Talking Shop with Peter Christianson of LawnChair Generals

Peter Christianson is one part of the duo LawnChair Generals. They have released music on Aroma, Amenti Music, Nordix Trax, OM Records, and LCG Music. Their music has taken them all around the world, DJing to many dancers.

G: Why do you play music?

P: I suppose music has been a part of all my life. My dad played the violin and my mom played the piano. So I grew up with a large record collection in the house listening to opera and classical music. Growing up it seemed natural. As a kid I was encouraged to play an instrument. I learned how to play the cello and I played the trumpet. I got interested in club music when I was a teenager and I started going out. I met the DJs and they taught me how to run the light board and then trained me how to mix around the time I was 14. Club music was a little different then, everything wasn’t quite so genre focused. Club music on the weekend was a mix of everything. Were now you’ll hear a house night, a progressive night, or a drum and bass night. I got into writing house music once I finished school. I moved to Seatle and that’s were Carlos and I met. He worked at the record shop that I was hired at. We both liked house, we dj'd house, we both had some gear, and we thought, "Let’s try it."


G: How did you guys get the name of LawnChair Generals?

P: In Seattle, I lived in this apartment on Capital Hill. It was a fourth floor walk up, there was no elevator, and had a really narrow staircase. I had a roommate at the time and we had virtually no furniture. We couldn’t get any sofas up there. I had the studio there and I didn’t have money for fancy office chairs. Instead, I had a couple of lawn chairs. Then, when Carlos and I were coming up with a name, it seemed that everyone in Seatle talked about how music should be but didn’t do anything about it. And we were doing the same thing. We were all essentially armchair generals, it’s an old 40s term, like armchair quaterback. We thought "We sit in lawnchairs, so we’ll be LawnChairGenerals.

G: Do you remember the first time you played to an audience?
P: I do remember. It was a warehouse party, it was two rooms, actually it was one of those rooms where it was one big room and they hung a curtain. And it’s kind of self-defeating, because you’re playing your music and your song breaks down and all you hear is the music from the other room. I remember playing the smaller room and it had a smaller sound system, and you could hear the other room's music the whole time. I think I remember in that moment being nervous. You’re playing in front of an audience for the first time, and who knows whether the tunes you’ve been getting excited about in your bedroom will actually get people dancing. It was hand shaking, sweaty palms, and the whole nine yards. I don’t think I looked up from the mixer for the whole two hours.

G:What’s in the future for LawnChairGenerals?

P: We decided recently that we would ramp up the label and start putting out more new music and put out other people’s music. This is sort of new avenue for us, none of us has ever put out other peoples music but over the years we definitely experienced different ways of approaching that and different levels of professionalism. We want to make the first release on our revamped label a LawnChair Generals release and after that we’ll move into other avenues, different side projects that Carlos and I have going on with different people and hopefully some other artists. We love to find new artists that nobody has ever heard of. Also, we will continue to work with our existing pears to get remixes done. The first release has a track called "I Want", Fred Everything is doing a remix of it. Then we’re going to pair that up with another tune, and for the digital release we’ll probably include some bonus beats as well as we are considering a remix producer pack to go along with it. And then there will be a limited vinyl release as well. We’re working with company out of Brooklyn called Sector Media. Indy rock has been doing this format now were they include the download codes if you buy the vinyl. It’s cool because it focuses on the idea that people still want to own a physical medium. Whether they want to collect that, or they sonically want to listen to it that way, or that’s the way they like to dj, and I want to support that. I’ve been collecting for 20 years. And every time I move I’m reminded of that.

G: What is the state of house music today?

P: I think that house is definitely coming into resurgence. I think that we’ve also seen many different styles of house music come and go. And house never goes away, just like rock music never goes away, it's just that sometimes it's not as popular as it was before. I think what I’m finding now is specifically that other styles that were called something else are morphing into house music.I think that like all music it’s going to evolve. We have a really big advantage in house music or electronic dance music in a sense that the music we write is pretty much by definition designed to have a good time with. We write music that’s supposed to make people feel an emotion and it tends to be some form of fun or excitement or elation. So therefore we have a built in audience that will never go away. Because human beings have proven time after time that we like to have a good time, like to have fun, we like to party. So what the term house music is going to mean 20 years from now, 30 years from now, or 40 years from now will of course change. People will make it change. The stuff that I write or that any of my peers write will help to define what it becomes in the future.

G: Who are the LawnChair Generals?

P: We are house music producers that are currently looking for the next thing to be a part of. We are constantly looking to evolve our sound and we’re constantly looking play and for new people, new sounds and new music. And as performers djs we’ve said ffom day one that we always think like djs we always think like performers and we’re always looking to party to have a good time.

This is their latest promo mix.
LCG July Promo Mix by LawnChair Generals

Here's a video of them at DEMF 2008



adios amigos,

greg k