F12-SESSION 009 // Luggage

Listening to a Luggage song can feel like being in an empty room filling up with smoke. Spacious, sure, but carrying a weight that pervades and remains long after the music stops. Maybe you chalk that up to guitarist and vocalist Michael Vallera’s background in the experimental/ambient scene, maybe it’s a uniquely Chicago sensibility — whatever you attribute it to, there’s no denying their minimalist sound is light on lyrics, rich in texture, and heavy with feeling.

After their performance, we sat down with the Chicago three-piece in our shop to talk about their always-changing writing process, how our environment shapes the music we make, and more. 

“[We] feel a lot of kinship with a certain kind of sound that's synonymous with the place where we all live. And I think that’s a result of styles of music and genres having a lot to do with the environment that people live in, the geography of the place, the way the place functions, and the experience of living there. I think that this kind of music is really related to Chicago in particular. [We’re] interested in having a band that reflects the environment of a place where we all live and spend time.”
– Michael Vallera

“The music ended up taking on the personalities of the people involved in the band, including the silliness...which I think is sometimes misconstrued as anger. Certainly, the music is angry, but I don't I don't feel like I'm going through any kind of catharsis on stage.”
- Andy Falkous

“[Our writing process] is different every time. For “Shift,” we lived in that record, practicing three times a week for hours. For “Happiness,” it was the pandemic era, so we could barely practice. We still somehow wrote a record... so we kind of don't have like a set process. It kind of morphs with our lives as time goes by.”
— Luca Cimarusti

“I love making rock music...I think when you're younger, or when you're in a band, there’s always this idea that your music might take you somewhere — literally in some instances, but you might get more opportunities. Whereas the older you get, you live more. At the risk of sounding like Russell Brand, you live more in the moment, and you appreciate everythingfor
what it is.”
- Andy Falkous

“I think [we] push ourselves to be an uncomfortable place, which can be scary. but there's a lot of reward too....we'll finish a song and be like “that does not feel good,” but at the same time, it does.” — MJ Grant

“It's a genuine privilege...especially at the smaller places, to realize that you've made somebody’s month, or their year in some cases, because they weren’t expecting to see you. It’s lovely.”
- Andy Falkous