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Musician LOSTBOYCROW Discusses His Latest Three Part Album, Traveler and More!
Posted On 20 Jul 2017
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Meet Lostboycrow!
He is currently rolling out a three part album, Traveler. Each part of the project will be a ‘Legend’, detailing a different part of Lostboycrow’s story and will culminate later in the year with the release of the final Legend. The first Legend of this project was released earlier this summer on May 26th.
His Spotify has cracked over 2 Million monthly listeners and continues to grow each day!
Thanks for your time! So where does this interview find you today? Is there music playing in the background? If so, what is it?
This interview finds me in the sweltering stillness of an early July afternoon. Birds (what seem to be all kinds) just outside my Los Angeles window mingle with the click-clacking of each letter I as I type. I mean there is a song playing – its getting louder and louder in my head – I grab my phone and put on “Slide” by Calvin Harris. The first minute and a half are too good. Frank Ocean is too good. I’d say he’s been my biggest influence going into this new year. No one listened to ‘Channel Orange’ as much as I did. Hell, the ‘Lonny’ stuff too for that matter – but Blond changed the way I felt about creating and releasing music coming into 2017. Not only was it great to check in with one of my favorite minds but it was a pure sort of magic listening to an album start to finish,again and again. I felt like I was learning so much. About him. About me. I felt like I knew Frank Ocean. I felt like I was getting to know myself. I had so many of my own songs and ideas that fit under umbrellad experiences and tones…
How is 2017 treating you so far? Did you approach the start of this year any differently then you did last year?
January approached with the same rapid speed it always insists on – and Traveler was born.
Growing up, did you always want to be a musician? Can you recall your first musical memory? Could you see yourself doing anything else today?
Growing up it never occurred to me that I could or would even want to pursue any sort of musical career – at least I don’t recall ever thinking those thoughts. Thanks to my dads need to document every piece of my childhood I do however recall a lot of interpretive dancing WHILE singing every word to The Lion King soundtrack, and a great deal of air guitar as I took on the roles of BOTH Lenny and Jimmy from ‘That Thing You Do’. Id like to think I found a sweet spot somewhere in the middle but its a fine line.
It’s tricky to say what else I could be doing nowadays if not for music. You work tirelessly and with such ferocity fighting off doubts and other lucrative or readily available endeavors just to be able to say you actual buy groceries with your art that you almost don’t dare imagine anything else. That being said yes and no. I can’t imagine doing anything differently than what I am – but there is always a much broader scope of vision to my aspirations. I love Movies. I love sports. I like to draw and take photographs. Sometimes I think I could disappear to a cabin and live off the land. I love being outside and I enjoy writing about it. I don’t know what it all means but I think the most important bit of real life magic I’ve learned since being Lostboycrow is that none of my interests or passions have been in vain. I only want to continue expanding and overlapping them as I am fortunate enough to be and share myself with others.
Let’s talk about your three part album, “Traveler.” Where did the idea for the whole project came from? Why did you decide to release three separate parts and not just one large collection?
Traveler had always been a three part album ever since the idea was birthed last winter. I spent most of 2016 gathering so many songs and half ideas that when I actually stepped back to gain perspective on a whole project – I saw very clearly the chapters my subconscious had laid out for me to color in. And that’s what I began to do.
In an industry of singles and streaming I felt the three part concept fit perfectly with everything I had been able to do and build with Spotify while also satiating my absolute need as an artist and story teller to connect the dots.
Where did the inspiration for the first part which came out in last month? How will each of the parts be different?
The first part (Legend) became clearer and clearer as I finished songs like ‘Verona’ and ‘Traveler’. It was the catalyst. The jumping off point of pure desire despite the world – the origins of self discovery and love and exploring the difference if any.
Aside from the visuals each Legend tells a much different part of that exploration. The Second will be perhaps the biggest leap sonically – It is the mountains. It is a revelation of past. A romanticizing look backwards and a longing for what may be.
The third and final Legend, is the river. It learns from whatever is upstream. It is headed somewhere free but with purpose. This is the final explanation and exploration of what it could feel like to actually love, but also discover ones self.
What artists have continued to inspire you and your music? Who would you absolutely love to work with in the future?
It may come as a surprise but Frank Ocean has continued to inspire my creative free flow of consciousness and not only prompted my own need to release an album but really look for albums and artists to latch on to as a whole. As a result I’ve been living off of old and new John Mayer (mostly the hat-wearing albums). Simon and Garfunkel have become an everyday necessity (bridge over troubled waters – the album) and new Phoenix and Kendrick Lamar have planted themselves firmly within whatever depths of wonder and heartache art comes from. Forever the Beach Boys – from “Surfer Girl,” to “Pet Sounds” to “Surfs Up.” I’ve never been more inspired.
If I absolutely had to narrow down my dream collaborations I’d say Alex Turner, Brian Wilson, Frank Ocean, Ben Folds, Tokyo Police Club, Kacey Musgraves, Jackson Browne, Macklemore, John Mayer, The Zolas, Kendrick Lamar…….. too many to continue
At the end of the day, what do you hope your fans take away from your music? What do you hope is the message of your songs?
At the end of the day I hope my fans will feel as though they have seen right into my soul passed the pretense of any industry, straight into the very recesses of their own battles they choose to live and die and make art for.
I hope the message of my songs will be empowerment. Of self, for others. To question everything and somehow know ones self. To write and rewrite history with empathy and sincerity as an artist would tell it.