Kevin Bronson on May 13th, 2020

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San Diego-bred provocateurs Louis XIV had five reunion shows planned in mid-March, all now postponed, to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of their debut album. In today’s edition of Buzz Bands LA’s QUARANTUNES, singer-guitarist Jason Hill talks about staying busy with his composing work, missing the euphoria of playing live and reconnecting with some of his favorite music.

THE LATEST FROM JASON HILL / LOUIS XIV

Known best for their single “Finding Out True Love Is Blind,” Louis XIV released two albums for Atlantic Records before splitting in 2009, with Jason Hill moving to L.A. to dive in to composing and production and Brian Karscig forming the Nervous Wreckords. Working out of his studio the Department of Recording and Power, Hill has composed music for the Netflix series “Mindhunter,” as well as the docu-series “The Confession Killer.” Last December saw the release of the single “They Like Me, They Love Me” — “the first track over all my years of making music that I am singing on that is released under my own name,” he says. The song materialized after director Robert Kenner asked Hill to pen a song for the show. “I sat down and quickly wrote it from the perspective of the main focus of the series, Henry Lee Lucas,” Hill says. “It was written in about 20 minutes and then recorded in about a week with me playing all the instruments from drums to pedal steels to cellos and all the vocals.”

In addition, Hill and Karscig reconnected to make the first new Louis XIV song since 2008. “Playtime” was released in February. “It came together quickly and with the spirit of old friends just laughing and having a great time,” Hill says. “We just loved making this song, and I think you can hear it in the track. Our great friend Sean Payne from the Zutons is on the drums as well.”

HOW ARE YOU HOLDING UP AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MANAGE THE ‘STAY AT HOME’ EDICT?

Jason Hill: I’m doing quite all right, although, like everyone I am sure, with shades of basket case creeping in on the sides of my brain. I have been locked away with my lady [Keely King] at my recording studio Department of Recording and Power in Glendale. Been finishing up a new Netflix series I’ve been scoring called “This is a Robbery” and immersed in my own music. One evening, I decided to do a version of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall be Released” and enlisted 16 or so friends to sing and play on it from the confines of their own mental and physical lockdowns. It was a nice way to bring a number of friends together for a bit of remote togetherness. I have pretty much been avoiding a lot of society, which is normal for me actually, and I’ve probably rearranged every inch of my studio four or five 5 times as well.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO WHEN THIS IS OVER?

Jason Hill: I miss playing music with my friends — that complete spontaneous creation, weaving and twisting and turning on a dime…together. I love nothing more than to create things from the air and when you are with other people in the same room doing that at the same time in real time, it’s a very special feeling. Most akin to what I imagine a bird feels when flying. I miss that considerably. When this all started Louis XIV was set to do five reunion shows in honor of “The Best Little Secrets Are Kept” 15-year anniversary. We had to postpone the shows, and I’m very much looking forward to doing those as well.

ANYTHING WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS PLAYLIST?

Jason Hill: This playlist is a part of the soundtrack that has been stirring around our place during this time: Songs I’ve loved for years that calm or move me that I’ve reconnected with and “newish and oldish” songs I’ve discovered often through Keely as I poke my head in and ask “Who’s this?” And even a couple I had a part in making like “Kids Like You” that I produced and played on with the New York Dolls.