DJ Leon Lamont

Leon Lamont - Ceilo/Four Season - St. Louis,MO - May 23rd

2013-05-17T22:19:00.001-07:00

Genes and Machines - May 18th - Nublu, NYC

2013-05-11T13:17:00.003-07:00

leon lamont - kink and snobbery - Halo Bar - St. Louis, MO

2013-05-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Leon Lamont - Cielo - Four Seasons - St. Louis, MO

2013-05-04T10:31:00.002-07:00

Stop Beating Yourself Up and Start Building Yourself Up

2013-04-29T15:08:00.004-07:00

I’m sure a first response to the title of this blog would be, “easier said than done”. Is it? A friend confessing to losing his confidence as an artist and considering throwing in the towel inspired this blog. I avoided the whole “you can do it” pep talk with my friend because the truth of the matter is that maybe he can’t do it and he knows it and I don’t. I know he has the talent, but talent is never enough.

Do you know what made David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust brilliant? David Bowie knew when to say “when”. Ziggy Stardust was a great gag that ran it’s course and then David Bowie packed it in and evolved into something else as an artist. This is something that a few of my artist friends don’t grasp as an idea. Some artists will get attached to an idea, concept or style that doesn’t work and then sit around scratching their heads as to why they are not progressing with their efforts. I’m not saying that everyone should abandon every idea that doesn’t show commercial promise at the drop of a dime, but on the same note, if people didn’t like it yesterday and they don’t like it today…they are probably not going to like it tomorrow. Get out of your comfort zone and grow as an artist.

Yeah, I know, you think that the general public is stupid and can’t generate enough brainpower to understand your highbrow, brilliant creative concepts. It could be that…or it could be that you suck and need to try something else.

The band Kiss can get away with dressing like mimes and doing circus gags like blowing fire between songs because people keep showing up to see it. If people lost interest in Kiss’ classic live show I guarantee you that Kiss wouldn’t be doing it. Taking that into consideration, if your audience is shrinking instead of growing maybe it’s time to reconsider your act. Instead of beating yourself up you need to be building yourself up. I know that jacket looked good on you in 1985, but people don’t want to see you in that jacket anymore…it’s possible they didn’t even want to see you in it in 1985.

I don’t know what’s going on in a person’s head. Maybe it is time to call it quits and go back to college. Maybe your parents did win and your ex-wife was right about you all along. I don’t know that. Only you know that. I can’t make you someone you’re not, but you can change your game up. Results change when you change what you are doing. Basic science.

Korg KM-202 DJ Mixer

2013-04-25T19:14:00.002-07:00

Leon Lamont - Halo Bar -April 26, 2013

2013-04-24T13:26:00.002-07:00

Controller Crazy

2013-04-16T11:49:00.003-07:00

A question that I am asked often by DJs both new and seasoned is, “What DJ controller would you recommend?” I have to confess right away that I am not a controller fan. I’ve done gigs with controllers, spent quality time with product demos and still came to the same conclusion for all of them; overpriced junk. The only things that made me even remotely interested in controllers are small size, weight, and convenience. Anything that falls in the aforementioned categories is usually plastic garbage. The higher end controllers are usually insanely overpriced and/or so big that they defeat the purpose of getting a controller. If a controller is practically as big as my two CDJ-800s and a mixer…then…duh…I can just use my two CDJ-800s and a mixer.

Product manufacturers have been doing the hard push on creating a controller dominated DJ environment for the past few years. So far, there have been some great ideas poorly executed. If one of the companies managed to create a flagship pro standard controller (like how Pioneer CDJ players are the club standard) maybe I would warm up to controllers more. This isn’t the case. Having a bunch of DJs on the same bill that use different controllers is like having a bunch of pilots with different consoles on one spaceship.

So what controller should you get? None. If you buy a controller, at the end of the day you will just end up with an obnoxiously large paperweight. You should use CD players or turntables and just use the time coded CD or vinyl. Playing the “what software can I use with this controller” game is for the birds. Lord forbid, you should get a controller that is discontinued and suddenly it doesn’t work with any of the popular DJ software that is available. At least with CD players and turntables you can still play music regardless of DJ software. For convenience and mobility, I do a lot of laptop DJ-ing. Unless you are trying to do a lot of scratching and Beat Juggling (which most people hate DJs doing while they are trying to dance anyway) you don’t really need anything but your laptop to rock a dance floor.

In closing…ask someone else. I’m not a DJ controller fan.

44

2013-04-11T14:09:00.001-07:00

At midnight, April 11, 2013, I turned 44 years old. I started my birthday by reading a paperback copy of Arthur C. Clarke’s book, 2001: A Space Odyssey by candlelight due to a blackout via storm. Hours before the stroke of midnight, I had literally driven through a tornado to the bookstore with girlfriend in tow to get it. Yes, it was stupid. Yes, it was crazy, but it made a simple, boring task adventurous and dangerous.

Most people would consider a birthday where you wake up to no power and bunch of food that has spoiled overnight to be the start of a horrible birthday. I’ve had worse birthdays than this and my surroundings remind me of how lucky I actually am. Last night, during a storm, many people had their roofs torn off of their houses, their cars and homes smashed and all kinds of other horrors in addition to the black out of the whole suburban neighborhood. I’m amazed that I always manage to forget how horrible the weather is in Missouri during the spring.

For some people, the 40’s age range is traumatic both to witness and experience. Some of the hot little 20 year-old women you partied with back in the day are now cat ladies or grey haired, pudgy little wives with equally grey haired pudgy little husbands. Most of your athletic male friends from the past are so fat that they are unrecognizable without identifying themselves to you first. Peoples 40’s is also around the time that people realize that they aren’t as in love as they thought they were and start filing for divorce.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, for some people, being in the 40’s age range is when everything they did in the past seems to be paying off. They can finally move or get that house they always wanted. The biggest joy in their life is coming home to a wife, kids and a barking dog or coming home and smiling at a husband playing in the backyard with the kids.

When I talked to a friend about the dreams he had when he was younger compared to the dreams he has now in his 40’s he responded, “I don’t have dreams anymore. Just bills and regrets”. He said it in a joking manner, but I suspected there was some truth to it as he went on about how tired and uninspired he was all of the time.

How do I stay excited about life? Learning new things is exciting. Applied learning is even more exciting and detrimental to my happiness. The most important thing that I have learned so far is that if I am unhappy I need to focus on myself first and my situation second. Everything else is a cakewalk from there. Being around the right people (and far away from the wrong people) is a colossal thing that shouldn’t be ignored by anyone as well.

For a long time, I became stuck on the idea that I could change people. I can’t. That’s a silly idea. Every asshole, crazy person I’ve met is probably going to be that way for the rest of their lives. With certain friends and relatives I know this to be the case for fact because the research has been done already. Acting crazy is one thing, but being crazy is something entirely different. Some people have a lot of clutter and BS in their life and by becoming friends with or even dating that person you become bogged down with clutter and BS yourself. Discussing this subject with a respected friend, he said the perfect sentence in response to being fed up with someone’s extra BS being forced on him by association. My friend said, “Finally…I stopped and realized… you know what…I don’t have time for this Sh$%”. I laughed and said, “None of us do.”

Mein Geburtstag

2013-04-06T12:00:00.003-07:00

2013-03-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

How To Be A Funky Drummer: Listen, Feel & Execute

2013-03-18T22:45:00.006-07:00

Funky drumming isn’t about a textbook. You want to be a for real funky drummer? When you ask someone out and they say “no”, go play the drums. Got fired? Go play the drums. Barely have money for groceries? Go play the drums. In love with someone that hates your guts? Go play the drums. That’s funk. Funk isn’t a pattern…it’s a feeling. The funkiest drummers in the world couldn’t even technically tell you what they played. It’s not about that. Funk is, “I love you more than oxygen…but you don’t want me. So I’m going to play that through this set of drums”

Recently, a kid approached me and complained of being a fan of my drumming but hardly finding anything about drumming on my site. Remembering that he asked me about influences on my style as far as other drummers, I have made a list of drummers that inspire and influence me.

• Andy Gillmann

• Bernard Purdie

• Clyde Stubblefield

• Dennis Chambers

• Jeff Porcaro

• Jim Chapin

• Joe Morello

• Johnny Rabb

• Keith Carlock

• Peter Erskine

• Roy Haynes

• Stanton Moore

• Steve Gadd

• Steve Smith

• Thomas Pridgen

• Tommy Igoe

• Stewart Copeland

• Benny Greb

• Buddy Rich

• Cora Coleman-Dunham

• Todd Sucherman

• Walfredo Reyes Jr.

• Tony Williams

• John “JR” Robinson

• Charley Charles (Ian Dury &the Blockheads)

• Billy Cobham

This isn’t even all of them but if you check these guys out you’ll get a general idea of where I’m coming from on the drums. If you want the main influences: Tony Williams, Charley Charles, Clyde Stubblefield, Bernard Purdie, Steve Gadd and Peter Erskine. If you want to play funk these guys are essential.

Listen, look, feel, absorb. It’s more important to feel the playing than to know the sticking.

The DJ Contract

2013-03-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

A contract is a funny thing because some people get upset over the mere mention of a contract. I can tell you from years of experience that anyone that has a problem with a contract is someone that you don’t want to do business with. If a person says something to you, but refuses to back it up in writing you should just consider everything they said to be BS. That’s not just for DJ business that’s for business in general.

Years ago, venues seemed to be run by real men and women that would sit down with you and discuss business. Technology has bred a new brand of coward that will not say more than two sentences to you in person but will type you to death via e-mail.

As far as social graces go, yeah, it’s annoying. From a business standpoint it’s a good thing because it gets the venue owner to inadvertently write a contract. Everything is typed in their own words, date and time stamped. From there you simply print it out and present it if and when a dispute arises.

Contracts aren’t always necessary for smaller gigs, but in general using contracts is a good habit to pick up. If Sam Sausagehead the manager gets fired from the venue then the next manager that replaces him should be able to pick up a document and clearly understand your business arrangement.

The important thing to remember is that people run businesses. Some people are nice and fair and others present themselves as the poster child for Asshole of the Year. A contract makes a person’s character irrelevant. The harsh universal truth is that business people only respond to threats and money. If there is no penalty for a venue owner being abusive towards you then they’ll abuse you because that’s part of their personality. It’s like being a kid that gets bullied. A bully keeps hitting you because you don’t hit back. Eliminate trust as a deciding factor. It’s like what my attorney tells me constantly, “Don’t trust anybody. Not even me.”

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2013-03-10T18:20:00.002-07:00

3D see-through computer revealed

2013-02-27T01:34:00.002-08:00

Genes and Machines - 2.22. 2013

2013-02-20T18:57:00.001-08:00

Genes and Machines LIVE @ Nublu, New York

2013-02-13T12:19:00.003-08:00

2013-02-07T10:54:00.005-08:00

listen and download by clicking here

Num Num Nah Records - Artist Compilation #001

2013-01-16T21:18:00.000-08:00

Num Num Nah Records - Artist Compilation #001

DJ Leon Lamont - Halo Bar - 1-11-13

2013-01-09T20:31:00.001-08:00

There Is No Such Thing As A One-Man-Show

2012-12-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

One of the targeted misses of my 2012 “to do” list was to finish a one-man-show. The problem with putting together a one-man-show is that you need more than one man…and quite a few women to boot. After my live stage acting debut in New York in February of this year, I was inspired to write my own show. For the first time in a while…I had writer’s block and/or a tangle of ideas jumbling up in my brain. “Frustration” was the active word. Doing a live stage show is just like doing a movie…it all has to start with the script. Without my finished script I had nothing to pitch to producers, directors, stage managers, sound engineers, lighting engineers, venues, A/V people…in short…my possible future staff for the live production of my metamorphic script with an equally metamorphic title. In addition to this stress was finding an attorney and avenues for grant funds. Overwhelmed, I put my dreams of doing a one-man-show on the backburner.

I’m telling this story because recently a friend was depressed and expressed disappointment because he couldn’t get his solo music act going. This friend somehow got the idea in his head that I had pulled off a solo career alone. I was quick to correct this fallacy.

I tried to explain to my friend that he was essentially trying to do what I had a staff of people doing when I did my first solo album. Leon Lamont -Breakbeat Mechanic required a label, a distributor for the US, a distributor for Europe, a publicist, a booking agent, a tour manager, a personal manager, a graphic designer, street promotions, a studio engineer, a mastering engineer, a photographer, driver, translator (for European dates). You get the picture. The only truly solo part of being Leon Lamont was the act itself. I compared my friend’s efforts to him being one man trying to win the Super Bowl going up against a team by himself.

In Closing?

Don’t get discouraged, but understand that you can only go so far by yourself. Some of your favorite comedians have a team of people that write jokes for them. Solo Pop stars have a team of writers and producers that churn out their number one hits. Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles was written by a room full top notch comedians (including Richard Pryor) and writers. Point? Nobody is doing it alone. If you want to do BS gigs in coffee houses and the occasional Happy Hour at a bar…yeah, you can do that by yourself. If you want to go to the next level you have to tighten your act and pitch it to someone that can get you a team and subtract a percentage.

2012-12-12T13:31:00.002-08:00

Should You or Shouldn't You Join a DJ Crew?

2012-12-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

Project Logic — LIVE @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel

2012-12-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

The bottom link is to a bootleg live recording of DJ Logic’s Project Logic performing live in Providence, RI opening for Medeski, Martin & Wood in 1999.

I was sitting in my apartment in Brooklyn, NY, (fresh off the Staten Island Ferry returning from a recording session with Vernon Reid) when drummer, Scooter Warner called and asked me to finish the MMW/Project Logic tour. Scooter started the tour but had to leave quite suddenly. Rope-a-dope records flew me out unrehearsed straight into the next gig.

Normally, flying into the middle of a tour unrehearsed would be a nightmare, but I knew most of the material from recording some of the drums on DJ Logics debut album and the rest of the set was improvised. Hope you enjoy.

Leon Lamont

Project Logic - LIVE @ Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel

The Hopes and Threats of the 3D Printer

2012-12-04T16:22:00.002-08:00

If you mention a 3D printer to the average person, they will probably imagine that you are talking about a comic book of sorts with a bunch of red and blue offset lines that come with a pair of glasses. They wouldn’t be totally wrong, but the thing we are talking about now is a controversial printer that can produce three-dimensional objects. It would be like having a tiny manufacturing plant inside your home. If you needed a wing nut, you could simple go to your computer and print one out. Sounds cool, sounds sci-fi, so how could the 3D printer be threatening?

In one word: guns. A 3D printer takes the threat of terrorism to whole new levels. Imagine if you will, your humble narrator booking a flight from St. Louis, MO to Brooklyn, NY. Before catching his plane, he sends design plans for parts of a Glock 19 to a 3D printer in Brooklyn. A person could be armed anywhere in the world without the hassle of being detected during travel. 3D printers and the possibility of the average community being flooded with untraceable guns is a long, negative conversation. So let’s switch to the positive hopes for the 3D printer.

Toys

The average parent would have to get some level of excited about the possibility of buying and assembling a toy without ever having to leave home. The holiday shopping experience would quickly become: browse, pay, print, wrap…all while chilling in your pajamas and bunny slippers. I’m not even going to get into adult toys…

Parts & replacement items

One of the knobs to your DJ mixer popped off after the gig during transport? You can just print out another one when you get home. Your drunken cousin spent the night at your house and somehow awakened the next morning and broke your spatula? You can just print out another one. As far as shopping, the options could be endless. The only question would be the build quality of the material used to print the item. Would it be a good idea to print out a pair of drumsticks? How long would they last?

Who Cares?

3D printers are already in regular use. The price of the 3D printer is a bit steep now, but before you know it the price will drop and suddenly the item will be as common as a regular printer. The two main points of worry are crime and consumerism.

See a 3D printer in action below.