URB: The Son Lux free-range vibe reminds me of bands like Tortoise, Deerhunter, Sian Alice Group, M83…
RL: I don’t have any of these albums. It’s not that I don’t like them. I just don’t listen to enough music. A writer or a painter or an accountant has tons of time to listen to music. Or even a long commuter. Because I’m fortunate enough to make music all day every day, I can’t very well listen to much else. And my studio’s a short walk from my apartment, and that’s time to rest my ears.
URB: How about Eno, Cage, Glass. Or folks like Aphex Twin?
RL: Other than a few Cage albums, I don’t own any albums by any of these dudes.
URB: OK, we like when we’re off. So, what are some of your favorite albums then?
RL: Ha. Well, I didn’t listen to good music at all until high school. I don’t come from a musical family, so there was nothing in the ether of my childhood other than what I learned in piano lessons. In high school my piano/composition teacher turned me on to Béla Bartók, and my girlfriend introduced me to Bob Dylan. Those two musical giants have been close to my ear ever since. My drummer introduced me to Prince, whom I listened to almost exclusively for like a year or two. Then in college I studied music and I listened to a lot of stuff for school. Like way too much stuff. Almost none of it stuck, but I like to think that all of it did a little bit. Skipping nine years, I can list these phenomenal artists/bands as among my favorites at the moment: DM Stith, Why?, These New Puritans, Sam Amidon, Ligeti, Bartók, and Dylan. And I’m really into a lot of random African funk from the ’60s and ’70s. I have a couple ridiculously great compilations I keep on repeat. And I can preemptively say, as I’ve heard it, the new Jónsi record will be mind-blowing.
URB: So how’d you end up making music?
RL: It was a family rule to take piano lessons from early on – I started at six – through middle school. At that point, my two siblings and I were given the choice to continue or not. I was the one who held on. No one in my family is particularly musical really, not even in my extended family. But for me the hook was writing my own stuff. I bore the agony of piano lessons all the way through college, the price I had to pay to continue learning how to write music.
URB: Besides all these projects, you mentioned having a hectic work schedule. What’s your day job?
RL: Composer for TV/radio/web ads. Mostly broadcast, some web. So today I’m ripping off Thomas Newman, and yesterday it was Yeasayer. Day before that it was The Righteous Brothers. It’s a great job.
URB: How’s your spare time spent?
RL: I have no spare time. If I’m not making music for ads, I’m making music for me. Sometimes that’s commissioned work, sometimes it’s remixes, sometimes it’s original Son Lux stuff. I bring my dog into the studio on the weekends for moral support. I honestly would rather do nothing more than make music at any given moment. You could say I’m anti-social, I suppose. I wake up with beats in my head and I struggle to fall asleep with beats in my head.
URB: After SXSW, what’s next? Will you finally be enjoying some time off? And remember – electrolytes.
RL: No way. I’m about to start a new work for NYC choreographer Stephen Petronio and National Dance Company Wales. I have a choir to write for, so that’s pretty dope. I did a piece for Stephen last year for Ballet-de-Lorraine in France, and some of that material is making its way onto the next record. Yeah, plus I have a whole new record to make happen. And always more remixes… Electrolytes!
[...] Urb interview: Son Lux I also recently wrote up Son Lux. Read t he rest at Urb.com [...]