Rooftop shows and killer hot-tubbing: Lookbook's lookbook

A lookbook is a collection of professional photos designed to showcase the work of a model or artist. It also happens to be the name of Maggie Morrison and Grant Cutler’s electro-pop project, which has released two discs to date, 2008's seductive I Fear You, My Darkness EP and last year’s slick, decidedly upbeat full-length Wild At Heart. Their sound is a little Siouxsie Sioux, a little Kate Bush, and wouldn't be out of place soundtracking late-night exploits at Paisley Park. While the Minneapolis musicians are certainly no strangers to fashion and photo shoots, when The A.V. Club approached them to assemble their own lookbook, they opted for a more intimate collection of photos, something more akin to a scrapbook than their namesake. Cutler and Morrison, who play their first headlining show at First Avenue on Friday night, offered to provide some color commentary on their journey to date.

Grant Cutler: We’re shooting the beginning shots of the “Over And Over” music video—where we were getting drenched with water—in Aaron Landry’s backyard in South Minneapolis. The camera was some crazy, military-grade, super-slo-mo camera.

Maggie Morrison: And we only had two hours before it was due back at the airport to be flown back to L.A. or wherever it was from.

The A.V. Club: What’s with the glass pane?

GC: To protect [the camera] from the water spraying from the hose!

MM: We actually shot this video in the summer of 2008 because the song was going to go on the EP. But we wound up leaving it off 'cause we didn’t think it fit and rerecorded it for the album. That’s the reason the vocals don’t totally sync up when you watch the video.

GC: Here we are a year later, after our EP came out in the spring of 2009. We’re in the Sky Pesher at the Walker Art Center. It’s a permanent structure on the hill where the Guthrie used to be, and the whole idea is to sit in the sculpture, look through the frame above, and observe the natural beauty.

AVC: How was the sound?

GC: It’s the worst acoustics. I think they were planning for another band—

MM: And someone canceled and so we got to be the first band to play in the Sky Pesher just by chance. They wanted to make sure everyone would have a seat, so they only let in 15 people. Super-awkward. I didn’t know how to perform [in that space]. I tried to avoid looking at anyone, but I did notice when Zach from Solid Gold carried a baby in.

GC: This is from a music video shoot for “Yesterday’s Company” that never came out. We have like, 1,000 of these crazy photos. The plastic is really flexible and it does this weird bending of the light.

MM: They’re used to magnify books and newspapers for people with bad eyes. They wanted to use them in the video, but the plastic just didn’t work with the camera.

AVC: Is the yellow eye-shadow from your personal collection?

MM: I sat down in the makeup chair and said, “I don’t wear eye makeup, so can you go light on it?” This is what [the makeup artist] came up with. She called it “birds of paradise.” I think it looks like I’m about to audition for Cirque du Soleil!

AVC: Where’d you get the plastic Jesus?

MM: That’s Joseph.

GC: There was a nativity scene in the garbage behind my house and Joseph was the only one not covered in filth, so we brought him in, sat him in a chair, put some sunglasses on, and he scared the shit out of everyone. When you put him in a chair, he’s at regular sitting height. It’s pretty creepy.

AVC: You bring him back out every now and then?

GC: Yeah, he was in the backyard for most of last year.

AVC: Lookbook’s very own scarecrow.

GC: Exactly. It looks like there’s someone back there having a cigarette or something.

MM: Or maybe they think Grant’s a Peeping Tom.

AVC: Auditioning to be a member of Solid Gold in case this whole Lookbook thing doesn’t work out?

MM: [Laughs.] They’re friends of ours and I was with two of their girlfriends at CMJ. We love those guys so much, but we give them plenty of shit too for being a boy band. [The photo] was too perfect to pass up. Then we went in and saw them play for the Mountain Dew label, which was hilarious.

AVC: How so?

MM: Um, I got the sense that people were there less for the music and more for Mountain Dew.

GC: It was still a cool show though, and the Brooklyn Bowl is an amazing venue. Just us leeching off our friends, as usual!

MM: This is last Halloween. I just knew I wanted to find things to wear with that red mask, which I got at the State Fair. I’m a bandit, I think?

AVC: So was this for a party or did you go trick-or-treating?

MM: [Laughs.] No [trick-or-treating], but I probably could have because people still think I’m 16. We went with Grant’s roommates to the 501 to see Mystery Palace, and we danced our asses off. There was hardly anyone there, but it was a blast.

GC: I made my outfit out of stuff lying around the house. I was the hip-hop King Midas. I took all the gold I could find and threw on some Nike—

MM: Maybe you should talk about how many Halloween costumes you actually own.

GC: Not a lot of specific costumes, but I do own a lot of dress-up items.

AVC: Why don’t you wear them to shows?

GC: Because it’s, uh...

MM: I’d probably yell at him.

GC: I like dressing up and I have a bunch of robes. Whenever I find a silly robe at a thrift store, I buy it.

AVC: You need a solo project to show them off.

MM: Well, he does have a band called The Gorgeous Lords.

AVC: I assume this is how you want to die?

GC: Yeah, I like this photo a lot. These are not my records. We’re at Nick Sanborn’s house in Milwaukee. He’s the guy who runs the label that released Wild At Heart on vinyl, [Listening Party Records]. This was taken right after we played the Cactus Club. I’m not asleep or dead, but I might be passed out. And I’m pretty sure those are not my sunglasses.

AVC: Were you at all nervous about handling a microphone while you were in the hot tub?

GC: Seems like a horrible idea, right?

MM: We didn’t really think about it. We’d just woken up. This photo was taken at Lutsen. Vita.mn was asked to invite a few bands and host this weekend event to offer something a little different for the people living there and hopefully bring a few people up from the Twin Cities.

GC: We did an hour-long set and an interview. That was our work for the weekend.

MM: Gospel Gossip had done their interview on the ski lift. Peter Wolf Crier had theirs by the lake. And obviously, we belong in the hot tub. [Laughs.]

AVC: Here you are playing a rooftop downtown. You’ve also played on the top floor of the Walker. Is this an advantage of being a duo with a laptop and a guitar?

MM: Definitely.

GC: We had an hour and a half to shoot this before the sun went down, and if we’d had any complicated setup, it wouldn’t have worked at all. This was actually a video shoot for Maggie.

MM: They wouldn’t tell us what they wanted to shoot [this video] for, so they had to talk us into it. We kept trying to say that we didn’t have time, but they said, no, you really want to do it. I told Grant, “Hey, there’s a Twins game on Wednesday. Maybe they’ll air us on the Jumbotron.” [Laughs.] Turns out it was for [City Pages’] best-of issue.

GC: She won Best Female Singer. The video is actually really good—they managed to capture the sound perfectly even though it was a very windy day.

Photos by: Chris Cloud, Grant Cutler, Joe Johnson, Aaron Landry, Lauren Neal, Nick Sanborn, Erin Smith, and Sean Smuda