Strong foundation gives band big break

By Alex Roman
Daily Forty-Niner

Imagine it is a cold winter night. Your band takes the stage at a club in Silverlake and there are literally six people in the crowd.

Now imagine that one of those people is able to give your small band a big break.

"That was one of those things where people tell you that you should play every show, because you never know what might happen, and it's totally true," said The Lassie Foundation guitarist Jeff Schroeder, a comparative literature senior at Cal State Long Beach. "It paid really well, it's basically financed the band for the next couple of years."

What he is talking about is the band's song, "The El Rey," appearing on the WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," after a chance meeting with an employee of the network.

"It wasn't like we played the Peach Pit or something," added the band's drummer and creative writing senior Jason Boesel. "It was just kind of background music that no one would ever hear."

For The Lassie Foundation, which consists of Wayne Everett (vocals), Eric Campuzano (guitar) and Jason 71 (bass) and CSULB students Schroeder (guitar) and Boesel (drums), this opportunity is just one of the things that is finally happening after three years of steady climbing.

"We're doing the same thing but it seems like more people are into it now," Schroeder said. "I really don't think we've changed all that much."

The Lassie Foundation began to take shape in 1995, when Everett and Campuzano, who were in a band called the Prayer Chain at the time, formed The Lassie Foundation as a side project. The result was the "California" EP which was released in 1996 on Velvet Blue Music.

"How the Lassie Foundation came to fruition as a complete band was when they asked me and a couple of other people to play some live shows with them," Schroeder said. "It was so fun and it sounded so good that everybody made it their main priority as a band."

Later Jason 71 was added on bass and in May of this year Boesel was added on drums at the suggestion of 71.

The band, which has had to endure numerous Brit-pop and shoegazer comparisons, has elected to move away from the sounds of British bands like My Bloody Valentine and move toward more American influences like the Beach Boys.

"We're not trying to sound British purposefully or anything like that, so we're trying to take on a little more of an American aspect," Schroeder said. "In the big scheme of things we're definitely more Beach Boys than Beatles."

Adding to the recent stream of success, the band has recently signed with the Illinois based indie label Grand Theft Autumn, who are not only re-releasing the band's "Pacifico" album, but have agreed to put out more of the band's records.

"We're really excited about that," Schroeder said. "Everything we've done so far has been on a strictly independent level, but now finally we have distribution and people promoting the record and servicing it to college radio and we're actually starting to sell some records."

The record label will also be releasing the band's split release with Duraluxe, at the beginning of next year. In the meantime, the band members are currently writing for their new record, which they hope to record during the semester break.

As for the band's future, Boesel and Schroeder are only able to speak about what they themselves would want.

"We're in a place where there's kind of a momentum where I think we can be happy and make music for a while," Boesel said.
 Schroeder agreed.

"I think all of would love to do the band full-time, but I don't really know how everyone in the band feels," he said.

"We're a bizarre band, we don't have a collective vision or anything, it's weird because we're all so different. It works we get along, we have fun together, but it's really five very different people."

The Lassie Foundation

The Lassie Foundation, Wayne Everett, Eric Campuzano, former drummer Frank Lenz, Jeff Schroeder and Jason 71.

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