Dear readers, we have the opportunity to interview a prominent band of the Prog scene made in USA in recent years, with high level record releases and a new album released in May 2022. Welcome Adam Sears from Lobate Scarp.
Hello how are you first of all?
Hi! I’m great, a little disorganized at the moment. I have shipping boxes and envelopes
all over my office; I’m getting ready to fulfill all our Indiegogo and Bandcamp pre-orders.
But I’m managing! haha
You are one of the main exponents of American Prog in recent years, where does your passion for this genre come from?
Oh wow, thanks! I’ve always thought music was magical and from a very early age, I would make up songs and when I first heard Yes (from the boxset Yesyears- my first Yes song was “Something’s Coming”) it just blew my mind right off! I just had to get every album, every side project, every bootleg, etc. Well, little did I know at the time, there was a lot out there, and even way more is out there now! I’m still collecting. I hope to catch up one of these days. haha. I got a little off-topic. So, the passion for the prog genre- I mean, to me, it’s just the best parts of music all together. Melodies, riffs, all the great rock stuff with an origin in classical music, where we have pieces of music, rather than just songs. These pieces take you on cinematic journeys. They affect you. And now the music lives within you.
We recently reviewed the second full-length “You Have It All” released in May 2022, what can you tell us about this new work?
You Have It All’s concept started pretty much immediately after recording our first album. As a live band, we were already performing “Conduit” and “Nothing Wrong”. I always wanted the 2nd album to just give you no warning and start in full gear. The rest of the concept of You Have It All saw many changes, due to a couple failed Kickstarter campaigns, band line-up changes, and quarantine.
Within the new album there are numerous collaborating artists, what did they bring to the sound of the album?
Yeah, as you say they were “collaborating” artists. So even though I write most of the album, bringing in these artists made the album sound more collaborative in nature. A big chunk of the album has Eric Moore drumming. He was producer Steven Leavitt’s first choice for drums. I didn’t know Eric Moore nor was I familiar with him or his drumming style, but I was very surprised at how well he adapted and brought his own style to the music. There were several times where his drumming changed the vibe, for instance there’s a part in “Flowing Through the Change” which was supposed to be mellow, but Eric did some really fast hits, and we thought it was cool, so we had to rise up to that energy and had Andy change the bass line to some really neat slappy triplet thing . It’s now one of my favorite parts of the song. Most of the original intentional grooves were there, but Eric took much of it into a direction I wasn’t expecting or would have even thought of. And of course I was so glad I was able to get Jimmy Keegan for the two new singles “Our Test Tube Universe” and “Life-Line”- his drumming was perfect for these tracks, and he just drives them home. Then we brought in one of my favorite keyboardists Ryo Okumoto. I was originally planning to play piano and synths on “Conduit”, and Ryo was just brought in to play B3, but he improvised with synths and piano and I just loved it, so I’m actually not on the first
track of the album at all. Ryo also has a killer organ solo at the end of “Our Test Tube Universe”- I’ve been trying to recreate that live the best I can. Then we have Billy Sherwood and Jon Davison, both from Yes, guesting on the title track. I had them in mind for the song for several years, and I’m so grateful Billy and Jon were both game to do it, when it all came together. It was so great having Billy come in
to the studio and lay down his vocals, he added wonderful harmony stacks. I had harmonies that were already written, but Billy added even more layers and ideas to the vocals, many of which we kept. Jon added his vocals remotely, and they just sound so good together. It’s hard to imagine this track recorded without them now. And working with Steve Leavitt and Rich Mouser was awesome- they both had
wonderful contributions and recorded various additional instruments. Rich’s 12-string guitar arrangement on “Beautiful Light” impresses me every time I listen. Steve’s organs and piano on the “Flowing Through the Change” have so much passion and help make it my favorite track on the album. Steve’s string arrangements were wonderful throughout as well and added so much lushness and epicness. The string quartet was amazing. Also, I was so glad to work with Andrea Whitt again for “Conduit” as she was a big part of Lobate’s live show throughout the years. And there are many more musicians involved whether it was in front of the mic or behind the scenes. It was really a tremendous group effort.
This album, like the previous one, is characterized by highly sought-after lyrics and sounds, what are the themes contained?
Much of the album was written during quarantine times, so there are themes of isolation, self-doubt, and feeling stuck, but also themes of encouragement, and positive thinking. “Our Test Tube Universe” is a little more sci-fi/philosophical than the rest of the album. That song asks the question “What if our universe was created in a test tube?” And what if God was a scientist? Wouldn’t we be so tiny, the scientist who made us would have no idea we exist?
How does the new album differ from the previous one and how has your sound evolved?
Time and Space was more of a collection of songs, and while You Have It All isn’t officially a concept album, a lot of the same themes and concepts appear throughout. There’s a more natural flow from the beginning to the end of the album. I also feel that the new album is a more defined version of what I wanted a Lobate Scarp album to be like and sound like. And like I said, we have a bunch more special guests and other musicians with us this time around. I also gave Rich Mouser and Steve Leavitt (my co-
producers) more freedom to revise/ add parts, and set a lot of the tones of the instruments. Since the songs were mostly written by me, they still sound like Lobate Scarp, but also, like I said before, the new album has more of that collaboration energy.
Many of the Prog fans and our readers are wondering if there will be the possibility to listen to your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?
We haven’t recorded any of our live shows yet, but we do want to record something when we feel the time is right. We are a relatively new live band, so we would want to get some more live shows under our belts first. We hope to do more shows late this year and maybe some out-of-state and out-of-the-country shows too in the near future.
Prog is a sought after genre and quite a niche, how do you see the future of the genre?
I hope to see a passing of the torch, if you will, to a younger generation of prog-lovers and it’s my hope that this generation will keep the flame going, by supporting the music and attending live shows and prog-rock festivals, so we can keep doing out thing and that prog-rock never dies!
What advice do you want to give to young artists approaching this musical genre nowadays?
Well, not just this genre, but really any genre that they would want to pursue, I would say, first and foremost- play and write what you’re passionate about, and your music should come from the heart. Also, keep your day job, hopefully a nice flexible one so it’ll give you the freedom to play, practice with your band or whatever, but music doesn’t pay like it used to. But that’s ok- we’re doing this because it’s fun and we love it, right?
The Lobate Scarp project has confirmed itself as one of the best realities of current Prog, do you have any plans for other future releases?
Thank you, I like your reality! Haha. Nothing set in stone yet. I have some ideas for an album down the road, it will be an actual concept album, or rather a complete sci-fi rock opera, where I hope to have a cast of at least 20 singers. That one will probably take a while though, so I think we will record an EP next, and maybe get it out by the end of next year.
The last question as usual I leave you free to deal with any topic not mentioned in the previous questions.
Sometimes people need a little help pronouncing weird band names. haha. Just think of
the most simple way of pronouncing it. 3 syllables- Lo-bait Scarp . Lobate rhymes with
So-late. And Scarp rhymes with sharp. 🙂
I thank Adam Sears of Lobate Scarp for the interview, the opportunity to review his album, wishing him the best for the continuation of their career.
Thank you so much, Jacopo!