The Triangle

Issue date: 2/26/10 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: Lotus Psychedelic rock band, Lotus, combine a unique variety of music that has made them a staple in the current jam band community.

Media Credit: Lotus

There is an incredible band on the scene by the name of Lotus, who is so quickly and constantly evolving that it's almost impossible to categorize their unique sound. The band consists of twin brothers named Jesse and Luke Miller. Jesse is best known for his bass playing and expertise with the sampler, while his brother Luke plays guitar and keyboard. The band also includes Mike Rempel, another incredible guitarist, and percussionist Chuck Morris. The band in the past had a great drummer Steve Clemens, but recently, as Clemens is on sabbatical, the talented and progressive Mike Greenfield has joined the band. Together, these five members combine to make the musical phenomena known as Lotus, providing hope and progress through jam and electronic based music.

Lotus's sound has really evolved from their first album release of "Vibes" in 2002. "Vibes" was an album of live shows during their 2001 tour. The next album was released in May 2003, titled "Germination," which is a six-track album with a collection of incredibly smooth and soulful riffs, from the dance inducing groove of "Flower Sermon," which still continues to be a live favorite, to the relaxing, meditative, transcendent sounds of Caywood. "Germination," while an extremely early release of Lotus, definitely captures their positive and hopeful essence in all six tracks. The next release, "Nomad." in September 2004, was extremely popular and was nominated for many awards in the jam music scene. This album captures a beautiful psychedelic sound, in conjunction with a smooth and earthy presence. This combination of earthiness and psychedelics makes for one of the most incredible "chill-out" albums in recent time, and with hits like "Livingston Storm," "Spiritualize," and "Greet the Mind" should remain a personal favorite for many. Their next album, "Strength of Weak Ties" wasn't released until April 2006, but it was definitely worth the wait. With this album, you see a shift from the earthy, psychedelic sound of "Nomad," into a stronger rock and roll sound. In this album, Lotus experiments a lot more with the idea of vocals, strong rock riffs, while maintaining their relaxing and soulful attributes. Favorites on this album include "Tip of The Tongue," "Blue Giant," "Bubonic Tonic," and "Kesey Seed." The next release, "Escaping Sargasso Sea," was a two-disc release of live instrumental music with a strong electronic compliment. Some of the most popular and riff-laden tracks include "Wax and Sunrain," which are two incredible live songs from their concerts. This was a great release and really showed the kind of amazing music Lotus puts out when they are performing live. While they are definitely known for the incredible studio albums present, a huge portion of Lotus's fan base stems from word of mouth. Then, in October 2008, they released their positive and hopeful sounding rock album "Hammerstrike" known for favorites such as the title track "Hammerstrike." As for as direction of this album, there has been much speculation on the hope, strength, and positivity it provides to the progressive youth of today as hinted at by certain song title choices. Most recently, they released a two-disc EP of songs that didn't quite fit with "Hammerstrike," but are very beautiful and original. The EP Feather on "Wood/Oil on Glass" has been known to touch the transcendental side with tracks such as "72 Hours Awake" and "Vancouver Island," while rocking hard with "Simian" and "Grayrigg." Overall, Lotus has a discography that completely demolishes the term diverse as they continually strive and progress to such an extent that defining them with a label is just as much of a challenge as picking your favorite song.

How did Lotus form at Goshen College?

Lotus: Goshen was a small liberal arts school where I set up my own program of study. You work as hard as you want, and put together your own class schedule. [We] worked a lot on composition, and had other great opportunities like jazz, and life of orchestra. We used to practice, recite, and work together in an old storage closet in our gym. Luke, Adam, and Mike, Steve met at summer camp in Colorado and played music together there. Then Mike and Luke wanted to start a group together, which they started freshman year, and Jesse transferred to Goshen, and joined the group. Lotus was the equivalent of sports team for the crew at school, we would practice every day, and perform a gig every weekend.

How have you enjoyed your experience of living in Philadelphia, and what are some of the special characteristics of Philadelphia that you enjoy the most?

Lotus: One of the great things is that it's not too expensive to live here and you're right in the middle of [the] East Coast. Our last tour was seven weeks, and I would still come home occasionally in between shows because the city is great. There is a lot of city pride in Philadelphia and it's also a blue-collar city with lots of incredible art, music, and milestones to see.

What are some of the bands that have had the biggest influence on Lotus?

Lotus: Early on bringing in the electronic sound we had a lot of influence coming from Underworld, Orb, Producers, Tobacco, Rattatat, For Ted, Spoon, Black Mountain, Talking Heads, Herby Hancock, and much more.

What are some of your favorite festivals to play at?

Lotus: Rothbury is always a great festival, both musically and production. Rothbury is definitely a highlight. Kind of pain sometimes to put in so much work for one set. Played a ton of festivals, so they kind of blur together. Didn't really go to any music festivals before the band formed, but at camping festivals we have always been performing. I once went to one of the big Phish festivals, down in everglades. There is definitely a re-generation and re-growth of whole scene; more and more festivals pop up and some go away, due to economic decline, but there is definitely a big market out there. Bonnaroo is just absolutely huge. When we started off playing, we played at very typical jam festivals, but now there is definitely an electronic/indie direction shift as well. It's great that they are bringing in action, and fans into festivals, that used to be much more reserved for a jam based circuit.

How would you compare the chemistry you and the band have when performing live music, as opposed to recording albums?

Lotus: Definitely, because there are significantly different beats. Studio recording and love have an extremely strong relationship. Chemistry is improvisation, knowing where other people are going, that is strong chemistry, where the group is working towards one spot musically. In the studio everything is really composed, tracking together, and were all checking out to make sure were in the same pocket. Live shows are very upbeat and dance oriented, which is why certain songs don't translate well for that environment. Sometimes live songs don't translate into studio because they are so improve based, as typically a really quick hook for a studio recording, but not really 15 minute improvisation. "Shimmer and Out" is a really great live song. Started recording it and it just didn't work in the studio. Songs from Nomad when performed live had completely different arrangements when brought to studio, with very different instrumentation. You can definitely work on a live song and develop it into something else in the studio.

Tell me about the upcoming spring tour? Are you and the rest of the band excited? Are you looking forward to Ultra, Wakarusa and some time on the jam cruise as well?

Lotus: Tomorrow we are going to have another big announcement. We are definitely excited to get back out on road. We haven't done proper round in a couple months. April tour today. Jam Cruise, is a pretty unique setting, it's a great opportunity to hang out and get some drinks with great musicians.

The new album?

Lotus: We started recording our new album, with a lot of drum and bass tracks. Ten tunes so far and some of it has been stuff they are already playing out on tour. Some hip-hop elements, drawing on hip-hop tempos, syllables cut up on sampler, main melody line. It's interesting taking something that's vocal, and taking all the meaning away.

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