By BISS List Contributing Editor, Josh Danson

Aug. 15, 2023

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Lantz Lazwell – multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and lead singer of LAZWELL (formerly Lantz Lazwell and the Vibe Tribe). Lantz looks like a mountain man – tall, rangy, long-haired, long-limbed, with rugged good looks and a certain kind of swagger – and he is proud of his gold country roots. When he’s not prowling a stage with his commanding presence, impressive vocal range and searing guitar licks, he’s likely to be re-charging back in nature – rock climbing in Joshua Tree, or guiding folks down the American River. 

Lantz grew up in a musical family and knew from an early age that he wanted to continue the family tradition, so he enrolled in the local city and community colleges’ music programs until he received a scholarship to study music at Sacramento State. After starting a band and winning some local acclaim (and a couple SAMMIE awards) in Sacto, he decided that LA was where he needed to be to take the next step in his musical journey. Shortly after arriving in LA, Lazwell linked up with members of Parliament Funkadelic (including BISS List amigo Eric McFadden) and joined the musical collective Trulio Disgracias, founded by Norwood Fisher of Fishbone. 

Lantz soon found his footing in LA and has been playing live and recording ever since. On his latest album, Counter Clockwise, set for release this fall, Lazwell is joined by a number of players from the LA scene, including the great George Clinton and his son Tracy. Lantz and I discussed the making of the new album, and the contributions of the Clintons, as well as his musical upbringing and early influences, his passion for the outdoors and how the Covid lockdown and his subsequent move out of LA ended up being a blessing in disguise. 

LAZWELL has an upcoming show at the Sweetwater, sharing the bill with Marshall House Project, @8:00 PM on September 2nd. For more information and to enter to WIN TICKETS to the show, click here. 

Interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity

BISS List: How would you describe your sound? I could throw out some labels: rock, blues, soul, funk, funk-rock, but I’d like to know how you hear yourself, how you would describe yourself.

Lantz Lazwell: That’s not always easy for me to put my finger on. And I’ll tell you why. I come from a background of storytelling in songwriting. I really am all about bringing back more of an old school approach to writing songs. I feel like nowadays you don’t hear a lot of storytelling happening. Like, Billy Joel, for example, is one of my favorite songwriters. One of my favorite writers is Edgar Allan Poe. And the reason why he’s one of my favorite writers is his descriptiveness and how he makes you feel the place that he’s describing, you feel like you’re there. And I feel that same thing from some of the songwriters that I love as well. Like David Bowie. He can take you to wherever, to whatever special place that he’s coming from in his songs, he can take you and make you feel like you’re in some kind of a Sci Fi novel, listening to his lyrics, you know? And being able to take people on journeys, being able to lift people out of their reality a little bit, that’s the beauty of music. Being able to, you know, uplift people, and also just to kind of get them out of their reality.

BL: Right. Well, I know, George Clinton and his Funkadelic stuff, he’s definitely a storyteller too – speaking of the Sci Fi stuff you’re alluding to.

LL: For sure, exactly. Yeah, and that’s definitely something that got me to love them so much growing up and listening to them as a kid. I listened to all his stuff and then getting to work with some of those people was just like a dream come true. So as far as my style goes, I think that it definitely lies in the underbelly of soul, funk and rock n roll. And I think that Parliament Funkadelic weaves through some of that themselves. They’re not just funk, in my eyes, they have a lot of rock aspects to what they do. Eddie Hazel is definitely a rock guitar player. He reminds me more of a Jimi Hendrix-type player than anything, you know? But at the same time I feel like my stuff kind of meanders from rock and roll to soul, and then I touch on some world music too. Some gypsy stuff, or whatever the preferred term is today. But anyway, elements of world music. I’ve studied with a few different world music people. One of my exes was a belly dancer and her mother wrote, The Compleat Belly Dancer, which was apparently the main manual on belly dancing and sold over 500,000 copies. Her family was originally from Lebanon, and her dad played the oud. I have an oud myself that they actually gave to me. So I got into a lot of different world music stuff. Then the blues has obviously always been a part of me. And lately I’ve been dabbling with electronic music, sampling and looping and using different synthesizers and stuff to write. The new album actually has a track where we just took the bass out completely in our last mixing session, which changed the song a lot and made it, to my ears, much more current and cool. I actually played the synth line on the new track, “Automatic,” which is definitely, of the two tracks that we just released, more pop sounding. I almost want to say it has a James Bond kind of feel to it. I kind of wrote it thinking, if I was ever gonna write a James Bond theme song, this is gonna be it, you know? [laughs] And then the other one that we have out there right now is, “Burning Bridges.” And that one has a few different feels within the song even.

BL: Yeah, so kind of representative of your wide breadth – a lot of different styles and influences there.

LL: Right. I mean, it starts out kind of sounding almost like spaghetti western’ish. Like, with this real kind of like Western vibe to it. That’s why when we did the video, I chose to go with a Western vibe for the video too. But yeah, that one starts out with kind of a spaghetti western feel to it at the very beginning. And then it breaks into some more pop-y, pre-chorus-y, then chorus stuff. Then it has a full on funky jam break that goes into a whole ‘nother kind of world.

BL: Right on. Love that you were able to get that all into one song. 

You grew up and studied music and started playing music in the Sacramento area. Is that right?

LL: Yeah, that’s where I grew up. Well, not really Sacramento. I think I may have put Sacramento in my bio, but if I want to be true to my origins, it was actually more in the Foothills.

BL: Gotcha.

LL: Yeah, the Foothills are actually where I grew up. I spent some time in Sacramento. After getting out of high school I moved down to downtown Sac for a little bit. But I grew up in the foothills – those were my stomping grounds – right near the American River. Kind of between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

BL: Beautiful country.

LL: Yeah, Gold Country, if you will. 

BL: Right.

LL: Yeah, that’s where I grew up. And that’s where I’m at now. I ended up back here after moving to LA for over a decade and then when COVID hit and all that stuff, I left. I packed up my car thinking I was coming here for a couple of weeks. I didn’t know how long the pandemic was gonna last. You know, when it first started, I had no idea what was going on with this whole thing. None of us did, obviously. I just knew that I didn’t want to be in LA. I was like, I got to go hang out with my family back in the hills and be in a space where there’s not as many people all around.

BL: Smart choice. 

LL: I’m also really big into outdoors stuff. Actually, my first instinct was to head to Joshua Tree. That was my first instinct when the pandemic hit. So I went to Joshua Tree. And I was planning on camping there for like a week or two because I’m a big rock climber. And there was nobody there, you know? This is like right when the pandemic had just started like, they hadn’t locked everything down yet. All the news was just happening, like, “Oh, there’s this thing coming from China…” And I was like, “F it, I’m going to the desert,” you know?

BL: I literally had a trip planned with my daughter who was going into seventh grade then. I  literally had booked us an Airstream trailer, just outside the park, and had a campsite booked in Joshua Tree for like, April 1 of 2020, or whenever it hit. And until the day before we had to cancel, I was like, “We can still do this!” And then they’re like, “Everything is shut down.” And they issued that Shelter-in-Place order. So if it hadn’t been for that we  might have run into you in Joshua Tree!

LL: Yeah, I was there when they closed the park down. 

BL: Crazy.

LL: It was so weird. I had never seen anything like this in my entire life, obviously. But like it felt so apocalyptic that they were coming around with loudspeakers in their fucking ranger cars. And just saying, “Everybody must exit the park!” with loudspeakers and sirens. And I’m like, “Why? Why do we need to exit the park?” There was barely even anybody there. The other thing that drove me nuts was I had just gotten the best camping spot I’d ever gotten out there. It’s mostly first come first serve there. You can’t really reserve anything. And there’s this one area that’s just surrounded by rocks. There’s like, rock climbing routes everywhere, all around you. You can literally just walk five minutes to get to like, 20 different routes, you know? It’s so cool. You can camp right there and just walk from your campsite to go climbing. But then they came around and we had paid for it already – put the money into their little folder box or whatever – and paid for like, 10 days, or however many you can pay for an advance. They don’t allow you to stay there for too long, but we had paid for the whole 10 days, and like two days in they came and told us to leave and we’re like, “What about our money?” And they’re like, “You can put in a request,” Like, sure, that’s going to happen.

BL: Guess you write that one off as a donation.

LL: So, I just ended up packing my car up and coming up north. And I never looked back. But it was really strange. I still have a house in LA that I rent out, and I still have tons of stuff there that I haven’t seen in years. I’ve been back a few times. And I have grabbed a few things here and there. But you know, literally like all my record collection, bunch of music gear and all this stuff like furniture, TVs, and whatever else, is still down there. But I moved into an RV up here. So I’ve been living in an RV and I’ve downsized everything. And I actually just… I love it. I love the way that I’m living right now. And I’m almost feeling like, fuck, I should just go to down to LA and sell everything that I don’t really really need. 

BL: Right? Yeah, that sounds like a cool, untethered lifestyle. So you grew up in the foothills. Did you come from a musical family or musical background? Or is that something that you came to more or less on your own

LL: Yep, third generation musician.

BL: Yeah? Very cool. So that’s clearly something that you felt connected to, or that you were drawn to early on. And I gather you studied music as well?

LL: Yep, I went to college for music. I actually got a scholarship for music. I got to go to Sac State for free to study vocals, under Dr. [Donald] Kendrick. And they actually paid for vocal lessons for me out of school. It was really fucking awesome. It’s a great program. Super lucky to have been involved in that. I also attended Sierra College, their music program. And then also  American River college. Their music program was really amazing as well. I got really lucky with the junior colleges I attended before going to Sac State. They had incredible teachers. 

BL: That’s great. And then after your studies, I guess that’s when you decided to move to LA. Is that how the timeline worked? You’re like, “All right, now I’m ready to break into break into the LA music scene.”

LL: Well, I stayed in downtown Sac for a little bit and started a band there. And we won some SAMMIES [Sacramento Area Music Awards], you know, like the local musical awards. So I was there for a little while and I was kind of trying to talk the band and all into going to LA, you know? Sacramento was too small of a pool for us to play in and I wanted to make bigger connections and stuff, and I felt like LA was the place to do it. So yeah, I moved down to LA and ended up making some really great connections pretty early on. I started working with Norwood Fisher from Fishbone and his side project, which was called Trulio Disgracias. Which was how I met Kim Manning from Parliament Funkadelic. And then Kim Manning and I started a band together and also started dating for like three years. And that band is what toured with P funk and opened up for P funk on several dates.

BL: What was that band called?

LL: Wahnderlust. 

BL: Okay, cool. Well, that’s a nice way to break into the LA scene. Not the easiest scene to break into and get noticed.

LL: Yeah, I got lucky. I think. [Laughs]

BL: Well, it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good. And it helps to be both.

LL: Well, you know, I had an opportunity and it was backed up with a lot of hard work.

BL: Yeah, totally. So that’s how you ended up hooking up with George Clinton?

LL: That’s how I ended up meeting George, yes. Now, all those people that I originally met when I came to LA are on my latest record that’s going to be released in the fall. So I’m pretty excited about that.

BL: So tell me about the new album, Counter Clockwise. Did you just release it? Or are you sort of trickling it out over time, track by track? 

LL: It’s 10 songs and yeah, we’re doing some single releases before the actual album drops later this fall. 

BL: Nice. Well, I’ve been enjoying those.

LL: We had the chance to release a single through Relix and have it be on their artist sampler for the March edition, where they featured King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on the front cover and also on the sampler. So we figured we might as well put the one featuring George Clinton on there, and it was chosen to be song number three on the sampler. 

BL: That’s a great showcase. I enjoy getting their sampler every month myself. So tell me about that track, “Killin’ It.” That’s a banger. I was trying to figure out… you kind of double up on the voice part on that. Is that you singing both of the vocal tracks?

LL: That’s actually me and Tracy Clinton, George’s Clinton’s son.

BL: Oh, no way?!

LL: Yeah, George is on there too but he’s not really on the verses. I assume you’re talking about the verses?

BL: Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. At first I was like, “Oh, is that George [singing the verses]? But then I heard George come in later, just doing some sort of like…

LL: Yeah, George is on there ad libbing. He does the intro, the outro and then he ad libs on the choruses. The verses are me and Tracy. Tracy’s doing one track and I’m doing a lot of tracks.

BL: Oh cool. 

LL: Yeah, I’m doing that very deep part. Some of my vocal teachers in the past have been kind of amazed by my range. I can go very deep and then I’ve also got a pretty decent falsetto as well. I can hit some of the stuff that Clip, Clipadelic [Michael “Clip” Payne], the guy that does all the deep stuff for Parliament, hits. They have one guy they hired just to do all that really low, like, [In a super low register] “Everybody come on board the mothership.” “Yeah, baby.” “P-Funk Power,” “500,000 watts of pure P-Funk Power.” [laughs] Yeah, I can get down there.

BL: [Laughs] That’s awesome. So the songs for this album, are these songs that you’ve had sort of in the hopper for a while? Are they a product of a concerted effort specifically with this album in mind, or is it material that you’ve been holding on to for a while?

LL: We have this album done and ready to be released and then we have another six song EP that’s in the hopper. It’s on deck so to speak. It needs some finishing touches, but all the instrumental stuff is completed, all the main tracks are done. We’re looking to try to release that one before the end of the year. And then I also have a single with Afrolicious that he and I – Joe from Afrolicious and I – did that we’re also trying to release this summer. So these are all different songs I’ve been working on over the past, like four or five years. Some of the stuff is pretty new and the other songs are a couple years old. 

“Killin’ It,” originally was written by me. And then I brought in George and Tracy to, you know, funk it up a bit. And since they got involved in the project it definitely changed the sound somewhat. The song went through a bit of a metamorphosis. So I’d say as far as when it was written, it was still being written, even though I started writing it three years ago, it just got finished, I’d say… when we mixed it. [laughs]

BL: Right. Well, it sounds like it came together well at the end. I’ve really enjoyed listening to it over the past few days. 

LL: Thank you, I really appreciate that. 

BL: Yeah, of course. So it sounds like this was a different line-up than you’ve been playing with live recently. Was this recorded with the Vibe Tribe, or was this done with a different group of players?

LL: When I recorded this it was all done in LA. And since then I’ve moved from LA back up north. So yeah, I have different players playing with me live that are part of the Vibe Tribe, but that really is no longer now. 

[Personnel on Counter Clockwise include: 
Lantz Lazwell –  Vox, guitar, keys, synth
Thomas Ross Johansen –  organ, synth
Robbie Gennet – Keys 
Eric McFadden –  Guitar
Nic Nifoussi –  Bass, accordion 
Norwood Fisher – Bass
Shane Soloski – Bass 
Fernando Rensi – Drums
Robbie Dean – Drums 
Stephen Perkins – Drums
Hope Easton  – Cello
Molly Rogers  – Violin
George Brawler- Trumpet
George Clinton – Vocals
Tracey Clinton – Vocals 
Deepak Ramapiyan – Vocals
Joe Conn – Vocals]

BL: Yeah?

LL: Yeah, we’re dropping the name Vibe Tribe and moving to rebrand as LAZWELL. Something easier to remember. Easier to spell. Easier to type. You know, all that. I feel like people’s attention spans these days, even with a name, people are constantly coming up with ways to shorten everything, right? 

BL: Right? Like, “Fewer characters please.” Like, TLDR, or whatever.

LL: Yeah, you know, everything becomes just three letters these days, like, “lol” right?

BL: Exactly. 

LL: Or “IRL.” So yeah, we’re just kind of trying to, before I release this next album, which I feel like is gonna be the pinnacle of my career, so far, I wanted to make sure we had everything properly packaged. And I feel like this is going to be a really good new start for the band.

BL: Right on. That’s exciting stuff. I know you’ve been playing a lot of shows at the Boom Boom Room recently. 

LL: Yeah, it’s been cool to play the Boom Boom and kind of do a residency there. Because now we kind of feel like we’re entering a phase where we want to start playing less shows, and just start making each show a little more special. We’ve been grinding it out for a while and I feel like it’s time to kind of work smarter, not harder. That’s where we’re at right now. So we don’t have any more Boom Boom Room shows at the moment, but I’d expect to be back probably in the fall sometime.

Boz Scaggs is playing the Fillmore in August and I love him. I think it’d be kind of cool to play after him, but we shall see. 

BL: Yeah, for sure. Another great singer/songwriter. Great voice, all that.

LL: I’ve actually been compared to him several times by different people.

BL: Not a bad person to be compared to.

LL: Yeah, yeah, I get a lot of different ones. But that’s one that I’ve heard more than once.

BL: You’ll take that. So when did you say you have the six song EP targeted for release? Is that also coming out around that August timeframe? 

LL: Yeah, that’s probably going to be a Fall or Winter release.

BL: Okay. That’ll be good. Get back at it around then and then do some gigs in support of the album and then get that EP out there as well.

LL: We’ll probably take our time. I usually don’t do too much Fall touring, but we’ll put it out there and then play a couple shows. But yeah, like I said, I don’t do a lot of Fall touring. I usually try to take a break in the fall and winter and do some snowboarding and get back to nature a little bit because summer’s usually got me a little wiped out.

BL: Yeah, I’m sure. Well, that’s a great area to be able to retreat to up there. I love fly fishing, so I like to try and make it up at that neck of the woods to do some fishing every once in a while.

LL: Oh, yeah? Nice. I’m also a river guide. I do whitewater rafting.

BL: Oh, really? 

LL: I grew up living right near the American River. So I’ve been a whitewater rafting guide since I was like 17.

BL: That’s awesome. I’ll have to get out on the river with you sometime. 

LL: For sure. I do that in Puerto Rico in the fall. Cruise out in November, and go out to Puerto Rico and do some trips and hang out and just kind of relax and reset. 

BL: That sounds amazing. 

LL: Do some solo shows while I’m down there.

BL: Sweet! On the beach? 

LL: Yeah, exactly.

BL: Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks for your time, Lantz. Great to meet you over the phone and I look forward to seeing you out next time you’re playing in August or in the fall.

LL: Sounds good. Appreciate it.

BL: Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks again, good luck with everything and hopefully we’ll talk again sometime soon. 

LL: All right, take care man.

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