LarsMortensen.com Bio/Blog

The record is oh so close to done.  I can’t wait to share… more soon.. really

Sometimes I think I should stop.
The only other option is to die so I keep going.
There are so many sides of me I’d rather not cultivate in order to build what feels like a straw house, in a burning field.

I am arriving or departing soon.
-Lars

P.S.

P.P.S. If anyone has some land they need me to watch for room and board let me know.
You won’t regret me.  I’ll take good care.
Or a river I could camp next to for a great length of time.
I’ll write a song for you and give it to you.

P.P.P.S Despite the dark message above, all is well with the album.  I’ll be sharing some in a few weeks.  Maybe.

I wanted to give some thoughts on what music is to me, how I look at and create it.  These ideas are intrinsically connected with my views on life itself.   I could have easily chased the perfect explanation forever and never posted anything.  Here’s my first attempt…

We all access music in our own ways, and this is the school that I come from.

Music is many things.   It is all around; from your mother’s heartbeat in the womb to the elevator in a hotel.  Music will always be the light at the end of my tunnel.  For me, it is a window to the true essence and connection of all things.  Everything has infinite sides to be perceived, and music is a perfect example of that.  People, objects, situations, anything can become something else, simply from a change in perspective.  Every single day we live, if we pay attention, this idea is proven over and over.  As I say in the liner notes of Periscope for the song Long Way Home, “…this of course is common knowledge… but is rarely lived by for a lifetime.” Like so many important things in this world, I feel like it’s taboo to say, believe, and live by this, but whatever.

Nothing is static.  Everything is alive through the lense of ourselves.  When I am playing/creating music I see it as this same ever-morphing thing.  Not to be owned or boxed, but to be experienced, interacted and engaged with.  Essentially, music is proof to me, if it was needed, that all things are relative.  Everything, from physical matter to emotions and intellect are defined, or given definition and therefore meaning, by their relationship to everything else.

Music is a part of nature. It existed before man.  We just harnessed it and manipulate it (just as it does to us).  Somewhere in a box I have an album a guy gave to me a long while ago of two musicians who went into a a national park or something, and set up shop near a rock formation with interesting acoustics.  They proceeded to jam and their music led to huge amounts of animals slowly coming into the vicinity and essentially jamming with them.  Seriously.  Birds singing licks like they were guitar or sax players.  Other mammals calling in their own way to sing along.  There clearly develops a sense of conversation and interaction between the players and the animals.  Super awesome and totally real.  (Note to self: Dig up that record.)

My relationship with music is informed by my deep respect for it, and from knowing that I may turn on music, but it will never turn on me. I might stop playing, I might get tired of it, but it will never be music’s fault.  Music is a well that can never go dry.  It’s forms and powers are so bottomless that it simply takes a different view to unlock a whole new dialect.  If I get bored, feeling like I’ve seen it all, that’s simply my vision being closed.  Which would be fine if I chose it, but one can never say they have seen all there is to see musically.  The deeper/truer your understanding, the more the oneness and complexity of it opens room to explore.

SONG AND THE ACT OF MAKING MUSIC…
I see all music as being part of one song.  This song is three dimensional, like a sphere rather than a line.  It has no beginning and no end.  Songs we hear are a combination of ingredients taken from this one big mass.  Past, present, and future coming together for that song at that moment.  All music.  One song.

These ideas inform my perspective on making music whether it’s writing or performing.  Some people like to hear and play music exactly the same every time if they can.  To them, a song’s perfect form can be found and then it should be recreated that way forever.  When going to a show, if the band doesn’t sound just like the record it’s a bummer for them.  That’s fine.  As you may well know, I am recording a new record with the band right now and of course we are locking into final versions/arrangements of songs.  You have to do that to make a record. However, when it comes to making music live, I like to look at it from more of a jazz mentality if you will. I want to explore a song forever.  I’m not saying I completely change every song every time.  Not even close.  However, I let my state of mind, body, and soul inform my performance.  In a band context, you try to stay in tune with each other so that the music can grow in the moment, and you can move as one collective mind.  I embrace the fact that the song literally comes through the performers, as well as their instruments, before it reaches your ears.  In many ways I can’t control this element of my music making.  The truth of my feelings at any moment while performing tend to make themselves known.  Many a sensitive fan has told me they appreciate the sincerity this brings to my performance.  I appreciate them for loving and accepting me through my music.

I could go on for days and days, and these sorts of ideas are shared by many.  To those who are on the same page, this whole posting is just stating the obvious.  I am glad to have the chance to share these ideas with all of you.  Welcome further into my world.  I look forward to seeing you down the road.

Hi.  My name is Lars.
I was born and raised in the Bay Area of California and have resided in the North West since fall of 2001. I write, sing, and play songs mostly on guitars and voice.  My commitment to ultimate personal integrity defines me.  I think it is an endangered species, literally being hunted down by the ways our world turns.  I’ve been playing and writing music for about 15 years, in the public for about five.

There are so many musicians in this world.  Only a fraction of us can be heard.  Why listen to me?  Good question.  “I don’t know, because I like it!”  That would be a good reason.  If you haven’t already heard some tunes then listen while you read here.  Maybe then the rest of this will be worth your while.

I make music because it flows inside.  I make music because a life not making music sounds like death to me.  Creating sounds with my voice and hands is like turning on a radio.  The music is in the airwaves whether the radio is on or not.  I wouldn’t say this is a rare or special quality generally speaking, but regardless it’s part of who I am.  My head is a bottle, full of fermenting messages.  The cork of the bottle bursts off from time to time.  Sometimes I open it and pour to see what comes out.  Sometimes the brew is dark, strong, other times it’s light and sweet.  The label on the bottle never changes.  You get a taste, you hear the voice, and you know the brewer.

I call this music streaming groove pop.  People have likened the sound to Paul Simon, Jack Johnson, Stevie Wonder and countless others.  I am glad to say that though people overwhelmingly have a positive response to what I do, when they venture to describe it or liken it to someone else, there are no dominant references.  When I perform, people say they see a man doing his thing.  I always love to hear that.  They like it, it has elements of things they knew before, but they can’t define the sound.  I desire to be no one but myself.  My influences are wide and I cherish music in my soul.  I’m no better than any other player but I am what I am.  Though I admire and respect many, I only want to be me, cause that’s what I can do best.

To me the songs are alive.  They are not static, constant.  When a song is put out into the world it is truly born.  They are my creation and in my domain but I don’t see them as a certain image.  They are my children, for me to shape and guide, but in the end they may have a mind of their own.  As time goes they reveal new sides of themselves and I am obliged to listen and learn.  To me songs can be different from day to day like a friend you see in different clothes.  Same essential person, slightly different image.  I might treat my own song as someone covering it might, reenvisioning it into a whole other style, speed, feel.  Dress it up in a new outfit.

Music will flow in me until my dying day whether you hear it or not.  But I’d like some people to hear it and I hope that it treats them well.

Want to know more?  What do you want to know?  Email me or write a comment and I’ll try to answer it via this blog.  Oh man, I want to call it something else, like an online journal or something, but let’s face it it’s a blog…

In closing, a few lines from my song Light of the Moon. “We must pay the bills, we all must pay for food.  It tastes so sweet when I am earning it from you.  This is my path and I am walking here with you.  This is my path….”