Luke Miller, Guitar/Keyboards LOTUS

I got a chance to sit down and talk to Luke Miller from LOTUS when they performed at the Belly-Up Tavern in Solana Beach, CA.

ShakedownNews: You guys all met in Goshen, IN

LUKE: Yeah, Jesse and I were in college around 1992 and we met and started playing together there.

SN: The last album has pushed the electronic envelope a little more with the new album. Where did that come from?

LUKE: Yeah, you know we always want to make something new and not make the same album over and over. We recorded a lot of material for this album and the ones we thought worked together the best had that electronic theme. There’s a few that are more organic like “In and Out Lines” and “Orchids” but it was something we tried out using more hip hop tempos and using more synth/bass and stuff.

SN: A lot of your early success was all about the light show. You’ve incorporated the “6th Man” as an integral part of your show?

LUKE: We’re a band that doesn’t have a vocalist. We try to integrate that visual show to enhance the intricate nature of our music.

SN: What’s your personal inspiration musically? Who do you look back on and go…THAT GUY!

LUKE: I didn’t have that one idol or anything. I guess for me playing guitar or keyboards it was a means to an end. The end being the total song. So I guess the specific players I liked were the ones that fit in to the groove but weren’t flashy or amazing. For drummers, I really like Mike Clark who played on Herbie Hancock’s fusion albums. He had a really unique style. Guitarists, I guess David Byrne and his rhythms he created. More jazz than blues.

SN: What’s the future for Lotus? You’ve reached that 11 year mark where you’re at a pinnacle moment for a musical career. What’s next?

LUKE: We kinda feel like we’re on the verge of another break out. I feel like, with this last album, I think, we called it LOTUS because it took us a long time to get to that point of self titled album. I think we’re at that moment where we can break through to a larger fan base who’ve never heard us before. If that doesn’t happen we’re just happy to be able to do what we do.

SN: You, like many jambands, allow taping of your shows…free sharing…

LUKE: You know that art has totally died out. It was not passed on generation-wise.

SN: The art of taping?

LUKE: People who show up to tape are in their late 30s early 40s. When we first started we’d have 50 tapers. This last tour I think we’ve had like 1 or 2 tapers per show. We have an open taper policy but it’s rarely used.

LUKE: Are you a Grateful Dead fan?

SN: There was a time when I was a Dead fan. I’m not quite old enough to have fully got on the Dead “bus” but I still really do appreciate some of those old albums, American Beauty/Workingmans Dead with the amazing songwriting.

LUKE: Are you more of a Phish guy?

SN: Yeah, I listen to Phish but lately I’ve been really just into listening to NPR and not really music at all.

Thank you so much for taking some time to talk to me. Have a great show and a great rest of the tour.

Many thanks to Luke and Lotus!!

Jamband music is a constantly evolving amorphous blob filled with progressive guitar licks, out of pocket drum beats, pushing the musical envelope beyond the 3:40 radio friendly lyrical hook.  One band that is taking their cues from the evolution of the genre is East Coast based Electro-Jam band, LOTUS.  Delivering a high energy musical journey rooted in pushing their musical style into the upper stratosphere.

I first discovered LOTUS at the last Rothbury Music Festival in Rothbury, MI in 2009.  It was my first night of the festival and the first band I saw.  I instantly was blown away by the progressive electro-jam sounds I heard coming from this band on stage.  They teleported my soul to places it had never journeyed mixed with an electrifying light show that seemingly integrated the sound engineer as a veritable extra member of the band.  Since that first sip of the Lotus kool-aid, I’ve been intrigued by their on going evolution into something great and an artist to keep your eye on.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing real musicians with real instruments pushing their musical talents to drive the music.  Combine that with an all about abandon of traditional constraints and you’ve got magic.  Lotus’s new self-titled album moves in a decidedly more electronic direction than their previous two releases – Hammerstrike (2008) and Oil on Glass/Feather on Wood (2009). Analog synthesizers, manipulated sounds, dub effects and heavy bass are complemented by horn and string arrangements in addition to Lotus’s standard guitar/bass/drums instrumentation. Grooves move from slinky funk and gritty half-time on the first half of the album to the beautiful and expansive closing track Orchids. While short pieces of vocals are used throughout, the only song to feature singing is The Surf. The track may be the closest thing to an indie-pop song the band has released, but the melodic guitar hooks and ecstatic synth parts are pure Lotus.

Lotus is currently touring in support of their new album, “Lotus” and will make multiple stops on the West Coast this month before returning back to the East Coast.

LOTUS TOUR DATES:

Nov. 9- The Top Hat- Missoula, MT
Nov. 10- The Neptune Theatre- Seattle, WA
Nov. 11- Crystal Ballroom- Portland, OR
Nov. 12- The Independent- San Francisco, CA
Nov. 13- The Independent- San Francisco, CA
Nov. 16- The Catalyst- Santa Cruz, CA
Nov. 17- El Rey Theatre- Los Angeles, CA
Nov. 18- The Belly Up- Solana Beach, CA
Nov. 19- The Compound Grill- Phoenix, AZ
Nov. 25- Rams Head- Baltimore, MD
Nov. 26- Rams Head- Baltimore, MD

December 31- Festival Pier- Philadelphia, PA