Lucifer Jones – Interview

Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)

PD:  How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?

LJ: As an artist I work with every medium and every format that I can to deliver the stories and messages in my songs.  The world is an extremely complicated place I use my work to sort out all of the conflicting thoughts, experiences and questions that life puts in front of me.  I am constantly writing, working and recording which is probably the result of being insane.

PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.

LJ: I grew up in New Hampshire originally but my personal history was pretty rough growing up and music seemed like a logical place to express my frustration with a world that wasn’t very kind and made little sense.  Growing up with an ugly life in a picture perfect world was difficult and heavy music sounded like I felt so the attraction to creating it was almost instantaneous.

PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?

LJ: As a songwriter I tend to address the world as I have experienced it, my questions about how it will be experienced in the future and as a way to shine light on things most people choose to ignore. 

Musically my influences are endless…I devour almost every form of music I encounter and try to take the best of each and eventually bring it into the mix. 

Black Sabbath is an obvious influence of course…

PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?

LJ: I simply want to keep creating until I can’t.  As long as the world keeps giving me ideas.  My happy place is in the studio recording so as long as I can create my aspirations are met…

PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?

LJ: I would say that the upcoming vinyl releases on Barely Alive Records will be a pretty thrilling experience…another one that comes to mind is that in High School I told everyone that would listen that I would open for the Misfits on Halloween and in the early 2000’s I actually managed to pull it off!

PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?

LJ: I built a home studio myself!  After years of recording in shoddy “professional” studios and having to shelve dozens of records that weren’t good enough I now have complete control of my work.

As far as promoting my work I try to leave that to others whose profession is to do so.  I feel that worrying about other artists is pointless and insecure.  If people can tell their story and have something to offer good for them!  I don’t see this business as a competition at this point in my life…

PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?

LJ: I an currently not on the road for a plethora of reasons…most of them involving the demand to actually profit from such a venture at a level that it’s worth leaving my house for.

PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?

LJ: Of course I will always prefer the original era of my life where tapes and records were the way but technology marches on and like it or not you need to adapt or die.  It’s easy to engage in a debate about the merits of new technology but it’s more important to accept it and adjust to it.

PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?

LJ: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.  What a riff, what a mood, what an ending.  The song is a perfect cabal of dread…

PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?

LJ: I would like to see a deeper focus on art over entertainment.  Trying to please people with a calculated product is a bad idea for so many reasons…

PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?

LJ: I am currently remastering and remixing a ton of old demos and albums recorded in the above mentioned shoddy studios to sound the way that I wanted them to and I am also recording three new Lucifer Jones records!

PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online?

https://linktr.ee/aerikvon?fbclid=PAAaaPiZTpncYJyiJ1n-j1po4bbTqZjtb4WAT-BXt3FF_Ga2F4Bk7GWkmnvTo

Lucifer Jones links:
Band/Artist location – New York, New York
Facebook – You Tube – Bandcamp – Merch – Reverbnation –
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