Indonesian gamelan music, Cambodian pop, Indian Bollywood music.
I was interested in combining some of those traditional American styles, and combining those with some more exotic sounds. Taking that, and then adapting that to my own taste and sensibilities. I listened to country music and some of the more kitschy cowboy stuff like Marty Robbins and Gene Autry and Tex Ritter. OMC: What were kind of your musical inspirations that you looked to for your debut album, "Lonesome Dreams"?īS: Well, I was listening to a lot of stuff that evokes that adventure tale era or that time and place. Nowadays, hopefully people still do that as much as they can, but it’s really easy to cast a thing aside after the first casual listen because there’s so much else to get to. Sometimes, that’d be a really interesting thing because it grows on you or it changes or you have time to really sink into it. OMC: There’s so much out there, it’s easy for stuff to get lost.īS: Yeah, it used to be that you’d buy a record, and you were kind of stuck with it for a while. I would’ve loved to have had that much music at my fingertips as a kid, but it’s also daunting to me to think about wading through it all. There’s so much luck and timing involved just to cut through the incredible cloud of information.
Hopefully, it can really expand your audience, but it’s just amazing how much stuff is out there. It’s amazing how after that, though, the polar vortex of the Internet takes over (laughs) and kind of swallows everything up. That physical side of things really still can get things done. I mean, our first write-up was because someone picked up a CD that I had left on a merch table at a festival. Like I said, I hadn’t really been in the music scene for many years, and when I was growing up, it was homemade tapes and CDs and stuff like that that you handed out at shows. Obviously, getting into the music industry has changed in the past ten years.īS: Absolutely. You’re handing out your recordings and EPs, but then also the Internet. OMC: That’s an interesting combination of both old and new techniques. They were gracious enough to come join me, and we’ve been pretty much on the road ever since. I didn’t really know anybody in the music scene in L.A., so I called up the best musicians I knew, who were my friends from childhood who I played with. Pretty soon, we were getting offers to play shows, so I called up some of my old friends. So I put it online and handed it out at music festivals and whatnot. But my kid sister is kind of our first manager, and she really encouraged me to put it out there. I recorded a few songs and just kind of thought of it as a personal project for me and my friends. My friends were getting married, so I just took the opportunity to go and stay there for a while. I was just kind of feeling frustrated creatively at the time, so I just kind of took a break and went back home to Michigan for a few weeks. I was pursuing a career in art but still keeping music as a part of it, as a part of my projects. I had bands in high school and in college. OMC: How did Lord Huron come together then?īS: I’d been doing music casually throughout my whole life. It’s just sort of what I was most drawn to. It wasn’t even something I thought about. Even as a kid, I remember really loving to sing along to my favorite movies.
I remember early on being really drawn to the lyrics and imagining the lives of these people that these songs are about. I really enjoyed the stories of those songs. They loved Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen and all this great folk music and Bob Dylan. My folks were kind of American music fans. When I was a kid, I was struck by hymns and things like that. It captivated me.īS: They had kind of broad tastes. I remember pretty clearly seeing my dad singing with his brothers or the band at church. I remember being struck by it as a kid, just the stuff my parents would play around the house.
: When did you start getting into music?īen Schneider: Pretty early on, I guess. OnMilwaukee got a chance to talk to Ben Schneider, the band’s front man and forming member, about the origins of Lord Huron, their next album and his interest in old Americana adventure tales. Now, the up-and-coming folk group is heading back to the Midwest, including a show at the Pabst Theater on Wednesday, Jan. The group – whose warm, soaring sound, rich harmonies and lyrical odes to nature are reminiscent of fellow folk favorites Fleet Foxes – has been touring the country, including a recent performance on Jimmy Kimmel earlier this month. Indie Americana folk band Lord Huron’s musical reign may have originally started in Michigan, but it’s slowly expanded far outside their home state.