Brooklyn Band with a Retro Indie-Pop Rhythm
By: Julianne Cassidy
Say you were an artist, searching for a new home.
You discover an old Victorian mansion on Craigslist.
Once stepping inside, you stop dead in your tracks.
Did you just almost trip over a dusty pile of vintage instruments?
And, wait. Is that an old Steinway [piano] cloaked in the shadows?
Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, melodically known as Lucius, found themselves a diamond in the rough in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park. During an apartment search, they encountered an intriguing 4-story treasure off Craigslist. And to their shock upon arrival, “the listing said nothing about the fact that it was a music school, or recording studio… 60 years worth,” says Wolfe. Knowing that they would never again stumble upon such magic, Wolfe and Laessig moved in with a group of musician friends. “It was totally a musician’s dream,” says Wolfe.
Penning most of their songs on the 100 year old Steinway piano, their vulnerable yet sweetly sassy lullaby represented in their Spring 2012 self-titled EP is “only about a year and a half old,” even though they’ve been composing together since meeting in college. They had only one other previously released project entitled, Songs From the Bromley House.
Wolfe and Laessig joined forces with roommates, Andrew Burri, Dan Molad, and Peter Lalish, in completing their band, Lucius. Pursuing a name to represent their collective backbone, they realized an extraordinary muse in Wolfe’s English Bulldog. “A weird dog, but at the same time, so cute, so ugly,” says Wolfe. With an under bite and a crooked front tooth that stuck out, Wolfe furthermore explains, “he was such a character, with a retro-60s vibe name, so we ran with it.”
With a name as peculiar as their being, Lucius is, “Indie-Pop, with a lot of rhythm, Retro-inspired, with a visual aspect,” says Wolfe. Their live shows pulsate, as all bandmates play percussion and drums. “However, the focal point is two vocals, in unison and harmony,” says Laessig. “We always sing together, all the time.” Lucius also desire to make their live shows “visually symmetrical,” so that the entire mirrored performance blends.
But there was a time in April when Lucius was temporarily instrument-less, and van-less. Directly after naming their vehicle, Carmen Van Diego, it was stolen, and containing all of their equipment. As if cursed for their pun, “it was terrible,” says Laessig. “And when it was finally found, but there was nothing remaining… not even doors, or tires,” adds Wolfe. A campaign online helped raise funds from gracious fans for replacing instruments, while insurance recouped another van for touring.
Presently promoting their EP, Wolfe and Laessig praise their producers: Tony Berg (Beck, Aimee Mann), [bandmate] Dan Molad (Elizabeth & The Catapult, Here We Go Magic), and Steve Wall (Meshell Ndegeocello.) “They taught us to experiment, try everything, and not be stuck with one idea… see what sticks to us,” says Laessig. With intentionally no tracks arranged beforehand, “[in the recording process] we just wanted to throw our hands up, and discover,” says Wolfe. “They all truly nurtured that process.”
Grasping lyrical creativity from ironically similar relationship experiences, inseparable Wolfe and Laessig predicted it very easy to relate to each other, and write together. “We didn’t have a label or deadline, we just wanted to make something creative, “ says Wolfe. “We wanted inspiring, we wanted spontaneous, and that’s what makes the EP what it is.” Concocting charmed drum loops with lusty vocal sounds, “it was just a bunch of friends being creative.”
Considering Lalish began recording with Wolfe and Laessig, and then Molad started producing, all while Lucius never officially played a live show together, “the EP is truly how the band became a band,” says Wolfe. “That’s what sets it apart. It’s its own world, with its own life, outside the live performances.” A tag team of two different experiences, with one united soothing passion.
Proclaimed as, “The Next Feist,” by the New York Times, “Don’t Just Sit There” from their EP, caught the ears of NPR’s All Songs Considered. “It was an awesome way to be introduced to the world,” says Wolfe. Lucius succeeded that renowned media acknowledgement with a music video [for “Go Home”], featuring exact replicas of Wolfe and Laessig as lifelike dolls. Their graphic designer friends at Arkadia and Co., reached out online to an intriguing Japanese doll maker. “We sent a 180 degree view of our faces, and he handmade palm-sized dolls to look just like us,” says Laessig. Receiving pictures along the way, “the process, the clay, and making the eyeballs and hair… the detail was incredible,” adds Wolfe. And due to overwhelming response, they have since released another video for “Turn It Around,” but with the real Lucius.
Like entering a studio unplanned, with bandmates that they’d never played live with, Wolfe and Laessig are darlings dancing to the beat of their own drum [literally.] “We don’t care about labels,” says Laessig. “We’re inspired by anything that’s good and positive… even things that are negative, or dark.” Not wanting one particular audience, Lucius craves for people “who like good music, and want to hear us.”
Just wrapped with JD McPherson, and now on tour with Milo Greene [playing Johnny Brendas tonight], Lucius are tour virgins, who are rapidly gaining crowd cred. “That’s why we love playing, opening up for people like JD, someone who is a little more less expected [touring with],” says Laessig. Opening up mesmerized minds and ears, Lucius is most excited for exposing that revelation. “When a new fan approaches you and says, ‘I never would have known that I would have loved something like this,’ that’s what we look forward to,” says Wolfe. “That’s what will hopefully set us apart.”
Beyond the road, Wolfe and Molad have an in-house recording studio, called Sounds Like Fire. “We’ve recorded a number of vocal musicians, friends, and people that have inspired us,” says Wolfe. And with Molad as the producer, alongside Wolfe and Laessig lending airy background vocals/or guitars, “almost every record that has come through, we’ve put our Lucius mark on somehow.”
Now it’s your time to mark your own calendars, as April of 2013 is anticipated for a delectably satisfying full-length album release.
