Lane Moore can do pretty much anything. Comedian, journalist, writer, musician, and, although it didn’t come up, I’m pretty sure she can perform open heart surgery, too. Moore is coming to town for SF Sketchfest for two shows: She’s doing a stand-up set as part of Studio Sets at Brava Studio on January 27th at 7 pm, and later that night, she’s headed to Cobb’s for a performance of Tinder Live. Tickets are available here.
Lane Moore’s latest book, You Will Find Your People: How To Make Meaningful Friendships As An Adult is coming out on April 25th and can be preordered here. You can find her on Instagram, and her band, It Was Romance is on Bandcamp! (Interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Very lightly.)
Spinning Platters: I made a terrible mistake while researching questions.
Lane Moore: How?
SP: I landed on (Your band) It Was Romance’s YouTube page.
LM: Oh, nice.
SP: And I just started digging deeper and deeper into your band doing Empire Records.
LM: Oh, yes. So, you got to a good place.
SP: It was beautiful.
LM: Thanks.
SP: I’ve listened to “Snakeface” 4 times in the last hour.
LM: Oh, my God. That means so much to me. I loved doing that show so much. I love that soundtrack so much.
SP: Before I get into the comedy and such, I want to know: how did that come to be?
LM: I just thought it was a cool idea. It was just an idea that I came up with. There are all these really great movie soundtracks, but the Empire Records soundtrack has had such a huge influence on me as a musician and as a person that I was like, “Oh, this could be really cool. We could do the entirety of the Empire Records soundtrack with my band.” I went all out, as you saw. I dressed up like Corey and even became friends with Carol Heikkinen, who wrote the screenplay. We’re now very good friends because I told her, or I think she saw something, or someone told her I was doing it. She sent me an Empire Records lanyard in the YouTube videos that you can see me wearing. I know Danny Tamberelli from Pete and Pete, and I asked him- He’s also a comedian and musician. I was like, “Would you want to do “Sugar High” with us? You can do the, ‘You, take the lead.’ And I’ll be like, ‘What?’ And play out the whole scene.” And so, it was just something that I was like, “This would be so fun and just combines my two loves, which are playing music and these great pop culture references that just means so much to me.”
SP: It seems super fun, and that’s super cool. I was particularly blown away by how well you studied the vocal mannerisms of all of these singers. I’ve never heard quite such a perfect Dolores O’Riordan.
LM: Thank you. What’s funny is it’s not purposeful. I’m not even doing an impression. I just really… All those musicians and stuff just meant so much to me. I’m a huge Cranberries fan. When my band’s first record came out, and I saw comments on the AV club and people were like, “This reminds me so much of the Cranberries,” I was like, “Great. Career as a musician made.” She has such a huge influence on me, so it’s not even like, “Oh, I want it…” It just is very innate to me, and it’s interesting because I’m sure I will do more impressions at some point in my career. There are some things that just are very innate to me. I’m not intending to study it and do that. I just love the way their voices sound. I love the inflection they put on things. It’s just, “Why would I sing it another way? They crushed it. Every moment is so special.”
SP: Yes, and with “Hooking Up With Girls.” That was the first song I grabbed. I thought, “What does Lane’s voice remind me of?” And then I made it to the Cranberries track at Empire Records, and it was solidified in my mind. You don’t sound like her, but you clearly have the Cranberries’ influence.
LM: That means so much to me because she is very close to my heart. There are just certain musicians who I grew up listening to, and I was like, “Oh, I just feel very… I don’t know. I just feel very, very close to this person that I’ve never met.” Yes, I really love that because there was just nobody like Dolores. I feel like I could do an entire conversation about how much Dolores means to me. She sings with that urgency. There’s something kind of wild and free but very beautiful about her voice. I love Fiona Apple and Nina Simone, too, because they had that similar- You can feel every note they’re singing. That’s very important to me.
SP: Yes. I think all 3 of them, their singing style’s exasperated. That’s kind of the line that follows through all 3 of those singers, at least to me.
LM: Yes, I think there’s some of that. And then, I think it’s also that urgency of, “I need to get this out now.” Maybe it’s similar: “This is how I’m feeling. I’m finally getting that sort of release.” That I think you don’t hear with every singer, but I really love it when I do.
SP: So, where is It Was Romance now?
LM: It’s really interesting that you said this because we’re getting ready to release our next record. Things are in process of that. Between everything in the last couple of years, it just became a weird time in music, and my music means so much to me. So I’m excited to finally put the next record out—hopefully, this year.
SP: Well, I’m excited. Will you try to tour it?
LM: I want to with every part of me. Yes, I love touring; I really do.
SP: All right. Again, a band that I’d never heard of before 8:30 this morning is now one of my favorite bands.
LM: That means so much to me. I think that’s the coolest thing, really, about it. That everybody has different paths. Music was always like my… I spent most of my childhood really trying to be able to sing like every single singer and play every instrument I could by ear. It’s always been my greatest love, or at least my earliest. It takes all different paths to get there but it’s been the coolest thing that so many people who come to my shows or read my books are like, “Oh, my God. I just found out you had a band, and now, I’m obsessed with that.” I’m like, “Great.” It all works together and comes together at the right time in a cool way. Yes, that makes me happy.
SP: Right. Good. I’m glad I have points, so now I can ask you the really hard questions.
LM: Yes.
SP: All right. You’re very, very passionate about music. You’re an excellent comedy writer. What came first?
LM: It’s so hard to say… Do you mean like growing up?
SP: Which was the thing you decided to pursue as a career first?
LM: Really, first was music because that was something that I really wanted to do. Even though I spent my whole childhood watching stand-up specials and watching Mr. Show and Mystery Science Theater 3000, I was such a comedy-and-music-obsessed child. Even before I had done improv, I had friends around me who were like, “You’re a comedian. You know that, right?” And I was like, “No.” I really do look at it, like, not realizing that you’re gay and everyone around you is like, “You’re gay,” and you’re like, “No, I’m not. I just like every gay thing.” So that’s how it was with comedy. I was so obsessed with comedy, and for some reason, it just took me a minute to see that.
And then, I think when you are trying to get into any of these artistic fields, unless you have insane connections already, you get in however you can. And so, I was always trying to find the right musicians to play with, and then that would be like, “All right. I don’t know if I found that yet, so let me go over here, and I’m going to become a great improviser. I’m going to become a great stand-up comic. Oh, hey. Now, I got this job writing for The Onion. I’ll go down this road for a while.” I think you kind of go down the roads that open up for you when you don’t have that kind of, “My dad has a billion dollars and knows everybody at this place. And so, the path is set out for me.” If it were like that, maybe it would have been different. But I think what’s cool about it is I just kept following the roads that opened up. And then, now, I’m able to kind of do everything.
SP: That’s beautiful. That’s kind of how I’ve lived my life too. It’s what comes from being poor or growing up without a huge amount of money. Yes, you have your goals, but sometimes the path is carved out for you, and you don’t have a lot of control.
LM: Yes, I’m glad you said that because I hear many people saying, “I knew I wanted to do this, and I did it, and I did it easily.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s great. But for many of us, that’s not how it goes.” You keep knocking on doors, and you hope someone lets you in. And if they don’t let you in, you go knock on another door. When the first It Was Romance record came out, I had been trying for so long, and I knew that it wasn’t like, “Oh, I’m a comedian, but I’ll do this on the side. Who cares?” I knew it was something I’d been working for my whole life, but you have that kind of nervousness. I remember when we started playing shows and putting out the record and hearing and seeing it on a Pitchfork list and things like that, just pulling my car over and being like, “I did it.” I could do all the things I wanted to do, or maybe not. It might have taken longer than I wanted, and maybe it wasn’t the order I wanted, but you do the best with what you have.
SP: The Onion seems like, from what I’ve researched, is your first major writing job. Am I getting that right?
LM: Yes, very much.
SP: One of the qualities of The Onion is that the writers will have complete anonymity; nobody has any idea who wrote what.
LM: Yes.
SP: Was it hard getting other doors open without having that specific, like, “Oh, these have my byline. Take a look at these.”?
LM: Oh, yes, absolutely. I really wish that that had not been- That definitely made things so much harder for me. It’s great seeing the president sharing your stuff and huge celebrities sharing it. I look back at that, and I’m like, “Oh, I think it would have opened up so many more doors so much more quickly if people were like, ‘Who wrote this? This Lane Moore person? I’m going to hire them to do this. I’m going to put them on this.'” I think about that sometimes. Yes, for sure.
SP: Yes. How did you go about getting your next job, with The Onion being the primary thing in your portfolio?
LM: I didn’t know. Again, some people are fortunate to know the “right way to do things.” They have somebody telling them, “Now, here’s where you go next. Now, here’s what you ask for.” I didn’t have any of that. Looking back, I’m like, “Oh, maybe I should have done this with it. Maybe I should have done this.” But I didn’t know. Nobody told me the right way to do it, so I just kind of… I did a couple of things here and there, and then ended up as an editor at Cosmopolitan. I was their Sex and Relationships editor, and I went into it, saying, “Okay. If I can make this major women’s magazine much more progressive, more about mental health and LGBTQ stuff, if I can make it the magazine that it could be, that’d be a really cool opportunity.” And so, that was a door that opened for me. And I was like, “Great. Maybe I could make these articles really funny and help people because you have such a huge audience. Why not use it?” And I got a byline, so that was nice.
SP: Yes. Cosmo is one of the straightest magazines on Earth.
LM: Yes, correct. I came in there with a very specific mission: “I’m going to make my stuff really funny and be the magazine that I wish I had had as a kid.” You do what you can with each opportunity. And it was great because I had so many people who were like, “I never read this, but I read your stuff because it’s really funny, and the advice is actually really good.” And I was like, “Great.” That’s its own thing. Maybe not the typical comedy trajectory, but it was cool to be able to do that and change things because there was not anything… When I was there, there wasn’t much that was super progressive or with a focus on mental health or queerness or things like that in mainstream stuff. And I was like, “Why not? This is something that should happen. We’re ready.”
SP: That’s a lovely thing. Good work pushing that. It almost feels like what you may or may not have helped push Teen Vogue into being the world’s best magazine for political journalism.
LM: Yes, I would love that. I just knew. Going into it, I was like, “There are so many people whose only access they have might be to a Cosmopolitan or to a Vogue or whatever.” And I was like, “How cool would it be to reach these people who might not have access to anything but this?” It’d be really cool if I could write something that made somebody feel like, “Oh, it’s okay to talk about this mental health stuff. It’s okay to have needs in a relationship. It’s okay to be queer.” To bring these stories into the mainstream, I just thought was very necessary.
SP: Yes, I commend you for that.
LM: Thanks.
SP: So, you’re coming to town to do Tinder Live in a couple of weeks. What is the most uncomfortable situation that’s come up during a Tinder Live?
LM: Uncomfortable, how?
SP: Has somebody encountered somebody they have dated or are currently dating? Has anyone in the audience seen their own profiles? That kind of thing.
LM: Okay. So, I asked that because the biggest thing that I love about Tinder Live is that it is like finding laughter, finding jokes, in the uncomfortable. It’s like finding that catharsis and that sense of connection in the world of dating and dating apps that is inherently uncomfortable. I always encourage. When people come to Tinder Live, I’m always like, “Hey. If your profile comes up, you have to tell me. I’ll be nice. I’ll just ask you, why did you make these choices?” And people will tell me, “Oh, my God. That’s my profile.” One of my favorite moments of that- And it’s never uncomfortable. It’s always cool because everybody in the room is on board. When someone’s like, “That’s my profile,” everyone in the audience cheers. They’re like, “Yeah.” Because no comedy show is like this, where it has that urgency. Anything can happen. There’s no script. There’s no pre-planning. I don’t know what will happen when I get on the stage. I don’t know if someone in the audience is on there. I didn’t know that there was one example of 5 women in the audience who were like-
Yes, this is a perfect one. Five women in the audience were like, “The guy you just matched with, I matched with too. We’re chatting right now.” And another one was like, “Me too.” And I told them, “Will you text him the exact same things that I’m texting him on screen?” And so, we’re all texting and asking about stuff like Mattress Factory or something. And I was like, “We’re going to blow this man’s mind,” and he didn’t even care. I was like, “Did he write back?” She was like, “Yes, he’s talking about The Mattress Place.” I think that’s the thing I always want to stress to people who haven’t seen Tinder Live is that it’s inherently very kind and extremely silly and just leans into the chaos we’re all feeling on apps. It’s not mean-spirited or anything like that. Most of the time, 99.9% of the time, these guys are laughing too. I guarantee that guy was in his apartment being like, “Everyone’s asking about this mattress store.” Do you know what I mean? It just was so funny.
And then another example that I really loved was when a guy came up on the screen, and we were analyzing his profile. And we’re like, “Oh, this photo’s cool. This is kind of fun.” And he seemed great. Some guys come up and we’re like, “Oh, this guy’s fun,” and we’re kind of talking about it. And a guy in the audience was like, “Oh, hey. Just so you know, that’s my profile.” And we were like, “What?” It was David Cross and me on the show. I was like, “Do you want to…” I think David Cross might have invited him up on stage, or someone did. He got up on the stage, and we were like, “Can we ask you about your profile? When did you take this photo? This photo is so funny.” It turned out it was that guy’s birthday. He had come to the show for his birthday and just really love Tinder Live, and he ended up coming on there. And we were all just like, “Your profile’s cool. Happy birthday.” Everyone in the audience was like, “Happy birthday.” It’s such a good-hearted, really funny show. I always want people who haven’t seen the show yet to know that. Because it’s something I’m very proud of.
SP: That’s lovely. I’m glad that all of these situations are positive.
LM: Yes, I’m not trying to make anyone uncomfortable. It’s not cringe comedy. I don’t like anything that feels like that. I’m more like, “Oh, this guy’s profile photo is him humping a RITZ cracker. We’re going to go down that rabbit hole with him.” I just go to where the chaos is.
SP: Yes. If you’re posting a picture like that online, you kind of have to expect…
LM: Exactly. Literally.
SP: …People to talk about it.
LM: My favorite descriptor of what Tinder Live is was from Frank Conniff from Mystery Science Theater 3000, which meant so much to me because I’m such a huge fan. He’s done the show many times and was like, “Tinder Live is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the true spirit of what Mystery Science Theater was.” I guess Frank describes it to people as like Mystery Science Theater if the movie could talk back. And I was like, “Yes, that’s what I want, that silliness.” They were never like, “This movie sucks. This movie’s not funny. That’s not fun.” It was so much more. You could tell they had some affection for these awful movies. And I have a lot of affection for these really weird profiles.
SP: Yes, I will admit. I’m married now. I’m very happily married. But I do miss Tinder just for the sport of it.
LM: Yes, I think that’s what’s cool, though.
SP: Right. Time’s about up, so I’m going to throw one more Tinder Live question.
LM: Sure.
SP: Your guest is Janeane Garofalo.
LM: Yes.
SP: I’ll admit I don’t have a fully formed question here. I just secretly want you and Janeane to get into a fight over which 90’s soundtrack is better, Reality Bites or Empire Records.
LM: I don’t think we would. But I will tell you Janeane has done Tinder Live many times, and it is always just the most fun because Janeane doesn’t even use email. She doesn’t do social media. She doesn’t do any of that. So, talk about somebody who’s seeing… She’s never used dating apps. But she has so much joy. She’s just in awe, and she just goes off. She’s like, “Yes, write him this. Tell them this. Oh, my gosh, yes. Use a gift.” She gets so into it. And I will tell you a Reality Bites good omen that happened to me the last time Janeane did the show with me in New York City. I went to a thrift store before the show started, and Squeeze’s “Tempted” came on. And I was like, “Oh, my God.” And I turned to my friend, who I don’t think has seen Reality Bites, and I was like, “Oh, my God. “Tempted” is on.” And he was like, “What? I don’t understand.” I was like, “You don’t get it.” I’m about to do this show with Janeane, and I’ve done it with her so many times, but all I can think of is being a little kid and seeing that scene with her and Winona Ryder in the car doing wop-wop. Doing that is like doing the “Tempted.” It’s just those moments where you’re like, “That’s so cool.” 12-year-old me would be very happy.
