There’s a reason Lamont Landers’ music plays well on a mass-medium like network TV.
He has the kind of talent that, in the right showbiz hands, can make people rich.
Malleable warm vocals and pop-funk tunefulness give Landers perhaps the most breakthrough potential of any young Huntsville musician in recent memory.
And an appearance last spring on “Showtime at the Apollo” continues to change things for him.
Since performing on the Fox TV show, the Decatur native’s Facebook music page “likes” octupled, from about 3,000 to more than 25,000. “Apollo” also helped Landers score a slot this March at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater’s Bicentennial Bash, a daylong concert headlined by Grammy winner Jason Isbell and also featuring the likes of St. Paul and the Broken Bones. And yeah, every now again when he’s back in Huntsville, where he now resides, Landers, a bespectacled redhead singer/guitarist, will get recognized in public.
"I think back and we were in New York for like two weeks," Landers says of shooting "Showtime at the Apollo" with his band.
"But it just seemed like low stakes. Because you're hanging out with your friends, you don't think about the issue at hand."
On "Apollo," Landers and his band - keyboardist Kevin Canada, drummer Bowen Robertson and drummer Jaraven Moe Hill - wowed with their cover of Bill Withers' 1972 funk nugget "Use Me."
Landers followed that up late last year by released a standout self-titled EP of original tunes.
In addition to his natural wheelhouse of sinewy guitar R&B, as heard on single “Into the Fold,” the disc features forays into indie rock (“Devil in Disguise”) and even Americana (“The World Is Burning”). The EPs six tracks were pared down from a dozen or so cut over about three years, with producer/engineering Jeremy Stephens sculpting the sound at Decatur’s Clearwave Studios.
"I feel like Jeremy deserves everybody to know him like they know FAME or Muscle Shoals Sound," Landers says of recording with Stephens. "He does just as good of work, and I feel like he has an ear that's just unrivaled in North Alabama and I think he's got one of the biggest hearts in North Alabama as well."
Lately, Landers has been working towards a goal of by year’s end writing enough new material for a full-length record. He’s been drawing musical influence from Tame Impala’s hipster-rock and from funk-maestro D’Angelo.
On a recent afternoon, Landers was in Los Angeles to audition for another certain network TV talent competition, when reached for this phone interview.
Edited excerpts are below.
Lamont, who are some guitarists you draw inspiration for funk guitar playing?
Prince is definitely an influence. Spanky Alford, who's from the (Huntsville) area and is passed now but he was D'Angelo's guitar player - I'm not the best at it, but I try to see what I can do that parallels what he did. And my keyboard player, Kevin Canada, he's like a chord dictionary so if I ever have any questions about how things sound or they should sound I just ask him. He's a great reference.
When you're playing a bar gig, how do you feel out when's the right time to play a ballad during the set?
My rule of thumb is, you want to hit them with some upbeat stuff about five times, and then once they're wore out you can bust out a ballad. And then you've got to get right back at it, just slapping them in the face with energy.
What makes music funky? And what makes it unfunky?
It's a fine line. It's all about repetition, it's all about hitting it on the one, the downbeat is so crucial. And everything's almost like puzzle pieces, everybody's kind of playing off each other, that's what makes it funky. Being unfunky would be just to play just a straight-ahead chord progression and it's the exact same way every time.
You wear glasses onstage. Any good stories about mishaps from wearing them at a gig or anything like that?
Oh man, I've had many issues with wearing glasses. Going from when I was younger, in the places where you could smoke I would try to do like the Stevie Ray Vaughan and have my cigarette going and play while wearing glasses, and quickly realized that while it looks so cool it's not exactly functional, because the smoke kind of wafts underneath your glass and so your eyes are just burning. Another pair of glasses I had, they weren't fitted that well to my head so if I looked down they'd just fall off my face.
Which of the other bands at Tuscaloosa Amphitheater’s Bicentennial Bash impressed you the most that day?
Honestly, the best show was The Commodores. I don't want to put anybody out but I was blown away. It was like an old-school show. The main guys came out with their sequin jackets on, shiny, shimmering in the light, had the moves and the band was tight. I'd never seen something like that and those types of shows used to be everywhere - it was the dominant thing, putting on a show, like Earth, Wind & Fire, The Commodores, and you just do see much of it these days. It was interesting.
What rock bands have you been listening to or drawing inspiration from lately?
Um, I am not hip to really any current great rock bands but when I was in middle school I was an angsty teenager and of course I loved Nirvana. Loved Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters, Soundgarden. So those influences have always been there. They’re just buried deeper than some of the soul influences are.
What's your relationship like with country music?
My relationship to country music is the same relationship I have with any style of music: if it's authentic then I can get down with it. One of the best shows I ever saw it was in Tuscaloosa, at that same amphitheater, Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. I went in not expecting much and I came out blown away just by the awesome history and realness of it and how great each of them was on their instrument. And their craft. So, people like them. And nowadays you have Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton, who I think are the last troubadours of real country music. If it's telling a tale and you can feel it in your voice and heart and your song then I'm all for it.
So, you’re really not named for the character Lamont from (classic Redd Foxx sitcom) “Samford and Son”?
No man, apparently it comes from like a radio show in the '30s that my grandma used to listen to, because my dad's middle name is Lamont as well. I got it from my dad and he got it from her. After some character in a radio show or something in the 30s.
Do your friends call you Lamont, your middle name, or by Jordan, your first name?
Friends call me Jordan, all my bandmates, family. Nobody calls me Lamont. It’s all Jordan. It kind of gives me a veil of like secrecy if somebody says, ‘Jordan,’ then I know they know me and if they say, ‘Lamont,’ I’m like, ‘I don’t really know this person that well.’
So, it's kind of like caller ID is on a phone, a little bit.
Exactly.
Lamont Landers Band performs 10 p.m. May 3 at The Bar at 805, located at Campus No. 805, address 2500 Clinton Ave., Ste. D. Admission if free.
