Features

Lotus: Electronic Flower Power

Photo by Dave Vann

At first, of course, the band needed day jobs to support themselves while, at night, they figured out just what, exactly, Lotus was going to look and sound like as an entity. The twins took landscaping jobs, albeit for different landscaping companies. When I suggest, via a late-night text message, that some parallel might be drawn between working on landscapes by day and creating soundscapes by night, Jesse immediately shoots back the following SMS: “If trimming bushes and mowing lawns was anything like writing music, I’d probably still be at it.”
But, alas, the brothers were able to quit their landscaping jobs—and the other guys in the band were able to walk away from various stints as house painters, junk removers and the like—and focus on Lotus full-time around 2004.

That’s when they all, collectively, realized that Lotus wasn’t just going to be a band they were in until they found another one—Lotus was it. “I went all in at that point,” says Jesse.

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Lotus was still a group in search of an identity. Early reviews compared them to more established acts in the then-fledgling jamband scene—groups such as The Slip (likely because Rempel’s spiraling guitar licks sometimes recalled Brad Barr’s agile fingerwork). Still other comparisons misguidedly—but understandably— likened them to the electronic-leaning, instrumental, jam rock pioneers of the day, Sound Tribe Sector Nine.

These days, when Lotus performs at electronic festivals such as Ultra in Miami, or even on multi-act bills with DJs and groups like The New Deal, they’re often cited as being the rock band representatives.

“It’s a funny change,” says Jesse, “because when we first got into the festival scene, we were always the electronic group. There would be a bunch of roots-rock or even bluegrass groups and then we’d get up there and there would be wires going everywhere and instruments that people in those other groups had never even seen.”

Much like the fabled fruit from the lotus flower of Greek legend, the fruit that the band produces creates a dreamlike state of contentedness, rooted firmly in the now. Perhaps all improvisationally-laced music leans on this, but when the listener is fully tuned into a Lotus jam, they are fully in a moment. And although, harmonically and rhythmically, each new moment is intrinsically tied to both the past and the future, the effect can be a slight intoxication by way of amnesia.

The band’s sound has finally crystallized in the past few years. In the 2000s, the group released albums that went on to earn Jammy Award nominations ( Nomad, Escaping Sargasso Sea ) or served as take-home souvenirs of the band’s improvisation-heavy live shows. Be that as it may, the band members still tried to avoid the dreaded “jamband” stigma.

“I think, in some circles, Lotus will always be identified as a jamband—and to some people that isn’t a bad thing,” admits Jesse. “But when you read it in the press, it’s often meant as some kind of slam against the band and it usually has nothing to do with music. It’s become a code word for a certain type of fan or something and really has no reflection on the music. I think someone in the media writes ‘jamband’ and they want to compare it to the crowd that goes to see Phish or something like that.”

On the band’s new self-titled album, they have full-on vocals on one track and electronic-based grooves and synth-driven sounds on most others. “It wasn’t like we sat down and said, ‘Let’s become more electronic’ or anything,” maintains Luke. “It’s evolved naturally.”

The sentiment is akin to Luke’s interest in the burgeoning electronic scene. He relays that while there hasn’t been a single watershed moment that he can recall, he remembers being newly exposed to some DJs in the early 2000s and, on some nights, getting lost in the beat. “I wish I had that cathartic moment, but I can’t really say I have. It’s been more of a collection of experiences,” he says.

And it’s been that kind of “collection of experiences” that has led Lotus, during the past few years, to explore electronic textures while maintaining their commitment to being a band that plays and performs on live instruments.