Mike Langone (Jupiter Queen) – An Xperience Interview

Mike Langone (Jupiter Queen) – An Xperience Interview – by Rob Smittix.

RRX: So it’s cool, man. You’ve always got a lot going on. I love the fact that you do God’s work during the day at your regular job, because not everyone can be a super rock star where we can live off the sales of music.

ML: (Laughs) Yeah, the money’s rolling in!

RRX: But … there’s a brand new opportunity coming because you have new music coming out. I’ve heard some of it. You played me some of it. What I heard was phenomenal.

ML: Cool. I appreciate it. Basically, what we did was we took the two EPs we put out and we put them on a record. So you get both EPs. It’s a total of 9 songs. I dig it, it’s kind of cool having something that people can hold on to, you know?

RRX: Definitely.

ML: We didn’t release anything yet. I just got all the CDs in. So the CDs will be available at the record release. There will not be any vinyl at the release party though, unfortunately, but it’s coming. It’s gonna be a few weeks after, so if anybody wanted to pre-order a record, we will have it in a few weeks after the release party.

RRX: And the release party is at No Fun on September 4th.

ML: Yep, it’s a Thursday night. I have a couple of bands lined up, too. We have the band Anomalous, and Mason’s Revolt … they’re from Utica, and I really like those guys. Oh yeah, and our bass player, Tom Omarra, he’s gonna have his band Dance Cancer there too.

And then what I’m really excited for is that we have Gasmo Light Show. I met this guy. His name’s Ian. He just moved here from LA. He’s done lights for all these bands that I know and love, like all these stoner rock bands. He’s done stuff with, like, Weedeater, Hippie Death Cult, and some other bands. I think he’s done stuff with Converge and some others… He’s really good at what he does, and he’s gonna be doing the light show for the whole show! It’s gonna be intense … like a psychedelic light show going on while all the bands play.

RRX: That sounds like a whole lot of fun.

ML: Yeah, it’s gonna be sick, man. I’m totally excited. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s gonna be a cool night, we’re gonna have CDs for sale, but we’re doing pay-what-you-want.

RRX: I love that.

ML: Hopefully nobody … you know?

RRX: We don’t want no cheapskates, no cheapskates up in here!

ML: They might give me $1, and I’ll be like, okay.

RRX: I mean, if you’ve only got $5 in your pocket and you really want a CD, that’s cool, but …

ML: Five bucks is awesome, yeah, five would be great. We’ll make a profit off of it.

RRX: And you might get a guy in there that’ll be like, “You know what? I’m gonna give you 20.”

ML: Yeah. And then we got some cool artwork on the album done by Sarah Petrucci, my partner in crime. She did the photography and the artwork design.

RRX: Dude, it looks sick! Sarah does a great job.

ML: Yeah, she does.

RRX: So you know I’m into UFOs and I’ve seen several myself. Do you have any stories?

ML: The second song on Side A is called “Not Alone.” You gotta listen to it, listen to the words. It’s actually a true story. My buddy and I were walking on the Lower East Side, where I grew up … we’re walking up Broome Street and we get to Allen Street … we got to the corner and a light came down! It hit us, and it put us in suspended animation until we got to the next corner.

RRX: Damn.

ML: And we woke up on the next corner, and there used to be a Burger King on the corner. We ran across Delancey Street, which is like a three or four-lane road on each side. It’ll bring you right to the Williamsburg Bridge; it’s this road, so it’s pretty wide. We ran across the street into the middle, and then we ran across the street into Burger King, and we sat there. He’s never really wanted to talk about it at all. I don’t even know if he’s alive or where he is. I ran into him one other time in Washington Square Park, and he didn’t want to talk about it then either.

RRX: Wow.

ML: I’m not really sure what happened. We were not on any hallucinogens. Actually, I was a heroin addict back then, so I was on heroin.

RRX: That’s a whole different thing.

ML: Yeah, you don’t hallucinate on heroin, and he was just a pothead. But yeah, he never wanted to talk about it. But if you listen to the song, it’s about that experience.

RRX: Well, first of all, it’s awesome that you wrote a song about it. Secondly, to experience something like that happening in a populated area like New York City is wild. Were there more witnesses?

ML: No, it was at night, and it probably wasn’t as populated as it is now, but also it was the Lower East Side, way below Houston, so it’s not like we were in the East Village or anything like that.

RRX: What an experience.

ML: It’s a true story. Even when we play it live, I usually say it’s a true story, but people think I’m pulling their leg or whatever.

The lyrics go: “Yes, it came from the sky, yes it took our mind, we woke up on the other side.” Because we went from one corner to the other. And then … “We were not stoned just a little high,” because we just smoked a little bit of weed. You know what I mean?

RRX: Yeah, that’s nothing.

ML: Yeah, we weren’t stoned, we weren’t banged up or anything. “We were just a little high, the light came down from the sky,” you know?

RRX: That’s wild.

ML: The second verse goes, “It put us in suspended animation, lost the sense of time.”

RRX: I’ve never had an experience like that. That’s nuts.

(Mike Singing): “We woke up on the other side, yeah, we were not stoned, just a little high, the light came down from the sky …”

ML: And then there’s a breakdown part, and then I say the same line, but instead of saying it came down from the sky, I say “You don’t want to talk about it, I don’t know why, I don’t know why,” and then I yell “Whyyyyyyyyyy!”

RRX: Well, that’s a really good question because he really doesn’t want to talk about it, but I know you do. What’s the difference? It really got him, huh?

ML: Yeah, maybe they did something to him? Maybe because I was on heroin, it saved me? They’re like, we don’t want this guy’s brain, but this other guy we can work with.

RRX: That’s too funny.

ML: I always feel weird about talking about it, but …

RRX: Well, you’re in good company here.

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