Brooklyn collective, Landlady, is a six-piece sonic storm of pop, and funny enough, they have Boston roots as well. Frontman Adam Schatz is a Newton native who once lead several local acts, and now stays involved with both the Boston and Brooklyn scenes. Next Tuesday, June 18th, Landlady will be in town to play TTs with locals Badknight and Skinny Bones. We were able to have a few words with Schatz to see what Landlady is all about and what we could expect from them if they were a food instead of a band.

AP: If your local deli introduced a new sandwich called Landlady, what would said submarine consist of? 

Adam: pickles

stone ground mustard

smoked cheddar

human hair

asparagus

horseradish

toothpick

Landlady is a self-described “dynamic pop explosion.” I know that many members, including yourself, are involved with other projects of other various genres. When it comes to songwriting, how do you know what’s right for Landlady as opposed to other bands? Do you try to block out certain influences to cater to a certain sound, or is it still kind of fair game?

For me Landlady is about a pretty gigantic dynamic scope–the extremes being the center of the pupil of my eye, and the universe itself. The songs mean that much to me and I want them to sound that way, so the songs I write for Landlady all end up with a certain weight to them that can be represented by that range. It makes not a lot of sense when written out, but when you listen to it I think it adds up.

But as of now the only other band I write songs for that I sing is The Shoe Ins, which is my psychedelic soul band, so that tends to be a bit more straight-forward. There are some of half-finished songs that I start playing in my solo sets as Mrs Adam Schatz and I bring them to the band when they feel ready. But I try not to have any real limits beyond the one I mentioned before (smaller than my pupil bigger than the universe). That way it doesn’t get clinical. It’s still all about writing the best songs I can to make people feel some big big feelings.

Tell me a bit about Landlady’s formation. How did you guys come together? Did you guys have an idea of what you wanted Landlady to sound like ahead of time, or was it a process to reach that idea?

I formed Landlady in 2010, after co-leading the band / internet art project Previously On Lost for the 2 years prior. I had taken a break from writing songs from the heart to write songs about television, which was an amazing adventure in 24 hour recording turnaround, pop culture interaction and pure entertainment as far as the live shows were concerned. As that was winding down, I started writing the songs for Landlady, with a lineup in mind (two drummers, keys, keys, bass, guitar) and a bunch of people who I wanted to play in the band. By the time we got together I had written 10 songs, and it was the first time I had put a group together with that much written in advance. Between then and now a lot of different folks have played in Landlady and we have an extended family situation that allows for different drummers to come in when others are on tour. But the lineup coming to Boston features almost all original members and there’s a definite telepathic fun relationship that bonds all of us.

I knew I wanted to play Farfisa in the band, and I knew I wanted two drummers. That was all I knew. A lot of my demos had improvised casio parts that were placeholders at the time but our then guitarist Indigo Street (who’s current band Shy Hunters is REALLY great) learned those keyboard parts on guitar and they became parts of the song, which sort of set a stage for some of the parts in these songs to sound novel and not as repetitive as your standard pop song. But they all have hooks. I wanted there to be a strong pop sensibility, I wanted these songs to stay with people, to bring them together even after the show’s over or the record’s been turned over twice.

Another quality of the band and the music that presented itself early on was the arrangement. By the time we started moving I was getting much more aware of how to arrange songs creatively, and so there’s a lot of orchestration within the rock band instrumentation. Between the activity being played, volume, tempos, and just who’s playing when. There’s plenty of moments where not everyone is playing at the same time, and those silences among everyone’s strong personalities makes the moments when everyone is playing together really, really strong.

But these dudes are such wizards, no matter what blueprint I have, they make it so much better.

Landlady’s latest release was mastered at Spaceman Sound by Tom Tierney. What is your musical history with him?

When I was in first grade at Ward Elementary School in Newton, MA, he was in second grade. When I was in second grade he was in third, etc. In high school we played in the legendary (among 150 people) ska outfit The Eskapade and have been quite close ever since. He’s played guitar in Landlady on occasion and played on our last single Above My Ground. We’re currently producing a record by Relatives, the band of my bassist Ian Davis. Ian’s a wizard and this new record is going to be amazing, and it’s been so great to co-produce it with Tom.

You guys have a couple gigs lined up for this month, including TT’s next Sunday. What are your plans for the rest of this summer? Touring? Recording? Partying?

We went into the Isokon studio in Woodstock at the end of April to lay down basic tracks for 12 songs for our next record. They sound gigantic and I’ve been doing the vocals and overdubs at home. Once it’s done we’ll mix and shop around and hopefully figure out a wide release. I can safely say this album is the best thing I’ve ever been a part of. That may be the safest thing I’ve ever said. There’s not too much touring going on, but we’re playing steadily in New York and that’s good enough for now until we figure out what’s going to happen with the record. Lots of partying, but only in the afternoons.