Los Angeles rock band, Allah-Las, will play the Volcanic Theatre Pub on July 11. I spoke with singer and guitarist Miles Michaud about shaking the “surf rock” label, more world tours than he can count, and what we can do to destroy The Algorithm.
the Source: You guys have been around the world a lot in the last 17 years, but especially France. What is it about France?
Miles Michaud: Our first record did really well in Europe, so that set the stage for touring in France. We used to go annually; sometimes twice. The following has always been good there.
tS: Is it coincidence that you tour places that are known for their surf breaks? Australia, Brazil, Portugal, Biarritz.
MM: We definitely take that into consideration. Last time we were in Biarritz we borrowed some boards and stayed after the tour for a week.
tS: Your tours sound like positive experiences, but in the past, you’ve said, “Will it ever end? Will I ever be able to live a normal, daily life? Is it all worth it?”
MM: (Laughs) I said that?
tS: That’s a direct quotation.
MM: That must have been the bus tour we did with Mapache. Since then, since Covid, and since having a kid, we don’t go out for a month anymore. It almost seems barbaric in hindsight—to go live for a month with a bunch of other guys. I don’t know what you’re trying to do when you’re touring like that. Now, two weeks and an extra weekend, max. It’s important not to give so much of your time to traveling and being in a van. In terms of being creative, too, it kind of sucks the creativity out of you and doesn’t allow you to have free will or control over your life. So maybe that mindset when I gave that quote is something that affected where we’re at now, which is a much healthier and more enjoyable touring experience.
tS: About every two years you put out a new album. The last one was 2023. Any new tracks this year?
MM: I have a studio at my house, and we came in to do some demos and ended up with a whole record of instrumentals, which we’ll start releasing soon. (Pig snort in background) Sorry, that’s my pig, George. George!
tS: A pig?
MM: Yeah. I haven’t fed him breakfast. He’s pissed off. Yeah, we’re going to release a couple digital singles at a time over the next couple months. I think at the end of the process if it seems like something people want, then we’ll press a record.
It almost seems barbaric in hindsight — to go live for a month with a bunch of other guys.
tS: What can we expect the show to be like in Bend?
MM: We’ve always brought more energy to the stage than we have on our records. We try to get people moving and that makes us move. We try to get the energy up in the audience. Keep everybody happy.
tS: After the first two albums you said that you felt pigeonholed as a surf rock band. The next albums sounded different. Do you think the band shook the surf rock label?
MM: I think the surf rock label was the music that was coming from Southern California at that time. I don’t think it had anything to do with surfing other than a lot of people who made it surfed. But labels are labels, and that’s fine. I don’t care too much either way. Certainly, the sound we had on our first record and partly the second, elements of it are still there, but largely it’s not Fender reverb and four-chord 60’s rock vibe. But you know, whether or not we’re surf rock anymore, I don’t if we ever were. It was just something somebody decided to call it.
tS: Reading reviews from your earlier albums, so often critics said, “It’s really great, but it sounds like the last album.” How do you feel about music critics, especially when few write anything original? Like, do we even need them?
MM: (Laughs) There was one guy in The Netherlands who gave us a shining review on our first record and that was something that changed our lives. There is a power they have, and if they have a trusting audience and experience doing it, people put a lot of faith in that. Like any power, it can be good or bad, depending on how it’s wielded. I’d much rather people listen to the advice and thoughts of a human than the fucking algorithm any day.
tS: The Algorithm. There’s no escape. Except, you did a podcast called Reverberation Radio, which was music that you and your bandmates were listening to at the time. Why did you stop?
MM: We did 500 episodes and we never made any move to make any money off of it, which is part of the reason why it became successful and people adore it. But honestly, Spotify was coming up and there were people making Reverberation Radio playlists and we were like, “We’re doing all this work putting all this together and services like Spotify hoover up all that data and put it together and are spoiling the fun.” So, we quit.
tS: I was going to say that we need Reverberation Radio more than ever, but you just convinced me that it’s not going to happen.
MM: It needs to happen; I just don’t think it needs to happen on the internet. I think…I hope—I hope more than I think—that a cultural turning point and cultural revolution that will happen, and should happen, is people extracting themselves off the internet and data-based things, especially when it comes to creativity. And that doesn’t mean much other than you don’t put your album on Spotify or your book on the internet—things that will have the effect of making the interpersonal and human connection stronger and more valuable, rather than trying to get as much money as you possibly can from your creative work.
This article appears in Source Weekly July 3, 2025.
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