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Loquat’s Christopher Lautz

Christopher LautzHey, all you butts of drummer jokes—.

My name is Christopher Lautz, and I play drums and sing back-up in San Francisco’s Loquat. My band is a mix of electronic and organic sounds, in the trip-hop/dream-pop realm of things. I mix acoustic and electronic drums, playing a Premier jazz kit with a Roland TD-6 that I’ve got hooked up to pads and that I use mainly for snare sounds, plus a trigger on the kick. I program beats as well, and MIDI is in the mix too—I must say that I never thought I’d be a drummer who needed a power strip.

I never learned to walk as a child. Just went from crawl to run. Never learned to stop, though—. My mother could keep tabs on me, hearing my stomping footsteps throughout the house, until I hit a wall, got up, and started blindly hauling ass into something again. She would only worry when the sound stopped—this has become a serious theme in my life.

I started playing drums at eleven years old, working my way up to half a drumkit for Christmas, at age thirteen. Remo kick, snare, and hi-hat. Practice-pad rock-outs to Van Halen’s 1984, marching band, Syncopation, screaming indie-punk shows, and lessons from one of Ray Charles’ many ex-drummers, helped shape what I am today. Advertisement

I bought the other half of the set, somewhere in the middle of all that—.

But that set and I parted ways a long time ago. I wanted to stay together, but it turned out she was a lesbian—.

Well, I moved on to a new kit, and the sounds haven’t stopped since then. Now I’m eagerly awaiting the release of our second full-length album, Secrets Of The Sea, dropping anchor on October 14.

I got to record the drums in a bunch of different rooms for this album, from the dingiest basement to the finest of hard-wooded studio glory. Also, I got to layer in programmed elements I made, and I really dig the combination of the real drums over the “blibbity-bleep” stuff.

Christopher LautzLoquat’s heading out on tour next month, (blindly hauling ass) into the Midwest and on to New York for CMJ. We also just finished our first music video.

Anyway, this is the first blog I’ve ever done, and Modern Drummer is one of the first mags I ever bought—.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your time,

Christopher

For more on Christopher Lautz, go to www.myspace.com/loquat or www.loquatmusic.com.


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