Now as far as I’m aware, Michigan is famous for 2 things:
General Motors and Michael Moore.
Coincidentally, 2 seems to be the magic number for Michigan’s Lucius Fox;
A fledgling 2 piece Alternative Metal monster simply bursting with potential....
DMD: Is there another EP on the way?
LF: Yes! We have 5 new songs completed and are writing a few more, as well as getting more recording gear and reading up on recording techniques. We will likely begin recording in the coming months and hopefully have a full length ready by summer’s end.
DMD: Who would you list as your influences? I’m most definitely hearing some Baroness in there!
LF: We love Baroness! We are also huge fans of The Fall of Troy, The Mars Volta, Russian Circles, Toe, Audioslave (their first two albums obviously), Rage Against the Machine, CHON, This Town Needs Guns, Scale the Summit, The Contortionist, Rivers of Nihil, Deafheaven, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and a ton more.
DMD: Are there any challenges in performing the material live?
LF: Producing a full and interesting sound with a two piece is definitely a challenge!
To fill out the guitar sound, we run through two amps and use an EHX Pitchfork to emulate a bass sound. We also utilize looping pedals to layer sounds on top of each other. Syncing complex loops with drums and switching multiple effects on or off at the same time can be difficult, but we are getting better as we go.
DMD: What inspires the lyrics?
LF: Our lyrics are generally about stuff that sucks (Global Warming, complacency, self doubt, frustration, failure, anxiety, and lately the Flint Water Crisis) and occasionally stuff that’s pretty cool (the outdoors and nostalgia).
However, the songs that we’ve been working on as of late are mostly instrumental.
DMD: What sucks and what rocks about being a 2 piece band?
LF: What sucks: We have about as much gear as a four piece band, but half the people.
If either of us mess up in a live setting it’s very obvious. Plus it’s harder to fight bigger bands and win.
What rocks: Co-ordinating practice between two people is really easy and we live down the street from each other.
We’re both on the same page about writing, recording, mixing. We’re really good friends and have been playing music together since we were very young. Plus it’s easier to fight solo artists and win.
DMD: What is the music scene in Michigan like?
LF: Kalamazoo, MI has an excellent music scene. There are a number of really cools house venues, several bars that regularly put on shows and a ton of great bands spanning pretty much every genre. There are numerous bands that tour regionally and nationally based in Kalamazoo. Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit each have solid scenes as well.
DMD: What gear do you guys use live and in the studio?
LF:
Guitars:
Fender Stratocaster
Ibanez AS53
Epiphone Explorer Korina Edition
Ibanez Rg 120
Amps:
Peavey Classic 50
Crate Vintage Club 50
Orange Micro terror 20 Watt head
Pedals/FX:
EHX Looper 720
EHX Pitchfork
EHX Big Muff
Ibanez Tube Screamer
Dunlap Wah
Morley Little Alligator Volume
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
Boss Digidelay
Some sort of AB switch
Boss Metal Zone MT-2
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive
Digitech Compressor
Behringer Tuner
Drums:
Constructed from the bones and flesh of our enemies.
DMD: Can you define the music of LF for me?
LF: We're constantly challenging ourselves in terms of the complexity, intensity and intricacy of our music while at the same time keeping things melodic. The definition of our sound that I can give you is: heavy melodic prog (which sounds really silly when you say it out loud).
DMD: What is the epic tale of the band from it’s inception up until this year?
LF: We met in Kindergarten and have been homies ever since! We started playing music together in 6th or 7th grade and continued to jam throughout high school.
Fast forward to 2014: I (Jeremy) had begun writing new music (essentially the first EP) then following the dissolution of my former band, Basement Shark Attack, I was booked to play a show on my own.
I asked Luis if he would play drums with me for that show, he accepted, so we practiced a couple times and we played the show. After graduating from Michigan State, I moved back home to Kalamazoo, MI and we continued jamming and started booking more shows.
Over the next year our playing style shifted dramatically to a more technical, heavier sound and we began writing and recording new songs. In January 2016 we released the ‘Where Have You Been?’ EP that I would consider to be our first proper release as a band.
We wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered everything ourselves (with the exception of drums, which were engineered by a friend). Luis designed the album artwork and layout and we printed and assembled the physical copies of the EP ourselves.
I feel that we are constantly getting better and tighter as a band and I am extremely excited for what our next album brings!
You can listen to and purchase Lucius Fox's latest EP 'Where Have You Been?' here
No comments:
Post a Comment