re much closer with the folks in Lucius, I think it’d be fun to get to know The National folks a little better. I think it’ll be just fun to play every night. Hopefully fun to play in front of some new people who maybe have never seen us before. But yeah, we’re super excited about it. It’s going to be a great run
Lost In The Dream had its 10-year anniversary earlier this year. Have you been reflecting at all on that record now that it’s hit this anniversary?
LaMarca: Ten years feels like a long time, but also it doesn’t. But I mean, we’re not doing any shows where we’re only playing those songs or anything like that. We’re still just playing sort of full tunes from that record. Obviously loved that record and that one was special for me. That was when I joined the band. But yeah, I don’t know. Not too much other reflection. We have a little podcast and Adam and Dave and Robbie did a little episode talk about the recording of that, which was cool. I think the biggest takeaway from that was everyone realized how quickly the album was recorded.
Looking back on your entire discography in general through the years, are there any songs you feel are particularly underrated? Or perhaps have gone under the radar?
LaMarca: It kind of always changes. You always have tunes that are your favorites one week, not that they’re not your favorite, but I dunno. I will say we tend to not play a lot of the slower tunes, and I tend to love to play songs like You Don’t Have To Go or Queen Living. Those are ones that I do wish we played more often, but that’s sort of one of the privileges of having many albums – you have a lot of songs to try and get through. In the course of one show. You have to make those edits.
What’s next for The War on Drugs? What are you kind of looking to do in the future and what have you guys been working on as of late?
LaMarca: Well, we have a new live record coming out, so that’ll be out in time for this tour. And then there’ll be a bunch of new music. We’ve been busy in the studio. It’s kind of boring to say “more of the same.” But yeah, I mean, we’ll keep putting out records, more recording I feel like. I don’t know how much touring we’ll do next year, but I guess it remains to be seen.