NHS Junior Angus McLary On His Latest EP 'Restless' & More 

By Tayler Anderson 

This is an interview with Angus McLary about his music project Latibule. The conversation has been edited slightly for clarity.

Tayler: So what’s your earliest music-related memory?

Angus: Oh, that’s a good question. I remember, when I was little- do you know the musical Les Mis? When I was really little, I was strangely obsessed with that, considering how kind of dark it was. I also always watched Adventure Time when I was little, and they had some great music in it. But as to, like, real music, in a sense, instead of from something, I kind of want to say Weezer, actually, because that was my first-ever real show that I went to, and as a band that my dad really liked, which in turn made me really like it.

Tayler: Nice! So how old were you when you first went to the Weezer show?

Angus: Oh, shoot, I wanna say eight, maybe?

T: That’s cool. So speaking of musicians you like, what are your biggest influences, musically?

A: It’s funny, Rex Orange County always comes to mind because I like his sound. I wouldn’t say he’s my favorite artist, but I really kind of admire him- like, when I think of music that I’d like to make, he always comes to mind because he has all sorts of intertwining. He’s sometimes bringing in orchestras, and he sometimes just has a song that’s only him and guitar, and I love the kind of variety that he always has. He also has some jazz influence, which you can tell in some of his arrangements. And as for an inspiration, I’d definitely say his stuff is solid.

T: Because he’s capable of drawing from so many different sources?

A: Yeah, exactly.

T: So you’re going to release this next EP under the name of Latibule. But you’ve also released music under the names CeOL and Mt. Marigolden. So are these like different personas, or…?

A: No, I’ll be completely honest with you. Every one, I release something under a name, and I’m like, “Nah, this name sucks.” And then I switch to the next one. And we’ll see how long this new name lasts. But yeah, for a while it was just CeOL, because when I was CeOL, I had no thought of it “going big”, and then I switched to Mt. Marigolden when I was kind of more serious about it. And then I realized that was kind of a sh***y name, so I switched to Latibule.

T: I mean, there are some artists out there with interesting names.

A: Oh, yeah, I completely agree, but I don’t know, I also feel like “Mt. Marigolden” is such a mouthful.

T: So your new album is coming out on the 20th of November. What can we expect thematically from it?

A: I had no real overall themes. The first song is about being kind of a weirdo, in a sense, but not really. Like being a creep.

T: What are you doing here?

A: Exactly. I have a few songs about a girl that I liked, and then there’s a song about a girl that I didn’t like, but I thought she liked me back, and it was awkward. And then there was one song about making music, which is fun and ironic, so there’s some comedy in that.  But overall, it doesn’t take itself seriously in a sense. It’s not like comedy music, but there are definitely some moments where you can laugh at the song and I won’t be offended, you know what I mean?

T: Yeah, that’s fair. I think that’s one of the things about good music, that it can go from more light-hearted to more serious, and sort of have a big emotional range.

A: Yeah. There is an emotional range because I do have moments which are kind of low-energy, where it just kind of feels like you’re floating, like you could lie on your floor and listen to it, you know what I mean? Just kinda melt.

T: Is there anything else you want to discuss?

A: I kind of like more distorted sounds, and it’s hard to do, and on this new EP, there’s one song that kinda has it, but not much of it. It’s interesting to see my music evolve because when I started, I made low-fi hip-hop, ironically, in a dream kind of sense. Now it’s slowly evolved into kind of more of a rock/indie/alternative sound.

Oh, and I actually want to add another influence: Car Seat Headrest. They’re one of my favorite bands, and I would say that I listen to them fairly often. They’re part of that rock kind of goal that I was talking about.