SALES is a two piece from the hot sweat of Orlando, Florida. Although they are from the exact opposite corner of the country, as well as on their first tour on the West Coast, Jordan and Lauren were extremely down to earth. They seemed relaxed about any mishaps or hostility and could brush off negative encounters such as the grumpy, demanding, meticulous soundcheck guy at the Vera Project before their show. SALES plays the game of simplicity, yet their songs are made with attention to detail that would make you want to listen again. Their live show was intimate, eloquent, and potent, as Lauren’s voice suited well over Jordan’s guitars. They have a distinct style, but all of their songs still have their own flavor; making sure they are not redundant. They’re quirky and affable, yet smart and cunning enough to be successful in the modern day music playing field s. Their first self titled EP was one of my favorite music releases of 2014, so I was stoked to get the chance to get to know them!
How’s the tour been so far?
Lauren: Awesome, well let me tell you how awesome, really awesome. The West Coast has been amazing, and its like a warm bed of beautiful people and they all said, “Hey where’ve you been all this time?” and we say, “Florida, man, sorry it took so long BB.”
What’s the scene like in Orlando?
Lauren: There are a lot of good musicians, but there’s not that many places to play. You can play out pretty fast, and the scene is so spread out. Orlando is just a sprawl of interconnected suburbs so it gets a little strange, but we’ve had some really great shows there.
Jordan: There’s a lot of really great people, our good friend, XXYYXX who did a remix for us lives in Orlando. He’s on the electric side of the spectrum, but I had my old electronic project JShih, so I know him from that.
Lauren: Shout out to Out Go the Lights. Shout out to Waitress, they’re a band I have become familiar with and I enjoy them. Yo, who’s that guy with all the hair? Maximino!
Jordan: Yeah, there’s definitely people doing things, and it’s growing, but you know, there’s not that many cool spots. Like you guys have the Vera Project, and a lot of these cool spots in Seattle, so that really facilitates the art movement here, in Orlando we just have Disney
I’ve heard this story of Renee? Would you like to explain?
Lauren: So Jordan and I don’t really go out ever. We are usually working on music or chilling, but that night we went out to a bar. I’m with my friend DJ cause he’s in town, and we’re in this bar called Lil’ Indies, and it’s really small, there aren’t a lot of seats, so we were at this table and while we were all sitting down this woman comes up to us, and she says, “Hey, can I sit down with you guys.”
Jordan: Yeah, it wasn’t even a question she just sat down.
Lauren: She said it as she was sitting down. She had a friend, he was bald, don’t know his name, but her name was Renee, and she had this brown wavy hair, and she just talked and talked to us about the most magical things like the bubble bath she just took with candles and a glass of wine. And her job was like a stripper or a prison nutritionist or somewhere in between there. She really blew our minds.
An enigma.
Lauren: An enigma definitely, in every way. And she slow danced with Jordan to the song “monee mone” It was the most touching thing I’ve seen. Well with Jordan as the subject of the touching, that was great.
Jordan: Yeah, basically she came into our world and then came out of it like that.
Lauren: As soon as she came in she came out. She said she would buy me a drink. She said “I’ll buy you a drink at the next bar ;)” and I thought “Oh my god, does she want me or does she want Jordan? Does she want any of us, what’s going on?” So we went to the next bar and it was last call and we never saw her again. And the next day loooming from heartbreak, we came up for the main riff and verse for the song, and Jordan arranged it, and we talked about naming it and knew we had to name it Renee. It’s a tribute. It passes out the net for Renee. It has not worked to get Renee, but it does other things for us, like here we are right now.
Jordan: So our joke is that we’re on a tour to find Renee.
Lauren: Yeah, this is the Find Renee Tour.
I heard from Amanda (a tour homie) you guys are huge foodies.
Jordan: Yeah this has been like a food tour as well.
Lauren: Yeah, I don’t know if I’m a food eater or a musician or which comes first. Today we had braised duck
Jordan: Yeah, shout out Hue Ky Mi Gia!
Dude, I pass that place all the time.
Lauren: YOU HAVE TO GO EAT THERE.
Jordan: Yeah you gotta go.
Lauren: Get the garlic chicken wings, and braised duck soup. The broth is life changing, it is cloud nine. I guess Jordan was thinking “Cloud nine, cloud nine, cloud nine.” At the end of the meal I said it and he was like ” That’s what I’ve been thinking the whole time!”
Jordan: I wasn’t even kidding that was going through my head. That place is probably the greatest thing that happened to me on tour. And shout out to Red Alder, she actually knows about that place, and I brought it up, and she said it’s her favorite place so I think we made the right choice.
So my last question is if you were to travel to any point in time, where would you go? Or what time period?
Jordan: I don’t know it’s like really kicking ass right now.
Lauren: Yeah, right now is pretty fucking great. I would go back to the beginning of the tour, maybe, but I wouldn’t want to mess anything up, it’s already been so smooth.
Jordan: Yeah if you keep going back in time, things change, that’s the theory of time travel right?
Lauren: But actually, we had brunch in Portland, and I would go back in time to ground hog that day, all day. We got brunch, and we got ice cream .
Jordan: Shout out to Tasty n Sons.
Lauren: And shout out to Salt & Straw Ice Cream. I had Strawberry Balsamic.
Jordan: They just force samples down your throat – it was crazy – and there’s just a huge box of used spoons. He said, “I have to keep giving out samples, like I have to use all these spoons,” he has a quota of spoons he has to use. So yeah, probably any time travel would be back to an eating experience on the tour. For Lauren it’s Portland, and for me it’s earlier today at Hue Ky Mi Gia, the cantonese restaurant. You want to time travel with us?
Lauren: Yeah, you want to come?
Yes plz
Anything else you’d like to say?
Jordan: Shout out to KXSU Radio, props to the new frequency, and we love you Seattle, it’s really nice here.
Follow SALES on the Internet:
IG/Twitter: @wearenotsales
FB: /wearenotsales
Joe Manuel / Ebaumsworld / Promotions Coordinator