LAH LIVE

While Baton Rouge may be known in popular music for its gangsta and dance-orientated sound, something new has emerged through Lah Live. A full on hip-hop/R&B hybrid, the band is composed of front man Lah, Yahz on keyboard, Usher on congas, Evan on keyboard and E-Flat on drums. Lah Live has built a buzz by giving dazzling performances and even opening for a few prominent acts like R&B crooner Jaheim.

On WAX: How did you guys all meet?
Lah: Awww man, it’s actually a cool story. Just being at the same spot, doing the same thing and having the same passion … trying to get to the same place. It was sort of a divine thing because I was looking for a band that was cool enough and dope enough to extend the same type of thing. They wanted to go to the same place … the top that is. We clicked up at the club one night and I gave them my promo disc. They said that they would learn the songs and when I was ready to roll, they would be, too. We eventually got in the lab and here we are.

On WAX: Being out of Baton Rouge, what are some of your influences in getting the idea to form a live band?
Lah: Man, it’s about trying to bypass the BS with the DJs and radios playing junk. Now, I’m not going to say it’s all junk because I listen to it, but with the way the market is, you got to play it different or you’ll be running in a rat race. The one thing that I had over a lot of cats out here was more musical music or more instrumentation … finding people such as Yahz, E-Flat, Evan, Ush that wanted to do something different in the city.

On WAX: Where are you guys trying to take the music?
Lah: Expansion; we don’t want to get stuck in BR as a house band. We want to go any and everywhere because we can. Because we have an original sound that’s unique and the only thing to do is to pass it out to the world. We want to see how far we can go. That’s where we are right now. We’ve officially been together for three months but in that span, we’ve conquered venue in the city and we’ve compiled video footage to shop around to different areas.

On WAX: Are you guys looking to sign?
Lah: Right now, it’s an independent artist’s market with the Internet and artists’ tools they have out. We’re self served; we have our own sound systems and everything. We don’t have to give a record company our money. All we have to do is advance and sell our merchandise. If the quality of music is good, we got ways to move. You can pay us through Paypal, you can check out our music through MySpace or Facebook. Reverb Nation or something like that … I wouldn’t even give them the money. We already have a lot to split between us all so we might as well keep all the money.

On WAX: Is there a project in the works?
Lah: Right now, it’s about getting exposed. I like to make up words when I say this. I don’t want to be the most music-havingist in the world and no way to push it out. No radio play or nothing. I got a thousand songs but maybe a thousand people have heard them? I just push and push until they learn about what we got. We don’t want to switch it up to where they don’t know what we’re about. We want to feed it to them until they get the point.

On WAX: Since you guys are a live band, what should someone expect when they come see Lah Live?
Yaz: A difference. Love, passion is what we’re doing. Interaction, illustration. A good live show.
Lah: Expect to be amazed in every way possible. We entertain whether it’s three or 3,000. We going to make sure your hands are up.

On WAX: How do you guys mesh musically?
Lah: It’s fascinating because it takes me forever to write, but the band five minutes to learn a whole song. It’s not an easy trade off but I’ll take it. When you have perfectionist musicians, it’s really not that hard.

On Wax: What genre does Lah Live fit into?
Lah: If we could put it in one, I’d say alternative maybe. I’m a part of a band with musicians so it’s full of so much everything. Let me change that … our genre is experience.
Yaz: Out of this world, spaced-out. You really can’t put us in a box.

On WAX: Being a live band, where did the musicality in popular music go, in your opinion?
Lah: The business. Money changes everything. It’s about a single. It use to be about lifting people up, but now it’s about ringtones. We genuinely love what we do.

On WAX: Do you feel like you are opening doors for other types of genres to emerge from the Capitol City?
Lah: Most definitely. I think when you show them different, they’ll do different. You have ya gangsta stuff and Jiggin stuff, then Lah Live. That leaves a gap in between for anything to come out of that. We want up-and-coming artists to say that, “I don’t have to do this to make it. I can do a little bit of this and that in combination to a whole different sound.” - On Wax Magazine