LawnChair Generals or LCG have produced house music for almost ten years. In 2001 they released their first EP "The Great Escape" on Viva Recordings with high praise from the likes of Mark Farina, DJ Heather, DJ Sneak, Derrick Carter, Rob Mello, and Yousef. This led to many travel dates around the world. Their release "The Truth" is one of my favorite tracks, funky house with a good beat.
G: Who influenced your music?
C: Peter and I had deep backgrounds in electronic music since we worked in a record store for so many years. Our goal was not to copy anyone, we wanted to make something different.
G: Can you describe Peter, your producing partner?
C: He researches every aspect of his life to make sure he's making smart decisions. He's very methodical person and he's very musical. He's an avid collector and he is constantly talking about music. What time he has to devote to our efforts, he just does it. He's also been able to deal with me. He taught me a lot of what I know as far as music production. He's very patient teacher, when I started I had a million questions.
G: What software, hardware do you use the most?
C: Peter and I use CuBase. We wanted to have parrellel systems because we live far away so we could just send each other files. Andromeda is our preferred hardware.
G: Are you guys working on anything new?
C: We're getting a whole bunch of stuff together, we're pushing our sound. I think that we are slightly more influenced from techno, electronic side of things, on our new stuff. We use organic samples in an interesting way, getting away from the funky bassline and funky drums that we've done before. Also, we have a lot of projects with other people such as Ken Christensen, and with McKeehan of Nordic Trax. And I'm working on some stuff individually.
G: What is the state of House Music?
C: German. What happened with blues, American music, rock and roll, and pop, is happening now with house. It gets sent out to Europe, it gets chewed up, repackaged, polished, and sold back to us. Right now there is a massive scene that came out of the minimal world. They got tired of minimal and applied those production techniques to what was traditionally from the states. A lot of people are moving to Berlin because there's a great community, it's centrally located, and rather inexpensive. A lot of us, here in the states are making similiar moves also, communicating with each other, and being supportive. Everyone is moving in a more savvy musical direction.
G: So is there a competition between America and Europe?
C: I see it as a conversation because there is no sense in battling when you admire the music. The fact is I love the sound that's coming out of UK. There's a lot of guys here listening and are saying, "Ya ya, it sounds like something I've heard before, but a new take. Let's see how that fits." You can't be in a battle if you're admiring it. I see it that way, it's more productive. You can't get possessive about music because it didn't belong to you to begin with. House music didn't belong to house music and it doesn't belong to it's producers, it's borrowed from many places.
G: Who are the LawnChair Generals?
C: It's always going to be about a conversation between me and an old friend. LCG is always going to be Peter and I talking back and forth, whether it's with words, notes, or beats. We have our shared experiences and we both experienced the nightlife the same way. That conversation is what our music is. I don't think it's going to be about pleasing a market or rehashing something we did 40 years ago. It's about what we have to say about each other. We're djs, we know that, we came up as djs.
Here is LawnChair Generals January mix.
LCG January Promo Mix (chords & strings & things.....) by LawnChair Generals
Greg K.
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