By: Sam Houghton

Apparently there’s a new sound emerging in Brooklyn. Word of mouth is spreading whispers of a band that rocks like Jack White but cuts to the bosom like an Otis Redding ballad. They’re building an energy and I wanted to see how they were doing it.  So I went to a show, saw the lead singer belt out soul tunes with a wailing band behind him and decided to sit down with the man. Here’s what Cedric Lamar, lead singer of The Life and Times Of…, had to say.

SH: Great show the other night. Thank you very much. You definitely had an energy going on for the show, which was great. It seemed you understood the fact that you were an entertainer. To start it off, what do you attribute that to?

CL: Being an actor. I went to school for acting. There’s an element of performance that’s naturally ingrained in me. I hesitate, because I know that people maybe have an association with actors turn musicians, that it’s not as viable and not as raw, but I would hope that anyone who has seen me thinks that’s not the case. One of my biggest talents or gifts is to be on stage and to connect directly to people in front of me. It’s interesting as we go into the recording studio because I don’t know anything about that. Even as a musician, I taught myself how to play guitar and I’m learning about music as we go. I always know I’ll prepare prepare prepare for a gig but as soon as the actual first chord is played… I’m cool. That’s my territory, I can hold my own on stage.

SH: The first song you guys played, at the end, you moved right into the next song, and it was almost as if your band was falling behind you…

CL: Yeah, that night, we started to go into the next song, and they were a step behind me, but we got back on track. But yeah, I definitely want to create a show, an energy, as opposed to a collection of songs. I wrote all these songs by myself and used to do open mikes, or an acoustic show. It would just be a night of individual songs and people would point out certain ones, like: “Oh, that fourth song you played, I like that.” I didn’t want that to happen. I want people to view it and be like: “that was an awesome night, an awesome show, an awesome experience.” I don’t want people to care about what order the songs were played, I just want people digging everything. That’s the goal.

SH: The lyrics to “My Song” has a way of avoiding judgment. There’s a line in there that says, “It’s Rock, it’s Hip-hop, it’s Soul.” This line struck me in a way, and I know you take a lot of stock in your lyrics. I’m wondering what are the goals when you write a song, what are you trying to express?

CL: Lyrically, I’m trying to get biting honesty out of myself. And that is a very difficult task, when you don’t want to look at yourself, you don’t want to admit your own flaws or even your strengths. A large part of my goal is to push myself to be as honest as I can, and hopefully through that honesty, it illuminates something about human nature, or in people that are listening as well. There’s definitely a connection I’m trying to make, and I’m trying to make it by opening myself up as much as I can and releasing everything that I have on display so that you can see the strengths and flaws and weaknesses, who this person in front of you is… kind of encourage participation with the listener.

SH: How do you think you came up with this writing process?

CL: [Long pause] I’ve written many different things. I wouldn’t consider myself a writer, but I write. I’ve written plays, short stories, a children’s book, and songs and lots of things. Then for two years, I had writers block. I didn’t write anything. It was tough. And then when I started writing again, I wrote this song, “Gotta Get Over You.” It was the most honest thing I’ve ever written, and it kind of unleashed an ocean of other things that I realized I hadn’t been writing as honestly as before. I’ve written many shitty songs, but this was the first song that I felt was really good. This one kind of started it all. Those lyrics are very honest. They’re very humiliating and embarrassing. When I look at a song I’ve just written and I don’t cringe, not because it’s good writing, but because: “Ugh… I can’t believe I’m gonna say this in front of people,” I can say to myself that I’m probably not digging deep enough.

SH: You mind me asking what that song’s about?

CL: “Gotta Get Over You?”

SH: Yeah.

CL: “Gotta Get Over You” was about this girl that I dated for a hot second at my first college. After, we became basically best friends, but I still had this unrequited love for, I don’t know, five or six years. I went with this friendship, secretly being like: “I love her, I love her, I love her.” And times during that friendship, after like two years, I’d be like: “I can’t take it anymore, I gotta tell her.” So I’d tell her, and she’d be like: “I love you too, but not like that.” So this happened like three times, and after the last time, I was like, “OK.” She’s one of my best friends now. I love her. She’s fucking awesome, but I knew that if I wanted to keep this person in my life as a friend, I had to get over her. I had to get over the idea of having her romantically in my life. So I wrote that song, and it’s funny, she loves that song, and I’m very happy she loves it.

SH: Did the song help you get over her?

CL: [Big Sigh] Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was pretty much the key. I definitely purged some demons in that song.

[Laughing]

SH: Alright, well, we’ll take it back a few steps. What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

CL: Well I didn’t really grow up listening to music. My parents aren’t huge music listeners, and nor was I until about high school. It’s funny, when people talk about 90s music, it goes completely over my head. So, it’s been an interesting process going back and learning about music that was around when I was growing up. I grew up as a sports kid. I played basketball and was a black belt in karate. I didn’t start acting until I was a junior in High School. With all art, I’ve been a step behind, well not behind, but I have a different angle from people who have been in, say, plays since they were three, or playing the guitar when they were 11. I didn’t start playing guitar until my second year in college, which allows a fresh look at it for me, a fresh take. I try to take all these influences, and I’m listening to so much stuff, old and new, and trying to combine into my own style.
I would say that one of my first favorite bands was Outkast. I still love Outkast, but my biggest influence now, or for that last however many years, is pretty much anything Jack White has done. Even though I don’t write or am trying to be like Jack White, at the same time, that’s the biggest influence to the way I approach writing a song right now. So is Bill Withers, and Stevie Wonder, and the Rolling Stones, and Radiohead, you know. It’s all over the place, jazz and blues…

SH: Well it seems the New York scene is like that: all over the place. What do you think of the scene?

CL: That is so hard. Well, it’s interesting. I’m a study. I like to study what it is I’m doing and who else is doing it. I haven’t been into music for years, but I’m a fast learner. When I started, I tried learning about the singer songwriter scene. It was cool. I saw some really, really good stuff, but I didn’t feel I was a part of it. That wasn’t what I wanted to do. As much as I like getting up there, and as much as I can hold my own with just me and my guitar up there on stage, and people seemed to respond well to it, it’s not what I’m trying to do. Even though I love folk, it felt too folky, I couldn’t hear the song, the melodies through it. Everything I write is rhythmic. I think of the drums when I start playing the guitar and: “Oh man, a lead guitar would kill over this progression.” So then I went and started watching bands and I felt the same way: “Huh, this is a great band. Not what I’m trying to do though.” They seem to have this energy of having fun, or this energy of drinking and of partying, and so I’m trying to make this hybrid between singer/songwriter and band. I want people who come and see my show to understand the lyrics. I toil over them, every syllable. I am constantly revising songs I’ve already written because these lyrics tell a story. But at the same time, I want it to crush. I don’t want to be just a singer/songwriter with just a small wave, I want a tsunami of sound to blow people away. So, I’m still trying to find who in the scene is doing what I’m doing so I can study.
It’s nice to go see a singer/songwriter and also to go see a band and look at: “Wow, look at the mic technique. Or “Wow, you can start a song like that?” or, “Look at the drummer do that.”

SH: Where do you think you and your band fit in?

CL: The music business is changing so much and I’m sitting here reading these music business books that are already out of date from like 3 years ago. The Manhattan scene is almost nonexistent, and everything has been pushed to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn scene is ever changing. There are so many bands moving from other cities to Brooklyn and becoming Brooklyn based bands. I don’t really know where I fit in. I’m hoping I can create a fan-base. To me it seems to be about the people who love music, and are willing to go out and listen to music and help promote. So, if I can start with a fan base that is excited about my music and then build from there, that seems to be the way to go these days. It’s not cross your fingers and hope you get signed by a label. Hopefully, I’m creating a fan base. That’s the goal, and then everything will fall into place, you know, getting a manager, getting the recording done, getting a label, and a tour together. That’s the goal.

SH: So what’s it like on stage? You have a unique sense or amount of energy, so I want to know what it’s like?

CL: I prepare a lot… I prepare a lot.

SH: How do you prepare?

CL: I constantly have a guitar in my hand. I want to prepare so much that when I get on stage, I can let my preparation work for itself. I’m training my brain to do many things at the same time. I’m training my hands to work on autopilot so that I can think about the lyrics and the connection with the song. I’m thinking about getting the musicality of the song down so well, in terms of vocally and guitar-wise, that I can concentrate on the audience and connect to the people in front of me. I’m trying to make sure I can hear what the band is doing, that we’re together, that I can lead them, that there’s an energy on stage that’s bubbling in a way too. So to do that, I visually prepare a lot. I meditate on what it’s like to be on stage, what it will feel like, what it will be like to have this guy three feet to my right, what it’s like to have the drums behind me as opposed to in front of me like it is in rehearsal, what will the lights feel like, will I be able to see my hands, ok, what it’s like to push this pedal during this… I really do a lot of preparation by myself, as well as rehearsal with the band, but there’s so much preparation that goes into it so that I can let it all go. I’m hopefully in the moment.  For the performances when I’m not in the moment and still it’s a pretty good show, but for me, I wasn’t completely there. But for the shows that I do, I was present that night. It’s really about being present for me and being in the moment, and to do that, I have to prepare tirelessly.

SH: What is that? At the beach, you can be in the moment. But what is that moment like on stage? Can you explain it?

CL: I don’t know if I can explain it because it only happens when you’re on stage. Me talking about it after the fact is me talking about it after the fact. It’s an experience that I’m talking about in the future or the past. The only way to explain it would be to somehow hook up some notation device to my brain when I’m on stage, but I think it’s always going to feel sterile, like you’re talking about something in a textbook. But there’s an energy coming from the audience, there’s an energy coming from us on stage, and I’m trying to just bathe in that energy and use it all. Also, I have a lot of energy. That’s my job, not that I want to seem manic on stage, but to take all the energy I have that night and express that to someone.

SH: Your movements or your style seem to resemble Otis Redding.

CL: Well it’s funny you say that, because I used to describe my music, it’s not like either of these two people but it’s like, what I’m trying to do is a cross between Otis Redding and Jack White. I don’t really know what that means, but that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to have a classic soul thing, but at the same time, I love rock n roll. I love a driving, heavy sound, as well as this beautiful soul voice that evokes pain and fear and self-doubt.

SH: Well, what are your hopes or plans for the future?

CL: Recording is the next thing. I think the live thing is going really well and it’s growing, but then there’s this whole new way of promoting the band once I have a recording. I have a demo that was recorded with a band I played with in Europe that’s just not the sound at all. And it’s important to me, when I do unleash these songs I’ve spent all this time on to the world that they have the sound that I want… that I’ve had in my head. So I’m very excited about the recording process and also very nervous, but once I get the recording, that’s a new wave of promotion, a new wave of hopefully new fans, of really getting the band out there.

The Life of Times Of… have a show tomorrow night, October 1st, at Spike Hill with Baby Brother and Big Grin.  Check it out.