LVNDR.SOUND is the exuberant musical project of SunSquabi bassist Josh Fairman, keyboardist/sound design virtuoso Geoff Bremer and multi-instrumentalist Jay.Greens. Born and based out of Denver, Colorado, the Electronic music ensemble seeks to reflect the city’s rich, cultural pluralism through their own colorful synths and beats.
Refusing to conform to many standards and preconceptions, the trio set out to create an umbrella of sounds that could encompass as much of the EDM spectrum as they could. Bass, electro-soul, house, and nu-age funk are often part of their palette, creating their works with a strong improvisational edge and grandiose soundscapes meant to always bring listeners the impact and euphoria of live performances and festivals.
After releasing a string of mouth-watering singles such as“Nebula,” “Virtual One” (with Eric “Benny” Bloom), “Signal” (with Adam Deitch), and “Echoes” via Jay.Greens’ own genre-crossing label Perception Records, LVNDR.SOUND has now presented us with a triumphant full-length debut aptly titled “Lavender”, an album with way too much to give to simply put into words.
LVNDR.SOUND has already collaborated with hometown legends such as Adam Deitch and Eric “Benny” Bloom (both of the band Lettuce), and sold out their debut headlining show at local festival “The Kaia Project.”
Hey guys, thanks for this interview. First of all, and for those who are not familiar with the group, we would like to start by summarizing the band’s history. When and why did you decide to undertake this music project?
Originally this started out as a pandemic project, we are all close friends who wrote music and played in various settings/groups together prior to COVID, and we used the time away from concerts/tours to create what was originally a passion project for fun. Eventually, it turned into a really incredible, unique body of work and sonic aesthetic that I think we are all really proud of. We have great chemistry together, from years of collaboration on other projects, and we are all masters of our craft with unique strengths to bring to the table.
Who chose the name of the band and based on what?
Jay.Greens chose it to fit in with a larger concept of using color palettes as jumping points for inspiration on various musical projects all released under the Perception Records umbrella, this project was meant to invoke various shades of purple, and we ultimately decided the color lavender suited the sound the best as we defined our sound.
When you got together as a band, were you clear about the musical style you wanted to develop, or was it something that happened organically?
We had a slew of different inspirations generally falling within the scope of future bass, house, and electro soul but we were pretty open minded throughout the process, not really trying to conform to any one genre or style but rather just creating what we felt inspired to create. We tried to remove the genre limitations by thinking of it as the lavender or purple project, rather than naming a specific genre. This allowed for more fluidity between genres and creative exploration.
Nebula, Virtual One, Signal, and Echoes are some of the previous singles, how do you think they were received by the public at the time?
So far all the feedback has been great! It’s definitely an uphill battle getting a new project out there especially since we haven’t been playing a lot of shows, but people seem to really like the songs and we’re excited to get the full album out there and start to play out this music some more. We did one live show at a local Colorado festival called the Kaia Project, we were actually the Friday night headliners since each of us has established ourselves outside of this project in the Denver scene, and the response to the live performance was incredible. People were getting down, we pretty much played only original, unreleased music which is so rare in electronic music and we had a lot of people reach out to us saying it was their favorite set of the weekend, so it seems like we’re doing something right!
Among these singles, which was the one that opened the most doors for you or was most acclaimed by audiences?
So far it seems like “Echoes” has been our most popular/well-received track, it definitely got the most playlist placements, but we’re really looking forward to releasing the rest of the album because we definitely saved some of our favorite tracks for the LP.
Now, you are releasing the fifth track from your forthcoming debut album, via Denver’s newest cross-genre imprint Perception Records. How would you conceptualize this track? What did you want to express with it?
We actually pivoted and elected to drop the fifth single from our release plan, and just hold off on that one until the album. We are so excited to share this full LP with you all in January 2023!
Can you describe the making process for Echoes? And I’m asking this because musical creation has always seemed particularly curious to me when it comes to electronic music. The reason is you don’t have words, only the ability to arouse emotions through melodies or sounds.
All of our songs sort of follow a different creative process, with different members of the group stepping forward to take the lead on different tracks, “Echoes” was really driven by Geoff, particularly with the sound design. In our experience, in order to elicit an emotional response with music without words or vocals the soundscape is super important. We really try to make our music an immersive experience, with really polished sound design and a creative mix. Also, being mindful of ebbs and flows in energy, builds and drops, and how they flow throughout the song is super important.
What bands from the local Denver music scene do you like? SoDown, for example?
This is a tough question, so much awesome talent in Denver! We are all into a wide variety of music, so I’ll keep it within the electronic side of the Denver scene. A few of our favorite locally based artists are: Pretty Lights, GRiZ, Big Gigantic, SoDown, Break Science, Of the Trees, The Sponges, Illenium, CJ, Recess, SunSquabi, Motifv, Maddy O’Neal, Thatz Hot, Disco Lines, Michal Menert and so many more!
Have you thought about tours or live concerts?
Definitely! We played an awesome festival this summer, and are looking at doing some more shows in the spring/summer. Logistically it’s a bit difficult since Josh is a full-time member of the band SunSquabi, and Jay.Greens is the CEO and head producer for Perception Records, Geoff, and Jay.Greens are also both currently pursuing their masters degrees— Geoff in Architecture, and Jay.Greens in Music Production & Audio Engineering—so we are all pretty busy, but we definitely have plans to play live more in 2023 and further down the line. We absolutely love playing live, this music is a blast and we can’t wait for the right opportunity to get out and play again.
How do you imagine the future of LVNDR.SOUND?
We try not to set too many expectations for ourselves, because the main goal is to continue to create music we love, and share it with people and hopefully they connect with it/enjoy it! Ultimately, I think in the future we can certainly say more live performances, collaborations, and genre bending! We are also sitting on so much unreleased material, we actually are planning a follow up EP or LP for summer/fall of 2023 as well so stay tuned!
Photos: Courtesy of the artist Story: Mariana Gonzalez
FOLLOW LVNDR.SOUND