Based in Denton, Texas, Brian Lambert is an artist who transcends musical boundaries. I recently fell in love with his latest single ‘Face Master’, an electrifying and in-your-face tune that I simply couldn’t get enough of! I then dug a little deeper and discovered a prolific and genuine musician who, I believe, deserves more recognition.
Wanting to know more, I was stoked when Brian agreed to sit down and chat with us! Talking about riding around with his grandfather and listening to 80’s country music, what he’s been listening to and enjoying recently, and what aspects of being a musician he loves, please give a big welcome to our new friend Brian Lambert!
Hi Brian! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us! Let’s kick things off with an easy one…Who is Brian Lambert and when did your love affair with music begin?
Thank you, Jeremy, for the opportunity to talk tunes. Like so many musicians, it was before I can even really remember. I have memories of riding around with my Grandpa listening to 80’s country music and listening to a cassette tape of ‘Footloose’ over and over. MTV gave me an introduction to early new wave music like Duran Duran or Rick Springfield which I thought was the coolest. MTV also gave me my introduction to alternative rock with 120 minutes. Since I was a little kid I’ve devoured music voraciously. It’s rarely the same music and I went through all kinds of phases, as you can hear in the wide variety of music in my catalog.
I’ve been blown away by your latest single ‘Face Master’. It’s such a powerful and intense piece of work. What do you want the world to know about the tune and do you remember its “birth” so to speak?
Excellent! That song was born during my 52 Week Music Production Challenge. During the pandemic, as I was slowly, then quickly losing my mind, I decided that I would challenge myself to produce one song a week for a year. I was in a mode of doing harder rocking tunes. The writing and recording process was very fast so as not to overthink, so lyrically I don’t really know what it means until afterwards. I recorded the guitars while watching Return of The Living Dead to make sure it had that rock and roll feel. There is a version released called, ‘In Your Face’.
Fast forward 2 years later, I had finished the other track on this release, ‘Never Back Down’, and wanted to release something in A side B side fashion. I sent the track over to my friend Harmoni Kelley for a fresh take on the bass and to add some backing vocals. In a sense I want the listener to take away whatever they want from this song. I don’t think much about what the lyrics mean when writing, just how the words feel. Even for myself, it’s an interpretation since there is often no specified intention like a message. It’s all about the feeling.
I think it’s fair to say that you’re a rather prolific musician. Does the entire “song-making process” come very naturally to you and does it feel like an innate talent you possess?
For me, it comes naturally I suppose. I’m always singing something, making up words to inner dialogue rattling around in my head. Since every song is a little bit different, it gets done a little bit differently. Art needs to hit you in your feelings, not so much in your intellect. In my mind, it’s how can I get out of my head and just work from a place of generating emotional responses. So it’s not really a process that can be described well. In some sense, it’s a natural outcome of always remaining engaged in music.
What can you tell us about The Star Crumbles?
So many things, some of which may be true. Really the mastermind behind The Star Crumbles is Marc Schuster. He gives me these great pieces of music to which I get to respond in any fashion I like. He then takes what I give him and reimagines it one more time, then sends it back to me for a little bit of that something I do to master the song. Boom you have a Star Crumbles album. He’s really quite prolific. It’s a beautiful thing we do and at some point, at a surprising point in the future, we’ll have another album. Of all the music that I’ve been a part of creating, it’s the one I frequently revisit purely for enjoyment.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences? And who would I see under “Recently Played” on your streaming service of choice?
That first question is a tough one because I’ve listened to so many different artists very intently for a period of time that it’s hard to distinguish, at this point, who is more of an influence. I’ll say artistically David Bowie is a big one, mostly due to his constant reinvention. I also really love the band Spoon and how they layer music together.
For the under “Recently Played” right now you’d see George Strait because I was down in the hill country, but really I’m into more lo-fi noise rock like Tobin Sprout, and Lilys. Ooh wait I really also liked the latest Judas Priest album. There’s also As Particles Collide, Naive Nature, Daniel Markham and Quizboy. I listen to a lot of music.
What aspects of being a musician do you cherish most? And on the flip side of that, what would you say have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve encountered?
Playing and performing music is like no other experience. Working on the music itself, any aspect is what I cherish. It reminds me that there is something more than the stories we tell ourselves, something that we can connect with that comes from within and makes its way out into the world.
The challenges have all come from my mindset about how to run the business of music. It’s not like anything else. It really is about your ability to connect with people. You can write technically wonderful music that is very personally cathartic and that doesn’t guarantee it connects with an audience. For one to have a career in music people have to feel a strong emotional connection to the music you make. There’s no formula for that and when you attempt to “make what people like” it often falls flat. Staying in a headspace of being true to the art while balancing the financial considerations like playing enough shows, getting enough streams, and selling albums and t-shirts is quite the feat. I accept it now as part of the challenge, part of the art so to speak, and that has made it easier to reconcile within myself.
OK, Brian – desert island time! You’re allowed to grab 3 albums before being stranded on an island. Which do you choose?
Again such an impossible choice. Off the top of my head, ‘Purple Rain’ by Prince, ‘Girls Can Tell’ by Spoon and Beck’s ‘Midnight Vultures’. If you ask me again tomorrow I’d most definitely come up with another list because even now I’m in my head saying to myself but what about ‘Warp Riders’ by The Sword.
Thanks a lot for chatting with us Brian! It’s been great having you here! Do you have any words of wisdom that you’d like to leave us with?
My pleasure, thank you for having me. The only thing you have influence on is your own responses to what life brings you. Learning how to take care of yourself, mind, body and spirit is the best thing you can do for yourself and the people around you. The more you can focus on your own response to things as opposed to what you believe “people should be doing” the happier you will be. This takes a lot of work and in a sense is never completed, never perfected. It’s like music, never-ending and something you can always go deeper into and richer and richer experiences. Thank you again.
