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Lake Trout:
Serving the Music Up Hot and Greasy
interview Page 2
Page 1 of interview
Mike: The cool thing about dealing with Les and Galactic is that they started with the fans. I mean, they had nothing going for them other than fans…
James: No number one hits, nothing.
Mike: When we were on tour with Galactic two months ago, we were always hanging out with them on the bus. They weren't "rock stars" at all. They know what it takes to get to where you want to be. When you get that, you have earned it.
James: They had just come off tour with Counting Crows and Ben Harper, so they knew what it was like to be treated like the opening band. They did everything they could to make us feel comfortable.
Mike: Being around people like that, who are down to earth, just tells you to keep going doing what you're doing, and eventually you will get it.
mt: Being on the road as much as you are, do you find time to record often?
Mike: We just found the time. We are going to take a rig with us when we go back out on tour and record some things, also.
James: We just started, in the last three weeks, on an album that we have been working on everyday. That is just the beginning. We take a lot of time. When we go into the studio, we go all out. We did the first little bit. Now we are going to go on this tour and come back and hopefully finish it for Fall 2001. We will probably just tour on weekends while we finish the album, and then go back and hit the markets we tap into on the SnoCore tur.
mt: Few bands have the diversity that you have with your original music; do you find that you cater your sound to the venue or audience that you play to?
Mike: More to the type of audience. We totally go off what the vibe of the crowd and room are. Last night, we almost had to take Woody to the hospital because the crowd was so hype and we put on such a good show. It is mainly about the audience, especially since what we do is so heavy on group improvisation. For instance, people in Richmond tend to be crazier, so we play harder sets.
Woody: It is less about catering to the club or audience, it is the idea that our band comes from so many different ideas and conceptually different places. We don't cater to an audience or get on stage and look out at the people and see who dominates the crowd and play so-and-so cover. I mean, there is this place in Pennsylvania where we know a lot of ravers come to our show, so we play more distorted drum & bass, and people want that, so the energy just feeds off itself. It makes things interesting to us, because the different places we go, we get to do different types of shows. That is why we will want to come back, and that is why people will keep wanting to come back.
mt: You play with a sampler on stage, Woody, that you run almost all the instruments through. That is something a bit unorthodox for U.S. bands, but is becoming more popular. What made you get the sampler, and why did you decide to incorporate it the way you do?
Woody: Our first album was primarily vocal. Our second album was about half vocal, half instrumental. After that album, we started doing a lot more improv on stage, using more effects, and doing more textural things with the music. It became harder and harder to incorporate the way I sang, with dry vocals, over all this ambient textured stuff. So we went into this direction where we were doing more texture, and we decided we needed more effects on the voice so it would sit into the mix more and make sense. I found this Korg Kaos Pad and started playing with it, so I could add reverb and delay to my voice the way I wanted it and when it was needed. In the studio, you pick the effects for the vocals that fit nicest with a particular song, but when you improvise, you have to be able to control it on the fly. Steve helps us with it anyway. Steve is our soundman.
mt: You're an active member of the band, man. You are like what Prince Paul was to De La Soul.
James: He runs the studio with us, he's co-producer of our songs, and he runs sound for us.
Mike: And he is leaving us.
Woody: He is very much the sixth member of the band.
Ed: If we sound awesome, it is because of him.
Woody: He gives us the confidence to know that we can have just have Mike and James play by themselves, and we know the drums are huge and the bass is heavy and it is hitting just how it is supposed to be.
Mike: He also tells us to breathe when we are balls to the wall. [imitates a meditative movement]
Woody: One more thing about the sampler is that you can't store any samples in it. That keeps it in the world of improv. If I catch Mike's drums and play them backwards, or catch my voice and tweak it, as soon as I change parameters, it is gone. That keeps it improvised and always fresh. Nothing is planned. We don't play to a DAT, or anything like that.
mt: So your sound continues to change and evolve. You said at the start you listened to a lot of punk and funk, then electronic music, but what are listening to right now?
Mike: We have been listening to a lot of rock recently, a lot of Velvet Underground, Loaded, Nirvana…
James: The Pixies.
Mike: I used to hate the Pixies, but now because of these guys playing it, I have come to think they are awesome. I am just now getting back into hip-hop again. I was really into it, but now I am getting the feel again. We just got the new Wu-Tang and listened to it. We love that album. Nas drops a killer verse on it.
Ed: The drums are sick on that album.
Mike: I like that on every Wu album you can hear growth. Rza is getting better by the minute with his production.
James: I feel like Wu is going through a lot of transitions. Every band goes through transitions. Their first album just introduced them. With the second, they tried to do a lot more, but it was just a preview of what was to come. I think they are just preparing us for what Wu has in store later. The next album is going to be the best. Radiohead did the same thing.
Mike: Radiohead said they were going to release their next album a week ahead of schedule on Napster.
James: The whole debate about Napster is interesting. Courtney Love made a great speech about how it wasn't about piracy, but about what record labels do to artists.
mt: You seem to be wary of record labels in general.
James: There are just so many labels in transition right now with all the mergers and stuff. No one wants to be part of a label in transition. Artists want security and right now no label is secure.
Ed: Napster just provides people who may not have the ability to listen to certain kinds of music the capability to do that. I think that, in turn, it can be used to make record sales go up. There are a lot of people who are going to tape the CD anyway, but what Napster gives you the ability to do is listen to the music before you buy the album to see if you like it. Then again, I think it all depends on the technology. Right now, mp3 is the format, and they are building players that can take the place of CD players, but that isn't catching on as much. Maybe as technology grows and people find alternatives to CDs, then record sales will be compromised.
mt: Records are being sold at astronomical rates right now. My personal opinion is that cultural boundaries are being crossed. In the past, a rock group could only play to a rock crowd, but now there are Blacks, Asians, Whites, hippies, and skaters going to everything. This cultural potpourri that is going on benefits you a lot. How do you see it affecting you success?
James: I think that is why we are accepted, because we can't just go into one particular scene. We used to play in Baltimore with MCs and stuff coming on stage. We have played to hippie audiences and everyone seems to like it. We don't just draw from one crowd. That is just us; we are different. It is going to take the coming together of a lot of different crowds to take us to where we want to go.
mt: What do you see in store for yourselves in the future?
Woody: I think we have all had this sound in our heads that we have been going for, for years, about what we are going to be able to do. I think we are finally doing it. Earlier, we were doing more instrumentals, now we are working the vocals back in. No matter how we do it, be it drawing from hip-hop, classical, ambient, drum & bass, or rock, we try and do it our way, so we always sound like us. No matter how far out we go, we will still be us and people will want to grow with us.
James: That is why I think we will go far, because people know that if you like Lake Trout, you have to be willing to grow. This next CD is going to be different from all the rest, and the one after that will be different than that. Now, we have people who come to see us and they like that it's different every time.
Ed: I think that people will see the rapport between us, and how that rapport is reflected in the music. The more people see that, the more they will understand and enjoy it. Just like with the technology, the word has to spread slowly.
Woody: We hope that people will like the combination of us, and whatever comes out will be the culmination of that musical combination, whatever it may be.
mt: Lastly, for all aspiring artists and fans of yours out there who may need a word of inspiration as they start on early stages of their careers, what would you say to them?
Matt: Obviously, your sole motivation should be your love for music. After that, you are going to be forced to make decisions about commitment and stability. You don't necessarily have to abandon those things, but you must be willing to say to yourself that you are working on music now, and everything else will have to fall into place later. But in some aspects, you have to abandon a lot of other things. I won't say that I was put on this earth to play music, because there are a lot of other things that I want to do, but I enjoy it enough where I can put other things on the side for a while.
Ed: On a business level, as far as signing and things, be it labels or managers, just be super careful. You never know it until it happens to you or your friends, but you can get burned easily. People that are in the business of music are out to make money for themselves. Whether or not they mean to hurt you, when it comes down to the dollar, that is what they are there for: making money. Just be very careful.
Woody: It is worth it to spend the extra money to get a lawyer. Always.
Matt: Not in the paranoid sense, though.
Woody: A little paranoia is always healthy! As musicians, you don't want to worry about the legal mumbo jumbo, you just want to do your music. The one piece of control you do have is that you can pay someone who does know, so do it.
Interviewed by Damani Harrison
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