The Limousines had a Postal Service-y  thing going on when the duo, ask Eric Victorino and Giovanni Giusti, first began collaborating a few years back. The two have come a long way from their days of e-mailing samples back and forth and Allston Pudding got to sit down with Victorino before their gig at Church this week to talk about artistic catharsis, fan expectations, and that time he narrowly escaped meeting Björk.

Allston Pudding: You guys play a ton of shows around California, how does it feel to be expanding eastward on this national tour?

Eric Victorino: It’s funny, it doesn’t seem like it’s been as long…as it’s been. People are telling me, “oh I saw you two years ago with The Sounds” – and that just trips me out. It feels like it was last summer. It’s nice to get back out but the coolest part is that these are our shows and we’re not opening for somebody else and these crowds have all been good for us and it feels great to be presenting the band in a new light.

And how is it touring with Mona and Dresses? Is everyone getting along?

EV: For the most part, yeah! There are pretty differing philosophies on a lot of things, so that makes for a lot of good bar talks.

Who’s on your bucket list of people to tour with?

EV: I think it would be so cool to tour with Grimes, our show is kind of similar to that. No guitars, we have a bass now, but it’s all samples and we have two people playing pads now. Yeasayer, Vampire Weekend – I could name a million bands. But I also can’t really think that way because I’ve had opportunities to meet people I idolize and I always avoid it. If I did get to tour with someone I really wanted to tour with…you end up getting to know the people you tour with really well…

You don’t want to be disappointed?

EV: I don’t want them to be anything but what they already are to me. I avoided meeting Björk. by about 15 minutes. I went to a vocal

instructor one time and she was a long-time client of his – and she was the next appointment after me! He, Ron Anderson, told me, “You can stay and lag on your way out if you want to meet her,” and I was like, “No-nope! I’m going, I’m sorry.” I didn’t want to meet her. I mean, I do, but if I did and it turns out she’s a human and she shits and pisses and burps – the only thing she’s supposed to shit is music. I think about that sometimes with us, I’ve met people who have been following my music for ten years and I hope I’m not a disappointment.

Here you are! Finally! In the flesh!

EV: [laughs] Right? How do I live up to that?

Let’s talk about the music a little bit, one of your latest singles, “Love Is A Dog From Hell” – that’s a Bukowski reference.

EV: Yeah, yeah. Love Is A Dog From Hell, it just came at the right time in my life. Calling it my favorite Bukowski book would be a stretch, but I just needed it then. I thought that blatantly ripping him off would be the biggest compliment in the world. What that song means to me and that time in my life when that book came around, it all just made sense.

There’s nothing wrong with a literary reference!

EV: Everything comes from something.

And as an independent author yourself; has Bukowski been a big influence?

EV: Bukowski is easily the most often ripped off and the most often imitated. When people compare my stuff to him, it’s cool because I like his stuff. I like the sentiment of it, but I don’t think it’s that hard to write like he does. The lesson I learned from reading it was just….no flowers, no serifs on the letters. Everything is very plain and the shortest and the simplest words you can use.

Going into another facet of art, who’s responsible for The Limousines graphics?

EV: It’s all me and Gio. We had one t-shirt that was done by a friend, it was a drawing of us as zombies – we didn’t do that. But all the typesetting, the new logos that we have, the new t-shirts, that’s all us.

Is it a collaborative thing?

EV: Sometimes. Like there’s a lighted sign that we use on stage, Gio designed it and then I tweaked it to be a little more geometrically sound. It’s nice to be in a band with someone like this.

You two are very symbiotic then.

EV: Yeah, we’re really different but we are definitely a good match.

I read an interview with Gio where he mentioned the idea of a Limousines art show?

EV: Yeah, definitely. Gio draws a lot, and I do too. I’ve never heard of a band putting on an art show. It seems like a lofty goal, something The Velvet Underground would be a part of. I wanted the first time I ever did an art show to be on my own so on my next birthday I have my first one in San Jose. So Gio and I are talking about doing one together. We would DJ the opening party, people can come look at our drawings. It would be “The Limousines: Art Show.” Just something different. Whether people buy the art on the walls is not the point, it’s whether they show up and are challenged by it. The gallery I’m showing at is calling Seeing Things and my show is called “Saying Things,” so it will be “Saying Things at Seeing Things.” [laughs]

Let’s talk a bit about music videos, who creates those concepts?

EV: Gio and I switch off a lot. For the most recent one,  the burning house video for “The Last Dance” –that was one of the most cathartic art projects I’ve ever been a part of. I was by myself for the first time in my life just working. I put as much detail as I could…knowing it was going to burn. Every minute of work felt more valuable because it was going to be destroyed.

It sounds a lot like those monks who make sand etchings to me. They spend hours etching and just blow it all away. This is just your version of that.

EV: That’s it! That’s exactly it. That’s fucking amazing [laughs], I thought about that a lot but you’re the first person who is pointing it out. That’s exactly what it was. It’s just like these hand drawn shirts we’re doing on this tour.

Right, you’re drawing them at the merch table and immediately selling it.

EV: I don’t even get to look at it again, I take a quick picture when I’m done and off it goes. It’s very similar to making something and burning it. In that video, there’s so much symbolism. Even down to the three chairs in the living room that are knocked over, there’s one standing up – those are the three long-term relationships in my life. And I’m the one standing up. How do I move on from these? In the hallway there are photos of people I wanted out of my life or who have upset me recently. In the little kid’s room there are posters – I just put as much detail as possible into it, and nobody even saw it. And then I burned it.

So how did it feel to watch it burn?

EV: I didn’t even get to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I spent so much time just trying to get the damn thing to catch on fire. I sprayed every chemical I had from hairspray to WD40 on that thing! It was so windy! And even though that wind made it so difficult, it did make it really beautiful. We should have framed the shot better because you can’t see it but there were birds circling above. A mobile of birds were circling around the house as it burned.

That’s a big part of being an artist: learning to let go. You can create a whole world of things and keep it to yourself but if you want something to come of it you have to learn to let go.

EV: I had a painting I did in 1997 and I always told myself that I would never sell it, no matter what. People asked to buy it and I would say, “Yeah, for $30,000.” I ended up selling it for like $500 when I went through this period of selling and or burning a lot of my artwork. I posted it online saying, “This is burning at 9 o’clock tonight unless someone claims it.” I was getting rid of a lot of stuff, as of right now I officially live I that van. I don’t have a place to live. It’s exciting!

That sounds like the scariest but most exciting thing to me.

EV: It’s not scary because I’ve done it before. When I was younger I did the couch surfing, park surfing, sleeping-in-cars deal, and I wouldn’t trade that time in my life for anything. It taught me that it’s never worth not being proud of yourself to do something for money. Like working an hourly job you don’t want, if there’s something else you can do to get by…each hour you have is one less. There is a finite number on all of our heads. When I get home, I’ll work it out. I know that.

What can we expect from tonight’s show? I’ve been looking at the recent setlists and it’s strictly new material.

EV: I think that’s one of the only confrontations that we have. There will always be at least one person at the show who’s got a problem with it. We’re only playing Hush and I have a million reasons why. It just comes down to the fact that being in a band is not my job, I do it because I love it. I want to do what I love to do and what I love to do right now is these new songs. If you were to play “Very Busy People” or “Internet Killed the Video Star” in our setlist, where would you put it?

How would you make it make sense?

EV: It just doesn’t. Just to go to that poppy-goofiness doesn’t make any sense. I feel bad saying this but being in a band is not a customer service job. It’s kind of mean but I told a girl who asked me, that if she wanted to see me do a job, I’ll go get one.

Then you can come watch me at a job in an office, sit there for eight hours and watch me check my e-mail and get yelled at by my boss, if that’s what you want. But that’s not what you want. I like to sing and make art in front of people and that’s what you bought a ticket to. I think the stage is one of the last places where you’re not supposed to get what you want or what you expect. You go to Starbucks and spill your coffee; they’ll give you a new one. The stage is the place where the person who bought the ticket doesn’t get to say if it was good enough for them. It’s just not that way.