Lucas Dawson A little Q&A with bassist / singer Lucas Dawson. Leicester Bangs: Tell us a little about yourself, and your band. Lucas: I was born and raised in Perth, Australia and now live in Stockholm, Sweden. I make a fine kind of brooding melancholic singer-songwriter rock 'n' roll. The kind of music that might eventuate if, say, David Lynch, Chris Isaak and Ryan Adams went on a bender together. The boys in my regular band - Nicke, Sven and Richard - are all bona fide musical geniuses, the kind that can play anything but never feel compelled to show off. It tends to work out well. Understated and pregnant with emotion. LB: How did you start out making music? Lucas: I took some piano lessons and played some drums when I was a little kid but I first started out playing for real in various garage bands in my teens - and practicing a lot. I had originally, like most kids at that age probably, wanted to play guitar, but I had a friend who already played guitar and he wouldn't let me. He insisted that I learn to play bass instead so that we could put a band together. And to this day I am really glad he did because I just fell in love with the bass. To this day I still can't play any other instrument with any degree of proficiency. I write everything on the bass, which may explain why the music has a unique, hard-to-put-your-finger-on quality. Anyway, I fled a broken heart when I was 20 and ended up in London for several years. Whilst there I played very little, a couple of bands now and then, but when I moved to Sweden I started playing again with a vengeance. I have played many different styles in many different bands - from straight pop to dinner jazz to noise-rock. Everything is cool. It's fun to play... LB: Who did you grow up listening to and how do they influence what you’re doing now? Lucas: I grew up in a household where music was pretty sacred stuff. My father was a professional drummer when he was younger and he was totally into jazz. I remember he always went into the lounge room on Sunday afternoons, closed the door and sat and listened to amazing jazz records. I was allowed to sit with him as long as I was silent. As soon as I made a sound I was kicked out. My mother was really into classical music. So those were the two major influences when I was a kid. In my teens I listened to everything with the same kind of intensity. I listened to a lot of John Coltrane and Rage Against the Machine and Tool and Bruce Springsteen and... well, lots of stuff.   I don't know how it all influences what I am doing now. All of that stuff is in there somewhere and I'm sure it comes out somehow, but probably the most noticeable influence is the level of intensity. I like to listen to and play music that you really have to listen to with your full attention. That, at least, is my ambition. LB: Tell us about your latest release. Lucas: My latest release is an album called 'Another Way To Say Goodbye' officially released early January 2010. It is in many ways a classic break-up record. I wrote it in the long, drawn-out aftermath of a failed relationship. The ambition was to write a completely honest record, reflecting the bitterness, the tears, the anger and fear of the situation without glorifying myself. I decided that if it was going to be real then I had to be prepared to show the ugliness I felt at that time as well as the kind of epiphonous, sweeping drama that accompanies a crisis. Big feelings. Ugly truths. LB: Do you get out and play your music live, and if so, what can an audience expect at one of your shows? Lucas: I'll play anywhere, any time, as long as anyone will have me, basically. I love playing live. I play in a variety of constellations - solo, stripped down with just bass and piano or guitar, with the regular band (bass, drums, electric guitar, piano, trumpet) or with a bigger band including some more brass when possible. What the audience can expect depends on the context of the gig of course. If I am playing solo then I tend to play a few more ballads and try to create an intimate, personal experience. When I play with the band I tend to play more up-tempo songs, a bit rockier, with a few sensitive ballads thrown in for good measure. But, in general an audience can expect a band who really knows how to play sensitively and who can create an intense atmosphere. LB: What aspects of playing and recording music do you most enjoy? Lucas: I just love to play. I enjoy it all. Well, except for some of the fiddly tech-stuff in the studio, but that is mostly because I am a little bit technology-illiterate, which is a disadvantage these days and not something that one should necessarily aspire to. Playing live is great! But rehearsing with the band in the studio can be just as great. When I have written a new song I can sit and play the same damn thing for hours and hours. I fall in love with it. Then when I present it to the band there is always some anxiety about whether they will love it like I do or not, whether they will be able to bring out all of the qualities that I can feel in it or not. It invariably becomes better than I first imagined - that is the joy of playing with great musicians. And I love to sing, which sounds a bit theatrical, but there it is. I do love to sing. There is something extremely cathartic about it. LB: Where can people find (and buy) your music? Lucas: People can find my music just about everywhere these days it seems. 'Another Way To Say Goodbye' is not officially released until early January 2010, but there are a few places where advanced copies can be bought over the internet. After release you can expect to find at most of the bigger online distribution retailers and hopefully some of the smaller ones. Otherwise you can always contact me via my website or myspace and we can organise some other arrangement (links below). www.lucasdawson.com www.myspace.com/aintlifecruel www.cdbaby.com/cd/lucasdawson www.lastfm.se/music/Lucas+Dawson www.thesixtyone.com/LucasDawson/ www.amazon.com http://indiestore.7digital.com/lucasdawson/ Lucas Dawson – Ain’t Life Cruel