So, today we're checking back in with Lakeman.
They're letting us know what there is to know.
Check out their latest record, Progenitor, on BANDCAMP.
Now, let's get to know them.
1. Is there an event you can point to you that made you say, wow, that's the instrument I want to play?
Not like guitar or drums, but the reason why you play the model you do?
I am an opportunist, when I see something that comes into my reach, I will reach out to it. Being a multi-instrumentalist in LAKEMAN I use a vast collection of instruments and gear. Most of which I saw in pawn shops or online for a good price and thought it would be interesting to use in the project.
I am sorry to say I don't really subscribe to brand loyalty. Anything can be used if you find out your chemistry with the object in question.
2. How do you write a song?
In LAKEMAN, we start with improvisation. I really wanted to avoid the single songwriter or composer approach. The most amazing things happen during arranging a song and I hate when you miss that moment when a bandmate brings an arrangement to the table.
We improvise till we find things we like then we build off of that central theme. It's funny how when you let 4 people build off one melody it can grow in a massive 7-35 minute piece of music.
3. How many concept records do you own? Could you ever write one?
I inherited my dad's record collection in the summer of 2005 or '6. He grew up in the 70's when the concept records reigned supreme, he has around 200 LP's.
The same summer I was selling psychedelics on the beach. I Remember friends getting back from "Wrap tour" and trying to get to check some B-rate screamo band and I would be like dude eat this mushroom and listen to "echoes" by Pink Floyd or Sgt. Peppers by the Beatles.
I have too many concept albums to count.
I have written and recorded four concept albums, 2 of which are yet to be released.
Robert McLaren-Man in a box2015: the album comes with a short 30-page novella. A man wakes up in a box, buried alive and he can't remember how he got there.
Each song and chapter reveals how he ended up there. The genre is progressive bluegrass so banjo's fiddle etc. I recorded it while living out of my backpack in Australia.
LAKEMAN-ST (AKA N'hat'ik)2016: a sonic ode to our local Cryptid lake monster. https://youtu.be/
4. Who's influence is most evident in your music? The least?
Most: Russian Circles, Mogwai, Godspeed you! Black emperor.
Least: those DJ's that put Slayer songs over ABBA and stuff. Its funny AF, but I draw zero influence from what they do.
5. Which one of your songs is the one your the most proud of?
The final track on "Progenitor" titled "Pandosy". I wish I could make a documentary on how many forms that song took before it became the recording you hear now.
It took a year of weekly writing sessions to find a version we all loved.
6. Sum up your latest record for us.
I guess it could be a concept record. 3 of 4 of the band members became fathers during the creation and release of this record.
The concept of LAKEMAN is sonic meditations of our local Okanagan myth, legend and macabre history. We unconsciously were drawn to the father's myth of the Okanagan for this album.
The track "powers creek" is loosely based on an old ghost story of a father who died looking for his missing daughter in the "powers creek" area. People report coming across a man looking for his daughter along the path by the creek. An apparition trapped in an eternal loss.
The track "Pandosy" is named after our towns founding father. Father Jean Charles Pandosy. A character with questionable ethics, some say he sought to convert the native culture by establishing a Christian community in the area.
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