This weekend, Montage Mountain in Scranton, PA, is playing host to the 5th Anniversary Celebration of The Peach Music Festival. With the likes of Trey Anastasio Band, The String Cheese Incident, Gov’t Mule, The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Umphrey’s McGee, and moe. hitting the stage all weekend long, it’s sure to be a rockin’ and memorable weekend. Take a look at some of our photos from Friday including highlights from the highly anticipated The Allman Brothers Family Incident with The String Cheese Incident and ABB members Butch, Jaimoe, Oteil & Marc, along with Bruce Katz & Scott Sharrard.
There are a select few venues in the United States that will make your jaw drop to the floor upon your initial walk through the venue’s doors. Kings Theatre is one of those venues.
The historic Kings Theatre re-opened its grand doors last year after the wondrous theater shuttered 38 years prior. After an over $90 million restoration, the neglected venue was reborn into the opulent “Wonder Theatre” it was always destined to be.
Tonight, The String Cheese Incident will hit the stage at The Peach Music Festival for their own set as well as the highly anticipated Allman Brothers Family Incident featuring all members of SCI along with Butch Trucks, Jaimoe, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones, Bruce Katz, and Scott Sharrard. Following these Peach performances, Kings Theatre will then host The String Cheese Incident as they close out their summer tour with a two night run this Saturday and Sunday. The next time we will see The String Cheese Incident will be at their annual Hulaween fest at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.
For those planning to attend the shows in Brooklyn, make sure you come early and kickstart your evening by hanging in the new courtyard at Kings Theatre. Beer garden, food trucks and the chance you may even see a band member or two. Can this weekend possibly get any better?
Raw. Old soul. Americana. Roots. Foot stomping. Soaring Harmonies…these are only some of the words that can be used to describe the sound being amplified by our speakers as we listened to Forlorn Strangers‘ self-titled debut album (out this Friday, August 5th).
Forlorn Strangers is comprised of sisters Abigail Dempsey (fiddle, percussion, vocals) and Hannah Leigh Lusk (mandolin, percussion, upright bass, vocals); Chris Banke (guitar, mandolin, vocals); Benjamin Lusk (banjo, guitar, vocals); and Jesse Thompson(upright bass, dobro, guitar, vocals). With these five unique songwriters, ascending family harmonies and energetic percussion, the string-forward quintet entertains a comparison to an ‘Americana Fleetwood Mac.’
We sat down with Abigail to get an inside look into the band, chat about the creative process behind the new album, and where you can catch them on tour over the next several months.
Vinyl Mag: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. Being that you all are from varying states, I would love to start off by getting into the story behind how you all came together to form the band.
Abigail Dempsey: My sister is in the band, Hannah Leigh [Lusk], and she and the guitar player Chris [Banke] and the banjo player Ben [Lusk], the three of them went to school together in South Florida. They actually started out as a writing group. They would all get together and share their poetry and stories, and then they started playing music together. They eventually moved out to Waco, TX, and lived on a farm for a little bit out there and then moved to Nashville. The three of them then met our now bass player Jesse [Thompson] here and then I moved down in September of 2013. After I moved down, that’s really when we started taking Forlorn Strangers seriously.
VM: With your sister in the band, have you learned anything new about your sister or each other?
AD: Honestly, it’s hard to even say because we’ve been with each other every single day for the past15 months. We’ve been on the road touring for those 15 months, so it’s hard to even think about previously, like, ‘Oh man, I didn’t know she was like this and now she’s like this…’ We come from a really close family so we’re all friends anyways.
VM: You mentioned that the group started out as a writing group, what does the creative process look like behind the band’s songwriting style?
AD: All of five of us write and sing, and we all play the guitar. Usually, we’ll all individually write a song…Before we started touring so much we would have practice every Sunday and Wednesday and it would be like, ‘Oh, guys! I wrote this new song’ or ‘I came up with this idea..’ or something like that. And it’s kind of funny that it just all works itself out where if everyone is diggin’ on the song and you know it goes ‘Hey Chris, play that song again and lets figure out the parts.’ And I’ll pick up a fiddle and we just kind of jam it out until we feel like it works. If people don’t really respond to a song then you’re like, ‘OK! That’s just going to be one I’m going to keep in my back pocket.’
VM: I love the fact that you all write and then you all come together and work it out like that. On this new album, each band member is taking a lead on varying songs. How was each band member chosen for their given song?
AD: It’s pretty much whoever wrote the song sings the lead on it. We haven’t really dove into a lot of cowriting which is something I think we’d really love to explore once we have some time to be more creative. Overall, if I wrote the song I would sing lead on it and usually Hannah and I will do harmonies together. The one song, ‘Down in the Trenches,’ that all of us sing a part on it; Hannah originally wrote that song and when we were in the studio our producer was like, ‘Man, it would be cool if all of your took a verse.’ Because there are five verses in the song, and we were all like, “Yeah! That sounds great.’ So that was the first time we did something where the person who wrote the song wasn’t singing lead and I love the way that it turned out.
VM: Listening to the album, I feel that the album is very raw and has an old soul to it. How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
AD: I would say, it’s roots. We use the word roots a lot and meaning roots based in American music, but also personally and individually. Cohesive is a word we use a lot; it’s something that has a lot of different moving parts, but overall it has one vibe and one feel.
VM: In 2015 you guys did extensive touring and right now you are towards the end of your summer tour. Do you have any favorite venues that you have played or are you looking forward to playing for your upcoming tour to promote the new album?
AD: We love the Carolinas. Our booking agents live in Charlotte and Charleston, and both of those places have been so so good for us. We’re playing Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA, and then our Nashville show is at Little Harpeth Brewery. It’s going to be awesome, they are setting up a stage outside and I think it’s going to be really fun in August. We’re also going out to the West Coast for the first time, so that’s really exciting!
One of our favorite northeastern festivals is back for it’s seventh year. Catskill Chill was already boasting a jammin’ line-up that included Mike Gordon, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Greensky Bluegrass, Electron, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass, Break Science Live Band and Duo Sets, Dopapod, Goldfish, Perpetual Groove, Deep Banana Blackout, Rob Garza DJ Set, Turkuaz, Kung Fu, and The Werks…just to name a few.
Now, there have been four more funky additions to the 2016 lineup. Joining the bill are longtime #chillfam and funk masters, Lettuce. Several members of the band including Eric Bloom, Adam Deitch, Ryan Zoidis, Nigel Hall, Adam Smirnoff and Erick Coomes will also perform together with Borahm Lee in “Bitches Bloom: A Tribute to Miles Davis.” Catskill Chill will also present the East Coast debut of Reed Mathis & Electric Beethoven who describe themselves as ‘the world’s first CDM (classical dance music) band.’ The lineup includes heavy hitting musicians Reed Mathis (Billy & the Kids, Tea Leaf Green), Jay Lane (Primus, Ratdog), Todd Stoops (RAQ), Cochrane McMillan (Tea Leaf Green) and Clay Welch. And last, but certainly not least, is the addition of the 10-piece soul/funk act Funky Dawgz Brass Band.
Additionally, continuing their tradition of offering a unique twist with returning artists, the Chill also features a number of first-time collaborations and tribute sets. Dopapod and Turkuaz will join forces for Dopakuaz Does Yacht Rock, Pink Taking Fish and Kung Fu will take on the music of Prince and David Bowie, while Particle and The Werks come together as PartiWerks. The weekend will also feature a Chillfam Allstars Michael Jackson Tribute.
If you can arrive early, for the first time, Catskill Chill will host an onsite pre-party at “New Minglewood” the night before the festival, on Thursday, September 22nd featuring two sets of Twiddle, along with Jimkata, Aqueous and TRAKSTAR.
Last month, many festival attendees returned to a place they consider home. Nestled in Rothbury, Michigan, on the Double JJ Ranch, Electric Forest raged on for four days and nights. Between the seven stages, frolicking in the magical Sherwood Forest, and The String Cheese Incident’s annual Saturday night extravaganza, Electric Forest 2016 did not disappoint.
Known for his magical keys, creative brews, and having a thing for cats, Kyle Hollingsworth, keyboardist for The String Cheese Incident, is one of our absolute favorite musicians today. With his quirky personality mixed with his many talents, Hollingsworth isn’t afraid of taking risks, especially when it comes to his music or his beer. This year at Electric Forest we sat down and had a chat about the multitude of facets that make of the world of Kyle Hollingsworth, including new Kyle SCI music, the expansion and evolution of Electric Forest, and cat flavored beer?
Vinyl Mag: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us today. I would love to start off by asking you how the whole cat craze began?
Kyle Hollingsworth: Am I allowed to talk about the ‘cat craze?’ I don’t know…I started wearing cat shirts…I’m not sure why. Actually, I do know why, I just can’t tell you why. It’s a secret. But, I starting wearing them everyday on a tour; that was my theme and this summer’s theme is ‘Nothing but Flowers;’ so I’m doing the whole Talking Heads’ ‘Nothing but flowers…’ So two years ago was ‘Nothing but Cats’ and people started thinking I liked cats; which I’m actually not that fond of them. So then all of a sudden people started bringing me cat shirts and thinking ‘Oh my God, he loves cats!’ I think the original conception was from a bad post on Facebook where I posted a meme about cats, so then I felt like I had to make up for it and I started wearing cat shirts all the time. And then people forgot about the Facebook post and said, ‘He loves cats.’
VM: And I guess the cat story is history from there! So with this whole cat theme, obviously you’re going for a floral theme this weekend and for the rest of summer tour…With your beer Hoopla, it’s hooper themed and ties back into Cheese, do you think you will or have any plans to put in production a new feline themed beer?
KH: Gosh, I love that. Cat flavored beer…
VM: Maybe not cat flavored beer…
(Laughing)
KH: I love that, let’s quote that, ‘Cat flavored beer.’ Yes I’m working on that…No. I don’t know, but I love that idea. I definitely tie it into whatever I’m doing and cats have become a thing for me. So whenever I can, I brand something in a way that’s feline related. What about ‘Feline Good IPA’ or something like that?
VM: That could definitely be a great beer! Speaking of Hoopla, what do you personally like to pair with it?
KH: I’ve made over 28 collaborative beers all over the country, and Hoopla just happened to be one of them that I have in production in addition to two others. I have one with Stone Brewery and Alice Cooper’s guitar player Keri Kelli (Stone Collectrive Distrortion IPA) and one with Cigar City (Happening Now Session IPA) and they’re all connected to my last solo release where I made three singles and then paired three beers for them, and made three beers to release with the singles. So Hoopla, I was thinking when I was making it, it’s a summer sessional type of IPA so the whole concept was that if I wanted to go see Phish, or the Grateful Dead, or Widespread Panic, or go to Bonnaroo, in the blazing sun and have a good tasting beer that’s also sessional. So that was the idea, I think it goes best with festivals. In fact, we were going to call it an FPA, “Festival Pale Ale.” So we were thinking festivals, summertime, hoola hooping, and camping.
And then food wise, watermelon, anything summery.
VM: So anything summery and I have to say that music goes best paired with Hoopla.
KH: Yes, absolutely. Music goes best paired with Hoopla.
VM: With all of those 28 plus beers, and you just did a collaboration with Odd13 for your Brew Fest coming up in Colorado, and those two other beers in production, your brewing started at home. How did the crossover from home-brew to production occur for you?
KH: It all started home. I started home brewing probably when I was eighteen. So that was like three years ago since I just turned 21 last week..Ha no…I’ve been home brewing for quite awhile, but I made the connection in the last 5-6 years to my creative process, similar to making music on stage, the risk I take, the accidental surprises that happen in improvisational music can also happen in how I brew. Sometimes the best brew you can make is the one you kind of mess up the recipe, but you don’t know how you did it. Like the best jam you make is from taking chances.
VM: I also think it boils down to allowing your creativity to expand and you have to be very inventive when it comes to both music and brewing. And you can take it wherever you want to go.
Photo by Bethany Jayne
KH: And I think it’s the same with cooking also. Even though I’m not huge on cooking. I love eating, just not cooking. I brew.
VM: I did bring up your brew that you are currently working on for your Brew Fest with Odd13, and you just have so much going on with other Brew Fests, festivals, touring, producing, writing…how do you manage your time?
KH: It has been challenging and the wife has found it challenging as well. I was having a conversation with my father-in-law last night about how being a part of modern media is having an awareness and presence in multiple circles from Facebook to all the different outlets you can do. So keeping part of what my job is now, is to be relevant in different creative spaces. Whether it’s brewing, or music, producing too, I’ve also been thinking about writing a book, so I’m trying to tell my wife and my family that this is part of my work, ‘I swear to God I have to go in the backyard and dress up in a cat shirt and make a silly video.’ And she’s like, ‘Really?’ So part of it I think is that my presence is important in my career and as part of my job, but I also have fun. I’m a goofy guy so I like doing weird and goofy stuff. So when I find the time, I make the time.
VM: We’re currently at Electric Forest and it’s been a couple of years now for the festival with Cheese playing every year. The festival has changed quite a bit over the years, do you have any favorite aspects of the festival that you have seen change/grow/get added?
KH: Two things: Obviously the forest within itself is evolving. Andy [Carroll], our good friend, has been making the forest more unique every year. I went to see it for a moment this year, and heard it’s the best ever. So I’m going to go out tonight and explore. The other aspect I think, which I like from Jeremy Stein who puts on the festival, is that the last couple of years I’ve been noticing the addition of artists that are not just DJs, more real bands occurring with real instruments. I have nothing against DJs at all, I actually think they are super great producers, but I also do miss, and I’m glad it’s coming back, is definitely live performance bands. I think that is something as we all evolve our musical taste, and we come back and play more. Even if it’s just like Big Gigantic style with drums and sax player. To me, that’s more exciting than just having a DJ.
VM: I definitely agree, and I enjoy seeing those live electronic acts get added to the lineup.
KH: So I have been noticing that, and I hope those artists continue to be added and evolve. Community wise, I went to another festival recently and the spirit of the festival was missing and I feel like Electric Forest has a spirit that people respect. I feel like the community respects the Forest and each other, and I see that growing every year.
VM: I’ve seen that grow as well in the EF community and it’s a really beautiful thing. You don’t find that at many festivals.
KH: Exactly.
VM: Going back to what you said about Stein bringing in more live bands, over the years with your performances at Electric Forest, seeing new acts, and collaborating with artists you may not perform with on a normal basis…
KH: Skrillex for example…
VM: Yes, exactly. Do you and the other members of the band ever see your music influenced or evolving from music you have seen and interacted with here?
KH: That’s a really good point I should have brought up. Absolutely. We have done a lot of collaborations here over the last few years. From Lauren Hill to Skrillex, things like that. For me it feels a little like, in music you work with the same five people, when your brewing you’re working with same five friends you brew with all the time, and when you step a little bit outside your circle and invite someone else in, it changes the formula from five to six. Now, everything has changed. And by default, having that extra person on stage is going to influence you and it’s going to change the music. And once again, just like brewing it can be better or for worse. But generally I think having someone else and bringing new energy on stage is always for the better. And then you learn, even if it’s a bad experience you learn, ‘Let’s not do that again.’
VM: I think it’s also great to surprise the audience as well. Like last year with Skrillex on the guitar. That was a collaboration that caught a good amount of people off guard, but it worked. As an audience member I thought it worked.
KH: It did and it worked great!
VM: And it was fun to see him not behind a booth and just on a guitar playing off of you guys.
KH: We are definitely working on some other stuff like that for this year, so we’ll see what happens.
VM: Well I know we can’t wait to see what SCI has in store for us this year.
Photo by Bethany Jayne
VM: We’ve talked about your beers, and Electric Forest, let’s get into the new music SCI is releasing through the Sound Lab. That first release definitely surprised a lot of people. I know I was sitting on my computer and I was like, ‘ Wait a minute, What is this?!’ Very excited.
KH: I’m really glad it came across that way. We were all like, ‘Did anybody even notice?’
VM: Yes, trust me, we noticed! It was just the surprise of the drop that I think got everyone excited.
KH: Good, good, good!
VM: So, I know you guys will be releasing new music, when will we be hearing a new Kyle tune?
KH: I wrote a new SCI tune with Bonnie from Elephant Revival called “My One and Only.” She and I co-wrote the tune that we recorded and it should be coming out in the next couple of weeks. It’s more of a mellow song, kind of goes from the Elephant Revival perspective so it’s more acoustic type Cheese and then ramps up into more of a Mumford alto singing. Then there’s a couple of other ones. I’m releasing, somehow it always happens, but I have an overflowing amount of songs, and I went into the Lab myself, so I’m going to release two of my solo songs in July with my solo project all through the Lab. All of us are taking our solo projects in as well, and the Lab is a place where we can creatively examine. So I have a couple of tunes coming out in a few weeks, but we’re trying to make sure the String Cheese songs come out first, but mine might come out a little sooner. In addition to the song with Elephant Revival, there will be new music from Kyle, it will be on the SCI website but it wont be from SCI specific.
Photo by Bethany Jayne
Vinyl Mag would like to thank Kyle Hollingsworth for taking the time to chat with us at this year’s Electric Forest!
You can catch The String Cheese Incident on tour now:
Charleston is a city known for its rich history, beautiful architecture and tasty Southern delicacies—but recently, it is music that has taken the forefront and put the city on the map as a musician’s haven. As more and more local artists achieve nationwide notoriety, the city has become less of a tourist destination and more of a home to the creative community—and SUSTO is just one of the bands that can attest to that. The alt-country band is well known throughout the Charleston music scene and with slots in Americana Fest and Austin City Limits later this year, it’s evident that they won’t be a locals-only band for long. We sat down with Justin Osborne, chief songwriter and frontman of SUSTO, to talk their unique new release, upcoming tour and what it’s like to live in such a tight-knit, creative community.
Vinyl Mag: The music scene in Charleston has really kind of exploded the last few years and you guys have been a big part of that scene–what’s it like recording and living in a tight-knit city like that?
Justin Osborne: It’s really awesome. Especially the last three to five years, things have really taken off. People are moving to Charleston to play music, and it’s such a community of artists. And there are people who aren’t from Charleston that live there, so that’s really cool because they tell their friends from their hometowns what Charleston bands they’re listening to, and then their friends start listening to them, and then when we have out-of-town shows, it’s cool to see those new fans there.
VM: So of course I want to talk about your latest release—“Chillin’ on the Beach with my Best Friend Jesus Christ”—love the music video, it’s great—I haven’t heard anything like it—where did you get the idea to write a song like this? Inspiration?
JO: Well I’ve always wanted to incorporate the gospel sounds into songs, I love that sound. And I’ve always loved the idea of chilling on the beach with Jesus Christ. We wanted to release it but didn’t want to put in on an album, so we thought it would be a good idea to release it as a video in the summer. And I feel like even if you’re not religious, you can enjoy the music.
VM: Yeah, I feel like religious, non-religious—it’s relatable for all audiences.
JO: Exactly, and that’s what we wanted to achieve.
VM: Is this kind of appropriated religious language and imagery common in your writing?
JO: Well I’m not religious at all, it just kind of comes out. I think it comes from my background, growing up in a religious home. But it’s not intentional in the writing process, just part of my dynamic and some of the issues I want to discuss.
VM: So you have some exciting tour dates coming up, including Americana Fest in Nashville and then Austin City Limits—What are you looking forward to for these festivals? Are there any other venues you’re excited to play at?
JO: Yeah, really excited. Playing at these festivals has always been a dream of mine, and Austin City Limits is just a place where so many big names come, and even Americana Fest is going to be really exciting. We’re also playing the Mile of Music Festival in Wisconsin and I’m really excited for that. We’re just so happy to be out on the road, playing music and touring.
VM: And you’re in the process of working on your sophomore album, right? Any news on a release date?
JO: Yeah we’re really excited for it. It’s two years in the making so we’re excited for people to hear it. We actually just finished tracking it, and we expect to announce a release date in the next few weeks. But we’re really excited for it, really excited for fans to hear it. Excited to see what they think. I think fans of SUSTO will continue to be fans of our new material. It’s a little less country, but still SUSTO, has that gospel sound you could say.
VM: Well excited to hear it, thank for sitting down to talk to us!
For more than three years, Silversun Pickups fans waited patiently for new music. Since the release of Better Nature, Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Christopher Guanlao and Joe Lester, have been busy promoting the album, touring, and running their own label.
Following their Hangout 2016 performance, we sat down with drummer Christopher Guanlao to chat about the latest album and the future of the band.
Vinyl Mag: How are you doing post-Hangout?
Christopher Guanlao: I’m recovering a little bit, we played on Friday and I ended up staying the rest of the weekend with my girlfriend and my sister and my niece, we made it a little mini-vacation. So I’m kind of recovering from that. It’s a great festival.
VM: Have you been before?
CG: No, this was my first time. And I didn’t really know anything about it until late last year when we got booked onto it. I kind of heard something about it but once we got booked to do the festival I did a little research, and I was like wow, it’s on the beach. It’s pretty insane.
VM: Were you able to catch anyone else’s set while you were there, did you have any favorites?
CG: Yeah, I saw a lot of my friends bands that have been touring this year, it was a little bit of a reunion because a couple months ago we did this co-headlining tour with Cage the Elephant, Foals and Bear Hands, and they were all there so it was really nice to see them all. All three of them were on Saturday. We just came back from a tour with Foals. I saw Courtney Barnett again, I saw her at Coachella and was just blown away. And she’s got a great band, I love her band. I saw Leon Bridges, I was really amazed by Leon Bridges and he’s really amazing. I didn’t really know anything about it but I checked out his set and he was great.
VM: Now you said you just came off a couple weeks on tour and I know you’ve got some tour dates coming up, with Joywave and with Bear Hands and then some festival dates, are there any shows or festivals in particular you’re looking forward to playing?
CG: Yeah, definitely. I always love Lollapalooza, so we’re really excited about that and we also love Osheaga in Montreal. Speaking of great festivals, that’s a really great one. And we’ve only played it once, so this is our second time and we’re really excited about that. And we love Joywave, we’ve been with them for the last three weeks and they’ve been amazing. And Bear Hands, we go way back so we’re keeping it in the family apparently.
VM: Well you guys have a busy summer coming up, and I wanted to get into the latest album and some of the songs. I read that this album was more of capturing the band at that specific point in time, it was more of a current album, not so nostalgic. So are there any themes on the album in particular that pop out to you that were pretty much paralleling what was going on in real life with the band?
CG: Well specifically, I definitely agree with what you just said. As nostalgic as Neck of the Woods was, this is very current for us. I think we just have a lot of life things happening. Like Ryan was having a kid, having a boy, and Nikki was having twins, and it’s kind of a weird circle of life thing. Specifically for “Circadian Rhythm,” which Nikki wrote about a friend of ours that passed away. And so I think it meant a lot to us that we were able to get that song on the record and it became a single, that felt really good. And not to get too corny, but it was like all of that stuff was happening while we were recording. So that’s a really sad thing but there were also good things that were going on as well. And it kind of paralleled to our band, the progression of our band. From the beginning to where we are now, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs, we’ve walked through a lot of things. When people bring up the fact that we’ve been together for 15-16 years, it’s just mind boggling because it doesn’t feel like that. But it has been a good chunk of time. When we started the band we were best friends, and then we became a little bit like business partners and kind of lost the friendship a little bit. And then we went through all of that and we came out of it and were actually closer, and we’re more like family now than just friends. So I think it ended up coming out, subconsciously in the album. And like I said with Ryan and Nikki having families, we had a lot of those things come together in the past couple of years and I think that kind of solidified us as families more than just a band. And I think a lot of that speaks to writing to Better Nature.
VM: Listening to the album and reading the lyrics, I just think all of the songs have beautiful imagery, and one song that sticks out to me is “Pins and Needles,” and I could be totally off and totally misinterpreting this wrong, but for me I think that song is very about beginning again, and moving on after the end of something. But what was the inspiration behind that song?
CG: Well pretty much that. It’s about letting go of things and starting fresh, starting new. I don’t necessarily know the exact picking, because Ryan wrote that song. But it’s definitely that. I think Neck of the Woods was so, holding on to the past, that I think we wanted to get away from that a bit.
VM: And as a whole, what does the album mean to you?
CG: Really that, I really do kind of feel like we’re in a new chapter of our career as a band. I think that we’ve gone over to the next level, not necessarily of fame, but of personal being. And I think that’s part of the title Better Nature, let’s focus on our “better nature” and take what we’ve learned, and try to have our better nature shine out. More than the negatives or the bad things about us and try to better ourselves. And I think that’s something we became more aware of now, and because we were able to figure out and go through the difficult times that a lot of bands go through and often can’t get past it, or end up breaking up. Not being creative anymore, and we’re really fortunate that, I feel we’ve gone past that. And this record kind of feels like that. It’s not like each album that we have is a chapter, but I definitely think this record would be a different chapter if we had a big book, autobiography. Better Nature would definitely be a different chapter.
VM: This album was a debut release on the new label, New Machine Recordings, how has that entire process been for you guys, doing everything solo from your former label?
CG: It’s great. The freedom that we have to decide how we want to promote things, where we want to spend our money, all of that’s really cool. It is a little bit more stressful because now we have discussions with our record label about tour budgets and less accessible options, because we’re on the record label we don’t get tour support anymore. We were talking this week about an upcoming European tour that we might potentially do and we were talking more about management and we were kind of stressing out about it a little bit. And finally our manager sat me down and was like look, remember when you were on a record label and you didn’t really care about the numbers because you figured you would recoup it all anyway? What’s the difference between now and then? And I was like you’re right. At the end of the day the whole idea is that we will recoup It somewhere else. So it’s stuff like that. Things I didn’t necessarily think of before and now all of a sudden I kind of obsess about but at the end of the day it’s okay. And we’re lucky that we can play shows and that people come. And we can make some money that way.
VM: What does the future look like right now for New Machine?
CG: Well right now we’re touring for Better Nature, and we’re pretty much booked the rest of the year. And we’re having a great time, we’re all kind of re-energized and are really appreciating the shows that we’ve been playing. And the crowd. But after that we’re going to go back and try to do another record. We’ve got some projects that are coming up in the next couple months, but I’m not sure I can talk about it yet. But it’s good stuff, we’re venturing into new territory and we’re excited about that.
Prior to six o’clock on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, a farm table is assembled under the winding pergola of Planet Roo, smack in the middle of Centeroo. Lace table cloths are draped, place settings are set, and behind the scenes volunteers are preparing a meal for 150 attendees. This is the scene of Bonnaroo’s BonnaROOTS annual locally-sourced, feast under the stars.
“They workin 90 different countries to provide water, sanitation and housingwhere disaster strikes. They also do a lot of policy worknationally. Come up with solutions for poverty and injustice. AndEat for Equity is based in Minneapolis and addresses inequity.Not just organizations that revolve around food, but organizations that help better the environment.”
Bonnaroo supports these dinners in so many ways, including paying for all of the food costs so 100% of the proceeds from each ticket sold go directly back to these organizations.
“We started working with Bonnaroo on this a few years ago,” Torgrimson said. “We did a pop-up test four years ago in the campground right outside of Centeroo with everything that I could fit into a Prius, driving down from Minnesota. So we did three dinners for 30 people. Bonnaroo knew that we were doing it and heard good things about it and they invited us to do something more formal. So that’s what started a couple of years ago and iswhat we now call BonnaROOTS.”
This concept is based on bringing back the roots of America and local farming culture. It’s also a rare opportunity for Bonnaroovians to sit at the same table together, in the middle of all the festival chaos, and connect on a deeper level over one of the most unique meals they will ever enjoy.
Four course meals were served on both Thursday and Friday nights. The first course included fresh pickles (cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower), local pimento and Sequatchie Nickajack cheeses, Benton’s aged ham, Grilled Bread, and beet caviar.
The second course was a beautiful colorful mixed greens salad with herbs from the Bonnaroo herb garden, flowers, cucumbers, radishes, and drizzled with golden dressing.
For the main course, barbeque Sea Island peas were served over parmesan grits, along with Benton’s pulled pork with a buttermilk herbed slaw on top.
Last, but not least, the best course. We will never again have pies like the ones served that evening at the BonnaROOTS Community Dinner. Ice cold berry buttermilk pie, banana cream pie with the freshest and lightest whipped cream, and Coffee Country cream pie.
On Saturday, there was a special salad-only course that was a visual feast and an unforgettable way to eat your vegetables. The rainbow of vegetables, greens, cheese, nuts and flowers come from as far away as 200 miles from Bonnaroo, to as close as a few steps away in the Bonnaroo Learning Garden.
“I always like to try something new every year,” said Torgrimson. “This is what we’re calling the ‘World’s Longest Salad.’ The salad is stretched from end to end of the table and is a really beautiful, artistic and fun way to get your vegetables.”
These unique meals were prepared by volunteers, not a team of professional chefs.
“A team of artists and furniture makers, college recruiters, and people coming together and volunteering their time, coming together to make a meal. People coming together regardless of their skill set because they love cooking and they love bringing people together,” Torgrimson stated. “It’s a very rare experience, everybody is at the same table, enjoying the same meal. It really is accessible. And even through $50 can feel like a lot, it’s a lot of great food, a lot of great local food, and there are other ways you can get a seat at the table too, by giving a gift of your time.”
Siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence are serving up music that sounds like breakfast; a serving of fresh nostalgia with a side of bacon. Capturing the essence and sounds of a bygone era, their debut album Breakfast meets at the intersection of classic songwriting and modern production.
Produced by Eric Krasno (Lettuce, Soulive), Breakfast balances old-school classics and new-school vibes and sets a new standard for pop’s potential in the current landscape.
Prior to their Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival debut this past Saturday, we sat down with Clyde and Gracie. Over a campsite breakfast of french toast, pancakes, bacon, watermelon, and a Bloody Mary or two, we chatted about the new album, working with Krasno, and, of course, all things breakfast.
Vinyl Mag: Since we’re eating breakfast, let’s get into how you guys chose the title Breakfast for the album.
Gracie – We’re big breakfast fans. I think the name from the album came because every morning we would be having breakfast, our dad would be playing music. It has a very homey feel. Breakfast is a very communal time in our family and there was always music playing at that time.
Clyde – And I think when we were trying to think of album names, we were trying to fish for things that felt like the band and felt like our family. We’re very casual people, most of our life is spent in our living room in sweatpants, snacking and hanging out. We thought about a bunch of names that thought about how we are casual, and other names that related to food, and things that related to home life. And we landed on ‘Breakfast.’ At first, we were like is that going to jump out at people, in a goofy kind of way or are people going to get it? I think think the response has been really good. People see the band name, hear the album, and are like ‘BREAKFAST, I get it.”
G – People say it sounds like breakfast.
C – Everyone loves breakfast, anytime of day.
VM – Do you have any favorite breakfast foods?
G – I feel like our dad was very particular about scrambled eggs. He would put cheese in the eggs in a specific way. He had a very specific technique. And we’re really big bacon people.
C – And our grandma makes the best french toast that I’ve ever had. I recently went to a restaurant in Long Island that specializes in french toast and everyone I was with said that it was the best french toast they have ever had, but to me it was the second best.
VM – Any favorite breakfast places?
G – Our grandparent’s house, our house, and then on our block in New York there are two places that we go. One is the Utopia Diner, and then there is a place that we call the G store, because there is a G in the window, but it’s called Giacomo’s and we go in there all the time. In this music video we just did called “Misty Morning” we went into the cafe and featured the cafe in the video.
C – And we have to give a shoutout to Woodbury Country Deli on Long Island. We always start our tours by everybody getting breakfast sandwiches from the Woodbury Country Deli, which is honestly is one of the best delis I have ever been to.
VM – Since first starting the band, have you learned anything new about each other that you may not have known before starting this process.
G – I feel like we have naturally learned each other’s strengths and what we’re best at. We treated the band like a start-up to make it like a business sort of. And I think we even identified even in social media, ‘Oh Clyde is really good at running this and I’m really good at doing this.’ There’s the business things we’ve learned about each other and the musical things and strengths, songwriting wise.
C – I think that anytime you do something new with someone your close with, I think it doesn’t change your perception of them but it builds on it. That has definitely been the case, growing up together and making music together, but then when we actually get in the studio with each other that’s a new experience, and when we’re writing songs together that’s a new experience, and now we’re living on the road together, that’s a whole new experience. But we also have six other guys who are with us in the band. It’s a big eight piece and band and they are our friends, so it’s fun.
VM – With a large eight piece band, what is that energy like for you and being on that stage performing with all those different people?
G – We used to do shows that were just the two of us, and sometimes we still do that. But there is such a difference with playing with the whole band, a whole new energy that is really exciting.
C – Having everyone around and we’re on the same page, we have been playing these songs for so long now, and we have been playing together, we just know that we’ll pick each other up. and that’s the thing with Gracie, it used to be more me in the front and then since Gracie and I have become two people who are just switching it up, we try to switch off every single song, and it’s really cool to build the flow of the set.
VM – What was it like working with Krasno?
G – It was pretty great, because we were fans. It was a really great experience because of the background, what his sound was versus what our sound was. We have similarities, but we also have differences. I think we came in and we were very confident in our songwriting abilities, but Kras has this funk and soul sound that he can magically put onto our songs. And in the songwriting I think it’s already there, but the fact that he was able to bring it out and really solidify our sound and make it cohesive for the whole album, because the songs are very different, we have a lot of different types of songs on the album.
C – He helped it to become cohesive and he also has some great notes on the songs and songwriting itself. This was a unique situation, you usually go into the studio, work with the producer and begin to put together songs. This was a situation where Kras found out about us and we were already planning to go in an try to record some stuff while the songs were already written, and for him to come in and hear all the songs and give us a bunch of notes on what we should change about the songs, in a way that came through to us while we had been living with these songs for years.
VM – Tell me about the other artists that Krasno brought in to help out on the album.
G – We have have Adam Deitch on “Do You Wanna Do Nothing With Me?” and we have Cory Henry. That was pretty funny because we were like, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to have Corey Henry on it?’ and Kras was like, ‘Do you want me to text Henry?’
C – We have Dap-Kings horn players and Tedeschi Trucks’ Maurice “Mobetta” Brown.
VM – The album has such a sound that brings you back, it has an old sound but it’s fresh. What was the creative process behind capturing that sound?
C – A lot of it is about getting to that point was handing it to Kras, but that was our goal. Every song has a reference of new and old, and you need to feel good about this song about putting in on before or after another. So for “Do You Wanna Do Nothing With Me?” that needs to sound cohesive if it comes on at a party after a Stevie Wonder song or also after a Beyonce song. And then for “Cold” that needs to sound good if it comes on after a Beatles song, but also sounds good if it comes on after a Frank Ocean song, or something like that. I think that was something we were very aware of, and we wanted to walk that line.
G – And I think that a big reason of why it walks that line is that we kind of come from this background of listening to music that has a very specific songwriting structure like the Beatles or Carole King or a lot of Motown, Randy Newman…very specific songwriting structure that we love because it is a vehicle for telling really good stories. And I think that we write in that style because we know that’s what we know. But being that we’re “kids” we really like modern production that’s on the radio and I want what we play to fit in with that. I think it’s a really cool intersection between what we listen to, of old songwriting structure with modern production.
C- In short, it needs to tell the stories the ways music used to, but bang as hard as music does now.
CATCH LAWRENCE ON TOUR THIS SUMMER Jun 21 — White Plains, NY – White Plains Solstice Concert Jun 30 — Washington, D.C. – Songbyrd Music House Jul 01 — Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop Jul 03 — Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry Jul 04 — Maquoketa, IA – Codfish Hollow Barn (W/ KT Turnstall) Jul 06 — Chicago, IL – Schubas Jul 07 — Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest Jul 09 — Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room Jul 10 — Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge Jul 11 — Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court Jul 13 — Seattle, WA – Barboza Jul 14 — Portland, OR – Lola’s Room Jul 15 — Eugene, OR – HIFI Music Hall Jul 16 — Squaw Valley, CA – Wanderlust Jul 18 — San Francisco, CA – The Rickshaw Shop Jul 20 — Los Angeles, CA – The Satellite Jul 21 — Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar Jul 23 — Austin, TX – 3Ten @ Austin City Limits Live Jul 24 — Dallas, TX – The prophet Bar Jul 27 — Little Rock, AR – Stickyz Rock ’N’ Roll Chicken Shack Jul 28 — Nashville, TN – The High Watt Jul 29 — Charlottesville, VA – The Southern Jul 30 — Castleton-On-Hudson, NY – Camp Springer Music & Arts Festival
