First of all, I’d like to say congratulations on the track. After hearing ‘STRAWS’ I wanted to look for more of your music and I found a bit of a treasure trove on YouTube. I liked how you had such a variety in your sound. How proud are you of your music?
– Thank you and I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂 I am so thankful that I’m able to create music, but it’s kind of an extension of my personality, hence proud is a difficult word to use. I am a music maker and I talk in metaphors at times. I have days where I feel special and other times where it’s almost a curse. I have to create music as an expression and have realised that it’s more important to me to express than to earn money from my music, which gives a certain creative freedom. I’m lucky enough to work full time in music, but in a portfolio career capacity with lots of different projects.
Could you tell me a little bit about your band? Has it developed over the years?.. and how did you all meet?
– It is more of a collective. I say “Lampscientists on duty” rather than band members, as it’s a fluidity to the band, mostly because I’m based between London, Liverpool and Oslo in Norway. I have a pool of musicians I work with, and they’re all in Science of the Lamps but not at the same time. It started out as a duo, then Grethe moved back to Norway and I started working with many different backing vocals. We call them: “The Usherettes”, because the first time the BV group appeared was when we had a gig in a cinema, and they were the Usherettes who welcomed people in, giving them flowers (then Ice Cream at the interval). Gradually, as the sound has gotten more ambitious more people have come onboard.
Do you have any musical inspirations or any none-musical inspirations?
We’re working on an album at the moment, and are about 6 tracks down. I really want to finish that, even though albums aren’t the thing in the modern industry.
Despite the video for the track being quite colourful and exciting, the lyrics and the song sound like a story of struggle. What inspired you to write it?
2014-15 was quite a challenging time for me personally; I lost my dad in February, granddad in May, and then my sister spent the majority of summer in hospital. The song was written post that, but recognising that I had started to move from grief and hopelessness to realising that anything I’ve not done yet needs to happen soon because we’re not around for long. It doesn’t sound happy, but it was based on advice from a close friend and became the start of a journey chasing opportunities! I’m really happy now, by the way, mainly because of the gambles I’ve taken since!!
Do you have plans to release an EP/Album?
Yes! Nightmarine, the album, will be out this year or early next year!
What are your aspirations for the future? Where would you like to take your music?
I would love to tour wider with the music, and also have plans to do another project where we write some music for a multi-arts and comedy show. I’ll tell you more about that later
What is the most interesting venue you have ever played?
Probably Magic Mirrors in Le Havre, France; it was awesome and had great audience and sound- on stage and off. In general, I’m a massive fan of playing festivals and pop up venues!
What do you think is good and bad about the music world today?
-I think the focus on live music is fantastic, as that’s why I live for. However, it’s really hard to make a living, and seems to be more about how much money you put into marketing rather than good songwriting and performing!
Finally, when are we going to hear you on national radio and the top of the charts?
It’s unlikely, but I won’t turn my nose up about it. But it’s not why I do music. I would love more people to hear it and respond to it though!! My ideal fan base would be something like Imogen Heap, Damien Rice or Rufus Wainwright; The average man on the street doesn’t know you are – but at the gigs everyone knows the songs!
Find out more:
Website: http://www.thescienceofthelamps.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thescienceofthelamps/
ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/scienceofthelamps
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LampScientists
