AN INTERVIEW WITH SEE YOU TUESDAY's
ERICA PLOUFFE LAZURE & LUKE WHISNANT

Q. Erica, how do you pronounce your name?

Erica: Thanks for asking. My middle name, Plouffe, is my former last name and it rhymes with "Woof" and is an onomatopoeia for "splash." Lazure is my married name and if you say it quick, it might sound like "La Jour" but in French it is the color of the sea. Erica is pretty easy to pronounce but I'm pretty sure its origin comes from the villain, Erica Kain (the ever glamorous Susan Lucci), on All My Children.

Luke: Mine is pronounced as a spondee followed by a pyrrhic, with the vowels slurred in the eastern Albanian manner: "LÜK VISH nåñt."

Erica: Nobody asked you.



Q. How did you two first meet?

Erica: I met Luke in Fountain N.C. with a guitar in his hand at a St. Patrick's Day party (2004) and he asked me what I wanted to sing. When he cranked out "Love is a Rose" after I said, "Neil Young," I knew I'd a made a friend for life.

Luke: My first real memory of Erica was about six months later, at a party where we got into a friendly discussion of the merits of various Tom Petty songs. I remember thinking "This woman knows her rock & roll."



Q. What kind of music does See You Tuesday play?

Luke: Our guiding principle when we make out our set list is "eclectic unpredictability." We do a lot of songs you've probably heard before, but the arrangements are unusual, like doing a heavy metal classic softly, almost like a lullaby, or taking a rock song and giving it a little alt-country feel.

Erica: I think each of us draws from our own musical histories, so you'll find a lot of folk and pop influences in our selections. Some classic and alternative rock, too. But the arrangements, for me, as well as the harmonies, are what make the songs special.



Q. How did you arrive at the name "See You Tuesday"?

Luke: We had a Tuesday night writing class together, and whenever we'd send each other emails, we'd sign them "See You Tuesday."

Erica: Plus, "'Til Tuesday" was already taken, and "See You Next Tuesday" was too, so....



Q. How long have you both been playing, and who are some of your major influences?

Erica: I have been singing since I was a little girl, and until recently I figured that all those years in the public school and church choirs and college theater were being squandered on Friday night karaoke at the World War II club in Massachusetts, or Thursday nights up in Pactolus. I can remember when I was about six asking my mother what "Indian" music sounds like. I remember hearing Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty" in the dark at a summertime party when I was eight. My junior high home ec partner would slip me Led Zep IV and Houses of the Holy between banana bread lessons. A beloved radio station (WBRU in Providence) showed me the merits of alternative music and jazz. Then I saw the Pixies my senior year of high school and it rocked my sox. In college I loved the Indigo Girls and spent hours playing solitaire listening to CSNY. Then I discovered Neil Young and I've never looked back.

Luke: I took up guitar when I was 13, and I've been singing almost as long as I can remember--if you can call what I do "singing." (A girlfriend once told me I sang almost as well as Bob Dylan, and I'm a proud member of the Keith Richards School of Harmony). I have a distinct memory of singing along with the car radio to "Can't Buy Me Love" when it first came out--I was six years old. Growing up, I played electric guitar in a couple of rock bands, and when Greenville's unplugged craze started back in the mid-80s, I used to sit in regularly with Mark Johnson, who went on to be a Nashville songwriter; Mike Hamer and I also played a few gigs as a duo here and there. As for influences, to name just a few of many: The Stones, Dylan, Hendrix, Joni Mitchell.... Like Erica, I love Zeppelin; Jackson Browne is right up there too. Other favorites are Chris Whitley and Kelly Joe Phelps.



Q. For the gearheads out there, what kind of equipment are you using?

Luke: I've used Larrivee and Gibson guitars, but I keep coming back to my Alverez herringbone dreadnaught that I bought new in 1978. It's a beater but I love it. I'm also playing a newer Alvarez MF80C. Both guitars go through a Zoom 504 processor, then into the PA. Strings are D'Addario mediums and medium-lights, and I use these oversized triangle cow horn picks. And Levi's 501 jeans.

Erica: I just got an Alvarez MSD1--a really sweet little guitar, and really loud for its size. Our vocal mics are AKG D-900s, and we're using the Bose L1 PA, which is just an amazing system. I drink a cup of green tea with a little honey right before the show, slip on my black Nine West wedges, and I'm good to go.



Q. Anything else you want to say?

Luke: Erica is my favorite singer in the Western Hemisphere.

Erica: Luke is a liar. Don't listen to him.