[RH Interview] North Coast Music Festival: Jesse Miller of Lotus
Photos by Bobby Reys
Lotus has carried the flag for their own genre for awhile now. "Jamtronica", the band's signature blend of electronic elements paired with a creatively unique jam band aesthetic that has kept them at the forefront of both genres for close to 15 years now. Lotus' ability to master a wide range of disciplines musically has allowed the Indiana-based group to constantly tinker with it's sound and evolve the band's dynamic. Lotus is a fully adaptable animal, with the ability to go from rock to dance to hip hop all in one rocking set and, largely without vocal aid. I had a chance to catch Lotus frontman Jesse Miller while backstage at The Last Stand Stage, check out the interview below.
Jake: Welcome to Chicago, what are the feelings about playing at North Coast and what do you all have in store?
Jesse: Our set is always interesting. At a festival, I feel like Lotus tends to stretch things out so ours sometimes we have to take it down to this package but this is a young crowd at this festival so I'm sure we're going to keep it on the dance tip. So we're planning on dancing and rocking out.
Jake: I know you all have a new album coming out as well that is tailored more towards a hip-hop aspect?
Jesse: Yeah, Monks. It's more of just a project for the album. We actually had started working on a track with Mr. Lif in maybe like 2011, maybe even a little bit before and we were working on it while we were working on other tracks and we didn't really feel ike we had a great place for it, we didn't want to drop it in the middle of another album and have it feel like it was this totally different thing so we were going to release it as a single but then started doing a few more and then we got Lyrics Born on for a track and Gift of Gab on there. So we just sort of built it out and said "Ok, what can we do with this" and then we ended up going back through it and weaving in the whole story, recorded some instrumentals and the whole project really came together really organically.
[RH Interview] North Coast Music Festival 2013: U-God
Photography by Geoff Henao
Like most anyone involved with hip-hop music or pop culture in general, I grew up listening to Wu-Tang Clan and vividly remember ODB crooning through the speakers of my Mom's Ford Explorer when I was a kid hijacking the radio. So, waiting on the elevator with two photographers to meet and interview U-God during North Coast was one of the crazier moments I've had in my life. The two of us said hello, settled in and enjoyed the view from the 29th floor of the Hard Rock Hotel, check out the conversation below.
Jake: Tell me a bit about coming to Chicago after being overseas for a minute.
U-God: Well man you know, Chicago's one of the hometowns that gave us our first little bit of love out here as Wu-Tang and shit so it's a good market for us you know what I'm saying? We had to do a lot to get in this market and it's a hard market to crack so back in the days we put our work in out here and it paid off man, people out here, they like us man.
Jake: What's the ride been like coming up with Wu-Tang?
U-God: Its been a roller coaster man. It's always been a roller coaster to me because I always feel like someone is trying to be our demise. I always feel like there's someone out there trying to stop us, some force or a hidden hand that's always trying to stop us or pull us apart or just some shit like that. But it feels awesome, after all this time we're still putting out good music-I put out a dope record this year, you know what I'm sayin'? I'm just happy to still be here you know? Still being able to tour, run around and still see people like y'all coming through to check me out.