IO Echo and Leopold's Magical Floral Jacket

Sometimes a band comes along whose music is tough to explain, hard to categorize. You know it's good, but you just have no idea where to place it. And then you're like, "Oh, let's call this Japanese harp-inspired, ethereal rock 'n' roll." LA-based duo IO Echo are magic. When I met up with Ioanna and Leopold, they looked like chalk and cheese. Ioanna was decked out in in cute, high-waisted patterned shorts with a little white shirt, looking all angular and dainty, Leopold was head-to-toe black: black tank, black jeans, long black hair. We talked about the influence of travel, Koto harps, and questionable personal hygiene. Oh an how heated debates—possibly involving smashed glasses—are a necessary part of the artistic process.

What brings you to NY?
Ioanna: We've been touring the country and have two shows here this week, which we're really excited about. We were actually here in March opening for Garbage, and the crowd was a lot of fun, very receptive. It's different here; the style in New York is amazing. Los Angeles also has its own identity, and there are some cool local designers there, but people here are very cool. It's too hot though, we were in a meeting yesterday about the staging for our show and I just started taking all my clothes off in their office.

Your style is pretty unique, where does it come from?
Ioanna: I was born in Washington DC, but then my family moved to South East Asia, after the all the time I spent there, I really fell in love with the area. We traveled throughout, so the album has an element to it that is inspired by that experience, and then our visuals stemmed out of that. I also play the Koto harp…

I was going to ask about that. When and how did you learn that?
Ioanna: I love the sound of the Koto, it's so haunting and elegant and beautiful. As soon as I heard it I wanted to play it. I play guitar as well, so the segue way between playing different string instruments wasn't too hard. My mother actually taught me guitar when I was little.
Leopold: I had to teach myself guitar. My mum bought my sister a guitar and some lessons for her birthday because she really wanted to learn, but as soon as she found out she had to cut her nails to play the guitar she wasn't interested anymore. My mum didn't want to pay for any more lessons so it was like, "Teach yourself."

Your musical style seems to influence your videos and artwork too…
Ioanna: Our style is a love letter to the places we lived in and traveled through and the experiences we've had, which then finds its way into the visuals. We are heavily involved in every process of the videos and everything, it's been good not having a huge budget because it means we have to do it all ourselves and oversee every part of the process. Our album artwork for Ministry of Love is just a series of photographs we took, then manipulated using an app on a phone that randomizes the pixels, so we did that a whole bunch of times then overlaid the lyrics and it looked really cool.

On the surface you two seem quite different. How did you meet?
Leopold: We met at a bar in LA through a mutual friend. Ioanna said she'd been obsessively listening to "Venus in Furs" by Velvet Underground and I had one of those rare moments where I actually had something interesting to say, which is that my name Leopold is after Leopold von Sacher-Masoch who actually wrote the book Venus and Furs. Then we became friends.

And then did the music come naturally?
Ioanna: We both grew up in very different environments with very different influences, we share a connection, but our influences are very different, so when we come together the result is quite good. I listened to a lot of New Age music growing up…
Leopold: Whereas I grew up with my two older brothers listening to heavy rock music and hardcore rap, Pantera, Public Enemy… When we make music there are a lot of arguments, a lot of violent confrontation, but in the end the result is something quite unique.

How easy is it to agree in studio?
Ioanna: We definitely don't agree a lot of the time, when something is right you know it, we don't take anything personally, we might have heated debates, but as soon as its time for dinner, it's all fine again. Even though two seconds earlier a glass has just been smashed against a wall. It gets pretty heated. If there are other people in the room, they don't really know what to do.

You've been out of the studio on the road recently, how do you decide what to pack?
Leopold: I always wear the same thing, which is this jacket that I got with a floral print. I used to be pretty much a goth and only wear black, but then I found this jacket, and I got a lot of compliments on it, so I started wearing it all the time. I started putting it on before the show and because I never wash it, it smells like my sweat, so I get into the performance as soon as I put it on now.

Will you ever wash it?
Leopold: No, it's become a thing now.
Ioanna: I'm not naming any names of people who have suggested that you wash it, but it would be maybe courteous to those around you.

Does it smell that bad?
Ioanna: I'm surprised you can't smell it from here. It could stand on its own. It could probably play the show by itself.
Leopold: I don't even know what color it is anymore, I think it might be sort of grey by now.

Georgie smells fresh, just FYI. You can find her every Friday at noon on EVR, playing great music and hosting Pop Goes The Future. She's on Twitter - @GeorgieOkell.

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