Daydream Nonbelievers

Bjorn Baillie is scratching his prodigious beard.
“I’m not sure there’s really a straightforward answer to your question,” stutters La Rocca’s frontman.

He’s being quizzed about the inspiration behind his band’s break-out hit, a California-baked chunk of jangle-pop called ‘Non Believer’. And, truth to tell, he’s stumped for words: “You know, if you go too much into a song, you kind of ruin the magic. If I found myself thinking too hard about what a song ought to be ‘about’, it would make the process of writing more difficult.”
Baillie should be used to this by now. A highlight from the Dublin-formed, LA-based crew’s debut album, The Truth, the track has become a minor blogosphere phenomenon since featuring in the cult US tween drama One Tree Hill.
“Mark Schwahn, the guy who created the show, is apparently a fan,” says Bjorn. “He’s even used our songs in the storyline. There’s an episode where a character walks into a store and requests one of our records by name. You can imagine what that does for your MySpace hits!”
While The Truth gets a belated European release – it hit stores pre-Christmas in the States, where La Rocca are signed to Beck-producer Tony Hoffer’s label – the band have already started work on the follow-up with And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead man Michael McCarthy.
Explains Baillie: “We have enormous respect for Tony [Hoffer produced The Truth] but if you’re a band at our level, still developing, it’s good to get as much experience as possible. Our new songs are much tighter and more focused – we did a lot of different styles on The Truth, whereas here we’re very much writing in a single vein.”
Living in the LA hipster motherlode of Silver Lake, La Rocca find themselves perched close to the beating heart of America’s celebrity industry. Even stepping out for a pint of milk can be an eye-popping experience.
“One day, I was walking past a restaurant and Robin Williams was inside having lunch with Billy Crystal,” remembers Baillie. “When you see something like that, it takes a second for it register. You stop and think, did I just see that?”

The Truth is out now on Dangerbird Records.