David Lawrie - The Royal Ritual

Award winning composer, musician, and audio engineer David Lawrie joins with the Signal to discuss his music as The Royal Ritual, Glomfest, and what helped him find success.


Featured Songs:
The Royal Ritual - Modes of Violence

Visit https://davidlawrie.co.uk for more David Lawrie.
Visit https://theroyalritual.com/ for more The Royal Ritual.
Visit https://glomfest.com/ for more about Glomfest.

Void Signal intro courtesy of Processor. Visit https://processor2.bandcamp.com for more Processor.

Transcript

Hello again, and welcome to Void Signal. I am your host Brian Prime. Before we get into this week's guest, I wanted to once again mention that you will have chances to see me in the fleshies a couple times this year. First, beginning of May in New Jersey at DFF, where i'll be hosting void signal live, and doing on the spot interviews with performers and attendees alike. Don't worry, I'm hard to miss cause i'm so big! You can also catch me at the end of may in seattle at mechanismus festival where i'll be hosting void signal live again, and performing with skull cultist on opening night. In addition! Glomfest is coming to our own west coast. A traveling festival of european artists and performers on a short run tour starting in September. You can catch me at the San Francisco date at DNA Lounge.

This week's guest is festival organizer, and multi-talented artist David Lawrie. I'll hit the high notes of David's bio for you, but you can also see him perform at Glomfest under his recording moniker 'The Royal Ritual." 

David Lawrie is an internationally acclaimed Music Producer and award winning Sound Designer, having worked with artists such as IAMX, CocoRosie, Phildel, and London After Midnight, amongst others, on both sides of the Atlantic.
He runs his own production company, ishikawa media, and has had his music used in shows on channels like FX and Channel 4, and he's done post production audio work for a slew of companies like Go Pro, Panasonic, Amazon Prime, and Absinthe Films. He's also a voting member in the producers and engineers wing of the recording academy for the grammys and and audio professional at national academy of televsions arts and sciences, the emmys.
He's also a really friendly and easy to talk to person.
But before we get to that chat, a message from our sponsor. This episode is sponsored by Glomfest. It's a fantastic idea and to have it come together is a treat for anyone able to attend. It's got a really talented lineup with artists like Black Angel, Dark Chisme, The Cemetary Girlz, and more. Visit glomfest.com for more information and to find a date near you. that's g-l-o-m-fest.com, not glom, gloam. 
One last thing, before our time is at an end, void signal is ad free and powered by people, not just me. So I'd like to thank the void gang and long-standing patrons to the show. Thank you so much for believing in me and giving me strength when I've needed it. I am here because of you. Please consider visiting voidsignal.net or patreon.com/voidsignal to support the void signal project and in exchange you'll get hours more content and help improve the signal. Thanks for your consideration. 
Lastly, life is too short to be a spectator to injustice. The grave will provide plenty of time for you to be quiet. So stay safe, but stay loud, and take care. 

dlawrie
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Brian Prime: [00:00:00] Welcome to Void Signal. I am your host, Brian Prime. I am joined by, David Lowery from The Royal Ritual and a bunch of things. you are a very multifaceted individual. You have so many other things that you do and other things that you have your fingers in, so to speak. thank you so much for joining me and for making this work.

the first question is just, how are things with you lately? 

David Lawrie: Good to be here. yeah, things are busy. Very, very busy. 2020, the end of 24 was quite quiet, with commissions coming in and what have you, but I was very busy with the Royal Ritual and preparing other stuff, and then suddenly 2025 has become very busy with You know getting stuff getting compositions off to publishers some audio Some production audio and audio post production for film coming up and then of course I am working very closely with the team at gloam fest to get that, off the ground for its inaugural year, this [00:01:00] year in September.

Brian Prime: that is the other thing too, is that you sort of have, or at least the perception for me, I guess, is that you have sort of sprung out of nowhere. cause your music releases are fairly recent, but, how long have you been, where did you come from for somebody who has no idea who David Lowery is or the world ritual or Gloamfest or any of that, where did you come from?

How did you get here? 

David Lawrie: it's a winding story. I have been doing music, since I was a child, and I'm very fortunate that since the age of about 23, all I've done is, audio related, work, completely freelance as well, which is. very fortunate, but at the same time, it's a lot of work.

So I don't take it for granted, but I, really work at it, but yeah, classically trained on the piano, as a child and then, figured that I wanted to branch out and learn electric guitar and stuff like that. And then I discovered kind of Apex twin, nine inch nails, pink Floyd, all of those like seminal artists from A multitude [00:02:00] of different, genres and I just am obsessed with how stuff got onto a CD.

Like how, how did that get on? And then the whole process of it just fascinated me from a very early age. Maybe around nine, 10 years old. And so I've just been kind of funneling myself towards music production for a long time. Now, the Royal ritual is something I've always wanted to do. I obviously, I didn't know the name, but I also be quite, I wanted to be self sufficient in the studio, because I had learned so many instruments.

So I had a long winding route to get here. Producing other artists very independently to begin with, you know, I had an audio. I studied music production at what was Leeds College of Music. It's now Leeds Conservatoire. I did a bachelor's and a master's there, I had my portable set up, and I would produce artists from loads of different genres all over the place, for a long time, and then I accidentally kind of fell into film, but in my own [00:03:00] music being released under David Laurie, which That's another story.

I was releasing my own music, not really to make it as an artist, but to kind of show potential production clients, this is what I'm like when I'm left to my own devices. What about it? Do you like, what would you like me to bring to your project? In that music, I was doing a lot of what I guess is sound design, but I didn't think of it like that at the time, using found sounds and what have you.

And I accidentally fell into doing audio post production for a shark documentary called A Shark and Man, which ended up doing really, really well. And won quite a few awards, including one for the sound design, which I was very surprised about since it was my first feature film. From there I ended up kind of having this divergent career where I was producing music half the time and then doing audio post and Composition for film half the time and it's yeah since then.

It's just kind of grown and done different things [00:04:00] but It was it was just before the pandemic. 

Brian Prime: I had tickets to it and I just like, I couldn't make that one. 

David Lawrie: it was great. I was actually there with two of the members of Ogre and Skinny Puppy, good friends with them. and yeah, Bill Lieb was on stage. I was a Bill Lieber that night. And the Black Queen, as I remember, and some other bands.

But I just kind of decided then and there, I want to do this for me again. it started off as a duo actually, and then lockdown happened, we all know what happened there. We had this pandemic, if you remember, COVID 19. So it became a solo project. at the time, I was living in Northern California.

And I had a semi professional studio. it was at my studio and I used it professionally, but it was built into my home, all soundproof and everything. I could record at all hours and it was great. And so I started this [00:05:00] project and I just kind of chipped away at it until the album was done at the end of 2020.

And then I had no idea what to do with it. Because we were still in a pandemic and then I ended up moving back to England right at the end of 2020 And I had this project and I had no idea what to do with it it took two years for the first album to come out in full and then from there, yeah, I Signed a contract with Analog Trash, we got Pleasure Hives Your Needs out, and finally, I'm starting to be able to play shows.

and yeah, I ended up, the last show I did was on the main stage at Infest Festival, which was really, it was a dream come true, because the last time I did that was, Many, many years ago when I was playing percussion for a sort of a noise band called Calline a long, long time ago. And I always wanted to go back and do it again, and I did.

So I'm very happy about it. 

Brian Prime: Yeah. congratulations on your success. winning an [00:06:00] award on your first feature film work is a substantial accomplishment. it sounds like you had this concept of I want to do this and have pursued it.

And it seems to have paid off for you so far. what would you, if you had to attribute some of that success to, something that you've done, what would you attribute it to? 

David Lawrie: Well, Yeah, you're partly right. I will just say that I've found myself in situations where my skills that I've picked up along the way have been useful.

And so it's not that I've really said, I want to do audio post for film. I was asked to do it and I actually did it in exchange for the director to do a music video for me many, many years ago as David Laurie. And, I ended up getting roped in. It was, like 900 hours of work to do it. pro bono, of course, but it simply just paid off.

and so, yeah, I've actually found myself more in situations rather than pursuing them, because I've really been pursuing getting myself into a, into a [00:07:00] position to do the royal ritual, which just now has its nose above water. It's, it's, it's not like I, I'm doing the royal, well, I'm working full Equivalent of almost full full time hours on it, but it's it's not I I'm still working in other areas of Music and audio production is is great.

But I think that is the key actually is being perpetually curious picking up skills And, and just sort of, putting myself in the firing line for opportunities and being able to say yes, knowing that if I know 80 percent of what I need to know to be able to do it, I will be able to get the rest done or ask my colleagues as well to help me out.

I think that that's been the biggest thing in terms of accelerating. My ability to sustain a career in the arts. And I learned very early as well, that we've all heard the phrase, a Jack of all trades and the master of none. [00:08:00] Well, I learned the full phrase. Or the full quote, which makes more sense, and I stick by this.

A jack of all trades and a master of none is better by far than a master of one. So it's actually a positive thing to be able to diversify and be able to do a lot of things. And I've always lived by that, that it's better to be able to say yes to things with some degree of confidence that you can pull it off.

Rather than just sticking in your lane and saying, Oh, I'm only a mix engineer, or I'm only a, you know, a Whatever, whatever it may be. No, there's so many cross transferable skills in all areas of audio production, that you can try your hands at things. And if it's not for you, then you strike it off and say, no, that's not for me.

But you don't know unless you try. 

Brian Prime: absolutely. And I do find that to be true, especially in my own experience and clearly from yours as well, but a lot of guests I've had on the show, it's, that is the case of, you know, you, if you are [00:09:00] pursuing a career in this, there are Other skills you need to pick up.

I mean, you have to be your own marketing person to a degree. being capable of making your own graphics or at least knowing who to reach out to for those things and using the resources that you have. I had a guest that. Hit me with this quote from Billy Joel of all people, but it was, something to the effect of, you don't have to be great at anything.

You just have to be competent at everything. he attributes a lot of his success to just being competent at many things. do you find that to be true in your case as well? 

David Lawrie: I, that's really good. yes, I think competence is key. I've found that being competent and easy to work with is going to get you much further than just being excellent at doing something Even with the royal ritual, which is sort of my baby there are other people involved with it in the studio.

It's just me but vara my partner She's an amazing photographer and designer and she kind of [00:10:00] persuaded me to let her Work on the artwork and I know it was a really beneficial thing for both of us to do it because we were easy to work with one another. We knew each other. Dan Kentley, who plays guitar with me live, one of my oldest friends.

We actually went to university together and it's just been, if it's easy to work with someone, you're going to want to work with them more than me getting some virtuoso guitarist who. doesn't, you know, there's just no vibe there with me. I'm not going to want to do it. So it's about being sort of agreeable to an extent, but also have conviction in your own artistic vision to be able to say, well, you know, I can bring my skills along, but you have to understand that I hear, and I see things my way.

So if you're comfortable with that, let's do it. And you'll know you at least know you're going to get something that probably doesn't look or sound like anything else. Sure. so yeah, it's blending that having your own voice, be it visually or musically or whatever, [00:11:00] with being competent enough to pull it off and being.

easy enough to work with where people enjoy the process. So when everyone's enjoying the process, you all do better and you all work harder. 

Brian Prime: Mm 

David Lawrie: hmm. 

Brian Prime: I would agree with that. I mean, I haven't experienced it myself quite to the degree that you have, of course.

But there is something to be said for people who see your vision or understand your vision for your thing and are willing to lend their talents and skills. 

David Lawrie: I think one of the first questions you have to ask when someone comes to you is, or you have to ask yourself, you maybe can't ask them directly.

Has this person come to you because they admire the work, the work that you've done for other Artists or do they admire what you're doing? In my case, do they like the royal ritual? Why have they come to me if it's because they've come to me because they know I do music and They maybe feel like they might know me or something like that and that they just want to pay to get something done it's [00:12:00] probably not the right fit because I'm not just going to do something just for a bit of money, especially with someone that maybe wants to do something, maybe at cut rates or things like that, whereby they're just looking for someone to, to do like a functional job.

not to be arrogant, but it's just to know that people generally do come to a producer or a Composer because they've heard something that that person's done and gone. Ah, I like that And so when you get off on that foot everyone's aware that everyone's got some vision and everyone's going to find a way to just kind of Slipstream together into the same path whereby Everyone's vision is valid and adding a different color to the overall Greater picture, you know, 

Brian Prime: that makes a lot of sense.

I like that answer. to switch gears a little bit I did want to ask you also about because you are heavily involved in the upcoming Gloamfest, that is going to be hitting the [00:13:00] west coast of the United States. can you tell me a little bit about that? 

David Lawrie: Yes, I can. I'm very heavily involved with it.

it's one of those sort of, serendipitous. Stories, Christine, Buckley, who has always been called Original Strawberry Girl. we became friends and we don't actually remember how we met, which is the strangest thing. she's from Los Angeles and, her husband is from Wales, so she's often in the UK.

And she and I became friends actually after I had moved back to the UK. And she'd been spending so much money to come over to the goth festivals over here and in Europe and everything and she'd befriended a lot of artists and she'd become a really big supporter of the Royal Ritual very early on, in fact, I owe so much gratitude to her for helping me get it from just this idea into something that actually exists in the real world.

And I met up with her in Whitby. She'd got, she was going to the [00:14:00] Whitby Goth Weekend and, tomorrow's Ghost Festival, I should say. And I, which used to be the same thing, I just met up with her. I met her for the first time and she started talking about how great would it be to get, the Royal Ritual and a couple of other, European bands over to California partly so that she doesn't have to spend thousands of dollars to go over there and I said, yeah It's gonna be many many more thousands of dollars to get them over there Which was it but we started talking about this and It was just becoming a thing that she really wanted to do and I sort of said well, you know This is a really cool idea and I think what it is is I think this is a mini festival And so we got talking more and we it's just one of those things where we kept on having the conversation And before we knew it she'd She'd set up actually, set up the company original strawberry girl presents and I sort of said, well, if we're going to do this, let's, let's actually make [00:15:00] it the real deal.

Let's not make it just a little gig. And so we brought in, Vara, to do, branding and marketing, because that's her background. She's a professional photographer, but she's also a, senior art director in her last position. And. Branding, genius, all of that kind of stuff. And then, we brought in another person Amy.

to deal with logistics and working with venues because she had a lot of experience with that. And I, audio person. Well, I won't be doing audio on the night, but audio tech person. I've been doing the websites and, artist liaison. And yeah, it's just kind of built from there.

And it's been so much more work than any of us thought it would be. But it's been a massive learning curve. And it's again, it's one of those things where we all had enough skills. To be able to say, well, I think we can make this happen. Yeah, let's do it.

And all four of us, me, Vara, Amy, and Christine, we're all wearing multiple hats to make it work. But I think it is working. [00:16:00] All of the artists are really excited to be doing it. It seems like a really unique experience. 

Brian Prime: just to chime in there. first off the website looks great. all of the, in addition, all of the, all of the branding and, logos and everything all looks very slick.

it is very impressive. And, yeah, I think Amy is the reason that, I heard of it to begin with, and, it, like you said, it was a thing to get excited about, of, hey, here's a chance to see these bands. I don't know when I will have the opportunity again. 

David Lawrie: Every artist from Europe hasn't played the States. I mean, I've played as David Laurie, but the Royal Ritual has never played in the States. Eon Stable hasn't, Cemetery Girls haven't. And The Awakening, the headliner, they haven't played in the States since 2009. So yeah, there's something to be excited about there.

but yes, and thank you so much about the website because I can make websites, I do make websites. I don't consider myself a web developer, but I had to learn a lot of coding for that . the good thing is Vara designed the website, and it was my job to [00:17:00] kind of approximate it as much as possible, as closely as possible, into being an actual.

Existing website. Yeah, thank you. 

Brian Prime: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, thank you to you and to everybody on the team for putting this on my radar and for making me aware that it's a thing that's going to happen because it's a very exciting thing. I know just this past December was the Glomknight warmup. The Glom, or Glom Night, sorry, I have this ever since, ever since I first heard of it, I have, for some reason, my idiot brain has just been insistent on saying Glom.



David Lawrie: write 

Brian Prime: You're not the only one. every time I go to mention it to anybody, I'm like, oh yeah, Glomfest, and I'm like, wait, no, it is not that. It is, The Gloam Night, was, this past December in San Francisco, at DNA Lounge. 

David Lawrie: it was announced in december. We we started [00:18:00] preparing it was actually on I think it was either the first or second of february. Oh, yeah, that's right. It was recent. 

Brian Prime: Yeah 

David Lawrie: yeah a couple weeks ago And it went magnificently from all accounts. I think everyone Was pleasantly surprised at the turnout.

not least the djs and dna lounge Itself for a brand new night Which was really, rewarding and just kind of, it felt good to know that people are, you know, they're paying attention and they're turning up. And there's an awareness now in San Francisco, at least, of home as an entity, and there's going to be more nights coming and we're seeing what else we can organize.

But yeah, the whole idea there was, to have people enjoying the gloam experience outside of it, just being bands playing on the festival. You know, that's the pinnacle. that's what we're gearing towards, but gloam itself. It's more of this idea of this pop up thing.

Christine, she calls it a pop up festival because we're popping up in different places. We don't know where we're going to be. in the [00:19:00] following year, and yeah, it's, we're all very happy with Gloam Knight, for sure. 

Brian Prime: as you should be, and, the photos from it look great and everything, I'm, I'm no Owen, I've run into Owen plenty of times.

Oh yeah? But, okay, so you did mention, the next time, so I, Does this mean this hasn't even happened yet, but it sounds like a thing that Everyone involved in is interested in continuing from the sound of it. Is that true? 

David Lawrie: Yes, I can't say that it is or isn't happening because we don't know. We definitely want to explore this being a thing more than just a one year thing, and I think we're all just so excited about it that we're pulling this off and people are paying attention and The artists want to be involved that we're like, okay We need to see if this really is something that can continue to exist.

So hopefully we always said that we wanted this to, well, it was my thing, we need to make this dress for the job that it wants, not the [00:20:00] job that it has, because we just figured if we're going to do this, we want it to look as slick as possible, we want it to sound as good as possible. we want the artists to be presented in a way that does them justice.

so we're pulling out all the stops, you know, 

Brian Prime: it has certainly paid off so far and, it makes sense to temper your expectations. Let's see how this first one goes, but, I certainly hope that it is successful. And this is a thing that we get more of because I think it's a good thing, it's a chance for.

people in the states to experience artists from abroad and more importantly, it's a chance for, European artists to come over here and play to different crowds, and, be exposed to new audiences. Have you found that people are already familiar with the lineup for the fest?

Or are you, have you experienced the sort of like, Oh, well, I haven't really heard of these artists or these bands and, people sort of coming in that way and being [00:21:00] exposed from like, I've never heard of this, but I will check it out. Or have you found that a lot of people are kind of already familiar with one or two?

David Lawrie: Well, yeah, that's a really good question. And it's kind of a mixed bag answer as well. And there's been no straight answers tonight. 

Brian Prime: I'm used to not getting straight answers in the morning. 

David Lawrie: There is an element of both there. For example, we know that the Cemetery Girls and Eon Sable have a following in the States that are excited to see them because they've never been able to see them unless they've been able to get to one of the festivals that have played at one of the times in Europe.

you know it isn't always nice to be able to on your home turf. the Awakening obviously has a firm rooting in just the post punk culture in general, there is a combination of people being aware of the headliner, but we also didn't get a headliner that's touring all the time and is omnipresent It's a headliner that people are going to be eager to want to see because they haven't seen them for a long time, [00:22:00] especially in the States.

and then, yes, there is the case of Light with the Royal Ritual. It's a brand new project, especially for the States. I've got a, I know that I've got some people over there that are wanting to see it, but the idea as well isn't, especially in cities like San Francisco, where A big thing is to know what's coming up from the underground.

what's going to be next? we feel like we're going to appeal to an audience of people who are hungry to just Go at it cold and figure out who are these underground artists? So yeah, it's it's really is a combination. We're trying to we're also just trying to be authentic. Who do we like, you know?

Yeah, which are do we like? And we've got that which is great 

Brian Prime: Yeah, I was going to ask that as when In the process of choosing artists or inviting artists to be involved in this, I was going to inquire how much of it is, because you mentioned working with people who all sort of share a creative vision or, you know, or [00:23:00] at least traveling the same sort of path forward and want to be a part of it.

how much of that has been to your advantage in this case when choosing artists for this project? 

David Lawrie: We're all, we all have, well, it's like a Venn diagram when you put together all of our individual tastes and you find this bit in the middle where we all go, it's quite, there's quite a lot of overlap where Well, we are happy, which is great, and it just started, Eon Sable and the Cemetery Girls and the Royal Ritual were bands that Christine definitely wanted to bring over.

This was before Glowfest as a concept even existed, and so we were lucky to be able to make that happen. the other artists were, it was a conversation. It was a conversation to figure it out. And the awakening actually happened because Ashton was playing a solo show in York, it was very low key solo show in York, just an acoustic tour he was doing.[00:24:00] 

And I had met him the day before in York through a mutual contact. I went to the show and we got talking afterwards and. He and I just became friends, and we'd already mentioned The Awakening, as a potential person to kind of put on the radar for GlobeFest, and I just said, I was talking to Ashton the other night, and he was really into it, and so that's how we got our headliner.

Serendipity, really, but also The Awakening. The Awakening was definitely one of those artists where we thought, that could be. An artist that would suit this build that would suit the venues that we're looking at Yeah, we think that would work there were a couple of others as well. But it just just fell into place that ashton was really into it.

really got the the the vibe of it being a new thing brand new experience And yeah jumped on board and we're really happy about that 

Brian Prime: shifting gears a little bit, what comes next for the royal [00:25:00] ritual? 

David Lawrie: Well, I Yeah, there's a lot of releases coming out. so i'm already writing the follow up full album I don't think that that's going to be ready until next year, but the concepts there I've been playing around with some sounds and some ideas which is earlier than then when I started Pleasure Hides Your Needs in, in, in, respect to Martyrs, it was about a year and a bit after Martyrs came out that I started working on, on Pleasure Hides Your Needs, but it was only about six months after Pleasure Hides Your Needs came out that I started noodling and working on new ideas.

I've been working with the record label, and there are going to be some interim records coming out. one that I have kind of talked about over on my Patreon, is going to be called, peaceful progress. And it's essentially, a really different. sort of take on Music from martyrs and pleasure hides your needs.

There'll be some live versions of me [00:26:00] singing with the piano And one of those has been released as a video already It's the title track pleasure hides your needs And it's just called the equal temperament version there are going to be some other piano versions as well as some taking synthetic, sound design sonic beds that may be quite buried in the production of.

Pleasure hides your needs. from Pleasure Hides Your Needs and Martyrs, a few of the, a few of the songs from there have interesting, well, I think they're interesting sonic beds, and that's going to form the second half of the album. So it's new without being new, but it should be an interesting journey there as well.

and then there is another release coming out, All being well, it's, live recording from infest, coming out. Don't know the exact dates yet, but, that was definitely, worth putting into a tangible and, lasting form. Also, coming out, [00:27:00] it's, in line for being published, but there's an album called Retract in Circles, which is, an album of production music.

very kind of varying industrial, dark, soundscape y sounds. I don't know exactly when. it's adjacent to the other releases because it's with a production library, so It's not quite the same, as just releasing on the board. so that's available for licensing sometime soon.

but that's being released as the Royal Ritual as well. then we've got Glowfest, and I'm currently working with promoters and Booking agents to try to figure out if we can Make more shows happen around that because it would be quite nice to do a tour Before the next album I go heavily into the studio to make the next album just figuring out logistics around art that already exists That should be out but isn't out yet.



Brian Prime: Yeah, the perpetual struggle of I have all this stuff finished but, you know, it takes time to assemble and release and package and post production and all. Yeah. as you said when we started, [00:28:00] very busy. Lots to come out, lots to release. 

David Lawrie: Well, and not just as the royal ritual, I've been producing an artist called Allisoon, and her debut EP and album are going to be coming out this year.

Well, her album might be early next year, and that's all just about produced. Working with Vara as well, with our company Ritual Reverb, to work with, Allisoon to create all of the artwork, and other logistical stuff like that. So that's another big project that's coming out and yeah, like I said, I've got other film work coming up and it's pretty non stop 

Brian Prime: Would you find that to be true? 

David Lawrie: I am told by my friends that I am a workaholic and I just get stuff done I literally work until I drop and then I Sleep next to my laptop so I can wake up the first thing I do is like what admin do I need to get done in the morning before I get my coffee?

Before I start doing creative work and it's very much like that but every so [00:29:00] often I do get frustrated because I see friends having fun and doing stuff and I feel like, oh, I've got so much stuff that I need to do. And because I'm freelance, there's always more work to do.

But every so often I stop and I pinch myself and I go, I make a living out of playing with sounds. And I just sort of think, wow, I actually did do that. Okay. So yeah, I do feel very, very, very fortunate. It's not the career that I. Envisioned I was going to be a rock star, you know, that was it.

but ultimately it's been really rewarding journeys so far and I wouldn't change it No matter how difficult it's been 

Brian Prime: I will pose this question to you. do you find And would you say that the, the concept or the idea of being a rock star in sort of the traditional daydreaming teenager sort of respect, do you find that to still be a thing that is alive?

Because I, I, speaking personally, just from my experience and all of the musicians and artists that I know [00:30:00] and have interviewed, I'm not entirely sure that that is a thing that can exist without a insane amount of success that I honestly don't know that anyone inside of our little scene and adjacent scene, I don't know that a lot of people in that space will, would be able to obtain that.

what, what do you think? 

David Lawrie: Well, I can say pretty, no, it doesn't exist. I actually have, a good friend who works, in artist development, and he's worked with some artists recently that have got into the UK top 10, all of that kind of stuff, and they just hustle.

They work so hard. Yes, they have a team around them, So you can get to the point where you are making a living from being a performing artist. and you go on stage and you put on a show and you embody this character that you've created because remember when you're making music, it's art, it's not real life.

So you are a character. [00:31:00] So you can embody that. for that hour, two hours that you may be performing. but where there was a big team before, taking care of everything in the background, those teams have got much smaller, and as an artist, unless you are the Taylor Swifts and what have you, although I do think she actually works quite hard, unless you are at that level to have such a big You know, troop behind you of just people taking care of stuff that is unavoidable that the reality is You have to maintain your ability to be able to be a quote unquote what rock star You look at trend resna who is massive inspiration to me And nine inch nails is no longer this thing that he does and he embodies this Thing on stage now look at all of the scores that he and Atticus Ross are doing.

I mean, they're working hard They're really working hard. They're doing so much that's behind the scenes and Working with rob sheridan, you know, [00:32:00] he'll he'll he'll really work to Envision how the life Show should look rather than handing that off to someone to create and then just oh, yeah, that looks great So I think that anyone in the less than kind of ultra commercial world even for big names in our scene, they're having to work harder behind the scenes as well, or at least more consistently behind the scenes, that their eyes are opened to it more.

And so, it becomes a part time thing to be the rock star no matter what, but a full time thing to be able to create the vehicle for that rock star to exist. 

Brian Prime: Okay, well, I don't want to keep you too long because you are fabulously busy, as we mentioned, and you've got to dash off to other places.

so I will go ahead and hit you with the last question that I have for you, which is just, what is something that you have been enjoying recently? And your answer can be anything, a book, a movie, a TV show, just what's something that you are jazzed about when you wake up that is [00:33:00] maybe not work related.

David Lawrie: That, yeah, as a workaholic, that's difficult. I'll tell you what I have been doing recently. it really hit me hard when David Lynch died. I was shocked. And I have, every two years, I try to watch Twin Peaks. from start to finish including the return and so i've started that again and i've been enjoying just piecemeal where i can watching an episode of twin peaks and it's brought me a lot of joy 

Brian Prime: nice that's an excellent answer i'll hit you with a follow up here really quick what about i imagine with as busy as you are you don't get a lot of time to listen to music but is there something musically or an artist that has sort of been stuck in your ear over the past a couple of months or so.

David Lawrie: two artists from vastly different areas. Pink Floyd's always there, but that's in the background. We, that's just, yeah, omnipresent with me. health, absolutely love health. and when I [00:34:00] was in Austin in, November time. they played a really bizarre festival there and I got to see them for the first time live.

Incredible. The other artist is Chiasmos. I am just bewitched by them. Absolutely love Chiasmos. I can't get enough of them. I'm probably gonna get sick of them because I played them that much, but yeah. 

Brian Prime: for health, I've not heard of the other one.

David Lawrie: Chiasmos is an amazing dance duo, kind of like, Icelandic, go and check them out. Okay. They're brilliant. How is it spelled? K I A S M O S. M O S. Chiasmos. 

Brian Prime: Okay. 

David Lawrie: Alright, perfect. I will investigate. 

Okay. Sailed is in Sailing Boat. Yeah. 

Brian Prime: Awesome. I will do so. I am a fan of music videos. And maybe that's just a holdover from my youth of like growing up watching MTV But I've always found that, music videos are such a great, companion piece [00:35:00] of art. To go with the song.

David Lawrie: I'm with you 

Brian Prime: way there. Yeah. I enjoy making music videos as well. I really do. It shows. I did watch your music videos and a lot of care goes into their craftsmanship and everything, and it shows off. it certainly does. Thank you. a music video I would recommend to anybody who hasn't seen it. from Sweden, Kite is fantastic. And, their music video and the track, True Colors is just such a haunting and intimate sort of a song and video and It's so moving and so sort of ethereal at times, in sound and in visuals.

it's quite a magical kind of a confluence that comes together there. I'm always such a fan of that when the artistic vision for the song and the artistic vision for the video align appropriately to create this unique, multimodal piece of art, 

That's a thing I just can't get enough of. I think [00:36:00] good music videos go a long way for expressing more ideas, I think. 

David Lawrie: I've just typed that in. I'm going to watch that afterwards. Okay. Alright. I hope you like it. I will. Just by looking at the little preview that's coming up on YouTube on my cell phone, it looks like my kind of bag.

Brian Prime: Yeah, and if you have not heard, Kite, you are in for a treat. it is a thing I think you will enjoy. probably the thing I've been enjoying the most recently is, I just moved back to Reno and you know, you lived in Northern California for quite a while.

You were between Tahoe and Sacramento. And I just moved back to Reno, just over the mountains, and have been putting my hands on the wheel of my life a lot more than I have in the past, I've had, positive influences in my personal life who have helped me grow and become much more of a complete person, a much more competent version of myself, it feels good to just sort of, Arrive at a point when suddenly you look around and I'm sure this is a [00:37:00] thing that you've experienced just in your own career of Looking around and realizing, you know, like you said I have come this far I have done these things that people have recognized or have Seen, you know my effort or whatever it's a really good feeling and I can only hope that more people get to experience it 

David Lawrie: Yeah, I totally agree with you.

Brian Prime: well, I don't want to keep you, we will just keep this one kind of nice and short. so, yeah, thank you so much again for making this work, for coming on and having a chat. And, I look forward to seeing the Royal Ritual live and hanging out with you, when Glomfest, plays San Francisco and the West coast of the United States.

thank you, David, for so much for your time. 

David Lawrie: Thank you. 

Brian Prime: All right.