The LaMP Interview
Burlington, Vermont-based trio LaMP, a portmanteau of each member’s last name, has been on the spiritual jam scene for quite some time. Consisting of members Russ Lawton (Trey Anastasio Trio), Scott Metzger (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead), and Ray Paczkowski (The Undectet/Soule Monde), whom we had the pleasure of chatting with for this interview, the group has a cosmic connection, but it goes beyond just concealing creative chemistry; it’s a “lifetime of listening, feeling, learning, and striving to be in the music that moves you.” LaMP balances this analog atmosphere against the backdrop of an oversaturated digital display, while their transcendental tones bring listeners closer to the essence of exploration.
Photo Courtesy: Royal Potato Family
Since December 2018, the band has effortlessly communicated through this lucid lens a language that connects the psychedelic past with the celebration and community of the present. What specific elements, or corners of culture, initially connected the band over the last decade?
Photo Courtesy: Royal Potato Family
The basic elements of LaMP are the three musicians, but all three of us carry a lifetime of listening, feeling, learning, and striving to be in the music that moves us. I can tell you how a Monk tune has rocked me; I can’t tell you how an Osibisa tune has moved Russ, nor how a Bobby Blue Bland tune moved Scott. When we make music together, all those influences flower, and the finished compound is LaMP.
Based in Burlington, Vermont, tell me about the band’s origins and how everyone came to know each other. It’s safe to say LaMP is a supergroup with members from Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Trey Anastasio Band, and The Undectet. How would you describe the creative, and oftentimes cosmic, chemistry and identity of the group’s internal mechanisms?
LaMP came about when a mutual friend arranged for Scott Metzger to perform with Soule Monde (a duo Russ and I were performing with at the time) for a show in Burlington, Vermont. From the moment we started working out tunes in soundcheck, it was clear that all three of us shared a certain sensibility about the art of making music. The usual phrase is “chemistry,” implying proper amounts of basic elements combine to yield a complex, finished compound. I don’t think there’s a specific way to describe or define it other than when you know you know; it’s an awareness. If you were to point to a literal internal mechanism, you can say we have a shared analog aesthetic. You’ll find zero digital debris on our music: no computers, no ones and zeros, no in-ear monitors, none of the trappings of modern bands.
While leaning heavily on the intimacy of improv, the group also speaks through the endless jams and psychedelic precision of forefathers like the Grateful Dead, The Blues Project, Guru Guru, and Phish, among others. What makes up those organic moments in the group’s overall approach, especially when performing live compared to what is premeditated when bringing ideas such as riffs, sonic sequences, timing, etc., to the studio?
There’s no way to know which tunes from our studio albums will be “keepers” in a live sense. We leave the exploration for the stage. It remains to be seen when and how they evolve, or even stick around, when we get them out on the road in front of an audience. A good friend once pointed out to me that music, as an art form, is unique in that it is experienced as it is performed, and then gone. Notwithstanding this era of recording live shows (it's been a long era!), his point is well taken. In the studio, recording an album, we are painting a picture; it will not change or evolve. Playing the material live is where the ideas in the songs- the rhythmic, the harmonic, the emotional- have free rein to go where they will. In the studio, LaMP is three musicians. When performing live, we are the whole room. Everyone who comes to hear this music affects it; they’re part of it. We want the music we make to be felt in your heart, in your head, and in your bones.
Photo Courtesy: Royal Potato Family
“A good friend once pointed out to me that music, as an art form, is unique in that it is experienced as it is performed, and then gone. ”
Over the last few years, the band has recorded and released both studio and live albums. Jumping ahead to the group's most recent effort, “One Of US,” what creative concepts did you want to express and explore with this material compared to previous works such as 2020’s S/T and “The Relix Session”? I’m curious about some of the background to songs like “Muckle On,” “Stalker,” “Clipse-O,” and the epic opener “Cosmo.” The group’s sound is a revolutionary reminder of the prolific psychedelia of the past. What do you hope listeners will glean from experiencing the sights and sounds of LaMP? Is there anything else you would like to share further with the readers?
Photo Courtesy: Royal Potato Family
Up to this point, our goal in the studio is to capture the song itself, conceive of it as emotionally impactful, and, ultimately, a joy to listen to in its most concise form. LaMP builds songs in several ways. Often Russ will create a drum groove, and Scott or I will add harmonic or melodic ideas, sometimes a melody, sometimes a chordal movement. “Cosmo" is a good example. Russ brought the drum groove; I had a simple melody; Scott finished it off. Other times a tune comes fully realized, chordally and melodically, and we fuss with it, or we don’t. Essentially, in the studio, when we’re working out an idea, it’s Russ, Scott, or me shouting “yes!” when some riff happens out of nowhere, then evolves into something else, a new, unfinished element we take to its natural conclusion. “Muckle On,” “Stalker List,” and others are ideas developed in a recording session that we felt stood on their own two feet from a purely compositional standpoint. As far as psychedelia goes, we don’t view ourselves as part of any tradition, but we’re all aware that music can take people somewhere beyond this earthly realm, and we’re more than happy to be that vessel that gets them there.
