Earlier this month, The Lillingtons played Beat Kitchen and we met up with singer/guitarist Kody Templeman to talk about the band’s latest album, Stella Sapiente. The record, (their first in 11 years) features a host of new influences, ranging from ‘80s post-punk to vintage speed metal. The new sounds mesh with lyrics centered on the occult to create a distinctive style that somewhat reintroduces the band after a lengthy hiatus. We spoke with Templeman about how the album was written, its various themes and what the recording process was like. We also discussed the band’s upcoming European tour, Templeman’s disdain for insects and more.

Bill – What was the first song that you wrote for this album and did that kind of influence the direction of the songs that followed?

Kody – We wrote the record in the way it’s sequenced on the final product. We started with “Golden Dawn / Knights Templar” and we just went down the line and wrote them. We tried to think, “Okay, where would it go from here if we were listening to a record?” We didn’t necessarily intend for it to be that way, but we wrote it with certain styles in mind. When we finished we just decided to leave it as is.

Bill – This record is a definite departure from your earlier stuff. Was there ever a concern when you were writing that you might alienate some of your older fans?

Kody – We definitely thought about that and we’ve talked about it and stuff. I don’t know. We were just kind of bored with writing pop punk songs and stuff at the time. All of us have wanted to do darker shit and use different musical elements, like Joy Division or The Cure or something like that. We just did it and we were like, “If they like it, they like it. And if they don’t, they don’t.” We’re not gonna get rich doing it, so we might as well do what we wanna do.

Bill – Right. What inspired the record’s title?

Kody – The reason we used the title we used is because of all the occult themes that are kind of scattered throughout the record. We tried to make a lot of the songs tie in to each other, like certain parts would refer to parts in other songs and stuff like that. It was all occult and astrology shit, so…

Bill – I’ve read where you’ve not only talked about the album’s themes, but also about the parallels that exist between these topics. Can you tell me a little more about the motivation behind this?

Kody – If you start looking into secret societies and occult stuff, a lot of it is just naturally tied in together. Secret societies have based a lot of their rituals off of occult stuff. And with the occult, there’s a lot of astrology aspects to it, like different signs for different planets and everything like that.

Bill – When you explain it that way it seems like there are commonalities between the three…

Kody – Yeah, like I never realized it before until I got into a lot of this stuff, but the more I looked into a lot of these things, the more I saw a direct line with everything.

Bill – “They Live” is one of my favorite songs on the record, not to mention one of the fastest that you guys have ever done. How exactly did that song come together?

Kody – I was thinking about when we play live and when we play “Invasion of the Saucerman” or “I Came from the Future.” I was thinking about putting a fast one on there to kind of go with that stuff because people usually go crazy for those last two songs. That’s really what it was. We obviously stole the title from the movie with the same name, but it’s all about Hollow Earth theory and crazy shit, (laughs).

Bill – You recorded the album at the Blasting Room with Andrew Berlin. How would you describe your time in the studio?

Kody – It was awesome. When we were doing our Project 313 EP, which came out earlier last year on Red Scare, we did that with him too and we were showing him demos that we were recording for the new record. He got really stoked. He was like, “This is gonna be fun. There’s so many different guitar tones and stuff that you guys are getting.” I think he just thought it was a little different than anything he’s ever done, so he was pretty pumped. We’ve worked him before, all the Teenage Bottlerocket records we did with him. He’s the nicest dude. It’s like being around buddies and stuff. It was really fun.

Bill – In terms of the different tones and everything, was it difficult to get the sounds you wanted?

Kody – Yeah, to a certain extent. We kind of nailed everything down in the demos that we did, but we fucked around for quite a bit with a lot of different guitar stuff. We pulled out pedals, we never used pedals or any of that hardly at all, just trying to get different things. We brought out reverb modules and stuff like that. We dicked around with that kind of stuff for a long time. And some shit we couldn’t get to sound like we had on the demos, so we actually used those tracks that we did ourselves on the record.

Bill – Very cool. Tell me about the video that you recently released for “Insect Nightmares.”

Kody – I don’t know, it was kind of hard to do, (laughs). Cory, (bassist Cory Laurence) and Tim, (drummer Tim O’Hara) had a lot to do with the imagery and stuff. Cory has a lot of insight as far as ideas and titles for songs. They kind of came up with it, the transformation type of thing.

Bill – Was it weird getting bugs dumped on you?

Kody – Yeah, another reason I wrote that song is because I fuckin’ hate insects, they creep me out. They kept saying stuff like, “Oh yeah, we’re gonna have a whole bunch of bugs on you and shit.” I was like, “Are you guys just like fuckin’ with me now or what? Cause this is dumb.” It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it was an experience for sure. The worms kind of stunk and the cockroaches, I was sitting Indian style in the video and I could feel the cockroaches, like once they dumped them on me most of them kind of beelined for my crotch. So, I was having to sit there with cockroaches running back and forth down there. I’m just like, “Alright, whenever you’re ready with that, I’m cool.”

Bill – (Laughs). That’s hilarious. So…having played Chicago numerous times in the past, whether it was the Fireside Bowl during the band’s early days or Riot Fest in 2013, what are some of your favorite memories of playing with The Lillingtons in this city?

Kody – Oh shit. I don’t know. Like you said, playing Fireside Bowl was cool. I remember before we could even get booked there we were just like, “Oh, everybody plays the Fireside.” We were pumped and when we got to play there we were super stoked. It took us a couple times playing there before we developed a crowd and stuff, but Chicago’s always been a great city for us. Lots of people love music here and it definitely shows.

Bill – What are you most looking forward to in regards to your European tour this summer?

Kody – I don’t know, coming home not broke maybe, (laughs). That would probably be the big one. I’m just kind of curious to see how it’s going to go, because we’ve never played over there before. I’m excited to do it. I’ve had a lot of people ask when we were coming over, every time I’ve been over there and stuff, so it might be pretty awesome. When we used to tour we never played anywhere outside of the U.S., except Canada for a couple shows, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the shows are going to be and everything.

Bill – After you come back from Europe, what does the band have planned for this fall or winter?

Kody – Not too much. We have a few things booked, but we’re kind of taking it easy for the rest of the year. We go to Europe in August and we’re talking about doing some stuff in July, like maybe Pacific Northwest and Canada. And that’s kind of it. With Bottlerocket and this band, Tim will be like, “Can you do anymore stuff? I don’t want to burn you out.” So yeah, we’re just kind of taking it easy. We’ll probably hit some more stuff next year.