Andrew Volpe said the members of his band, Ludo, are all fans of music, no matter what style.
"We grew up listening to everything from the alternative and grunge to Chuck Berry and Doo Wop and the '60s oldies to the '70s arena rock," said Volpe during a phone call from somewhere between Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. "We're all over the map when it comes to our musical influences.
"And that's kind of how we are when we write our own songs. I think our influences come out different songs. We approach each song like it's own thing. A song is it's own little movie with scenery and actors. There is no right or wrong song to Ludo."
The band members — Volpe, guitarist Tim Ferrell, keyboardist Tim Convy, bassist Marshall Fanciullo and drummer Matt Palermo — signed their first contract to a major label (Island Records) last year.
"The album we released for Island will actually be our third album altogether," said Volpe. "And we knew we had to make sure the new album was good. So we spent a good part of 2006 writing our butts off."
The band went into the studio earlier this year to record the album, which will be called "You're Awful, I Love You." They worked with producer Matt Wallace, who has worked with Maroon 5, Faith No More and Sugarcult.
"Matt was great to work with," said Volpe. "You hear horror stories about producers who come in and change everything to fit their ideas. But that didn't happen with Matt. He listened to us with an open mind and did give us suggestions like extending a jam or something like that. We were lucky to work with him. He helped us make the album we wanted to make and we didn't compromise our music to do it."
Ludo will be touring for the rest of the year, and on Dec. 27, the band will play it's homecoming show in St. Louis,.
"It will be crazy, but it's always fun to play live," said Volpe. "When we first started playing music, we didn't care if there were five or 500 people in the audience. We actually still don't, because we play as hard as we can. We know people are going to pay money to see us and we want to make their sacrifice worth it."
If you go
What: Spitafield, the Forecast, the Graduate, Ludo, Larusso
Where: Avalon, 3605 S. State Street
When: Saturday, 6:30 p.m.
How much: $12
Phone: 467-8499, 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com