Soundcheck: Interview with Triple MAMA's winner Lucas Cates Submitted by Paul Jones on Tue, 2007-05-15 Life has been going well lately for Madison singer/songwriter Lucas Cates, winning Pop Song, Pop Album, and Pop Artist of the year at the recent Madison Area Music Awards. I had the good fortune to sit down with Lucas a few days before the awards. Paul: How did you get started playing music? Lucas Cates: I started playing guitar my sophomore year in college with a bunch of friends. It was just something I picked up pretty fast. I stuck with it because I feel like it took me twenty years to figure out what I was good at, but I finally figured it out. It was a social thing, bringing people together. I like to entertain. P: You write all your own songs, what is the process behind that? Lucas: I think that sometimes that songs for me are personal life events, sometimes they aren't. If they're not things that actually happened in my life, they're stories that I've created and tried to relate to certain characters or certain people in my life. When I start writing I mostly play the guitar stuff first, and then words follow thereafter. Writing kind of goes in waves for me. I'll have guitar parts building up and building up and then soon I find verses and choruses that fit together, and sometimes bridges fall in line. I need to wait to be inspired, I can't force words. I'm not one of these guys that likes to write forty songs in forty days, I just don't feel you get the quality songs, you may get one out of the forty thats good. I like to take my time writing, and let things soak in and think about the song. So, its usually stories about my life, people in my life, or fictional characters where I've imagined myself in their shoes. Paul: How much of the material that you write do you end up performing? Lucas: I play the majority of my music, there are songs I wrote when I first started playing guitar, obviously I sucked, so those songs I don't play, but most of the new stuff that I've been writing I play. There's some songs on the new EP that are older songs that I've had sitting on the back burner for a while, they're kind of coming into the limelight now that I've got the band, because the band has helped the songs to evolve and come to life. Paul: How did your band come together? Lucas: We started recording Contradictory with my producer Robert J of PopBomb Records, Matt Rogers is my bassist right now, and Britton Rice, who was my drummer, he just went on tour with his other band, Polydream. They were high school buddies that I hadn't seen in a long time. I asked if they wanted to play on the record. Most of the stuff at first, they were studio musicians, then they decided they wanted to play live with the group, and we became the Lucas Cates Band thereafter. Now that we've been playing live a lot, I've got a new drummer right now, the songs have really come to life. The live shows are a lot more energetic, I think. We've got eight new songs that are a little more edgy. We just picked up another keys player, I'm excited about that. Paul: How long did it take to get the CD together? Lucas: We started pre-production in February of 2005, but the whole process took from there to September 2005, then we had to send it away to get mastered, and it came back just before Christmas, so it took about a year to get everything done and the hard copies in our pockets. Paul: You've talked about playing with your band a lot, but tonight you're playing by yourself. Looking at your schedule, you seem to do about half solo and half band performances. Do you find it difficult to switch back and forth between the two? Lucas: No, actually I just think its a different thing, a different animal. With the band its a completely different show. Its loud, its more energetic. My solo shows are much more subdued just by the nature of the beast. I enjoy doing both. It gets the bills paid, you know? The day job is finally gone now. Paul: What are your opinions on the Madison music scene right now? Lucas: I'm very impressed with the amount of talent, and the amount of bands that are here. I feel like music can sometimes get trapped here, good bands can get trapped here. Whether it's their prerogative to not promote and push it further, but I think its easier for musicians to make a living here than in, say, Chicago, where you've got a hundred people lined up to play free at some venue downtown. I think that bands are like this everywhere, but you go places and bands are watching each other going “I could do that,” its band against band, versus what I'm trying to do lately is really network with some of the other local bands here, to try to pull more fans into a venue, get more people through the door, be better for the venue. I think that along the way it's important to make bridges, a friend's band may eventually meet someone or know someone down the road, and if you've been supportive of them, chances are they'll be supportive of you. I think a lot more Madison bands should play together, and the venues in Madison should work harder at promoting the local music. In my opinion, the venues don't really do much ground promotion. They've been relying on the artists to do that. Now, some of the venues are sending out mass e-mails and stuff like that, and that's cool. Overall, I think its a great scene, with great music, but I also think its important for the good music that's here to get out. Paul: You were talking about how important promotion is, is that the most difficult part of the job for you? Lucas: I hate to say anything is difficult, because I'm doing exactly want I want to be doing. I enjoy booking, I enjoy the stuff that comes along with the music. Of course, actually playing music, that's my passion, thats what I want to do. Ideally, that is what I would like to only do, is play music. There's also a business side of music that isn't music at all, but I enjoy it, and I don't think it's difficult because I enjoy it. At the same time, its constantly talking to people, you don't have a set schedule, you have to do things when they need to be done. Its not a 9 to 5 day job, its certainly a lot of hours throughout the day. Paul: There's probably a thousand people in Wisconsin that would describe themselves as a singer/songwriter. What makes you different? Why should people come and see you? Lucas: My band is extremely talented, they're extremely good musicians, and I'm kind of a centerpiece of this plethora of sound. I come with the songs, I'm the main singer/songwriter, but we arrange as a group, and I really feel like we've got something going. I don't necessarily want to say that I've created my own genre or anything like that, because I haven't, but at the same time I've done some unique things in my songwriting, I'm extremely sociable at my events, I feel like I'm pretty approachable, I like to hang out and talk with fans. I'll have to think about that one some more. I think I'd leave that up to someone else, like a critic or someone to say, “Luke is this, or Luke is that, or Luke isn't this, or Luke isn't that.” I'm just doing what I do and following my dream, you know? If others find it intriguing and they are along for the ride, then great. Paul: What's been the biggest surprise of your musical career so far? Lucas: I had a song picked up by the Cincinnati Ballet for a modern dance piece, our song “4Everytime.” We went down there and got put up in the presidential suite. I actually was living the rock star dream for a couple nights. We've gotten a lot of press here in Madison, great press, and my name has spread through the music scene and people know who I am now. When you see your name in the papers and in the news, its cool and it makes you feel like you're doing something. Even just that I got signed so quickly off doing open mics all over Madison. Now we've been invited a lot of cool places to play. I feel like we're in good shoes right now and its going to keep moving forward. Paul: What is next for you then? Lucas: Our summer is booked up, we've got a lot of shows, both regionally and in Madison. My next step here is to experiment with other players, I'm going to experiment with new guitarists, like I said I've got the keys player, really working with vocals. As far as shows go, concentrating on the major metro areas like Chicago and Minneapolis, occasionally Milwaukee. I'm really trying to put myself out in front of the people that can take me to the next level, beyond where I am now. Paul: Any new recordings coming up? Lucas: Yes! I've got a new EP thats supposed to be coming out in December. It's got six of the new eight tracks that we're playing now. It'll be entitled All The Pieces. We'll have some of it up on MySpace and start promoting it, and see if we can't get some of it licensed, pushed to television, radio, commercials, stuff like that. That's another avenue I've been working, the A&R placement in movies and television and all that. There's other ways to make money as a musician other than just playing live. Paul: Do you see the placement in movies and so forth being the major way for people to get noticed these days? Lucas: People certainly go big. It takes connections, and the time to develop those connections to people that are in A&R because they're constantly being bombarded with music. It takes someone to get their foot in the door for you, its hard to self-represent all the time. Its a huge way to get national exposure, you could be a star overnight if it takes off. Paul: You seem to have a good thing going so far, any advice for those wanting to follow in your footsteps? Lucas: It's just like anything else, it takes a lot of work. There's a lot of extremely talented musicians, extremely talented bands, but a funny thing happens when you don't promote and thats nothing. You've got to get out there and talk to people. Don't count out the little people, don't count out the people working the doors. Spread your name, sell yourself. Don't sell your soul, but sell yourself. And for Christ's sake, be a good person, because you can be an extremely talented musician, but if you're an asshole, people don't care. That's my advice, it take a lot of time, you can't be sitting on the couch writing songs all day, you have to get out and push yourself and work the business side of it. QUOTES - Lucas Cates - Contradictory Here’s what’s being said about this 24 year old singer/songwriter and his band from Madison, Wisconsin…….. "Infectious pop that swings like Jack Johnson and bites like Elvis Costello" - City Beat, Cincinnati, Ohio “Lucas Cates is quickly gaining notoriety for his impassioned and fresh acoustic songwriting prowess.” – Rick’s Cafe "Contradictory is a collaboration of lively and talented musicians....if your attention isn't caught by the soothing vocals, great acoustics, or funny lyrics, then you, my friend, should check to see if you're still breathing." -Veronica Ramos Space City Rock Houston, TX "If Lucas Cates and his band aren't being enjoyed nationally within the year, there is something seriously wrong with the Triple A music industry.” – Jeff Black/105.5 Triple M Radio “The song 'Contradictory' is unique pop-country-rock-punk-cool. Sounds kind of like a midwestern modern-day Elvis Costello." – Broadjam Review "Lucas Cates is an exciting songwriter with a high-energy approach to breezy acoustic pop. His slightly gravelly baritone gives a lot of weight to the stories on his new disc.” - The Onion “Robert J.’s bluesy electric guitar solos bring to mind Carlos Santana……. I guess that makes Cates the parallel-universe Rob Thomas; it’s probably only a matter of time before he writes his own version of “Smooth”, a perfect rock song.” “The first single, “4evertime” goes down as easy as Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning”. With gentle, reflective songs and teen-idol good looks, Cates has all the trappings of mass-market appeal”. - Rich Albertoni/The Isthmus “Ridiculously catchy songs”, “Bouncy infectious melodies and memorable lyrics“…………“Addictive”!!!!! “The same kind of smooth flowing bounce that vaulted Jack Johnson to stardom”! – Kiki Schueler/Rick’s Cafe