Lazlo Supreme is a Hip Hop band from Minneapolis, and contrary to some preconceived notions, it’s not Atmosphere and Rhymesayers that have had the most influenced on the aspiring trio. The band’s leader and emcee, Toussaint tells us, “The main inspiration for our direction comes from The Black Keys… heard them while The Blend was on tour in Philly. I came back to Minneapolis and saw them in concert. I thought, ‘Damn, these two dudes can rip it up by themselves, there has to be a way to roll with just drums and keys.'”
Toussaint found a way in Lazlo Supreme, a band also composed of keyboardist Linden and drummer Patrick. The band is readying their official debut, and will be releasing an EP, Evil Made Easy, in late January. All of their music appears to come with healthy doses of comedy and cynicism, something which Ashydakid explores in this exclusive RH First Look. Learn up on Lazlo Supreme via the full interview below.
RubyHornet: You guys go by a rather interesting name, Lazlo Supreme. Can you explain to our readers where the band name derived from?
Toussaint: Originally we decided to name the group “Cold Beverage”, something simple & easy- kinda like the setup. Meh, “Cold Beverage” is too common, so I decided to call it Lazlo. Later on, we found out all the myspaces, lastfm’s, and everything’s were already occupied with Lazlo’s. If you google “Lazlo Music” you get at least 2 dozen bands. It’s like everyone and their 2nd cousin went out and named their f**king band “Lazlo”. We had to add to the name. At our impromptu photo shoot at Pat’s house, I gave the fellas these 3 choices “Lazlo Drexler”, “Lazlo Vulcan”, or “Lazlo Supreme”. The rest is on your desk.
RubyHornet: So, Lazlo Supreme is coming from Minneapolis, Minnesota. How did you guys link up in order to start the band, and what made you guys take the artistic direction that you did? The fusion of jazz, Hip Hop, rock, and other genres is a tough cookie to bite upon.
Toussaint: The main inspiration for our direction comes from The Black Keys. (Now watch as I Tarantino this response and get back to that later.) In the beginning: Linden and I had already been touring with a Rock/Hip Hop Live band donned “The Blend”. I had interests to diversify the sound that was never going to work Blend-wise, so I called up Pat Moses, who was in high school at the time. We rehearsed a few times with another keyboard player, that never panned out, but I was still like, ‘Ah hell na, someone needs to start a group with this drummer before he gets snatched up by some FunkyTown Cover Band!’ I know Pat was thinkin’ the same thing too like, ‘Damn, I need to get in a group with this fly-ass Nick Furious emcee’… I brought Linden into the equation because his prodigal talents match Pat’s and vwalah, they clicked. (Wait, you didn’t reference The Black Keys thing in the beginning) Oh, and this was all credited to The Black Keys, heard them while The Blend was on tour in Philly. I came back to Minneapolis and saw them in concert. I thought, ‘Damn, these two dudes can rip it up by themselves, there has to be a way to roll with just drums and keys.’ As for the fusion of all things good that we put together, that’s our normal. I’ll hum a tune in my head to Linden, he’ll spit it back out thru the piano, and Pat will follow. OR, Pat will hum something out, and the same instance will occur. Linden’ll write some s**t that’ll completely go against the grain and Pat & I will have to bring him back to earth. Again, it’s our normal. And also, I’d like to say that “Fusion” sounds way over-the-top. We’re not splicing genes or melding metal here.
RubyHornet: Linden Kilam, you are classically trained in the keys. How did you find yourself linking up with your other two band members to make a group that makes the style of music that you guys make?
Linden: My introduction to live and underground Hip Hop happened on October 26th, 2001, when a guy I jammed with at my high school asked me to play with his jam band at a Hip Hop show. It was then that I fully discovered that Hip Hop beats often mix together things I was already good at playing, like classical, jazz, and even some rock, and I quickly became a Hip Hop musician. Toussaint was also a part of that group, and we’ve worked together ever since. I met Pat many years later (Toussaint already knew him) and he was the perfect drummer for a new project.
RubyHornet: From reading your bio, the “special thanks” in your EP, and watching your album release video, I noticed that you guys always tend to have a sort of comedic tone. Does this speak to all 3 of you guy’s personalities?
Toussaint: The comedic tone speaks to how much we enjoy doing what we do. We’re by no means where we want to be financially in our careers with music; sacrifice, compromise, and loss are all things we’ve experienced while doing this, and there’s absolutely nothing glamorous or luxurious about the place we’re in right now, but we love what we do and wouldn’t trade it for anything else… except for breakfast… When you get a flat tire in Ohio, and a Christian car repair shop fixes your tour bus for free (which has happened), you have to laugh. When you find out that the venue you’ve booked your CD Release Party at is charging you $750 to rent it out, the night before the show… you have to laugh. If you can’t bring a shred of humor to what you’re passionate about, you’ll end up being a very disappointed & angry camper… As for the personalities, I’m a fan of comic books. Linden can speak more directly.
Linden: Dr. Puddles loves his comedy. But Dr. Puddles is more of dark and brooding sort these days, because he is not as well-known as he would like to be, and because he is not yet perfect.
RubyHornet: So, Toussaint, you have a college degree in theater. How do you find yourself using techniques, or just little things that you learned from that program in your music?
Toussaint: Theatre directly correlates with music. When anyone gets on stage to perform music, spoken word, give a speech, etc… It’s theatre. Now, I wouldn’t go saying that anyone with theatre major can handle a career in music. I’m just saying they overlap at a certain point. As for music, my grandfather was a jazz trombonist. I picked up the trombone when I was 8 and from then on, always had a love-hate relationship with music. Combining the two is easy. It makes sense to me. It’s an extension of your personality, ego, character, and whatever else you have to you that’s beyond your body. I feel the same way with slam poetry, acting, and dancing. To me, a college degree is a giant receipt, but the experience you get behind it is f**king priceless, as with any experience you can learn from. A theatre degree has taught me two things, have a means to employ yourself and be vulnerable (otherwise known as “human”). You see these self-righteous motherf**kers out here acting like they deserve something for just being in a band, being able to rap or write. Christ! Get a job, sell yourself, book a show and speak-up. The second step is the hardest, because a lot of people will get themselves out there, and then act like they’re invincible, like they don’t have problems or vices. S**t, the way I see it is we’re all Tony Stark’s, but when we try to front like Ironman… therein lies the true problem. If you can’t display your vulnerability, you’re telling me there’s no Tony Stark underneath the suit… bulls**t… Theatre can only help a musician… or vice versa. I bet The Black Keys would make a great Banquo and Macbeth.
RubyHornet: This theme of you guys being super villains from 80’s cartoons is interesting. What’s the meaning behind each person’s alter ego? Was this a names out of a hat type thing, or each alter-ego is purposeful?
Toussaint: An alter-ego is purposeful… and a bit dangerous as well. Jay-Z spoke in third person on Oprah… several times, and I applaud it because it felt like he dethroned the ego a bit. However with Kanye, you sometimes get the feeling he’s “fused” a split-personality disorder between his alter-ego and himself. With Lazlo Supreme, it’s a bit different. In the writing, the alter-ego is to get a message across, to put the voice into a different context. The album references making out with hot coffeeshop baristas, giving humans two choices before we take over the planet, and trying to talk a high school bully-victim out of shootin’ up the whole cafeteria. I can only account for one of these personally, but the alter-ego in it all allows for the audience to gather multiple perspectives. Oh, you were talking about the alter-egos on the myspace! Meh, kinda out of the hat/kinda not. Any musician will tell you their morals are riding the line if not out of it. Linden, what say ye?
Linden: I think the gut on display in that picture is reminiscent of a used car salesman.
RubyHornet: On the song, “What Makes You Happy”, Toussaint you say, “This whole world’s gone to hell, whether you want my opinion or not I’m going to give it to you, because its cold outside more ways than one.” Those are some pretty loaded lyrics. Can you elaborate for our readers on what you were trying to express with those lines?
Toussaint: The end of that verse goes “Said the bottle to the head”. To answer your question, that was the bottle talking… not me;) As for what was being said, I think in some states of mind, mood, or under the influence, you can truely feel like everything’s going to the toilet, and for a lot of people, that’s the raw truth. Hell, I woke up this morning feeling like robbing a bank in the worst mood ever… until I got an email for this interview. Actually, this interview is the sole thing keeping me from robbing Wells Fargo, right now. The chorus, however, says “What makes ya happy, comes in good time.” So, out of context, those lines can be taken heavily, but within the song, the message is “be patient, it’s gonna happen”.
RubyHornet: So your debut album, Evil Made Easy, is slated to drop the 26th of January. In the title we hear that tone of villainy once again. Can you explain to our readers the ideology behind the upcoming album?
Toussaint: In a world that despises true morality, the only way to propogate good is to package it as evil.
RubyHornet: What else can listeners and fans be expecting to get from you guys in the near future? Toussaint are you working on any films? Do you guys have shows, features, or tour dates that are important?
Toussaint: I have a free downloadable mixtape dropping the same day, just a little Chinese New Year’s gift to listeners. We’ll also be releasing two additional songs to Evil Made Easy on the date as well. Linden has a classical solo album he’ll be releasing in Feburary… Our tour kicks off in Minneapolis, Jan. 29th at The Triple Rock, after that we’ll be touring all over the midwest, in and out of Iowa and Wisconsin mostly where we make our bread & cream cheese. The myspace will have tour dates updated to the T. Hey, know of any shows in Chicago we could hop on?… Ha, hopefully we’ll have a booking agent by then.
RubyHornet: This will be a formal introduction for Lazlo Supreme and our RH readership, so can each of you give 1 reason why our readers should continue to follow your music?
Patrick: We offer music that is different from a lot of Hip Hop and pop music thats coming out now. Our instrumentals are creative and vary throughout tunes instead of a constant loop and chorus beat like in most Hip Hop. Overall were very artistic and can’t really compare it to anything I hear. Please don’t say we sound like atmosphere, as cool as they are. I want no affiliation or comparison!
Linden: Live Hip Hop will be the wave of the next decade, and you will not find another group that is as anthemic and as awesome as we are. Lazlo forever, Lazlo Supreme.
Toussaint: We will throw down the hotness/most badass show in your basement for your birthday party until the cops show up.
