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WEHM All Access - Great South Bay Music Festival - Russ Lawton from LaMP · WEHM All Access

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's EHM All Access for the Great South Bay Music Festival, and coming Saturday, July 25th, uh Russ, Scott, and Ray make up Lamp and Russ Lawton joining us right now in our kind of virtual studio.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Russ, how are you?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm doing great.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: How about you?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Very good.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for doing this.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're about to uh hit the road for some shows, including that Saturday set at the Great South Bay Music Festival.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess I kind of wanted to sit down and get to know you a bit, learn about the project.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I I've read on your website that the band formed after uh a magical night at Nektar's in Burlington, and that was back in December of 2018.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you remember about that first show and what kind of uh about that said, hey, this is something we we can kind of build upon?
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, well, I you know, it Ray and I have been playing together for years with Trey, and then also we had a band have a we still have a band Soli Monday.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we got together with Scott, and a lot of people came out, and it was we shared songs, some of the Soli Monday songs, and he has he has some of the songs from his band Wolf, and we did a long sound check, and it was sounding really great, and the gig went really good.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And both Ray and I were like, damn, this guy's a very tasteful guitar player and a good guy, too.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So from there we're like, we should keep doing this, and you know, and then from there we were trading files, like I write drum beats, uh, and Ray writes songs, and we so we just trade him because he's in Brooklyn, and Ray and I live right in Middlebury, so he's like 10 minutes from here, so it's very easy for us to get together.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: So we just trade in, you know, the old trade in files, and and Scott was coming up with some great stuff from the drum beats, and Ray does that too.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, wow, let's make it a record.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: So we, you know, we did this record in like a day and a half, and and it still holds up for the first lamp record.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: How did you decide?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I know the name combines your your your names, but how did you kind of decide that together?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Was it was it immediate to kind of go take some time to figure that out?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was just like, okay, let's try this, and it's like, you know, lamp, lump, not any gonna work, or whatever, you know.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that seemed to be the best, you know.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, because names of things is always gonna be a little, you can go either way, you know, but uh it worked, you know.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're uh you mentioned the the debut record.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I believe it was recorded at uh place called Sugarhouse Soundworks.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: What was uh how'd you choose the studio?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Was it got kind of just made sense?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or how what role did that studio kind of play in putting this record together?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it was our friend Roger, and unfortunately that studio's gone now.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: But uh but he took all the gear and he's at his house, and went we have a yet another record coming out in this fall, and we did it at his house with all the same gear.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: But uh it's our friend Roger, and I've been recording when I moved back up here.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I met him and uh he he hires me to do play our records and stuff.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And great guy, great engineer, and he gets a killer sound.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so we did it there, and for you know, for us it was like we lived up here, so Scott, you know, was gracious enough to come up and do it here, and it and it you know it really worked.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned uh kind of trading files back and forth, different grooves, and uh what is the typical writing process?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do you start with the music, uh the lyric?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: How does it work?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, I mean, some of it it's it's really wide open, but like a lot of times I I'm over here working on song, you know, just practicing and I'll get it some beats and I'll send it to them and they they work right around the beat.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or sometimes Ray has a like a you know, like a core of an idea we build from there, you know, maybe add or subtract or whatever.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's a chip and away process, you know.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty exciting, you know.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: Especially for me as a drummer.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I write like these rock songs under my own name.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: I've always done that with bands that were more like vocal bands, but uh with this, it's instrumental.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but to sort of have stuff that I've done, you know, beats turn into songs, it's really great, you know, because because you're trying to come up with some different grooves and things, you know.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lamp is on the main stage uh at the Great South Bay Music Festival, Saturday, July 25th.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what's it like to put together the set?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's I'd imagine a little shorter than average shows.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you uh how do you kind of sit down with the band and and plot that out?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, that's when we say the greatest hits.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: Not that we have hit, you know, like hit songs, but you know, but it's like definitely for me, like, okay, I'll take there's some choral ones from the first album.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's the core songs from each from each album, you know, the two albums, and then some of the covers that we play, we'll throw in that, you know, like we have the song Some Days, we'll play that definitely out of curiosity, and then there's an you know, you know, whatever.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's sometimes it's pretty obvious.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I save like all the songs on my phone and I jumble them all together, and you know, and I look Scott and I look at him and you know, some what's a good set closer, or you know, you feel it out what kind of festival it is, or something.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: But it looks like it's gonna be uh some heavy hitters in there, so uh come up with something.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know, I think that wouldn't even decide.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if it's like 90 minutes or 70 minutes, you know you can get like maybe 12 songs or something, you know.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna what's the what's the twelve top songs we want to play, you know?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've read uh and there's a bit in the news lately, but at least on helmet studios you guys have played uh rooms like that.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: What's uh what's it like for you to to play certain types of rooms that have such a history?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, that room uh is I was living in Woodstock when he was just building that, and that was the talk of the town that he was building this studio, and the the band had just broken up, stopped playing, and then that was like Levan's building this barn, you know, and then over the years it just they started doing the rambles.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, I have a little bit of history from living there, but it it's it's pretty emotional, actually.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I would imagine what was it like growing up or or living there?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd imagine you were involved with a whole bunch of different projects musically there.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would I moved there to go to this place called the Creative Music Studio.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a school.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I never ended up going because I ended up getting involved in a band in Vermont, but I was there for a year.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: But oddly enough, I got a job working at this place called the Beer Cafe that Albert Grossman owned, who was Bob Dylan's manager and all the he was like a big and the band.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: He and he didn't he it was his building, but these other people ran this restaurant.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: But all the rock stars would come in.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: I would see Bob Butterfield every day if he wasn't on tour.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: I would just meet so many people.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And it was Todd Runger.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I remember hanging out with Todd Rungerman talking to him about like chicken soup in the kitchen or something, you know, or Eddie Offord, who was like Yes's producer.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like 21 years old, I was like starstruck, you know, like whoa.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I did play a lot of music when I was there too, not with those guys.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Although I did remember one time I was doing a pickup gig downtown Woodstock, and uh Harvey Brooks, who played on Miles Davis Bitches Brew, was the bass player.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, whoa, I'm over my head, you know.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: But uh and he yeah, it was just incredible.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: I saw so much music.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's this place to Joyous Lake.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was just easy because it was just right there.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I lived up on the mountain.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: I imagine and those experiences have really formed you and I'm sure influenced this band uh to to this day.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're you're working on another record for them, and I think I think I read its plan for early next year.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: What direction do you guys want to take the band in for this new material?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, again, too, it's all based about, you know, trading that we trade in files again.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Just some some stuff has gone in a little bit direction, kind of a little some little more rock, you know, like low and threatening notes kind of a thing, which I really like, you know, if that makes sense.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or yeah, it's just again, too, it's it's all it's all the whole spectrum, you know.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: We got one, you know, and it's just whatever feels good.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Did it take did it take time?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because you mentioned, and it sounds like for this project, um, it was kind of from the start, but uh as far as um sending files and and using in different places, did it take a while to get used to that instead of just being in a room with the guys playing music?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: To a certain extent, yeah.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, because Ray and I live close in the other bands, I was in Boston for 20 years, so we would rehearse a lot, you know, because we were right there, we had rehearsal spaces in downtown Boston or whatever.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: But it was different, but this day and age, you know, you do what you gotta do, and it's working too, which is really cool.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I do admit when I get up, I go up to Rays and we we hash out stuff, it it definitely, you know, that's the best we as the two of us, we work well together that way too.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: What's it immediate reaction, you know?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was that?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Do that again, you know.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: But we do that with Lampid Sound, we take advantage of sound checks too, you know.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'd imagine you developed, especially with these three um the different cues on stage.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: What's that like to develop?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: How long does it take to kind of have that communication on stage where you you kind of know what everyone's thinking?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: It takes a while.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've had it with Ray, because of course I've been doing playing with Ray for a long time.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I play with this guy from this band O Subisa, and he was really he was a lot older than me, and he always called it like telepathy.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: He was this Nigerian guy.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's so true.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like a lot, I can tell you nine times out of ten, I know when those guys are going to be coming out of their solos or something, you know.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I still pay attention, but nine times out of ten, I I feel okay, he's ready to get out of it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: In a good way, you know what I mean?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious, because you've worked with especially uh with one of the members a while.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: What's one thing that as you look at the band that each member brings uh that really no one else could do as far as because it makes Wamp such a unique project in that sense?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, for me, like uh like Scott, he's like a like we're gonna we're getting a little overdubs with our boy Sit Ciro and he goes, Boy, you already got percussion on there, you know, because Ciro's the percussionist.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because Scott is very percussive and does his little lines that nobody else does.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: He's not like you know, just you know, wailing away just a wail or something.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really important for me.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Tasteful guitar playing is like really important to me.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, and then with Ray, he just played, he just lays it down, he's playing left-hand bass, and it's real simple.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we, you know, I don't know if you're ever if you're aware of Tony that passed, but he was in the trade band.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: So we model the bass from him, the way he would play it or something.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then we just Ray's got a lot going on, left-hand bass and the keys, and he's always put pushing it, and it's cool.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's trying to, you know, working the jams and pushing it forward and coming up with some creative stuff and really melodic too.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Being a drummer, would you remember when when you first started playing?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, how did it begin?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And how did you know that the drumming was what you wanted to really focus on?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: How old were you?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm curious.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was a kid.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: I was I joined the drum and bugle corps when I was like 10 or 11.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: See, I there was a drummer bugle core that was up the street from my house, and I lived in this town New Bedford Mass, and the Kushnet Mass was like, I live in a cushion, but it was like, you know, bordering each other.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they I would go and my and I would just hang out there, and they used to rehearse outside in the parking lot.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: I lived in these factories.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was the title of this golf ball factory that used to rehearse.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I'd go over there with my sticks and stuff, and the drum instructors, oh, you play drums, you should come play, you know.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I I thought I was like too young.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think you had to be 12 to join, and they let me join early.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my early experiences that with that, you know.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I just I remember sitting in the and then you would do these, like they in the summer you do these competitions.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're like, I don't know, I forget how long it is, 30 minutes, you go out and do all these drills, and you know, you you get stays you get score points or they take points off, whatever.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I remember making up my own thing with that at home in my head in the kitchen, you know, in the morning on my drumsticks.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: And but then I get a pay per root and I got a drum set, and then that was all once I get the drum set, I I sort of lost interest in the drum core, and I was ready to get in a rock band.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Were there were there uh that makes sense?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Was there any um certain bands that you were kind of trying to emulate the drummers?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, God, I grew up in that that furl area of the Beatles and all that stuff, and I definitely I remember the people would tease me in eighth grade, like, who's your favorite drummer?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I always go, Ginger Baker.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: But he was like, you listen back and he was really tasteful, you know, got all those guys, Mitch Mitchell, oh my god, that and you just go from there, you know what I mean?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: But how long did it take to develop?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I think a lot of drummers that I've I've spoken to are in a way um replicating what they grew up listening to, but then they had eventually they find their own style um and their own voice, so to speak, with the drums.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: How long did it take to kind of have you you know that you you had your own own style to your to your drumming?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh god, you know, it's it's interesting because I was definitely like I can remember uh my dad's I go to back to my parents' house and I I'm sleeping in my bedroom that I used to play my drums in, and I remember listening to Whole Lot of Love and by Zeppelin, and that album was really affects me and still does because it swings, because uh John Bottom swung so hard, you know.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that stayed with me and still is with me.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: But then from there I got involved with this.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I got to Vermont with this band Zebra, this guy, uh percussionist sax player from this band O Cibisa, which I was a fan from.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: They were from London, and by playing with him, it was like Afro beat, afro rock, and I really learned a lot, and I really felt felt like I had a real kind of knack for that kind of style, hence how I got the audition.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's still in my playing, and it really changed my playing a lot.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you so I always say it was a cross between John Bottom and Afro Beat.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And if you listen to kind of Failer's Sun, Fair Kute Sons, that's kind of what they do, and they're rocking it out more or something.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: But and then there's so many different players you get influenced by so much, you know, it's amazing.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would I would imagine.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what does Lamp uh this project allow you to kind of express that I don't know, other projects in the past haven't, that you're able to this this really allows you to do something.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, first we we stretch it out, but it's still within certain amount of realm, you know, and the groove, it's always groove-heavy, which is important for me.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And where, you know, and it's still songs, but then you you go off and and and you know, jam or whatever you want to call it.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: But it really expresses me as a drummer, and I really I think it really showcases my style, and hence sometimes because I'm bringing in the beats, so it really it's really in my wheelhouse, you know.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's that that's very interesting.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then you and you're in Vermont, and that's where you're you're based, and a lot of your time has been spent.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: What do you uh what's the the Vermont musical community like um as far as different people you've worked with?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh how do you kind of view that scene?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's you know, it's it's just it's not a huge scene, but there's a couple of great studios here.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: I work with Ben Collette, he worked with Trey for a long time.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: He has the tank.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm up there doing sessions, and we we did that last the the uh the album we did last year with Lamp there.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then it's funny, and then like uh, you know, that guy Mahali from Twiddle, he lives up the street, you know, up down here around here, and then these other guys are tucked away.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's small, but there's a lot of yeah, that's interesting.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then we play with um Bob Wagner, who is um he plays with Mike, he's in Mike Gordon's band now, and he I've been playing with him for years.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like this week I uh uh I play I'm playing on and then Grippo, who who played with the horn section back the early days of grip uh of Fish, and then with the tray band, Jennifer, it's Friday night.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: So people come and go.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like Jennifer lives in Nashville, but she's coming up.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: So you it's like I lived in Boston, I did the same thing.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: I had like three little gigs a week, and I would be like all these different people.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then then you then next week with our our band Lamp.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you get the calendar out, and like you know, I'm not available because I'm out with Lamp.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's my my high priority.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'm home, I'm playing with different people, and it's it's a blast.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a little trio we play once a month, and we all write these rock songs, vote more vocal stuff, and we do that once or twice a month.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you keep yourself busy, and then you know, and then uh like again sessions.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love playing on people's records, and I I just finished this guy, did some stuff with this blues guy a couple weeks ago, and you know, hope for the best.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Is the that's right, is the uh the new record done?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know what you talked about next year coming out.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's pretty much done.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be mixed, and uh because our buddy Cyril's gonna play some percussion on it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I'm just listening to stuff he did it did on one of the songs now, so we'll get it mixed and then we'll get it ready.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Because once you get it ready and you get it on record, it takes it's it's a long, it's a everybody's putting out records now, so the waiting list.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: I remember years ago putting out a little single and it was easy.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now everybody's this, you know, everybody's putting out vinyl again, so you've got to wait in line, which is fine.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Russ Lawton of Lamb, thank you so much for joining us.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh Saturday, July 25th.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Lamb performing at the Great South Bay Music Festival, and we look forward to new music coming in twenty seven as you wrap up that record.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to see you at the festival.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, please say hi.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, man.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: Take care.